The Buddha, Adi Sankara, St. Thomas, and many other great saints walked this land, taught various philosophies, but uniformly preached, brotherhood and love for god. The land of great epics, fantastic mythologies, upanishads, vedas.........what else, oh yes, the Ramayana, Mahabaratha and ofcourse the famous Bhagavad Gita..........so many god men thereafter, who have been revered not just by people of this country but from far and wide.
A time when the principle of Dharma ruled, more than the man made laws, rules and regulations. A period when life was definitely better off. Definitely a period, of which people would have been proud of, and today's generation, may be yearns for it.
These were probably a bit far off in the time line for our generation.
Let us get to a time which is more closer to our horizons.
People who fought for independence, people who industrialised this nation, people who fought against some of the despicable practices in the society, should we not be proud of the Tatas, Birlas, Rammohan Roys, Bharathis.......Then we also had the Jinnahs, Gandhis and Nehrus and the British. British ruled over us, enslaved us (which we let them do as well and then were whimpering) but instilled a strict sense of discipline in general walks of life. Not that we didn't have it before, but earlier it was dictated by a different system which had its own flop sides as well. The British, ensured that some of the indians remained an underprivileged lot, but they brought science into this country, and also taught politics to the otherwise lay Indians, introduced the constitution, law, railways alongwith Jallianwala Bagh. But the trains ran on time and you didnt have to bribe a government official for your ration card!
So we may not be completely proud of this period as it had its shades of grey as well, but still took us forward.
Then let us get a bit closer, zooming into the last 30-40 years. I recently read a book by Thomas Friedman. In that book, he compares the politicians of the US and China. Most of the top politicians in China, are either from a Science or Engineering background while in the US most of them are lawyers. That is the reason he states that the quality of the next generation in the US oriented towards Science or engineering is so dismal as against China, or even India.
The Indians being oriented towards science or engineering, please don't mistakenly attribute it to the background of our politicans. Friedman would have given up writing if he had read the CVs of our politicians.
Politicians in this country, not all, but most of them based on which we can have it as a generic theory - are corrupt, uneducated, or even close to being illiterate. But some of the uneducated ones had commonsense and have done great good for the country like the Kamarajs, but that is a rarity. What you see today is a state which subsidises liquor, in the interest of the health of its public (please dont search for logic here!), gives everything at close to free of cost, in the name of support, but then what would motivate the beneficiaries to ever contribute to this society.
Early morning, when I go for a walk, the one thing which stands as an eyesore is the rampant tea shops in the city of chennai. A bunch of idle fellows, with the choicest of filthy language, squatting in front of the tea shops or a nearby house and talking loudly, disturbing the otherwise pleasant morning. The ladies who unfortunately married these worms, have to slog as domestic helps, while these enjoy the cheap, bottled liquor from the government outlets.
Am absolutely proud of this, are you not?
Merit - Screw it. Everything has to be caste based in this secular nation. Don't worry, you did read it correctly, just a juxtaposition of oxymorons but that is what our country is. The Singh & Singh Co., have been wreaking destruction on the student masses for their own political gain. A political party which has been in the forefront of this country's freedom struggle doesn't have an indigenous leader, while another is like a flock of sheep, raided by a lion, chaotic and disoriented. But when you ask these so called leaders about what they do to improve primary education, it is as good as shouting this same question into the Grand Canyon! There you will hear an echo probably but here, nothing. I was reading in one of the leading national dailies, that some girl students who were studying in the government run schools in chennai, have quit, as the toilets are completely unusable leading to infections.
Are you still not proud of being a citizen of this holy land? If not, then either my language is bad or you didn't understand a wee bit of this crap.
OK, let us look at ourselves - the CITIZENS of this glorious land. Public Convenience - is meant to be kept clean, so relieve yourself and enjoy nature on the road side. So what is the argument the mobile sprinklers offer - biodegradable!!!!!!!!!!! Pavements are not meant for walking, they are for shops, or hawkers. Hesitant they start, and after a few months, make a rightful claim, and what do you have when the government (if at all it acts) acts, a fantastic stay order from an authority which spends most of its time, doling them out. DAMINI, the movie which created a stir in its time, echoed this frustration, when the protagonist shouts his throat out to the judge - "what do you have to offer, dates, and dates and dates and ...........dates".
More than anything else, recently the USS Nimitz anchored off the chennai port, and the sailors of Nimitz, were seen doing community service, cleaning up the garbage in some places in chennai. Wow! chennaiites - Great to feel about oneself, we need a bunch of sailors to get off a warship and clean our mess. Take a walk along the marina beach in the morning, you will never see sand, you may speckles of sand amidst plastic and rubbish.
Are you still not proud of yourself? Holy cow, you are extremely indifferent then.
Come on, this is the software hub of the world, IT of the world is dependent on this subcontinent, why are you still not proud or is it that am such a deep rooted pessimist. I know your question - so what the hell have you been doing? Well, I pay my taxes, sincerely follow the signals and rules, renew my license, insurance and passports on time, and do what the government tells me to do and never deliberately violate others' rights. Whenever i have issues, i dont resort to violence, take it up with the authorities but nothing happens after that, and hey i do cast my vote, but i don't have much choice there, and most important i have stopped blaming the government because they are not supposed to do anything! I have also realised recently that in democracy you have the liberty to choose your tyrant while no other system offers this luxury.!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am still proud, cos, despite all these challenges thrown, the country is still surviving and doing well. The meritorious crowd survives somewhere, and succeed and help in sustaining this land. In your body exist parasites, bacteria and virus, but the person is alive with all these, maybe at some stage, you are afflicted and then die, but as of now, my country is living, but there is enough infection to kill it, what i dont know is the age upto which it will live or its tenacity to bear, resist and fight. I will share another article about TATAs and that is written by none other than Laxmi Mittal their competitor. I may not have many reasons to be proud of the administration or the lack of it, or the political system but am proud of some Indians, for sure.
Are you proud?
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