August 15, 1947. Every single citizen of my country who has gone through elementary school knows and remembers this date. It was the date India became free. Free of all the shackles, of all the persecutions of the British rule. Free to decide her own destiny, to start on a new path...a path of self determination and of values, as the Mahatma wanted.
And here it is again. Tomorrow, we celebrate our Independence Day again. Celebrate freedom. Celebrate self-determinism. Celebrate liberty. Celebrate an amazingly rich heritage and culture. Celebrate a culture so old and diverse that it seems to be older than history, older than tradition, in fact, older than all of them combined together. Celebrate a growth story in the making. Celebrate the metamorphosis of our very own nation from a situation of being in the clutches of poverty and backwardness to the one of having a growing influence around the world. Celebrate a new-found power to be able to make a difference to the well being of this planet itself.
And that begs the question: how much of it is actually true? How free are we, if at all? How proud we actually are of our country? Now, before we move on, lets put one thing in perspective. Irrespective of what the title suggests, I love my country. And I love her like anything. And no matter how many books I write on the subject, I'll never be able to completely explain how much I love my great nation. Its just inexplicable. Irrational. Devoid of all logic and reason. Hell, love needs no reason... None, at all. But, it isn't irrational-or even wrong or immoral-to not be proud of what or who you love. It isn't.
So, what's a country, by the way? What constitutes a nation? Is it geographic boundaries? Nope! Where's the love or pride in real or imaginary lines drawn on the face of the earth?! Is it the clouds, the birds, the trees, the landscapes, the rivers? Nope! Where's the love for a nation because of flora and fauna?! It's people. A country is not a place, its people. It's what her people are, what they do. As a whole. There's no India without Indians or an America without Americans. I am the country. You are the country. We are the country. We are not Indians. We are India.
And I'm not proud of it. I'm not proud of what I am...as India. I'm not proud of what you are...as India. It's not that I'm not proud of what India has been for the last 5000 years. I'm just not proud of what it has become. And now it seems to be on the verge of an inflection point. We can either go up to heights unreached so far, or to depths unimagined so far.
So, the reasons. A few days back I received an text message from a friend, which read like this: We live in a nation where pizza reaches faster than ambulance and police. Where you get a car loan at 8%, but, education loan at 12%. 76 policemen are killed mercilessly, but, the media is busy covering the wedding ceremony of a failed sports-person. Where rice is 70Rs per kg, but, sim cards are free. Where everyone wants to be famous, but, no one wants to work hard for it. And so on... And most of it is true. We've become a nation of unpleasant paradoxes and uncalled for hardships. It is in this nation that a few friends in a group discuss for hours at a corner pan shop about how to make ours a developed nation, but, don't want to work at their parents' shops, study to get good jobs, or even respond to their moms calling them to get a few household chores done. It is this very nation, which is the road accident deaths capital of the world, but, I don't need to take a test to get my driver's licence, just need to give a few more bucks to the RTO agent. It is in this very nation that tonnes and tonnes of food grains rot every year, but, do not reach the needy (hopefully, they might reach the poor, now). It is in this very nation that parents expect their children to be educated by the teachers alone and the teachers think they're paid pennies to do a noble job and that they should be sewing woolen clothes or practice absenteeism instead. It is in this very country that the politicians and ministers don't even refrain from gulping down money out of the expenses for fallen soldiers' coffins and caskets. It is in this very nation that corruption in education, judiciary and the public distribution system have only helped in bringing down the speed at which the benefits should reach the poor to a crawling minimum. It is in this very nation that pseudo-intellectuals and opportunist politicians use their oratory and writing skills to promote terrorism and divide the country on the basis of rich-poor divide, caste, religion and other irrational reasons just to increase their TRPs and be the centres of attraction. It is in this very nation that we have billions upon billions to spend on building and maintaining nuclear arsenal and expensive defense deals, but, do not have any money to pay poor victims of displacement because of building of new dams, or other commercial projects.
The list can go on and on...but, that's not the point. The point is: when did it all start? And why has it carried on for so long? Why haven't we done anything about it? And here's why I'm not proud to be an Indian anymore. The reason why all of that happens is because we let it. Bad politicians are elected by good people who do not vote... Morons are ruling the country because we let them rule. Every country has the government it deserves. It is healthy to be reminded that we do not sin by commission only, but, often by omission as well; not just by doing something we should not, but, also by not doing what we should. India is poor because we're too comfortable with what we have and too lazy to do something about it. Our education system sucks because those of us who are fortunate enough to get good education don't consider it their responsibility to do something about those less fortunate.
In fact, we are so used to our horrible situation that we would go to great lengths to ensure that everyone around us thinks that the situation is so irrecoverable that there's no point looking for a solution. And we do it just because we don't want to involve ourselves in doing something. There's a good-for-nothing politician in all of us...and he's ruling this nation. He's the one who's not letting this great nation break the shackles of poverty, illiteracy, corruption and inequality. He's the one who's responsible for spreading procrastination and irresponsibility among all of us like plague. And it's time we kill him. It's we kill him for once and for all. And its time we wake up and make another tryst with destiny like the one Pandit Nehru mentioned in his independence speech on the eve of India's Independence. It's time we remember once again how rich our culture is, how old and meaningful our tradition is. It's time we remember what one of our own great souls, Swami Vivekananda, told the world what we are and what we have to offer the whole world. It's time we remember what we ourselves are, as individuals, as groups and as a nation... And, I tell you all, we're capable of being the best...by far!!! Let us all be brave enough to face our hardships head on and humble enough to remember the solutions of our problems and pass them on to posterity... Let us all plant trees even when we'll not be the ones to eat the fruits from them... And as the clock ticks towards another midnight to mark the beginning of another Independence day, may we all have the courage not just to celebrate it the way it should be celebrated, but also to understand what our forefathers sacrificed to give us the chance to say we're free...what they went through to plant the tree of freedom and liberty...a tree that's growing each day and they're not there to enjoy the fruits...
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