We – The People

I have thought about this many times over the last one month – Is my country “INDIA” really a nation I should be proud of? Is my motherland one of the best countries to live in? Should I feel proud to be an Indian ? Well, the patriotism in my heart gives the answer YES. But honestly speaking the answer is clear NO.

I was home (back in Delhi) for two weeks winter break – I could feel the tension in the entire city because of the rape incident and then the sad demise of the girl. I saw people standing on the road with candles and banners asking the government to do something about the safety of the women. I saw karate classes going on in the park near my society. I saw police patrolling at midnight near my home on new year’s eve. I read about a constable dying doing his duty to control the protesters. I read a lot in newspapers about what needs to be done to make the city safe. I listened a lot on the news channel anchors giving their expert comments about where the nation is heading. Did I find a good solution ? The answer is NO.

When I was back to Chennai , someone asked me “Did you go to the protest march held at Jantar Mantar”? I replied, “No” and he looked at me with disappointment. I could feel that he wanted to say that common dude , you should have done that. One other friend asked me “Why the hell are you not sharing the posts related to the rape incident or changing your profile pic to that black dot”, I chose not to reply. A neighbor called me and said “What is wrong with your city”. I thought no point in explaining anything and decided to quietly listen good things about Chennai for next 15 minutes.

I have heard lot of leaders saying that the future of the nation is in hand of young generation (18-30 years old). I was surprised when politicians (mostly of the BJP) and other famous personalities hailed the young generation for carrying out a revolution in the rape incident and making the government kneel down. I read a lot of quotes from these people “Young brigade knows what they want”, “They have woken up and ready to script the future” etc etc. Belonging to this generation, I seriously doubt that. I see myself belonging to a generation who does not think before doing anything. We are trying to be extremists – the one trying to go against the normal tide, trying always to do something against the popular belief, a generation spending more time on Facebook, chatting, drinking, dating, using the four letter words and above all taking pride in doing all this.

However, as a generation we do keep on insisting that we are not like our predecessors. We understand what is wrong with the society and we want to change that. But I do not see that happening. What I see is an eruption of anger for few minutes or days, sometimes even seconds and then back to normal careless life after that. In 15 minutes they pretend that nothing happened and to make the matter worse take pride in doing that. I guess it is something which everyone in India has the quality – Mumbai people post the attacks were back to normal life very soon and some stupid personalities even took pride in it and said This is what makes Mumbai special.

I seriously doubt if we (young generation) made a difference till now to the country. But I think being educated we can make a difference to our immediate surroundings atleast. By doing small small things – donating a part of the salary to help in education of a poor child, by ensuring we stand against child labor by not having a child working at our home/factory/shop, by paying taxes, by voting, by standing against dowry, by treating others with respect, not following the western style of dating/relationships and believing in love , not taking pride in smoking and drinking, not being part of Brain drain.

By doing all this am sure we will be able to take first step in changing society. And believe me, if everyone of our generation does this, then at least in the metro regions we will start to see some change. However, I know the biggest problem lies in the rural areas – for which I don’t know what we can do as of now. May be just hope that government uses funds effectively to spread education, food and employment to them. 

If we want to do something for the country, we need to change first, then criticize the government. 15-20 years down the line, some amongst us will be politicians, judges, wealthy and powerful business tycoons. It is then when we will get chance to make the biggest difference - I hope then we do not end up saying that the future belong to the young generation. If it happens, then this vicious circle will never end. I hope we start today by doing the small small things right. I hope in my life time I will proudly say YES I AM AN INDIAN.