The memory of the last 26th is still fresh in my mind. Its not because I celebrated it with pomp and show but I managed to finish lots of my overdue work which I generally skip on a normal weekend. I made myself think that all my activities are my duties towards the great nation of ours and amazingly I could gather all the strength and passion to do them. This little experiment made me realize that we all citizens do share a sense of responsibility towards motherland and probably will give our best for it. So I thought let me make a list of problems which we as citizens should tackle for our nation to help it develop into a mature and welfare state. If we start complaining it can be a never ending list but we must acknowledge that each nation will have its share of problems so a perfect harmony is meaningless but at least there are few things we can do and change at personal level.
1) A Broader Outlook - We as knowledgeable citizens of this country should broaden our outlook towards life. It may seem very unusual problem for a nation but narrow outlook I feel is holding us back in every sphere. We don't want to broaden our outlook and accept changes. We want to hold back to our belief systems and biases even though they have been proven to be self destructive. We don't want to accept diversity. We don't want to accommodate other religions, other languages, other cultures and other castes. We feel somehow a particular community, religion and caste only lead to a specific trait. We say all Gujratis are bloody misers, all Benaglis are snobs, all jats mindless and all parsis absent minded. We somehow lack ability to broaden our outlook to view humans as individuals. I guess it is easy for our brain to assimilate and process information when it represent itself in meaningful groups. But if we are to grow beyond this underdeveloped tag we need to broaden our outlook and accommodate people with differnt tastes, habits and ways of life. It is difficult but we need to learn.
2) Respect For Women - This issue also inherits itself from the above but it is more specific and more alarming. If we don't stop molesting and raping our women we stand no chance being part of a developed welfare nation in this century. The problem arise out of the narrow minded male ego which is not able to come to terms with female independence. It still wants to hold them back and these occasional incidents are nothing but a direct attack on their way of life. It shows we are still century old society which prefers it women inside the four walls. I feel every one has duty towards this nation to help it be a morally strong and it starts with oneself. I know women of this country will not give up and will ultimately walk on equal footing as men. Many of the readers may feel I am hyping the problem but we in this day and age still have female infanticide, dowry deaths, domestic violence marital rape and other wide spread crimes against women. A society and a nation which can't respect its women is doomed and nothing can save it.
3) Responsible Behavior - Anyone who lives in Indian cities knows what I mean by dirty roads, transport, drains, localities, rivers and public places. We tend to outdo each other in messing up the places we share. For example if you notice the great Mumbai locals it is bloody red with spits mark all over. I really doubt any of the respectable gentlemen who chews and spits on the trains do the same inside their house on their walls. We are so fucking sick we don't give a bloody shit that most of the things are public property and disfiguring them is loss to this nation. These are the same guys who will shout slogans against Pakistan but they themselves are the public enemy. There is no sense of responsibility and meaningful action in so many of us and its direct example is the dirty image of our nation. I hope we as a nation will mature enough to help keep everything around us clean and will start behaving responsibly whether it is cricket stadium or a public park.
4) Creation Of Knowledge Society - This is one of the other goals I think we should try and achieve . We have lots of universities, colleges and schools but the basic education is still unavailable to millions. We are still hopelessly uneducated country. Even African countries have better literacy rates than us. Our aim should be to aim for 100% literacy. This is imperative for us to unlock vast potential of this billion people strong population. Imagine what will a billion strong educated confident knowledgeable and matured people can do. There is nothing we can't achieve. It is time to reinvent our education system and overall framework which is inherently British following a system created for producing clerks. If we can be a knowledge powerhouse we can attain empowerment economically , militarily and culturally.
I have knowingly left out issues like poverty, corruption and population explosion as I feel bringing the above changes in our nation will be sufficient for bringing up the 21st century India we all dream of. The poverty, corruption and other evils are end products of ignorance, narrow outlook and shallow mindset. I pray and dream for an Indian Republic which is based on modern ideals of knowledge and understanding. I believe with my whole heart the day will surely come.
Long live the republic..Jai Hind.
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