United Colours of INDIA!!

 

28 states, 7 union territories, 428 languages and over a billion people; think of it and one seems to believe that the force binding all of them together in a country called INDIA would by far surpass the gravitational force exerted by the sun in the solar system. We often proclaim unity in diversity and pride ourselves for being a part of the country with a rich cultural diversity. But is this feeling of pride just restricted to a few days, say the republic day or the Independence Day. To be really honest things around me make me believe that we have been trying to camouflage the rift within quite well. I might be wrong in my thoughts, and would be happy to be in this case, but the incidents that I mention subsequently have churned my mind; and I think it has of yours at some point of time.

 

It has been over 50 years of Indian Independence and almost the same number of years when Hindi was chosen as the national language; a language that would unify the entire nation. However, even today when a person who doesn’t speak Tamil goes to Tamil Nadu and talks to any normal person in Hindi, say the rickshaw driver, he isn’t looked upon well. They would prefer to have people speak to them in English but not Hindi. Tamil Nadu has still not accepted Hindi as a national language. The government in Tamil Nadu is more connected to the Sri Lankan Tamils as against the other Indian Nationals. Take the example of the communist government in West Bengal, which is pro –china, inspite of the war that was waged by them. The entire principle of Karl Marx on which the party was aligned has been diluted in the race to power.

 

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which considers itself to be the mouthpiece of people from Maharashtra; was nowhere seen when the attacks of 26 November happened in Mumbai. Mumbai is a melting pot and not a part of an organization run by an individual. It has seen unprecedented growth because it had people and the best talents coming from all across the country together. So with what face does this organization has the right to proclaim the state to be freed by people belonging to other parts of India. The NSG’s who came to the rescue operations were from different parts of India, especially the North. Major Unnikrishnan, who died fighting, was not a native of Maharashtra. But after a lull these disrupting brigade seem to have surfaced again with agitations against all useless things. If they really feel they would want to make a difference, make it in a positive way. Help the needy, serve the poor, educate the masses and liberate people of poverty and hunger, uplift the society. I think they are nowhere close to doing this. The reality shows have contestants pitching themselves based on the regionalism and not talent. The winners of a few talent hint programs are indicative of the same.

 

There is groupism which has also percolated into the office culture. If the boss is a Kashmiri, the subordinates from Kashmir can expect to be better favoured as against the others. There are groups formed within the office. It is nothing wrong to celebrate the festivals, meeting up but them politicising the environment by grouping is something wrong. This groupism was also a major reason why the Britishers were able to capture India and rule for over two centuries. It helped them play the policy of divide and rule. This policy is still being practiced in India; only the ones doing it have changed.

 

With all these things happening around, I fail to understand how we can call ourselves united when in reality our hearts lay divided!!

Santusth Hai (Satisfied)!!

The Dish TV ad, featuring ShahRukh Khan, summarizes Indian's in a nutshell. The Indian economy has been growing at a great pace (except for this recession hit year) and India has also been faring well in the Happiness Index of the world. But there is a huge section of the society which has to battle each day for survival; have no access to electricity, clean drinking water, proper sanitary conditions to name a few. It seems ironical when you see the rankings in light with this.

There are two ways to survive; you change the system according to yourself or you mould yourself according to the system. The people of India advocate the later. Things have always been reactive in nature. I still remember the floods in Gujarat in 2005. It rained heavily leading to a collapse in the mini dam on the outskirts of Vadodara and thereby exposing the lack of preparedness of the municipality. Post floods the drainage systems were strengthened. I say, why go that far in past! Take the example of the 26th November Mumbai attacks. There have been numerous attacks in Mumbai in the past, but what have been the learnings. We start off again from scratch!! People seem to have adapted themselves to the existing conditions. They seem to be satisfied and content with what they have at their disposal. It is not that the people in India don’t pay their taxes or the taxation rates are low; what is actually missing is the accountability of the money that is being collected each and every year.

The traffic rules are not strictly followed so people have adapted to drive slowly; The roads might have potholes, so people take different routes. In doing all this, the value of time gets lost. The efficiency goes for a toss. But still people have adapted themselves to accept all this to be a part of the life. What we require is an uprising! A faint effort was seen post the Mumbai terror attacks, but this needs to be carried forward. Two of my college seniors (Malayesh and Gaurav) were shot dead in Leopold café. Their mistake; they were having dinner at a nice hang out in Mumbai. So do we expect their families to fight it out; while we wait for something like this to happen to some near or dear ones of ours to start the fight!! Most of us would curse the government and the politicians but do nothing about it!That is where the entire thing stops; our expecting someone else to clean the mess. This is our place and it is our onus to get this thing sorted!So every opportunity that you have to make a difference, irrespective of it being big or small, just go for it!! 

"Dont be santusth, thoda aur wish karo!!"

Am I right in Complaining??

This article is for all those souls who believe that god hasn’t been kind enough towards them and so they invariable find it tough to get what they deserve or aspire to achieve. They often end up complaining and digging in on incidents that have left them high and dry!!

I often find myself being a part of this elite group. As I sit back and recollect the things that I have complained about in the last few months, the list would seem to be a long one – not securing a desired placement, coming back home without a job after doing my MBA, sitting idle at home for a month (my mom won’t complain about it though), not being able to meet my college friends too often and so on; the latest one being the delay in my trip to Germany. When you know that something has been planned for you and it gets delayed that’s when you start cursing the scenario, the people responsible for the delay and end up complaining a lot! This is a human tendency and it comes naturally to me (I can’t speak for others).

Yesterday evening was once such time where I was mumbling words to myself and thinking of the possibilities of things falling in place for my trip to Germany. This was a time when I was returning back from my friend Rahul’s place after dinner. The temperatures have off late taken a dip and so the breeze was cold. As I just walked past the gate of my society, the anguished complains in my mind were jolted by a “Good Night, Sir” wish by the Watchman. I lifted my head to look at the person; he was a lanky fellow with a khaki colored dress and a navy blue sweater with a smile on his face. The sweater was torn at numerous places; some of which were sewed by a different colored thread. The next few minutes, I just couldn’t get over of the image of the watchman and couldn’t stop thinking about him.

I felt so sad at the state of that person. He was braving the cold breeze the whole night away from his family to earn a living. I felt my life to be, touchwood, very comfortable as compared to his but still he had a smile on his face as against the frown on mine. For once I thought of giving some money to him and help; but then I thought, “Isn’t that an easy way to eave your conscious being wrenched?”. I kept thinking of a way that could do a lot of good for people like him and the society in particular.

All of us are busy doing things that would help us to develop a good life, have a family, enjoy the weekends at a multiplex or shopping at will, owning a big car, a big house, a few years stay abroad or a few trips to abroad. That’s it!! What after that or what does it lead you to!! I feel there is life beyond all this; in a country like India, there are ample opportunities to do good for the people because there are a lot of them who need help. For all of you who have had the patience to read through till this line, it would be disheartening to read that I haven’t yet found or decided upon a way to help the society, the needy. But I still found this thought noble enough to be shared. Some of those who are reading might have a noble thought that they might be willing to start or share.

I feel our complains are all centered on the needs for oneself; the day the complains are for the benefit of others, the conscience would proclaim our right to complain!!

The Communist Brigade

(Disclaimer – I am not a supporter of a particular party; I am supporter of a thought, an idea, a person who works for the upliftment of the society and the development of this nation; irrespective of he or she being in politics)

The recently concluded Vibrant Gujarat 2009; the relocation of the TATA Nano plant to Sanand (Near Ahmedabad) has boosted the confidence of the investors in the state of Gujarat. It opens new opportunities of growth and promise of employment to a lot of people. Having Spent almost two third of my life in this state makes me really proud of the developments. It would be great to be a part of this prospering state.

However, all said and done, I still have a grudge. For a state like Gujarat which has been plagued by natural calamities (the earthquake of 2001, floods in 2005) and has bore the brunt of religious jingoism (riots in 2002), the recent economic developments has been phenomenal. When compared this to the state of my origin, West Bengal, things are a complete opposite. It has had a rule of communist part for almost thirty years now, which should have been a sufficient time to grow the state. However, the ideology of the party has been myopic in nature which has shunned the growth of the state.

It is a known fact that the communist party, ruling the state of West Bengal is a complete supporter of China and tries to emulate it in all aspect. However, with the fast paced globalization griping the world, China has ceased to remain a pure communist and has molded itself into a capitalist communist state. This has seen them grow big enough to give a tough competition to the US. However this hasn’t been emulated by the communist party in West Bengal and thus the state has seen minimal industrial growth.

In the 1970’s & 80’s, communist party has been in the forefront of developing unions and calling for strikes all across the country. With the change of guard in the chief ministership from the extremist Jyoti Basu to the moderate Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the image of West Bengal developed within the industrial circle. However, the efforts of Mr. Bhattacharya to manufacture Tata Nano in Singur met with the similar kind of resistance that it used to do all across the country. Its own history came to haunt it and finally resulted in the shifting of the plant to Gujarat. This has not only dented the image of the state but has also raised serious concerns within the industrialist about the seriousness of the state government to protect their interest.

It is really disheartening to see that the state which was the pride of the British Empire during their rule over India and was a source of literary talents and intellectual brains, has met with a shunned growth due to the myopic political interests. The current state is that the roots of the ruling party has penetrated so deep in the system, that it would require a miracle to have a change in governance that could bring about the required change.