HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!
Hmmmm.... lets see.... what feelings do those words inspire in us? Patriotism? Honour? Pride? Or.... sarcasm? Cynicism? A feeling that simply sez ... " get real dude.... r v really independent? “.... If it was the latter I wont blame ya’ll.... its a perfectly normal reaction considering the current state our country is in ...
Everywhere around one sees, incompetence surges at u like pointed daggers striving to rip out your eyes, so that even you end up as one of the herd ... and not one of the trend setters, or path breakers or whatever. Any course that one chooses to take up in life in our country today is strewn with so many hurdles (read bureaucratic red tape) which would indeed seem quite daunting to even the most seasoned Olympic athlete ... speaking of Olympics ... I remember the time when we were considered pretty good contenders for the Olympic hockey title ... where is all that enthu now? Or is it just lack of talent? Or is that like the BIGGEST rhetorical question ever asked? "Why are we like this? "
Look at the govt scenario ... by elections seem to be the vogue nowadays ... be it at the centre or at the oh so many states ... at last count there were ... heck ... u get the point ... y do we need chattisgarh , uttaranchal and whatever the other one is called? Everything is retrograde ... instead of unifying ppl, the powers that be simply want to enhance their vote banks ... and end up diversifying the system ... diversity is good ... but unity in the midst of diversity is the need of the hour ...
Take a look at the decisions (read scams) made by the ever changing ruling party of our great nation. Be it bofors, of oil for food, or whatever ... even the latest hype about reservations and quotas for the supposedly needy, most of the bureaucratic decisions are not taking India forward. But backward.... for as Mr. Narayana Murty once said. " WE Indians must be the only breed who'll do anything to be called 'backward' " ... guess that makes the point quite succinctly ...we are proud to boast of the largest slum dwelling in all of Asia!!! Can ANYTHING be more retrograde than that? Huh?
You might be wondering.... in the midst of the turmoil in my country, an inkling of which is shown above, WHY MUST I BE PROUD TO CALL MYSELF AN INDIAN!!!!
I’ll try telling you why ... its for u to decide if u want to be proud of being an Indian of course, thereby striving to make the nation proud of u...for as JFK said " ask not what the nation can do for you ... ask what YOU can do for the nation" .. cliche i know , but it makes the point ...
Just think about this ... there've been oh-so-many of our fellow brothers n sisters who've made a mark in whatever field they've chosen to, INSPITE of all these issues listed above. Just imagine ... isn’t it like the mythical grass sprouting amidst the ruins of the forest fire? Doesn’t it symbolize life ... the urge to live NO MATTER WHAT ;) ( anyone in RV-CS will appreciate that) the very fact that so many Indians have made their presence felt having overcome all odds ought to be a great motivation to us to exceed our expectations n deliver more ... be it at home, school, college, workplace, office, on the field and off it ... in whatever profession one chooses....
So many Indians have gone abroad, made their fame and money there and literally “ bharath maa ki naam roshan kiya hai!!! :-) “ to name a few who’ve mad it super big from humble origins … saber bhatia, sam pitroda, vinod khosla - all these ppl are responsible for getting India into the IT map of the world (I’m sure I’m missing some one big here but I guess my point is made), even in sports we’ve got so many upcoming athletes. Koneru humpy happens to be the world number 2 currently in chess!!!! And do I need to say anything about vishwanathan anand? I wont even get started about sachin or any of our cricketing heroes!!! Some of them have impressed the world not just with their sporting prowess but their charm n personality … a perfect example’s Mahesh Bhupathi … one can never forget the way he conducted himself on the court while partnering Mary Pierce for the Wimbledon mixed doubles and even more, the prefect gentleman he proved to be soon after the match and during the presentation ceremony … a fact aptly lauded by many, including his parents in an interview on TV.
Take a look at the decisions (read scams) made by the ever changing ruling party of our great nation. Be it bofors, of oil for food, or whatever ... even the latest hype about reservations and quotas for the supposedly needy, most of the bureaucratic decisions are not taking India forward. But backward.... for as Mr. Narayana Murty once said. " WE Indians must be the only breed who'll do anything to be called 'backward' " ... guess that makes the point quite succinctly ...we are proud to boast of the largest slum dwelling in all of Asia!!! Can ANYTHING be more retrograde than that? Huh?
You might be wondering.... in the midst of the turmoil in my country, an inkling of which is shown above, WHY MUST I BE PROUD TO CALL MYSELF AN INDIAN!!!!
I’ll try telling you why ... its for u to decide if u want to be proud of being an Indian of course, thereby striving to make the nation proud of u...for as JFK said " ask not what the nation can do for you ... ask what YOU can do for the nation" .. cliche i know , but it makes the point ...
Just think about this ... there've been oh-so-many of our fellow brothers n sisters who've made a mark in whatever field they've chosen to, INSPITE of all these issues listed above. Just imagine ... isn’t it like the mythical grass sprouting amidst the ruins of the forest fire? Doesn’t it symbolize life ... the urge to live NO MATTER WHAT ;) ( anyone in RV-CS will appreciate that) the very fact that so many Indians have made their presence felt having overcome all odds ought to be a great motivation to us to exceed our expectations n deliver more ... be it at home, school, college, workplace, office, on the field and off it ... in whatever profession one chooses....
So many Indians have gone abroad, made their fame and money there and literally “ bharath maa ki naam roshan kiya hai!!! :-) “ to name a few who’ve mad it super big from humble origins … saber bhatia, sam pitroda, vinod khosla - all these ppl are responsible for getting India into the IT map of the world (I’m sure I’m missing some one big here but I guess my point is made), even in sports we’ve got so many upcoming athletes. Koneru humpy happens to be the world number 2 currently in chess!!!! And do I need to say anything about vishwanathan anand? I wont even get started about sachin or any of our cricketing heroes!!! Some of them have impressed the world not just with their sporting prowess but their charm n personality … a perfect example’s Mahesh Bhupathi … one can never forget the way he conducted himself on the court while partnering Mary Pierce for the Wimbledon mixed doubles and even more, the prefect gentleman he proved to be soon after the match and during the presentation ceremony … a fact aptly lauded by many, including his parents in an interview on TV.
Last but DEFINITELY not the least ;) need I mention sania mirza?
Of course we can also draw inspiration from those people who’ve chosen to make a mark right here itself in our great nation … Azim Premji of Wipro fame and Narayana Murty of Infosys fame barely need introduction … pardon me for focusing on IT, I’m a computer science student after all. ;-) But this fact holds good for each and every field u can name. Be it Biocon’s Kiran majumdar Shaw … or Nasscom’s Kiran karnik … or formula 1’s Narayan kaarthikeyan, we indian’s’ve made it big in all fields …
A super example would be that of Mittal steel’s Lakshmi Mittal …. Having clinched the Arcelor deal he now wishes to invest in India in UP … Naturally he wouldn’t do that if he dint truly believe that India is very profitable and is on an economic upward swing!!!
Why do u think so many companies are vying with each other to set up plants/campuses in India? Why do u think our sensex has doubled from 6000 in 2000 to 12000 in 2006? Why? SIMPLY BECAUSE THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS KNOWN THAT INDIA HAS THE POTENTIAL AND NOW WE INDIANS ARE STARTING TO DELIVER GLOBALLY.
It’s a sexy part of the development of our nation we’re involved in … with ample scope and room for everyone. We just have to do our best n deliver … endeavor to improve our country. Seriously. In another blog I’ll get started on where I think we need to focus, cuz certainly handling outsourced phone calls isn’t the way to improve our country … might be the quickest way to make some fast cash, short of looting karur Vysya bank though ;)
But now seriously again, just think about this ... if every jawan in our army feels that "hey!! I’m just one in a million jawans ... they'll take care of the work ... " imagine what'd be the state of the defence of our country!!! We take it for granted that we're damn safe sitting where we are ... but just give one day holiday to all the defence forces to our country and see what'll happen ... u'll be toast before u know it ... but also take ur mind do that scenario ... when every jawan lying on his bunker ... just before the hooter buzzes, thinks like this " hey. I’m not here for no reason ... if I can simply strive to MY work a lil better, to hell with others if they wanna laze, I’ll just do my work a lil better every day, it'll definitely make a difference " ... if all the million (and million is a conservative estimate) jawans thought in this fashion, will it not make a HUGE difference? And the best part is it aint just about jawans ... it could be anything ... a guy sitting on a Mumbai local (he’ll most probably be jostled about, struggling for a place to hang on to), or a surgeon scrubbing down for the days surgery ;), or a working mum getting her kids ready for school, or the most hi tech scientist at ISRO programming the next gen rocket, strive to do their work a lil better. . Give it that lil more.... wont it makes a difference? OK our country aint looking in the best of shape ... but isn’t it better to light a candle than curse the darkness?
Looking forward to your comments as always n waiting to see who punches the largest hole through my arguments ;)
JAI HIND !!! BHARATH MATA KI JAI !!! VANDE MATARAM !!!
yours as always ,
It’s a sexy part of the development of our nation we’re involved in … with ample scope and room for everyone. We just have to do our best n deliver … endeavor to improve our country. Seriously. In another blog I’ll get started on where I think we need to focus, cuz certainly handling outsourced phone calls isn’t the way to improve our country … might be the quickest way to make some fast cash, short of looting karur Vysya bank though ;)
But now seriously again, just think about this ... if every jawan in our army feels that "hey!! I’m just one in a million jawans ... they'll take care of the work ... " imagine what'd be the state of the defence of our country!!! We take it for granted that we're damn safe sitting where we are ... but just give one day holiday to all the defence forces to our country and see what'll happen ... u'll be toast before u know it ... but also take ur mind do that scenario ... when every jawan lying on his bunker ... just before the hooter buzzes, thinks like this " hey. I’m not here for no reason ... if I can simply strive to MY work a lil better, to hell with others if they wanna laze, I’ll just do my work a lil better every day, it'll definitely make a difference " ... if all the million (and million is a conservative estimate) jawans thought in this fashion, will it not make a HUGE difference? And the best part is it aint just about jawans ... it could be anything ... a guy sitting on a Mumbai local (he’ll most probably be jostled about, struggling for a place to hang on to), or a surgeon scrubbing down for the days surgery ;), or a working mum getting her kids ready for school, or the most hi tech scientist at ISRO programming the next gen rocket, strive to do their work a lil better. . Give it that lil more.... wont it makes a difference? OK our country aint looking in the best of shape ... but isn’t it better to light a candle than curse the darkness?
Looking forward to your comments as always n waiting to see who punches the largest hole through my arguments ;)
JAI HIND !!! BHARATH MATA KI JAI !!! VANDE MATARAM !!!
yours as always ,
abhishek .
7 comments:
well the words do bring out a sense of patriotism in me.but im not an overtly expressive person so i may not go around wishing everyone "happy indeppendence day",but it does make me proud to be an Indian.of course there are negatives in every country,only happens that ours may have a few more than the others(no offence meant).as far as the hurdles faced by the people are concerned ,it is not totally the government or the peoples part,everyone plays an equal role in all of this.i do strongly believe that we should have had a 2 party system implemented in our country for better political control(but then its only my opinion).the main problems of the scams is that the politicians feel they can get away with it so if we enforce some strict action on them then maybe it'll reduce.this again depends on the judicial system which is slow,but things are improving.i do salute the great achievers of India who have made a mark inspite of the challenges faced by them.kudos to them.they are one of the reasons i am proud of my nation.i do also believe that our nation has great potential and to become a world leader.but it just needs time and dedication.and of course the last part of the blog i totally agree with that a lil more extra effort in our own work and we can make a difference to the nation.
Jai Hind!
-balaji
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@balaji ... i strongly agree with your proposal for a two party system .... not to ape the west but merely to organise our chaotic political scenario ...
n ppl sorry fot that crap comment above ... it was me testing whether the comment thingy was working .. heh heh ... never mind ...
Well,no doubt this blog is a good one.I guess instead of showing a picture which the reader would have already seen,you could have written something about what could be done.One thing which I thought needed more insight into was the Economic Policy in our country,where the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer everyday and what could be done to reduce this economic divide,which is not so huge in case of countries like France.How can we establish a transparent economic system in India?I feel the economic policy is the crux of the problem,if solved,half the problems will be solved.Also the long established policies have to change and the Constitution also needs a revamp.
Anyway all these discussions will never end.
The people who have become famous,have only filled their own pockets,but ask how many pay taxes religiously?
Anyway considering the positive side of it,we can only console ourselves saying after all the country is not going to dogs right now,thats it.
Hey while i'm against the two party system , i believe the presidential system of a single elected person with professionals to help out as probably the best system of governance...
The professionals will never have to worry about populist support..Look as Miss Rice nobody will vote for her, but u can't question the good work she does...
hey dhondi, that was good.
dude, v need people like u. hope many more ppl read ur blog and get influenced.
Independence Day doesnt hold much significance other than being a historic day, and as for the question " Am i proud to be an Indian?" , I ask that to myself daily when i read the newspapers - the headlines, the City news, the Sports page, TV schedule and the Horoscope columns.
(i know this doesnt go with the mood of your post,but then u asked me to comment)
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