When few were celebrating the happiness of finally hearing the Delhi Gang Rape Verdict, stating that all four accused sentenced to death and few coming out of their houses and dancing on the streets after BJP announces Narendra Modi as their PM candidate. When Raghuram Rajan takes over as RBI Governor and revived dead hopes of Indians. When the newspaper reads that there is a slight dip in the India’s Infant Mortality Rate. 13th September, 2013, perhaps everything is going well. No, wait. Not everything is fine. Remember that one should always look at the other side of the story too. India, one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world still struggles for peace. Incidents of communal violence have increased in the country. While 410 incidents occurred in the country in the last year, this year, till now, 451 incidents have taken place. 9,000 villages in Bihar have been left in the darkness because of the burnt transformers which has not been replaced. While I read the news on the right column of page no.5 of the newspaper that security for women has improved and CM says that Delhi Police is now more vigilant, the left column of the same page says “10 women complain of molestation daily. Number of rape cases crossed the 1,000 mark, a staggering 2,400 cases of molestation have been registered.’’ The irony is as clear as red ink marks on a student’s answer sheet.
Does it end here? Not yet. It is just the news for a day.
When you ask yourself, what’s so wrong with our country? Is it because of the politicians? Is it because of lack of governance? Is it because of corruption?
There can be many reasons, some reason which might not have crossed our mind.
I wonder how great statesmen like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishna, Jawahar Lal Nehru, APJ Abdul Kalam and many more were able to serve this country with utmost devotion and wholeheartedly, earnestness and truthfulness. I guess, I can never stop adding more adjectives to describe these men. Now when I look at the condition of our nation, the aim of our politicians, I feel disappointed. They make us dumbfound and leave the country in lurch. The only thing that has changed in all these years is the dedication. These days our government and the authorities have become nefarious. Red-tape, corruption is served more than poor. The government statistics shows that we are growing, but, are we? We are still, very far away from reaching our true potential.
But a country is made from its citizens and if each citizen of the country performs his duties well and with sincerity there would be less complications and trouble in the country’s social, political and economic growth. So, as a citizen of the country we should recall all our duties towards our nation and ask ourselves what little have we done to our country? How we have contributed to its growth? How we wish to see our nation in the coming years?
To explain this I would like to take two examples.
1. A recent contestant from KBC, show hosted by Amitabh Bachan, said that he works in telecommunication and this job for him is satisfying and contented as he is able to contribute a little towards his country’s progress. I wonder why we still have not adopted such sort of thinking.
2. While studying economics, I asked my teacher about how can we help in appreciation in the rupee and her answer was “Little you can do is not to buy product of foreign countries. Even single person can a make a difference.’’
This is how you can do a bit. Before pointing out which political party is corrupt, let’s introspect and ask ourselves are we clean? Are we not corrupt?
One more question that comes to my mind is that is it possible to take a country to a great height with unenthusiastic and negative mindset? The words that now I am going to write will at least make you optimistic and favorable.
APJ Abdul Kalam in his book ‘My Journey’ has said that one should always be optimistic. His father had a ferry business and because of tsunami the boats were destroyed by the ocean every time but the look on his father’s face was an acknowledgement of the power of nature. There are larger forces that can crush our dreams and plans in the blink of an eye but you have to face those troubles and rebuild your life. But how we act nowadays is just opposite of what his father did. We have limited our thought process; and whatever the situation may be, we tend to see the negative side of it first. Like tsunami, our country has faced many economic instability and crisis but if we keep an optimistic perspective it will aid all of them.
I will conclude by mentioning a quote by Rabbi Israel Salanter, “
“Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”
So be the change, to see the change.
Written by,
Kritika Vashist
From the Soul to the nib of the Pen 