Nehru and Gandhi chartered a course for post colonial India, a course that did indeed stay of track for a while; it had a purpose to deliver post colonial India into the new era. Now lets fast forward to today, we are ‘biggest democracy’ not the greatest, size matters I guess (stop over thinking this statement), however today the biggest parasite on post colonial democratic India is its ineffective politicians playing with India like puppet masters. Do they know that over 300 million Indians do not have enough to feed themselves or their starving family? No but these puppet masters do not concern themselves with such petty matters; they are there to make great’s like Aamir Khan or Al Pacino acting skills look amateur in comparison to their own, no wonder so many actors are joining politics, after Slumdog Millionaire’s success please all you talent scouts don’t look further than our great Politicians who when viewed on HD tv will probably make 15 time Oscar nominee Meryl Streep quit Hollywood for good. I remember Nehru’s words when we won our Independence “The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears, so long our work will not be over." Brilliant words by a brilliant man, well our politicians have tried to stick by this promise of our great leader, they have ensured that with their brilliant acting skills they move us to tears so much so that even after voting for them we do not stop crying, with all due respect to Nehru we have a long way to go for that work to be over just as long as we have corrupt politicians at the helm. As you read further you will realize that I am not generalizing politicians as corrupt no good scoundrels, I have a lot of respect for quite a few of them like Manmohan Singh and many more, but unfortunately the goods ones are a mere drop in the sea.
Someone described India as a ‘kleptocratic society’, if you do not know the meaning of a kleptomaniac please Google Winona Ryder and you shall understand, it is the obsessive compulsive need to steal even though you do not actually require to, mostly stealing something without having the economic need to steal it. I guess our fat corrupt politicians are not actually Kleptomaniacs, but misinterpreted ‘Robin Hoods’ stealing from the poor to feed their increasing girth, poverty has never looked so well fed. Greed would also not be accurate to describe these valiant men, who risk their lives everyday by committing thievery all for the betterment of society, I mean come on those shows they put up cost a lot of money, please do not expect to get entertainment of such calibre for free, one needs to literally empty their pockets to deserve what these personalities deliver.
Yes as I have mentioned earlier my sarcasm and cynisism should not encompass all individuals, some actually do give a damn about this country and have tried to make a difference, however these few individuals of worthy character cannot change the structure of society single handed as long as the reigns of power remain with the corrupt majority. We are lucky to have many sections like the armed forces that do our nation proud, one cannot help but recap the brave men from all over the country and every religion who stood together to help Mumbai when it was under siege in November; however unfortunate and sad the circumstances their brave acts were a refreshing and remarkable change from what we are accustomed to read in the papers or watch on the news and provided that ray of sunshine in a very dark and bleak tunnel. These are role model sections of society, and must be analyzed to perhaps help us bring about change in our behaviour and more so our expectation of other’s behaviour, in previous articles I have written about how we have become desensitized we expect things to be as they are and do not lift a finger to change it, but we do have the energy to grumble incessantly and point that finger to others. All sections of society, all organizations all do have an incorruptible minority who will not stand down, whose morals are so imbedded in who they are, that they will never flow with the tide but stand up for what is right. However the rest however morally forthright they may start off in their respective organizations eventually recoil, allowing the corrupt to take over, and these minor blimps eventually cause a domino effect that cause the organization to descend rapidly down the moral ladder; they eventually cause those forthright few morally ‘dyed-in-the-wool’ individuals to reassess their outlook and creating the ‘I don’t care the world is as it is and I as an individual cannot do anything to change it’ attitude, thus they now develop a certain apathy towards their surroundings and an acceptance to the way things are. They take responsibility towards their own behaviour but rationalize everyone else’s; these people soon become soft targets and fodder for the corrupt; the corrupt thus manage to create fear in the eyes of these individuals and many of them disappear way under the radar to avoid conflict, they do not waiver from their moral standing but do not interfere in the status quo. I don’t think what we really require is for these individuals to be foolish and show valour when uncalled for; however what we require from them is not to let their backbone become malleable and let it be held up strong.
Today Christians begin length to mourn the death of their messiah, and then continue with their wait for him to rise again. We do not been to await the coming of the messiah to save us, I fail to understand why we cannot save ourselves. A billion Indians must come together and break the shackles that seem to bind us from taking a stand. We must know that our spirit our voice is all that we have that live on forever, we cannot leave this society for our children to live in, we must speak out, take a stand.
The herd mentality of us Indians will always perplex me, why can’t we think for ourselves, why do we need others to think for us and tell us what is right and wrong. I know it is so very easy to lose one’s way, the forbidden fruit is ever so tempting, after all we are the children of Adam and Eve, bowing down to temptation is in our blood. However I do not ask of you to fight a war, I do not ask of you to become Mother Theresa, I do not ask of you to give up worldly pleasures and live it a mountain of righteousness, I do not ask of you not to be human, after all we all have our flaws our kinks which need ironing out otherwise we would not be human. However I do ask of you to speak up, not to bow down to the mob mentality, to listen to your conscience - We can create change one voice at a time, and soon those voices will come together to become one big voice and a force to be reckoned with.
Someone described India as a ‘kleptocratic society’, if you do not know the meaning of a kleptomaniac please Google Winona Ryder and you shall understand, it is the obsessive compulsive need to steal even though you do not actually require to, mostly stealing something without having the economic need to steal it. I guess our fat corrupt politicians are not actually Kleptomaniacs, but misinterpreted ‘Robin Hoods’ stealing from the poor to feed their increasing girth, poverty has never looked so well fed. Greed would also not be accurate to describe these valiant men, who risk their lives everyday by committing thievery all for the betterment of society, I mean come on those shows they put up cost a lot of money, please do not expect to get entertainment of such calibre for free, one needs to literally empty their pockets to deserve what these personalities deliver.
Yes as I have mentioned earlier my sarcasm and cynisism should not encompass all individuals, some actually do give a damn about this country and have tried to make a difference, however these few individuals of worthy character cannot change the structure of society single handed as long as the reigns of power remain with the corrupt majority. We are lucky to have many sections like the armed forces that do our nation proud, one cannot help but recap the brave men from all over the country and every religion who stood together to help Mumbai when it was under siege in November; however unfortunate and sad the circumstances their brave acts were a refreshing and remarkable change from what we are accustomed to read in the papers or watch on the news and provided that ray of sunshine in a very dark and bleak tunnel. These are role model sections of society, and must be analyzed to perhaps help us bring about change in our behaviour and more so our expectation of other’s behaviour, in previous articles I have written about how we have become desensitized we expect things to be as they are and do not lift a finger to change it, but we do have the energy to grumble incessantly and point that finger to others. All sections of society, all organizations all do have an incorruptible minority who will not stand down, whose morals are so imbedded in who they are, that they will never flow with the tide but stand up for what is right. However the rest however morally forthright they may start off in their respective organizations eventually recoil, allowing the corrupt to take over, and these minor blimps eventually cause a domino effect that cause the organization to descend rapidly down the moral ladder; they eventually cause those forthright few morally ‘dyed-in-the-wool’ individuals to reassess their outlook and creating the ‘I don’t care the world is as it is and I as an individual cannot do anything to change it’ attitude, thus they now develop a certain apathy towards their surroundings and an acceptance to the way things are. They take responsibility towards their own behaviour but rationalize everyone else’s; these people soon become soft targets and fodder for the corrupt; the corrupt thus manage to create fear in the eyes of these individuals and many of them disappear way under the radar to avoid conflict, they do not waiver from their moral standing but do not interfere in the status quo. I don’t think what we really require is for these individuals to be foolish and show valour when uncalled for; however what we require from them is not to let their backbone become malleable and let it be held up strong.
Today Christians begin length to mourn the death of their messiah, and then continue with their wait for him to rise again. We do not been to await the coming of the messiah to save us, I fail to understand why we cannot save ourselves. A billion Indians must come together and break the shackles that seem to bind us from taking a stand. We must know that our spirit our voice is all that we have that live on forever, we cannot leave this society for our children to live in, we must speak out, take a stand.
The herd mentality of us Indians will always perplex me, why can’t we think for ourselves, why do we need others to think for us and tell us what is right and wrong. I know it is so very easy to lose one’s way, the forbidden fruit is ever so tempting, after all we are the children of Adam and Eve, bowing down to temptation is in our blood. However I do not ask of you to fight a war, I do not ask of you to become Mother Theresa, I do not ask of you to give up worldly pleasures and live it a mountain of righteousness, I do not ask of you not to be human, after all we all have our flaws our kinks which need ironing out otherwise we would not be human. However I do ask of you to speak up, not to bow down to the mob mentality, to listen to your conscience - We can create change one voice at a time, and soon those voices will come together to become one big voice and a force to be reckoned with.
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