Sunday, August 24, 2008

On Independence Day...

I know most of us tend to be pretty pessimistic about our country, and we tend to have attacks of patriotism only when India wins a T20 match or Abhinav gets a gold medal. And while we do have our problems with infrastructure, poverty and corruption, and every other evil that befalls a 1.1 Billion Third World country like ours, we need to take some time to thank this country and its people for what is awesome – in spite of all the diversity, and the hundreds of languages and dozens of relations, we are still very much united – compared to what’s happening in Eastern Europe, for example. We still have very clean and clear change of governments, our ex-Prime Ministers and Presidents are not killed and hung on lampposts. The day our government wins a trust vote, every TV channel runs excellent, bare-all debates between government and the opposition on one platform. The judiciary and press is still very free and not under government influence. We still have the rights to do dharnas and morchas without the government calling in tanks to quell the mob. Most of us have got very high quality education almost for free all our childhood and adult life.

Let us take this opportunity to ask ourselves, how can we do our little bit for our country? It’s not just that we pay some income tax (which, most of us do, very grudgingly!)

Let us save power and water. Let us do our bits to not litter the streets and our surroundings, let us help in segregating garbage and recycling. Let us plant one tree. Let us not encourage corruption by passing along that fifty rupee note to the hawaldar. Let us respect the traffic lights, and let pedestrians cross safely. Let us encourage our kids to be better social citizens too!

At this age, and in the IT industry, we have the power to do and influence a lot more. Let’s do our bit.

Happy Independence Day!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right - we need to become more responsible citizens. Many a times I have seen educated people spit, litter around and have also asked them not to do that..But have only been treated to a cold rude look in return. Sometimes I wish we had laws (like in Singapore?) to punish/fine such people..

Anonymous said...

Very true dear ! Whenever people say "Ein te Governmentache" I feel like asking them "Mhanje konachya Bapaychein? " It always irritates me to see fans/tubes working in empty rooms, public taps running with nobody noticing the wastage of water, people tryn to bribe officials as they do not have time to wait or come again, people who keep their house clean but never bother about their surroundings.... As u said we must encourage our kids to become better social citizens so as to have a better "India"

Harsha Kumar said...

Absolutely! In fact I took an oath this Independence Day - to not litter and conserve energy which ever way possible. Step One - I bought three power saving lights today :)