Let there be some sun shine

‘I love my country’ is probably the second most common phrase for a youth of today to say (of course ‘I love you’ being the first). The painful aspect attached to both the phrases is that most of times the person who utters these seemingly simple words, does not even realises the idea behind love. Well, though this is what I feel. One may disagree with me.
Come with me on a tour, and let’s see what we find out. Think of a compartment of a train, where a heated discussion is going on. Topic? Any guesses? Well yes, politics! of course. What do we talk most of the time? I do not even need to bother myself writing all that, you know already. The point is let say, there are thousands of trains running at every moment of time across our vast, diverse nation and let say, there are thousands of such compartments where such heated discussions are going on. Who is the speaker? And who is the listener? Where does, such talks lead us to? And what exactly is the outcome? Well these are the questions that make me feel ten times whenever I decide to pick up my pen and write something about politics, crime, corruption and other hot topics. May be this is the reason why so many parent around our nation do not want their wards to join any other field other that engineering, medical, journalism or fashion designing or anything that is in no way remotely attached to the concept of serving the nation and its people without any self interest. Well some enthusiasts move forward and decide to join the Army, administrative services etc but there too after some years of experience when they find themselves in the midst of corrupt officials and peers, the idea of nation and its people starts losing its meaning and the vicious circle of an innocent child turning into a bright student, then to a handsome enthusiastic hardworking honest patriot and then finally turning into a passionless aimless tortured government servant continues. On one hand this metamorphosis takes place and on the other, the society keeps adapting itself with the changing scenarios.
Once I asked a stranger when he was about to wear his shoes, “sir, have you ever put on a shoe in the wrong foot, say, the left one in the right and the right one in the left”. He smiled at me and said, “What are you talking? I am not insane, one always has that much common sense” Well, I feel probably because of this wide spread common sense only any parent decides to make their son an engineer and daughter a doctor. You see common sense is too common these days. When these young boys and girls reach their college, they take no time to realise that the educational system is rigid and that there is a need for change. And by the time any change takes place they prefer to close themselves in their rooms with their lap tops and PCs and search for soul mates on Orkut and facebook and also keep themselves updated with Mr. Tharoor on twitter. These students are dying to say ‘I love you’ to the first friend request they get from an opposite sex. Obviously they are now fed up saying ‘I love my country’ at school assembly prayers, college has to be different after all.
Keeping the sarcastic remarks apart and coming back to the point where we started- the degradation of society, where are we headed? A 7-9 % GDP growth with India shining only at the drawing rooms of the industrialists and mafias. The ever rising food prices, unregulated oil prices and the hungry eyes of a farmer looking for their representatives who never turned back after winning the elections. India shinning with national political parties promoting anarchy, and the opposition busy talking about Ram temple and staging walkouts every now and then. India shinning with the youth busy playing mafia war on Facebook and hailing Tendulkar as God. India shinning with M F Hussain accepting Kuwait’s nationality. India shinning with farmers committing suicides.
If we try and look into the cause of such a misbalance in the society today, we can see that it’s not the politicians or a hand full of corrupt officers who are at the root of all this. It’s not a system that has flaws. It’s not that we would have been different if something else were there in our constitution. I personally feel, it’s the human nature that is intrinsically corrupt and greedy. Everyone seeks for freedom. One’s freedom is restricted only by the freedom of another’s. Sitting in a rail compartment if I wish to stretch my arms I will have to see if I do not touch the fellow passenger sitting beside me, he may have objections. With such a huge population, with so many passengers conflicts are but nature. Does that mean all the wide spread corruption, violence, and other such issues are justifiable? Of course not. If we are looking for a better society and we realise that the cause of the wide spread discord is nothing else that our intrinsic selfish and greedy nature, then the only way left is probably to except the facts. Let us say without any shame that service without self interest is not possible. Let us come forward and except that what we expect from the leaders and NGOs and reformers is too much. Above all let the youth log out themselves from the virtual world and come out of their rooms. Let there be some sun shine, let there be some rain.