kinshuk sunilit aint no, dessert if therez no caek

It so happens, in day to day life, that we stumble upon some piece of news, some stuff, that makes us feel like shit. We blame the system. We say the nation is going to its doom. We blame the government. The Media. The Herd-like crowd. Everyone. Everyone, but ourselves.

And we proclaim, nothing good can be done for this nation. And though I write this for my nation – India, it stands true for almost all nations. After all, who doesn’t like to find faults. And if truth be told, I love to crib a lot.

Such one day, I was cribbing about my nation with my friends. How various evils, various negatives haunt India and what should be done for it. We talked about a lot of issues – poverty, illiteracy, environmental concerns, corruption, morality, mortality, media etc. A lot of things. And all we kept concluding was: “The government won’t get things done. It’s all concerned with being in power”. And we were not just talking about the current Congress power. We were quite indifferent to what political party is in power. It’s the same everywhere.

One of our jokes was: BJP was drowned in the Onion crisis in the state of Delhi and that’s how Sheila Dikshit came to power. Now, BJP people are accusing the Congress government of such abnormal prices prevailing in the market. “… like the politicians know the rates in the Mandi“, said one Auto-Rickshaw driver. “If the guy peddling the goods down the street doesn’t add his mark up, how would he feed is family. And if he adds his mark-up, the prices will rise, won’t they? Ain’t that simple?” He concluded. Quite correctly, I must agree.

But you see, the problem is not this simple. As I have recently realized: any problem is as complex as you want to see it; its all in the mind, you know. When you talk of a nation, its a macro-level issue; affecting the lives of some odd 1.2 Billion people. Now that’s a big number. So it all boils down to a basic question: How to groom a nation?

How to groom it – evolve it, develop it, nurture it, shape its future, strengthen its roots; how to ensure that the future is bright and sunny. How?

Not Surprisingly, a small clue struck me while reading Freedom At Midnight (excellent book, and a suggested read). In the text, the authors talk of Gandhi ji’s dream of how post-independence India should be. The text says (not quoting verbatim):

Gandhi ji envisioned an interdependent social structure for Independent India. It started from the Individual. The Individual would be interdependent on and augmented by his family, which is the next unit. The family is interdependent on and augmented by the Community; similarly the next tier is the Village, then Towns, and so on to the whole nation. Thus, the nation would be comprise of independent elements that are interdependent on each other resulting in balanced and egalitarian growth and prosperity. In this scheme of affairs, mechanization would have cause disruption by speeding up some cycles while other continued on the natural/manual pace. Thus, the indifference and neglect of mechanization by Gandhi ji.

Now, I do not suggest the same solution; for one: I don’t understand it in its totality myself. But it gave me a spark to work on. Something to hold on to. And that is: The Individual.

How many times have you jumped a red light? Saw some one in need of help but did not volunteer and just passed by? When was the last time you gave your seat to a Senior Citizen in the Metro? When was the last time you threw some trash on the road?

I stop here deliberately to leave you thinking, if at all. I will continue in a different post.

Suggested Reading

• I Was There (0)
• Pending Travelogue (2)
• Insomnia and Little Wonders (2)
• Harry Potter and the Veil of Voices: 1. Two Worlds Unite (0)
• Day One: Lodgings and Food (1)