"This day I salute all the great leaders and martyrs of our country, and all our Jawans braving it out every second so that you and I may live in peace. I thank you, I revere you. And this Independence day, may we free ourselves from all shackles of the mind and otherwise, and do what we can to make each man, woman and child truly and rightfully free."
I shared this on Facebook last year on the eve of the Independence day and it seems to me like I wrote it a few weeks or months back.
Yes, a year has gone by. But what has changed? More scams by the government, the country is still neck deep in corruption, poverty is accepted as a normal situation for millions, crime is rampant and criminals walk free among us.
There were people, hungry and ailing, stranded due to the Uttarakhand floods but the government had to wait a couple of days to send relief supplies so that the 'heir' could flag off the trucks carrying them. I almost feel like deleting what I just wrote, it seems too absurd to be true. But yes, that happened.
I study in a college which boasts of some of the brightest minds of the country and yet, once in a while, I hear of a story where a 'boy' studying here gets engaged to a girl through an 'arranged match' and is going to get a exorbitant sum of money as 'dowry'. And this prospective acquest is celebrated by all his friends usually over drinks.
We go to many of the swanky malls nearby to hang out and have fun quite often. At every red light or traffic block our auto-rikshaw stops , a bunch of thin, impoverished kids flock to us begging for money but are always happy to run off in glee with candy or food, if offered. Fun then comes with a taste of guilt and a sense of sadness.
Women are raped and forgotten, female foeti are aborted, girls and boys are denied of a chance for a better life through education because they are just too poor. Of course a growling stomach comes first, they can't eat books.
The government repeatedly loots the people and then woos them with gifts and gets them to vote for them. The people feel grateful for how generous their government is, not realizing it's a pittance that's being spent on them compared to what has been taken from the country.
We do protest sometimes , but then we forget again. We all want change but we are waiting for it to happen, and we are not really sure if it will. But every patriotic Indian among us has one other thing in common. Hope. Flaming hope to light a shining India. And faith that one day we shall all have true pride in our country in every way.
The Aam Aadmi Party lead by Arvind Kejriwal does provide a beacon of hope and I am curious to know what I'll be writing the next independence day.
Till then, a desperate and wholehearted yes to Swaraj and an untainted government of the people.
Happy Independence day.
Jai Hind!
I shared this on Facebook last year on the eve of the Independence day and it seems to me like I wrote it a few weeks or months back.
Yes, a year has gone by. But what has changed? More scams by the government, the country is still neck deep in corruption, poverty is accepted as a normal situation for millions, crime is rampant and criminals walk free among us.
There were people, hungry and ailing, stranded due to the Uttarakhand floods but the government had to wait a couple of days to send relief supplies so that the 'heir' could flag off the trucks carrying them. I almost feel like deleting what I just wrote, it seems too absurd to be true. But yes, that happened.
I study in a college which boasts of some of the brightest minds of the country and yet, once in a while, I hear of a story where a 'boy' studying here gets engaged to a girl through an 'arranged match' and is going to get a exorbitant sum of money as 'dowry'. And this prospective acquest is celebrated by all his friends usually over drinks.
We go to many of the swanky malls nearby to hang out and have fun quite often. At every red light or traffic block our auto-rikshaw stops , a bunch of thin, impoverished kids flock to us begging for money but are always happy to run off in glee with candy or food, if offered. Fun then comes with a taste of guilt and a sense of sadness.
Women are raped and forgotten, female foeti are aborted, girls and boys are denied of a chance for a better life through education because they are just too poor. Of course a growling stomach comes first, they can't eat books.
The government repeatedly loots the people and then woos them with gifts and gets them to vote for them. The people feel grateful for how generous their government is, not realizing it's a pittance that's being spent on them compared to what has been taken from the country.
We do protest sometimes , but then we forget again. We all want change but we are waiting for it to happen, and we are not really sure if it will. But every patriotic Indian among us has one other thing in common. Hope. Flaming hope to light a shining India. And faith that one day we shall all have true pride in our country in every way.
The Aam Aadmi Party lead by Arvind Kejriwal does provide a beacon of hope and I am curious to know what I'll be writing the next independence day.
Till then, a desperate and wholehearted yes to Swaraj and an untainted government of the people.
Happy Independence day.
Jai Hind!
