We Are a Great Country….are we?

First of all I would like to define what makes a nation great. A country does not become great by its GDP. Nor it becomes great by its growth rate. Good defence may make a country safe, but not great. A country bountiful in natural beauty may be a great tourist destination, but nature alone can’t make a country great. For me a country becomes great by its people. The greatness comes by the collective greatness of people.

Our country was once great. It had world’s greatest thinkers, philosophers, scientists and leaders. It had people who laid their lives serving it. It had a class of rulers who went on exiles just to follow their father’s words. It had people who used to work for common good, for collective progress. People who were sensitive to their society, to the pain of their neighbours, who used to respect women and treat her with dignity and respect and who gave their children equal opportunities in life by teaching them in same school (Gurukul). All those people made our country great. So great indeed, that people from all over the world used to come here and marvel at its greatness. So great that we still use that greatness as our best excuse whenever we fail to put up any other point (we are used to say that our culture and values are great in any discussion).

But sadly, I think we no longer qualify for that category. Our once great country is no longer great. I know many would not agree with me on this (I myself want to think otherwise). But the fact is India is not a great country. A country which cannot protect its women and children from rape and exploitation can’t be great. A country where common man doesn’t even have a right to protest can’t be great. A country that can’t provide equal opportunities for its children, where farmers are forced to suicide and yet it endorses FDI, where perpetrators of worst industrial disaster are left free, where “National Leaders” publicly say that they can’t stop bomb blasts, where people know and judge each other not by name and deeds, but by caste, where every day millions sleep hungry yet people are conveniently left free after scams worth billions, can never be great.

A 23 year old girl was brutally raped and left to die along with her friend in Delhi. All that we needed from our so-called leaders was solidarity and assurance. Yet our puppet Prime Minister failed to address nation (he did addressed us on TV in an emotionless speech, a week after the incident). The angry citizens (mostly young people) next decided to protest for it and demand for action. Instead of listening to their demands, the authorities used tear gas, water cannons and lathi-charged them. The next day was one of the blackest days in our democracy. Rajpath was blocked. Metro-stations were closed. The common man of India lost his right to protest that day. Those people were not demanding for a separate state nor were they protesting on a religious ground. They didn’t had any weapons. And they were not harassing police. Neither were they trying to attack any so-called leader nor were they trying to hijack Rashtrapati Bhavan. And yet force was used on them. I fail to understand the reason to close 9 metro stations including Rajeev Chowk where more than 5 lakhs commuters come everyday. All 5 lakh of them were not protestors. These 5 lakh include daily wagers, school and college students, working professionals, tourists, etc. Govt didn’t even thought about them.  And then they went a step ahead and issued a circular in media not to cover the rape story and protests anymore. A girl is fighting for her life and these insensitive morons say not to cover her story! A nation with such heartless elected representatives can’t be great.

I was very disturbed with the incident (not only rape but also the death of democracy). So I decided to join the protest for it. But if the state of our political class is appalling, the attitude of common man is pathetic to say the least. I was hoping to see a big crowd of people equally disturbed. However, hardly 100 people came to protest. I guess others were busy celebrating Christmas. A nation where people are so much indifferent to their fellow citizen’s pain and sufferings can’t be great.

No matter how much we achieved in terms of GDP. But the fact is we are amongst the last ten on almost all the HDI indexes. We may become great again by developing on this front as well. We may become great again by becoming more sensitive as a society. We may become great again by electing a better class of people to represent us. But till then, we would remain a backward, insecure nation and definitely not great.

A Trip worth Remembering!

It was a cool Sunday morning on November 4^th 2012. I had to wake up early to reach Wilson Garden in time. Volunteers were supposed to reach by 7:30 am. Not that waking up early on Sundays is a problem for me. But from past few weeks, as Sankalp meetings have moved to Saturday evenings, I became less habitual to that. Anyhow, we (me and Saurabh) reached the center by 7:35 am. The kids were already ready in their school uniforms, 2 of them with even a tie! They were all excited and happy to see us. All the volunteers arrived before 8 and we made a final strategy, discussed do’s and don’ts one more time and made groups before boarding the bus. By 8:35, we were all set and then began our journey and one of our most memorable days!

Our destination, Innovative Film City is about 45 kms from Bangalore on Mysore road. We reached there by 10:00 am. By 10 in the morning, sun was gleaming. So, there would be no worries of rain, no fear in taking them to pool, no anxiety of them falling sick. In other words, a perfect day for the trip! We began with welcome drink which turned out to be a glass of sprite, instead of juice. Anyways, kids liked that. Our first attraction was mirror maze followed by Dino Park and fossil museum. Though some of them were scared, children really liked the life-sized dinosaur replicas. They kept asking me dinosaur’s names and also whether they are real! Next we moved to Cartoon City where kids took a ride to roller-coaster, carousel and star-wars. By the time last group finished star-wars, it was time for lunch.

Post lunch we went on to see an alien-invasion sci-fi 3-D movie. It would have been better if they had the 4^th dimension of feel as well. Kids would definitely have loved that. 3-D show was followed by some really impressive works of wax in Wax-museum, some astonishing facts and replicas in Believe it or Not and some spooky horror in Haunted Mansion. I can’t really appreciate haunted mansion though, as there were so many crying kids to take care of that I couldn't see anything inside mansion! Yes, some of the kids were really frightened. But all was well once we came out. And when they heard about our next attraction, all of their smiles came back. It was time for Water Park…finally!

The one thing that all the kids were eagerly waiting for since morning, was going to pool for swimming. They were so excited for pool that they hardly took any time to change. One moment they went in the changing room, and the next they were out. Next 40-45 minutes was pure fun for kids and volunteers alike. It was a great spectacle seeing them play in water. We also knew that pool would be most risky for kids. So, we took care no kid goes beyond a certain level in water, which volunteers were religiously maintaining. In pool, a child can spend hours together without feeling tired or willing to get out. But we had a time bound, so sadly we had to take them out! As water rides were not allowed for children younger than 14, we were left with evening snacks and Wannado City post swimming.

Wannado City is a small model of a city. It has a veterinary hospital, a court room, a police station, a general hospital and an aeroplane. Children enjoyed being there and playing with different models. They liked the experience of sitting inside a plane and being locked up in a jail! J Then it was time to go back. But just as we assembled on the way out, 2 artists came. One was impersonating a horse rider with a puppet horse and the other had drum. They performed in front of kids and to kids’ pleasant surprise; volunteers started dancing on the tone! Though I am not very comfortable in dancing in general (forget about dancing in full public view!), I couldn’t resist joining my friends. I enjoyed that moment and so did the kids. We came out and boarded the bus for our journey home. We gave kids biscuits and chocolates. As they were tired, most of them slept. Volunteers however, had some other plans and they started to sing. I couldn’t join them as Pavan was sleeping with his head on my shoulder and I didn't want to wake him up (This guy Pavan and one more kid Manoj didn't leave my hand for a minute throughout the day!).  We reached Wilson Garden by 7:30. It was time to say goodbye to kids. All the volunteers went for dinner to celebrate the day.

Most of the people say that such events make a big difference to kids’ lives. It makes them smile. When I look it from my perspective, I feel it’s not just about making them smile. Consider the concept of trickle-down effect in economics. The trickle-down effect says that economic benefits provided by the government to businesses, would eventually benefit poorer members of society. If you apply same theory to society, you’ll realize that the amount of time and effort that we spend with a particular child has the potential to trickle down to future generations as well.

In our group there is Dilip who wants to become an engineer, Veena and Hemanth who want to become IAS, Parvathi who dreams to be a doctor and Praveen who wants to be a business-man. These are the aspirations of just 5 kids. And I am sure they will be able to achieve their dreams. But they need our support for that; the support of privileged middle/upper class youth of India. And once they achieve their dreams, they’ll take care of other Dilips and Parvathis and Hemanths. They will have the responsibility of returning to society and I am sure they will do that. I am sure because one thing that I have learned about children, especially under-privileged, is their ability to share. It is very easy for us to share something due to our hefty pay checks. But it takes real heart to share half of your chocolate with someone else as a kid! I believe that once they grow up, they will share with those who are under-privileged, in whatever capacity they can.

So, when you look from my perspective, it’s not just about bringing smiles; it’s about building the nation!

There is, however, another side to it. This is the socialist side. This is the point of view that resulted in a conflict in my mind about whether we are right to spend so much for a day’s fun with a group of kids? Don’t get me wrong here. But when you go out to any roadside eatery, when you go in any small scale industry that requires manual labour, when you go to any temple, mosque or church, when you are waiting on any traffic signal, everywhere you’ll find out of school/home children working and begging. From hazardous chemical factories to bangle making, from farm labour to eateries, from smuggling to prostitution and from begging to drug-abuse, you’ll find them everywhere. I know that the children we took for trip require all the love, care and affection that we can give them. But when I compare them with those out on streets, my heart pains more for the latter, because they also deserve love, care, affection; and most importantly education.

The money that we spent on this one day fun activity could've been spent to send some of those kids to school. I know what we did is also important. But some part in me would never be convinced with the real impact of the money and time we spent. I would love to get an opinion on this. Please comment if you have anything to say.

Thanks to Bhumi, Anatha Shishu Sevashram, and my fellow volunteer friends for making my and kids’ day. This trip wouldn't have been possible without the support from all. This was just a milestone in our journeys. I hope we all would keep putting up efforts to make our country a better place. I hope we all would Keep Walking!

India Shining…..really?

Lets take a look at 2 of the recent studies:

1)      Out of 73 nations studied, India stands 72^nd in a survey of the ability of primary children to read, write and perform basic Mathematical operations. The Indian kids were outperformed not only by developed, but also some developing and under-developed countries. The study was carried out by OECD under Programme for International Student Assessment.

2)      In a study by UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, it was found that India is the deadliest place to live for a girl. This was an extensive study where data for past 40 years was observed for 150 countries. Shockingly, even hostile places like Afghanistan and Iraq are better than India when it comes to mortality rate of a girl child!

Given the results of above two studies only a fool would say that we are even developing, let alone being a superpower. We may want to believe otherwise, but the results of these studies by international organizations clearly shows that we are worse than even Sub-Saharan countries when it comes to Human Development Index.

Now the question is are we not efficient? Yes we are. Then why is it so that after more than 60 years of democracy which gave us all the freedoms, abundance of natural resources and human capital, we are no better off than monarchies and places with natural scarcities? We proudly say that Indians have the best minds and no denying of the fact that indeed most of the engineering, technical and scientific firms are run by Indians across the world. Even US Presidents have acknowledged it time and again. But when it comes to our own development we are lagging far behind. I wonder what has gone wrong with us. We have freedom, resources, manpower and ability. What else would a nation need to develop?

The answer is will power and a sense of nationalism. The solution to all our problems lies with our attitude and its our attitude that’s the reason for all our problems in the first place. What Indians seriously lack is a feeling towards their motherland and the society. When an affluent Indian child gets educated, he never develops a sense of gratitude towards society. He thinks only his parents were the ones who enabled him along with his hard work. Thus returning it back to the society never occurs to him. What he never realizes is that society and his nation has an equal role to play in his success. That if he is free today, it is because of the sacrifice of thousands.

A nation can never succeed if its youth doesn’t lend a hand to the process of nation building. And youth would never feel the need to build the nation if it has lost links to its culture, civilization, history and heritage. Sadly, this link seems to be vanishing fast from Indians. I think that our education system has a role to play here. It eludes me that why we dedicate chapters to Mughal history and only paragraphs to Bhagat Singh? Also as a contrast to most of the developed nations, social service never formed a part of our curricula. In several countries it is mandatory to serve the forces or serve as a scout. Also there are countries where social service is a part of graduation. Students have to devote one semester to any social cause or an organization.

But students from India never have to do so. Thus they are never able to relate to those who are less privileged in society. As such, they are indifferent to the pain and suffering of their fellow Indians. And after completing education, they seldom do anything for the nation. Most of them try to get some lucrative offers and settle abroad. No wonder we have one of the biggest disparity between rich and poor. Until that change, we will keep getting such shocking reports.