BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE!!!

Hello everyone!!!

Thanks to all those who could spare a thought for the earlier post. Even the criticism expressed when so ever calls are made, are also appreciated. The common notion that has come up is that the posts are getting monotonous, as they talk of something people are not very much and readily interested in. So I decide to detour a bit (may be part-4 can wait) and get to more of the common topics to write about.

There on, my mind started wandering in all directions. Looking at everything with an author's eyes, desperate to find something to write about. The expedition led nowhere. I was in need of someone who could bolster my writing spirits. That something happened recently.

The event goes as follows.

Last Sunday, I was coming back from market to my home on a cycle rickshaw. It was evening time and hence the traffic was dense. To kill time, I started talking to the rickshaw puller. To my surprise he turned out to be a graduate and could comment upon the state of the nation and about the stirring caused by Baba Anna Hazare and his LOK PAL BILL. On reaching home I retrospected the evening's event and decided to pen them down. Time did run again and it took this long to actually get the post. But, finally it is here.

Most of us feel extremely bad when we hear time and again of stories depicting how ruthlessly our politicians have let our country go to dogs. Even an illiterate person when asked about the problems of the nation would reply "Kyaa karein saab, inn neta logo ne sab barbaad kar diya. Election ke time to sab kehte hai yeh kar denge, woh kar denge, par jab kaam karne ka time aata hai to koi nahi hota. Bas vote maangne aate hai aur jab chunav jeet jate hai to bas paisaa banana hi unka kaam rah jataa hai". A nation once known to be a Golden Bird, is now been burdened by debts. How is it possible? A country giving birth to an Australia every year is not able to find a handful lot of people, to dispose the responsibility of its development upon and feel assured. What can be the possible short comings?

As far as I can think, the problem lies in us, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA. Putting the entire blame on the government for all the problems of the country is not justified. How government can be responsible for the battering condition of the heritage sites or for the bad condition of the public transport buses or for unavailability of doctor in hours he ought to be there?  In most of the issues for which we blame our Government, it is not them but we, The People of India are responsible. In fact, merely blaming everything on the government is brushing away our responsibility towards our beloved motherland.

Let me quote an instance here. I, with my family went for a holiday in The Andaman Islands in January earlier this year (another potential topic for future posts :) ). On our way back to Delhi from Chennai, the seat beside mine was of a British lady. As soon as the flight got on she said to me (making an area by her fingers around her seat), "This is my home for the next two hours".  It did not at all click to me what she meant by that and I looked at her perplexed. By that she meant that, that part of the plane was her for the next few hours and she would look after it just the way she looks after her home.

I liked the thought very much. Putting this in a broader prospect, I feel this is exactly what we The Indians lack, SENSE OF BELONGING. Why exactly we care for our mobile and not for the public telephones, our vehicles and not for the public transport mediums, our house and not for the National heritage sites, our garden and not for the public garden of one's colony and many other of our things and not for those owned or managed by Government? It is because of this sense. We know that for the things that belong to us, we are entirely responsible for whatever good or bad for that matter that happens to them. And on the contrary, for the Government owned stuff we can see off any such responsibility.

But now, if someone volunteers and goes about making people aware of these small responsibilities, the most usual question that is put up is, "Mere akele ke manane se kyaa hoga?" or may be another version of the same feeling, (in the form of a hindi idiom), "Akela chanaa bhaad nahi fod saktaa." Also some may come up with the idea, "Hamein inn sab faltu ke kaamo se kyaa fayda hoga. Sarkaar ka kaam hai wahi karegi hum kyun karein." And consequently the fire to bring change is quenched. A feeling of helplessness creeps in and and total loss of faith in system takes place. 

But it does not mean that nothing can be done. Obviously, one person cannot start something like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (popularly called MNREGA). But even the bits won’t go in vain. I just know one thing, agar gandgi ko saaf karna hai to apne aap ko ganda karna hi padta hai. How can anyone expect the politicians to be integral when the so called integral and honest people do not want to get into that profession? Why they all do not turn up to vote and consider going to a movie or for an outing more important, on the day of election? Or if at all they turn up, why do they vote blindly on the basis of caste or party namesake and do not get into the details of the aspirants? To this one would say that they have personal life. But my point is when we get time to criticize people who have at least taken a step forward to take responsibility, why not for discussing who to vote for.

Besides this, there are many other tasks that can be readily done by an individual, and they would definitely not go unnoticed. Most of them are good manners and would be as simple as, not wasting food or putting our garbage into places meant for it or to offer seats to aged and needy while travelling by public transport. More serious ones can be, Donating blood, Pledging to donate your organs, Planting trees, Following traffic rules, Not offering bribes, Joining NGOs and of-course using the most important tool at hand RTI.

Options are endless, if one feel like taking up any. All we have to do is to rise above the mean mentality. Shun the question of "How does this matter to me" and work towards taking an initiative to bring about a positive change in the society. Just STOP THINKING....START WORKING.