The India i see...

I had this topic in my mind for quite some time now, and have been thinking of getting down to write about it. Am talking about the heading. Now i was lying there in my bed now - am at home u see and eating my mom's delicacies and getting fatter - and some words came into my head and i thought yes i have to write it some day. Then the next thought was- Why not now?... I cannot get any more free than this. So here i am.

Anyways lets get down to the point. What do i see then??... I see an India where my hometown gets converted to an island after as early as 6 O' clock because the police cant protect the roads connecting the town to the nearby cities from the naxalites, I see a college which is said to be one of the best in the country, but which survives not because of it being so, but because of the perseverance of a few of the faculty and a lot of students with loads of bureaucracy, I hear of relatives rejecting marriage proposals because the bride side cant spend enough on the marriage, I see an India where a farmer works thro' the year so that he can add to the meager income that he gets from his toil in the fields even though the food prices are going thro the roof, I see an education system that is failing to cope up with the aspirations of the country, and a political scene that we all wish could be better.

But along with this i also see friends and youngsters running organisations like Pratigya and Center for Civil Society that gives us hope for a better future and a place for new leaders and ideas to emerge. I also see my next door uncle buying a computer for his 8 year old on Dhanteras, I see happily married couples whose love did not matter whether they were from Delhi or Maharashtra or Jharkhand or Haryana.... I see DINK families enjoying their life and planning for their future, and i see a working mom running thro' her life with a smile on her face, I see my mom struggling to type a reply mail to her daughter-in-law in Hinglish but smiling with every word that she gets right. I see a friend looking to go abroad but who doesn't want to miss a wedding, I see 7 telecom companies in a place where there are no roads after 6... :-) ...

In fact I see an India that's so full of potential, and an India that's slowly but surely realising it. Yes i am disillusioned with my India, but i am still hopeful. Hopeful because even though the daily papers splash loads of heart shattering news across their front pages everyday, the special good news editions that run on national holidays are getting fatter year on year. I have hope because i am surviving in today's India in spite of being pessimistic. I have hope because someone has very rightly said that pessimism is a luxury for the good times. I have hope because i am a pessimist but still find reasons to smile.

When politics got personal -- Mandate 2009

This has been one of the elections that i have been following closely, trying to keep an unbiased opinion which is most of the time impossible because everybody says the same thing, though with a different tone, timing and tact. However one of the notable features of these elections has been the rise of the educated and the well-to-do, into the political space. What has come out has been a clear involvement of the people who actually seek change and talk about change in their living rooms going out to get it for themselves. The idea that one man can make a difference, which has been rather difficult getting into our collective Indian psyche post independence, is rather unfortunate because we already had examples like Gandhi in our midst. However the huge persona of the Father of the nation was such that i believe that people were unable to identify themselves as belonging to the same creed, and his sudden departure did not help matters either. The same lack of self importance reflected in our social behaviour, self governance, and our lackadaisical approach to our own quality of life and society in general.

I believe with this elections the politics in India has surely come a step further, and has come closer to becoming what Nehru would have called the awakening of the Indian politics. I have always held the belief that no matter which party gets the mandate, as long as it is clear, and coalition politics does not tie it down terribly, the governance and the policies would continue to be along the same lines as before, because the needs of India remain the same, and for benefiting the people of India as a whole, its the same path that would lead to prosperity. This is the same as the observation that the opposition in India has often been for the sake of opposition, for the opposition must have done the same thing had they been in power. Having said that i believe that could change in the near future as all parties would need to connect with the educated voters and must make their policies and actions based on their promises. I sincerely hope that the next elections are after 5 years and many of the positives that came out during these elections are carries forward and get translated into actions.