State of Our Nation - Let's begin from the end, shall we???

State of Our Nation is my blog. I am new to blogging and the world of e-socializing. Although I have been a member of FB and Orkut, I have never really bothered to discuss social issues or for that matter, more particularly, the "State" of our "Nation". This is my first genuine attempt to do so. Genuine because I have finally had enough of these so-called "nationalistic leaders" who are at the driving seat of our country. Attempt because I believe that my efforts, however genuine they might be, shall be in vain. I know this is as pessimistic as pessimistic can be, but this is true nevertheless. I am so bound and gagged in my professional and personal life that I do not have the time to do anything for this nation of ours. Sure, I can do those decent little things they taught in the Civics class namely, not litter the streets, not waste electricity/water and so on. But how far shall these go on adding anything to our "ever-growing" economy. A common man like me doesn't give a f*** about the economy till his stomach, pockets, house and bank account(s) are empty. Our swashbuckling-economist-turned-politico Hon'ble PM has been doing his best to tackle this said issue, along with several others, with the due aid and assistance from his able and "stable" team-mates. But our Hon'ble First Among Equals has failed constantly not only in tackling issues like economic stability, terrorism, inflation, and God only knows what not. Poor PM. He looks soo cute in his oh-so-simple attire and humble (read, feeble) voice. I did not expect any wonders from the guy as such when he ascended to the chair. After all, how can a man who had never ever participated in the "race" to hold the highest democratic office of the largest "democracy" in the world, hold the said office? (Psstt.. Hey! Let's not discuss the Assam fiasco!) While Mr. Singh's debut has been marred by several political and not-so-political blotches, he has had his due share of the pie as well. All thanks to the "able guidance" of a certain Madam, shall one say? (Ahem.. Ahem..) Nevertheless, lets not take away Mr. Singh's due credit. After all the man of "steely nerves" and "resolute composure" has been at the helm of affairs of one of the largest demographic pools on the earth. Awesome show, Sir! Well done. Kudos to you, your "team" and Madamm.... Errr... I mean to the Party....

Oh ho... Boring... Another silly blog bickering about political turmoil and its consequences on Indian scenario. Well ladies and gentlemen, I am not here to sell my blog. So you are free not to buy any or everything that I say here. But please don't be so dismissive about me. Not yet, at least. I know that all of us are sick of reading the anti-political, anti-India, rebel-istic, whacko blogs and articles splurged all over the net. Trust me, this is not "just one of them". Mainly coz I have written it and partly so, coz I will make sure that this doesnt turn out to be another run-of-the-mill blog.

Moving on, is the aforesaid Mr. Singh and his "team" to be blamed for the present and probable horrific future  political and social setup of our country? No. Not entirely at least... Then who is?? We. You, me, him, her, she, he, us, them, they..... All of us, who proudly call ourselves Indians only on 2 days in a year and remain Kashmiris, Punjabis, Haryanvis, Rajasthanis, Gujaratis, Marathis, Kannads, Tamils, Keralites, Andhraites, Oddissis, Bengalis, Biharis, Assames, Mizos, etc. for the rest of the year. When we clean our homes, what do we do with the dust and trash collected? We sweep it out only till our doorstep or the boundary wall of our homes. Wonder why we do that? Indians have a rather peculiar habit of keeping their surroundings clean, even if they have to spoil someone else's surroundings for the same. We more than often (read, always) forget that our sphere of freedom is restricted to the outer limits of other's sphere of freedom. Mera ghar saaf rahe, baaki jaaye tel lene!! What is India's biggest challenge today? Population, illiteracy, pollution, poverty, malnutrition, safety??? No... India's biggest and the worst problem is the "I don't care attitude" we Indians are born with and live by. My house, my premises, my neighbourhood, my locality, my area, my district, my town, my city, my state, my country. Sounds good?? Isn't so.. What ever happened to the "our" in the whole lot of these things? After all, aren't a more than major chunk of these in existence due to multiplicity of subjects residing in it? And what do these multiple subjects i.e. we, the people, do for the positive construction of the said social arenas? Nothing. Rather, we are more than happy to add to the cause of degradation of the great Indian social scene. Thanks to our ever dynamic and oh-so-restless Gen X, Y, Z and what not. Not that I am a critic of deviation from traditional social setups. I am just 26 for Pete's sake and celebrated my latest b'day just yesterday. I am as much of a "Lolzzz" guy as one can  be. But what I am a very strong critic of is the way we youngsters are dismissive about the whole nationalistic idea of things. We don't care much about 26/11, 13/12 or the latest, 11/7. These are just dates and numbers for us. We just love to report these on FB and Twitter to prove to our parents that FB and Twitter are not just for "wasting time'. True, people in Mumbai and other terror hot-spots do rush in to help the victims as soon as they can. But then what? I remember this guy called Hemant from Mumbai being interviewed by a CNN-IBN correspondent at Opera House blast site. The guy spoke about the security lapses and impending fatalities due to Govt's callous attitude with such impeccable flair and resolute demeanor that I almost mistook him to be a member of the Opposition for a moment. But then, he was not. He was just a guy. like you and me, struggling to make ends meet and waging a new war everyday. He too was an Indian though. He came, he saw, he spoke and he carried on. He didnt do anything about it. What could he do, I ask myself? What can you and me do? Friends, for starters, let’s start caring. For ourselves, for our friends, their friends, and their friends. And then build a society and a nation around that thread of solidarity and fraternity.

A small instance from my life. I once went to a Jagran. After spending about 30 or so minutes, I inquired as to why they required to relay the devotional songs and hyms remixed on raunchy Bollywood item numbers through gigantic speakers. I was informed that it was to "pull" the non-believers. Who are non-believers, I asked. Those who do not believe in God. Who is God? But of course, the Holy Hindu Trinity, their consorts and the subordinate Gods and Demi-gods. All in all, 33,00,00,000 you see. That's all? I walked out of the canopy and wondered what kind of a God would want a heart patient to die in discomfort just so his other healthy followers could chant his name at the top of their voices, and that too to the tunes of one of Mallika Sherawat's or Rakhi Sawant's hot songs. Its not only Hindus. Take Islam for an instance. (Careful. I am treading a very thin line here!!) I am told that the Holy Quraan justifies Jihad. What is Jihad, I ask? I am told that as per Prophet Mohammad, Jihad is the holy war aimed at destruction of the infidels. Who are these unfortunate infidels? Those who do not believe in the supremacy of the all benevolent and omnipotent Allah, the almighty. Amazed, i question myself. Would any God direct his followers to kill or maim anyone of his created beings, just because they would not believe in him. Could it be that Jihad actually was meant to signify a war (read, a drive) to eliminate (read, emancipate) the non-believer infidel into believing in the supreme existence of the omnipresent, all powerful Allah (read, any God of his / her choice). Did the Muslims get it all wrong? What ever is the case, all religious zealots (be them Hindu or Muslim) chose to overlook the fact that their freedom to practice and preach their religions ends at the borders where the domain of someone else's freedom to practice and preach their respective religion begins. This is the only mantra of peaceful co-existence.


Similar is the sob-story of our political and social scenario. We wish for the best but are not ready to give our best. We wish to impose our political and social ideas but are not ready to accept somebody else's! Lets see it from another angle. Everything in this world is a barter. You got to lose some, to win some. Take for example, the fountainhead of our democracy, the elections. How “free” and “fair” are they anyways? We vote for a boti and a roti. Give us a bottle of desi hooch and we would even vote for the worst of the society’s scum. So where is the nationalistic spirit we are supposed to have? Where is the Indian-ness in all of this? And who suffers in the end of all of this? WE. It is the funniest, craziest, whackiest and yet the biggest democracy in the world. And yes my friend, this in India. There’s always a vicious circle concerning everything around here. And by a circle, I mean a full circle. We vote to elect a majority of our candidates, so that our will is imposed in the legislature and laws to our liking are passed by the same. But what we stupidly choose to overlook, rather neglect is that the same candidates end up exploiting us for their personal benefits and trample upon us to achieve illicit advantages for themselves. The question is did we elect them to use them against the people we think oppose us or did we choose them to run the governance system of our country?  We transgress people’s freedoms and in turn blame them for piercing ours. We exploit them and they trouble us. We break rules and blame Govt for not providing adequate security. We, the people of India, have solemnly resolved to not care for anyone except for ourselves. We, the people of India, have solemnly resolved to blame all but oneself for everything that goes wrong on this planet, specifically this country. We, the people of India, love to begin at the end and end at the beginning. This, my friends, is the State of Our Nation. Signing off…… For now….