26th of January has come and gone. The smartly dressed battalions with their marching bands, with uniforms creased to a razor's edge and with their eclectic and dangerous-looking hardware have strutted their stuff. The different floats symbolizing and representing the different parts of the country and its uniqueness have had their 15 minutes of fame. The heroes, dead and alive, from the armed forces and from within the general public, have been honored for their heroic services. The nation’s leaders have made their speeches from the ramparts of the Red Fort. India celebrated its 60th anniversary of becoming a Republic. And all that is left at the end of it was an empty Raj Path strewn with paper cups and plates and discarded streamers and the jet trails in the sky left-over from the fly-bys.
The politicians, who have taken to masquerading as 'National Leaders', have retired back to the comforts of where-ever-it-is-that-they-retire-back-to and are now catching up with their work of cutting and dividing this country between themselves; a work that got so cruelly disturbed for a few hours during the ceremony. The general public, that ubiquitous entity of our nation which has shown a remarkable willingness to let itself be divided based on religion, region, caste, creed, language, gender, age, skin color, shoe-size, hair style, energy drink brand and anything else you can think of, has also gone back to its where-ever-it-is-that-it-goes-back-to and are now back to their busy lives trying to work out which, between a "mega serial" or a "breaking news", is more entertaining, trying to figure out which "Reality Show" would fetch them more moolah and at the same time trying to decide which other "Reality Show" is worth wasting their hard earned money on and finally is also trying to make a living and make ends meet; this last one since it's an existential requirement.
They will of course all be back again in an years time. To celebrate the 61st anniversary of becoming a Republic. There will be loud noises about how our country is literally banging on the doors of the 'Developed Nations only' club, how we have developed self sufficiency in nuclear technology, how our economy is resilient and yada yada and blah blah and so on and so forth. There will be more crap strewn around the Raj Path and we will go back to wait for the 62nd anniversary. In the mean while, questions about education, health, standard of life, corruption, jobs, agriculture, water, income disparity, food sufficiency, development and other such trivial things will remain firmly unanswered and uncared for.
It is indeed a bleak outlook I have for the country I call my own.
4 comments:
Hate the pessimistic you in you! at least somebody out there did something for the country to show their fame at Raj forth, what did u do? Sleep? Watch TV?
Don't complain buddy, the country is what u see it and what u want to make it! If all u can do is sit and criticize or be cynical then that is what u will get back from the country!
Yes I am pessimistic. I think I have the right to be. But why do think I am complaining? I am stating facts the way I see them and the last time I checked, there was no rule against doing it.
Now if anyone wants to show why and how I am wrong, I am all ears.
The reason it sounded like complaining is cos your facts were restricted to the not-so-good things! If u wanna stick to facts and talk only that, then talk about the good achievements of Indians in this past year instead of mentioning the amount of garbage left on the road after a parade! but as you rightly mentioned "I am stating facts the way I see them" - alas you just don't take the pains to see properly either!
:). So I don't see properly. Fine. Just point me in the right direction then and I will start seeing properly.
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