A fairly common feature among Indians you meet abroad. They are embarrassed to be Indians!! The India they see is full of corruption, bad politicians, over population, poverty and unemployment. These problems beset every country in the world!! Some more than the others..but no country is untouched by these scourges...But yet, we turn a blind eye to these when we are abroad and make a huge deal out of it in India!
As for me, yes I do think we are behind the rest of the world in almost everything..but I am still proud to be Indian..and no matter which corner of the globe I live in..Home as such would always be India...
The attitudes of Indians living in India...There are 3 specimens of Indians to be found anywhere in the world..
The first kind...has the attitude that being an Indian is a passport to being uncouth, uncivilized and is in general a public nuisance..This specimen has absolutely no regard for road rules..thinks nothing of littering public places..talks loudly..ugh!
The second kind...think when in India be an Indian..dirty public places..break every rule possible..but when abroad..these ppl consciously develop a pseudo-sense of Social and Civic responsibility..they just shrug it off along with their disembarkation pass at the Indian aiport...
The third kind..is the one that possesses a semblance of social and civic responsibility and chooses to maintain it irrespctive of which country they are in...
I believe that I am in the third category..and I wanna use this blog to address the other 2 categories..incidentally, it is the former 2 categories that are most embarassed to be Indians!!
When we go abroad..for various reasons..studies..work..vacation..most of us tend to forget that in our own small way we are cultural ambassadors of our country..and that if we ourselves hold no respect for India..then it is unlikely that the foreigners will..
Coming back to the subject of my blog...Why Indians have no respect for India?
1. Population...The days of having 7-10 children has almost faded..at least among the affluent and mid-income strata of society..a problem of this magnitude cannot be overcome in a day. It takes time, but we are seeing results..
2. UnEmployment...BPO hub, software centre...We are growing..albeit in small steps compared to China and other developing countries but steps nonetheless...
3. Poverty...There are beggars and there is poverty everywhere in the world...We choose not to see it here..but make a big deal out of poverty in India..yeah there may be more beggars...but nonetheless..its not a problem unique to India
4. Dirtiness..This is especially for Category 1 and 2 people...India can be a clean country too..use dustbins...stop spitting on the road..stop sticking posters where you're not allowed to..treat your country as an extension of your house and start keeping it clean..if each of us were to start making it our responsibility to keep a place clean..I fail to see how it could not work..
5. Traffic...yes, we are an over populated country with an under developed public transport system..but even in this aspect..every day I see a traffic jam on my way to the office here in Paris...what I don't see is irate drivers honking like there is no tomorrow...or abuses being hurled..people sit calmly and wait for the jam to pass..the key here is that they know the jam is inevitable so they don’t try and fight it...they patiently wait...this in a city with one of the most developed public transport systems..and with a population roughly equal to that of Jayanagar!! And yet we think of Paris as wonderland..
6. Corruption...Greed for money and power is rampant everywhere in the world. It's a matter of percentages as Sachin told me. Roughly the same percentage of people are corrupt everywhere. Since our population is a whole lot more, the amount of corruption may seem significantly more. But even here, with the Lok Ayukta coming into force etc. we are improving. And, we encourage corruption!! How many of us actually go and stand in queues at the RTO or the Passport Office? Instead we go to these middlemen, pay them a bribe and get the work done faster. We stop paying them bribes...in the long run, they stop asking for bribes!! Its a question of Supply and Demand..
7. Politics...False promises to win elections. In Budapest, people are demanding the resignation of their Prime Minister after a report that he won his office under false premises. That is being pro-active. What do we do? Instead of creating public forums to address our grievances, we grumble about how the government is not doing anything. Make the government sit up and hear you. You have a voice...use it!!
So, basically my point is don't be ashamed to be an Indian. Be proud of your country. We are a country rich in values, traditions and culture. We still possess a unique identity. We are the land of so many great people. I might sound like a patriotic song soon enough so I will stop here...but I hope you get the point...and more importantly I hope you learn to be a proud Indian!
Jai Hind!
2 comments:
Another well articulated post and comments to match. You have managed to address the etiquette's of a righteous citizen, maintaining a fine distinction between calling a person a patriot/turncoat. This post got me thinking so as to which category I belong to. Without even thinking, I would say I am one of the precursor of the third kind. I am sure all of us would like to be in the third category only. But the question is: Do we actually belong to it? Many of us have (un)willingly corrupted the country. It can be as minuscule as a traffic offence or bribing a cop/civil agent to get something done. But we think we are innocent and that we are just victims of the corrupt state of affairs. Just put the blame on the other....the blame game...which everyone seem to excel. People belonging to this category are aware of the situation and yet turn a blind eye to things for obvious reasons. To illustrate, the right way to get your towed vehicle free is to go to the court and pay a fine. But what we all do is pay a measly bribe and drive our way back. If this is the third kind then I am confident that I belong to it.
According to me, there's a fourth kind, superset of the third kind. Paragon to all the kinds. People who actually follow the ideals. I am sure all of us can think of only a handful of people who are in this category. The truth is majority of us belong to the third kind. We all want to do the right thing and help our country grow. And we keep migrating between the third and fourth tiers.
Every country has issues of its own. Comparing our country to some already developed country is of no use. Actually with a crippling population like ours, we ain't doing that bad also. We all love our country/home and we have to make a conscious choice of spending more time in the "elite" fourth zone.
OMG.... I think we should just publish these comments as blogs...
Neither do i have the patience to read all the comments nor write comments that run this long...
All I have to say is ... Me belong to the 3rd kind I think...
just as rightly said some percentage of people are corrupt, I would say everybody is corrupt to an extent.. I do not mind people taking bribe to do things that is more than their job... But bribe to do their job... I like bribing a mother to feed her own child ( that also happens believe me!!! )
well I am in no state of mind to write more.. all i can say is... with our population, the best always runaway(brain drain), these are also the people who are good and can make a difference. so we contribute to everybody else's growth also... ultimately we will take time to go where everybody else is in(i am talking about about developpend countries only) I am sure by then they will not be there ;)
well too much blade put in already :)
nice write up again
Bye
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