Thought for Freedom

“Freedom is the right of all sentient beings” this was told by Autobots leader Optimus Prime in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. On the eve before our nation celebrates its 62nd year of Independence marking its years of freedom from the imperial rule of the monarch. I am giving this article dedicated only to people who fought in their own ways and brought us that ever elusive freedom.

No and a real big No is my answer to all who are thinking that this is one more article by one more person which will glorify our Independence Struggle.

Do you love your country?

I guess no one will say “No” to this. I might be wrong in stereotyping your answers but collectively everybody will agree, affirmative. Now if I ask all of you who said ‘Yes’

Why do you love your country?

Many will come with an answer but after thinking for a while and few are still thinking. Now, to all who answered and to all who raced through these questions my last self question for now is

Do you respect and follow all the laws of this country?

The odds of finding a person who will say yes will be equal to getting struck by a lightning strike twice in a row.

My motive behind asking these questions is to make you aware that we Indians are naturally inclined towards the word compromise or being self-absorbed. If you doubt what I say then I will prove it. We got our freedom but we did not develop a respect for that freedom. Yes respect for the same freedom which we are misusing because of the fact that we were given our freedom and not earned it.

I know for a fact few of you will think that we earned the freedom and were not given the freedom. So to all of you my question is “Who fought for our freedom”? I know few will say ‘the freedom fighters’, few of you might say ‘common man’ but did he or they actually fight for freedom, he or they fought for Mahatma Gandhi who fought for freedom. Both might look similar but have a grave difference in them. In short the common man received Independence but was either not told or did not know how to use his / her freedom. Our freedom is still controlled by people in power who have replaced the Imperial British Rule.

Misuse of Power

In our democracy for a country where people are chosen on ballot votes would you believe if I told you that 540+ people are running a country filled with 1.2 billion in population. The majority chooses out of the 540+ a premier and his cabinet of ministers, who will then run this country. I would like to tell here is more than 50% percent of the 540 have a case or a pending trial in a Court of Law for some crime. The sad fact here is we have had great leaders or at least so called great leaders but they came to power either to fight for religion oppression or community oppression or apartheid. However, we have never had the opportunity to be led by a leader who had only one intention and that was benefit of the people. Even if we had such a leader but running the country is a team work. All those who have power either misuse to their benefit or use it in a way so that even if somebody wants to do good they use their power to stop it.

For example Nandigram Incident should ring some bells. Mamta Banerjee is now the union railway minister, Ratan Tata manufactured Nano out of Gujarat and even it is in the market. However the real losers are the people of Nandigram.

Corruption

We Indians either take or expect some rewards for the work which we are expected to do. It can be monetary or it can be materialistic but the common thing is we expect rewards that too from the person for whom we are doing the service. This is a disease called corruption and we either encourage it by paying it or by receiving it. The reason being money is not the best motivator for anybody for the simple fact no matter how much we have it still it’s not enough. Our needs are more than the means of fulfilling it. The result is we expect our fellow citizens to pay for it. This practice is best observed in a public sector / public service organization. Every Indian till now either has received or paid some sort of bribe in his life at least some time.

We corrupt our kids’ right from our childhood. We tell them that they will get a reward if they finish homework on time, or if they are top in studies or if they behave well. We think we are motivating them but we are wrong because we are making them dependent on the thing called incentive which they will start seeing wherever they go. We want our kids to be independent but we are the same people who are pushing them towards the slavery of incentive which eventually will lead to accepting bribe.

In Bengalooru, there is a National Highway (NH-7) aka Hosur Road. If you go there in the wee hours of morning, you can see traffic cops accepting bribes from lorry drivers as they pass on the highway. Why do they take bribe? Pocket Money or because no lorry is allowed to pass on NH – 7 from morning 6.30 AM – 9.00 PM. I myself was caught one day by a traffic cop and to my disdain I was not carrying all my vehicle papers. The guy demanded Rs. 100 to let me go. I had to pay him and go as I did not want to go through the hassles of going to court to pay a fine. However, it taught me one thing. It is to carry all the vehicle documents whenever I travel. From the lowest level clerk to a cabinet ranking minister all are corrupted either by power or by money.

Traffic Laws

Our opinion towards Traffic rules is ‘I don’t care’. It is one of the most troubling crimes and increasing at an alarming rate. We don’t know how to follow lanes; we don’t stop at red lights. We do not give indication while stopping or taking a turn. We don’t even know what a zebra crossing is and what is it for. We are always in a hurry to reach our destinations. We know speed limits within city limits but we seldom follow it. We have always over sped whichever vehicle it is. We are masters in jay walking, even if there is an underpass for a road we jump the girders and cross the road but not use the underpass thus adding adrenaline rush to our normal mundane life. We spit from a moving bus and if our luck is good it will land up on some bikers face. We always get joy in driving on a no entry or one way street. Wearing a helmet on a bike is so old fashioned and not style.

My question to all of you who break one or the other rule mentioned here is who in the hell gave you a right to jeopardize somebody else’s life. If you want to die please go and jump from a building or lie on the tracks of a train but I am not ready to die because of somebody else’s mistake.

Unity

We claim that we are a socialistic secular republic, where every religion is respected and valued. Is this true? Do a favor and ask yourself this? We always fight amongst ourselves in the name of god, religion, language, territory, water, creed, caste and reservation. We still proclaim that we are unified. In fact our unity comes to picture only when some alien force attacks us.

We see Ajmal Kasab who attacked Mumbai CST on 26/11 as a terrorist and a murderer of humanity. I would agree on both but he did a great favor to us Indians. He unified us in just three days. Yes he did and how did he pull it off because of the attacks instigated by him and his troop. People were fighting in Mumbai because non-marathis were writing railway recruitment exams. A so called savior of Maharashtra ‘Raj Thackeray’ and his followers targeted North Indians and beat them black and blue so that they leave Maharashtra. However, after 26/11 we haven’t even heard a fart from him.
I want Unity amongst religions, of all class and types and masses of all sectors of society but if this unity is like an old man’s erection which has no clue when it will go limp. I know my language is harsh but the metaphor serves right as in 26/11 case people will forget unity and Ajmal Kasab as soon as media stops running news on him.

Ruining Public Property

Yes we are famous for doing. You want to know how ask any Indian lover how he defaced an archeological monument just to carve his and his love ones’ names. I am sure he will have pride in telling it. We keep our houses spotless but we do not know how to use a dustbin when we are out. We take plastic bags and dump it in picnic spots or waterfalls. We tear the seats of buses I don’t know why people do it. We spit inside cinema halls and one of the most noticed habits of an average Indian is discharging his natural wastes in public or on public walls. We derive satisfaction by lubricating the walls where it is written not to urinate.

Ruining Natural Resources

We sip on till the last drop of a juice from a bottle but when we are refueling our vehicles the fuel station attendant spills few drops of fossil fuel after refueling your tank. Have we ever raised a concern for it?

Only 2.5% of the world water is drinkable and yet we waste water like it is nothing. We let the taps run all the time. We wash our vehicles everyday irrespective to the fact whether we wash ourselves everyday or not. We are not even bothered that people in some countries have to walk miles just to access safe drinking water. The same is in the case of power do we even think about all the natural resources at our disposal now may go extinct to the future.

Conclusion

I had the opportunity to travel abroad and I noticed how well behaved and responsible people were. They waited to cross a road on a zebra crossing only. They followed lanes perfectly and they respected their fellow Compatriots well and I never saw anybody defacing any public property. I know I cannot compare a foreign country with India but my point is being responsible and sensible does not differ from country to country because if you love and respect your country, you will be responsible to take care of it as if it is your home and your family.

We Indians have to take up a pledge that we owe this country to the future generations and if we want it to be good and beautiful and a wonderful place to live. The first thing we should do is stop expecting some leader or messiah to come and change the system. We have to change ourselves and our attitude towards the nation. If we do it and value our country then I believe that we have utilized the freedom given to us well.

While entering Egyptian Heaven one of the Egyptian gods Osiris asks two questions and answer to which decides whether you will enter the Egyptian Heaven or not.

1. Have you found Joy of your life?

2. Has your living brought joy in others life?

If we Indians ask this question to ourselves every day we can be a better human and a better Indian at the end of our lives.

Only a life lived for others is worth living – Albert Einstein