Long ago,
there lived two brothers, in a two bedroom apartment. It was located nicely
beside a riverfront. Bliss they both enjoyed at breakfast. The residence had
state of the art equipment and lovely furniture. The family heirlooms were a
pride and like fine wines matured with age.
In
contrast, the living quarters failed to meet the expectation and sadly though
wore an image of grim and destitute. The garbage’s were unkempt, endemic dust,
untidy floor and equally frustrated individuals occupying it. They have made it
a habit to coax and curse each other for the unfortunate condition of their
quality of living.
Both were
always complaining on how they will take care of this abomination of a house. The
relations between them were not good either. They were trying to device a
strategy to initiate a discussion to first take care of their own complexity
and there after the house they reside in. Their own coterie of friends also
provided requisite fuel to the already raging fire. They were after all,
jealous of those family heirlooms and the rich traditions, they so vehemently
covets for.
Days went
passed, each and every discussion ended up in epic fights. The garbage as usual
kept on increasing and the entire negativity then started to affect the human
inside those unfortunate souls. They were even considering throwing the other
out of the flat for good. They were up for blood.
One fine
morning, it all started with a fight for ownership. The unclean dinner plates
from last night made for an equally bad breakfast experience. The two brothers,
now armed with solidified misconstrued conviction towards the malice intent of
the other, jumps for the throat. There went the sanity down the road and the
story ends with a bloodbath of epic proportion. They died in vein attempt of
resolving the differences. Still, the house remained unkempt as it was but by now
bears the filth of blood too.
What they
could have done?
Each could
have engaged in their own initiative to make things in order. For starter,
arranging a house cleaning help would have been a great idea. Making it a habit
to clear the garbage every night and taking care of their living quarters. That
could have given rise to a peaceful coexistence, isn't it? They would not have
gotten the time to indulge in those malicious activities in the first place whilst
they share ownership and contribute out of his prerogative to make it livable.
After all, it is the only thing left in this world for them and they both knew
it.
Crudely
though, does the story bore any resemblance to any other you are aware? If you
notice, just by replacing the characters and with a little bit of imagination, one can comfortably narrate the story of Mahabharata. Reeling back to present
context, the location of our country or the house we reside in hasn't changed
but only we the citizens. The ideological difference then now has taken shape of religions. Good or
bad only time will tell, but acceptance of the truth is the first step towards betterment. Akin to those two brothers we as a countrymen
can sit idle, wish for communal harmony and devise various
strategies, when at the very least we could start shouldering our own
responsibility towards a greater good.
Communal
harmony is the byproduct of a developed society. A society which is developed
in thoughts, health and wealth gives rise to peaceful coexistence as a reward. The holy grail of harmony is only achievable when million voices and deed resonate together in nation building. No other
country has done it before. They always needed the glue of religion or language
to bind their national fabric. The American president had to shed his
"Hussein" middle name for the election. Look at Pakistan for
gods’ sake. See for yourself at Europe. The
French, the English and zee Germans have their own country. Language and
religion has always been a big barrier in those modern societies. While they
were busy fighting the crusade, we the people of the Indo-Gangetic were a
thriving population generating one third of the world’s income.
Are they
developed? No, not at all. They have so far developed only in wealth and
superficial health. Some not even that and clearly lacking in thoughts and
intellect.
Are we developed?
No, not at all. We may have developed in thoughts and knowledge only but not in
health and certainly not in wealth.
How are we
developed in thoughts? We as an Indic society, in our thousands of year’s
journey have perfected the art of living in peace, harmony and progress. A more
recent study suggests that we as a nation chug along well, who ever is at the
helm. It’s a point of another discussion where the efficiency of the leader
reflects the one that we have. All this while, after many crests and turfs, we
as a society have matured enough to handle our own problems with the bests of
the means available at hands.
The catch here,
best of means is a deadly tool. When available to masses whose genes have so
far survived tens of thousands of years in the Indo-Gangetic belt gives rise to
an enormous opportunity of exploitation. The results are for you to see and you
are by far the best critic of your own judgment. So the onus is now on you. The
decision you make will shape your future.
Bharat
or India,
if you will, as we see today, is only here because we the countrymen with
nationalism as our religion have survived so far. Unfortunately, we do not even
realize that we have this gem of a quality. The world lacks it; it’s an eyesore
for them. The reason why they are so hell bent on teaching us the one thing
which we already know so well because they do not want us to focus in our other
area of development. They are jealous of us. Yet in our profound ignorance we
fail to acknowledge it. Sadly enough we are still falling prey to those so
called friends and intellectuals.
Take pride
in your nation, take pride in your own countrymen and take deep pride in your
roots. Shed the inhibition and start your march towards greater good. Only then
we will again be the golden bird of the world we used to be. We are already
there in our thoughts but we certainly need a conducive environment to express
those in depth. A healthy and wealthy society, where our everyday materialistic
problems are taken care of, is the only possible means of that.
No other
kingdom, empire, nation or states have so far been able to achieve
it. Fortunately though, we have already done it in the past. That brings
me to the question, why not again in future? That I believe is possible only
when we get our priorities right and start gathering pieces together. We as a
problematic and chaotic nation with our unique problems have taken phenomenal
stride towards our goal already. Post colonial times, the Macaulay-ite English
propaganda history and education aside, the country as we know today, have
progressed quite well in spite of the popular belief otherwise. It has only
been sixty five years. It will take some more time before we are there. It is
just that, few more steps are left. Those are the toughest of all.
We are at
a crossroad and it is us who need to define our own path and destiny with
clearly defined goals. Only then we can reach the pinnacle of the developed
world we used to be.
