They say that India is not just another country; it is a culture, it is an adherence, it is a festival, it is a pleasure. But how true are those words? We talk about our freedom in the country, we take pride in unity-in-diversity hymn and we boast of the fact that we are the largest democracy in the world. But when we dare to go deep into the ocean of facts, we see a different picture altogether. Majority of our population is plagued by poverty; the general happiness rating of India is incredibly low; North Indians disdain South Indians and the other way around.
It’s amazing how eagerly we wait for the arrival of 15th August or 26th January so that we can enjoy few extra hours of sleep in the morning. It’s astonishing how badly the ‘sentiments’ of religious leaders are hurt when Salman Rushdie writes “Satanic Verses” and then fatwa is declared against him. It’s surprising how much we talk about the great works of Gandhi and then criticize all the paths shown by him. It’s dispiriting how we spend hours watching news on the TV concerning a natural calamity in Kashmir and then hesitate to donate Rs 10 in the relief fund.
We always think that saluting our National Flag and singing National Anthem twice a year, supporting Indian cricket team in a game against Pakistan and calling ourselves Indians are the only ways of showing our respect towards our so called great India. These days, everyone has drowned himself into the colors that Rang De Basanti has brought with itself. Everybody is acclaiming the way Aamir Khan utters “behen de takki” in his dandy Punjabi accent and the way those five youths enjoyed their lives in Delhi and the path they chose to bring justice to a dead pilot whom they called their friend. But do we really care if the path that those five “revolutionaries” chose was correct? Is killing a criminal the only way to bring justice to those who are victims of his barbarism? In fact, is it really a way to punish a criminal? I firmly believe that killing a criminal is not at all the way to penalize him. The only way is to make him realize that he committed a crime and then asking him to rectify his mistake (or crime) in every possible way. Furthermore, how many criminals can one kill to purify the polluted Indian air? There is no end to this vicious ‘litigation’.
Moreover, the climax of the movie spreads a futile message in the audience. I can’t understand why those five young men chose to sacrifice themselves. Was it just for the sake of resembling the incident with one that occurred in the case of Bhagat Singh and company? The director and the script writer of the movie must understand that in this era, no war is won by dying. The person himself should accomplish the task of revolutionizing the environment. India is a place where sacrifices of Gandhi and Bhagat Singh are not recalled; leave aside those of five unknown names. Sacrifices like those create headlines for two days; TV channels interview their relatives for a week; general public remember their names for a fortnight and then everything boils down to the ground level. After a month, people struggle to recall if anything like that had occurred.
Nobody understands the pain of others until a person himself goes through such dreadful events. Even those five guys realized the fire inside them only when they felt the pain in their respective souls. Nevertheless, it is certainly a movie that can make us talk to our scruples and realize that there is no point in watching impotently everything going wrong around us. We need to make a sound and ‘legal’ stand against something functioning improperly in the system, for it is our responsibility to bring back the lost pride of our lovely country. We can’t afford to leave the job for others to complete. We need to recognize that every issue of national interest is as important as our personal issues; in fact, more important than our personal issues.
We dream of other nations acclaiming India as a developed and rich country. But the first step towards this trip is to realize that others will never respect us if we ourselves don’t show respect towards our country and our people. We need not be revolutionists or freedom fighters to turn that bold Indian dream into realism. If each one of us can change our attitude towards looking into a problem and can motivate ourselves to work out that problem in a sensible manner, we can see a new India in the horizon. Rights and duties go hand in hand and are inter-related. If every one of us starts performing his part of the job honestly and correctly, then that great India is just around the corner. I wish to live in that happy India and I am sure you too. Can’t we vow to contribute to this Indian dream, can’t we lend our hands for this Indian desire, can’t we devote our time to make India a better place to live at, can’t we gift the coming generations a developed India? We surely can!!!
3 comments:
Gr8,,ur post really views that incident with a diff light,,,,,gr8 going:)
Thanks...:)
Abhieshek
Good post abhishek! :)
i agree..that RDB disappoints the audience at the end!
But don u think its too much of wishful thinkin to have the hope that crime rate can be reduced if the criminals r asked to "rectify" their mistakes??
Corruption is soo deep rooted in our society.So much,that it has become immune to all these small punishments.It is there at every level ..in almost every field.
Just giving a chance to people to reform themselves will not help in anyway.Something should be done,something which will make the people cautious,something which will make them realise that our judicial system is not as futile as it seems to be! Our laws need to be reformed.And people who are terribly corrupt should be given capital punishment! Only then,there's some chance that the rate of crime will come down!
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