When you Say "I Love India" - #1
Facebook is nowadays flooded with crap quizzes, so as my home page on facebook- with name of idiots who have taken them. Recently I saw quiz on my Facebook Homepage,."How much you love India?” and the result displayed was “Congratulations..!! you are 100% Indian. You love you country very much...“and the one, who took that, wrote comment below “I knew I am 100% Indian..!” I thought, How ridiculous. How can you say that?? I mean, how can any of us say, that I am 100% Indian? Who sets the criteria? Agree that We are Indian, by birth. But %age of “Indianism”?? May be I am over reacting on petty issue..But that’s what it is. People don’t react..and if anyone reacts, they say he is over reacting.
There is very common saying here in India “Sau me se Assi Beiman, phir bhi mera Bharat Mahan”. If you laugh by reading this even today, then you don’t care about our country. We laugh on the situation which ironically shows our country is falling. Don’t get away with the facts that we are emerging as Super power in the Global context. Its like a bubble getting bigger before bursting I would say. “With great power comes great responsibilities” (Dialogue from Spiderman Movie). The Fact is, we are getting weaker. We have become socially numb, so selfish and self-centered. We don’t want to take any responsibility towards our society. We only care about those things if they are connected to us, if they affect us. Rest of things..we say “evu to chalya kare”. We don’t raise our voice against any corruption or bad practice going on anywhere around us, unless we face them on our own. Why wait for those wrong things to happen to you? Now you will say that for raising voice and for protesting n all, you need power, contacts, money and TIME. Lets not talk about that now, I just want to show us our responsibility.
I write only about responsibilities at our Amdavad level. India is too large for us at present. Let’s say for example, one English news paper is running “cleanliness campaign” in Amdavad. They collect 15-20 volunteers (2-3 sincere workers, others only to have their photos printed with names in newspaper) one night/day every week and clean the streets/gardens/ societies etc. for 2-3 hours. Fair enough. But the campaign becomes useless by looking at the quantum of people who throw rubbish all over amdavadi streets 24x7 v/s who clean for 3 hours in negligible part of city. So, many of us say that it is not going to work or it’s just a strategy of marketing of the newspaper. Can’t we actually learn a lesson from that campaign that “somebody is trying to keep the city clean, let’s just help him”? Wherever we go, we throw rubbish, we spit on the roads, we throw food wrappers, empty bottles…and we say that our city is dirty!! We blame AMC for that, they don’t clean the places…is AMC’s job to keep on cleaning and yours is to keep on making the same places dirty?? It is not about cleaning the place…its about “maintaining” the cleanliness. We keep on fascinating by the places of foreign countries, clean roads, streets, footpaths..Everything. We always compare it to our places..”aapde to ketlo kachro hoi”. Don’t blame others. First change yourself. When you eat, throw that in dustbin before you blame others who haven’t done that. It is our responsibility towards City. If you cant do that, just take responsibility of your street. If everyone does that, every street in Amdavad will be clean!! So simple as that. Can’t we take that much responsibility? When say we Love something, we mean that we actually care, that something really matters to us. That “something” is the place where we live. Think that way.
Cant be Too descriptive here, as this series of blogs have short messages with some common and live examples. You may think that what I am talking, from “I love India” to cleanliness..! Well, everything is interconnected. It’s a “Bottom to Top” Approach. These small things matters a lot, they build socially aware class of people..more interactive, sensitive & reactive. If we want better facilities & benefits as a citizen, first make yourself a deserving one for that. FIRST DESERVE, THEN DESIRE.
Our Country is sick, and we are the disease. A lot of work is to be done before we can proudly say ”I am 100% Indian.”
- Asthir Amdavadi
(Kush)
There is very common saying here in India “Sau me se Assi Beiman, phir bhi mera Bharat Mahan”. If you laugh by reading this even today, then you don’t care about our country. We laugh on the situation which ironically shows our country is falling. Don’t get away with the facts that we are emerging as Super power in the Global context. Its like a bubble getting bigger before bursting I would say. “With great power comes great responsibilities” (Dialogue from Spiderman Movie). The Fact is, we are getting weaker. We have become socially numb, so selfish and self-centered. We don’t want to take any responsibility towards our society. We only care about those things if they are connected to us, if they affect us. Rest of things..we say “evu to chalya kare”. We don’t raise our voice against any corruption or bad practice going on anywhere around us, unless we face them on our own. Why wait for those wrong things to happen to you? Now you will say that for raising voice and for protesting n all, you need power, contacts, money and TIME. Lets not talk about that now, I just want to show us our responsibility.
I write only about responsibilities at our Amdavad level. India is too large for us at present. Let’s say for example, one English news paper is running “cleanliness campaign” in Amdavad. They collect 15-20 volunteers (2-3 sincere workers, others only to have their photos printed with names in newspaper) one night/day every week and clean the streets/gardens/ societies etc. for 2-3 hours. Fair enough. But the campaign becomes useless by looking at the quantum of people who throw rubbish all over amdavadi streets 24x7 v/s who clean for 3 hours in negligible part of city. So, many of us say that it is not going to work or it’s just a strategy of marketing of the newspaper. Can’t we actually learn a lesson from that campaign that “somebody is trying to keep the city clean, let’s just help him”? Wherever we go, we throw rubbish, we spit on the roads, we throw food wrappers, empty bottles…and we say that our city is dirty!! We blame AMC for that, they don’t clean the places…is AMC’s job to keep on cleaning and yours is to keep on making the same places dirty?? It is not about cleaning the place…its about “maintaining” the cleanliness. We keep on fascinating by the places of foreign countries, clean roads, streets, footpaths..Everything. We always compare it to our places..”aapde to ketlo kachro hoi”. Don’t blame others. First change yourself. When you eat, throw that in dustbin before you blame others who haven’t done that. It is our responsibility towards City. If you cant do that, just take responsibility of your street. If everyone does that, every street in Amdavad will be clean!! So simple as that. Can’t we take that much responsibility? When say we Love something, we mean that we actually care, that something really matters to us. That “something” is the place where we live. Think that way.
Cant be Too descriptive here, as this series of blogs have short messages with some common and live examples. You may think that what I am talking, from “I love India” to cleanliness..! Well, everything is interconnected. It’s a “Bottom to Top” Approach. These small things matters a lot, they build socially aware class of people..more interactive, sensitive & reactive. If we want better facilities & benefits as a citizen, first make yourself a deserving one for that. FIRST DESERVE, THEN DESIRE.
Our Country is sick, and we are the disease. A lot of work is to be done before we can proudly say ”I am 100% Indian.”
- Asthir Amdavadi
(Kush)
good chhe..."pan aa badhu to chaalya kar"....good one...
ReplyDeleteits very well written..but what do you have to say about the people who do not throw anything on streets but still they cant tolerate others doing it..? do they have right to acclaim other country's cleanliness??
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "I LOVE INDIA"... You mean it...
ReplyDelete@ bhavin : Long way to go for that..but I am positive that one day I can say .."I love India"
ReplyDelete@Prutha : Well, it clearly shows that you have started thinking a bit in a direction. Gud. Ofcourse, they have right to acclaim other county's cleanliness. But, seriously speaking, what I wrote here is the least you can do, I mean, dont throw things around. Next level is to spread what U have gained, what u have learned..Tame jagi gya cho, have bija ne jagaado. Apde jagya to khara em maani ne satisfy thai javanu nai..Ofcourse you cant keep on telling people on streets who are strangers to you, but ofcourse you can tell this to your friends or family members ..who throw stuff here and there. I ll write anout this next level in detail later. It's just a beginning..n m glad to see myself and some others as beginners! Long way to go pals..lets not lose the spirit. (Comment na reply ma blog jetlu lakhi nakhyu :P)
-Asthir Amdavadi
(Kush)
Whatever it is..! Pelu ke chhe ne loko.."Jevu bi chhe evu pen MARU chhe.."..bas i think this makes us say "I love India.." And yes we mean it..!!
ReplyDelete