India - Its time to change

When my 7 yr old nephew said, ‘I hate India’, my first reaction was shock, second was sadness & third was introspection. He really got me thinking. Till then I had heard many people around me complain about India’s poor infrastructure, education system, corruption, pollution, lack of opportunities, disregard for public property etc. but they are all adults and I do understand that as we grow older, we become a bit jaded. But what would make a 7 year old make such a strong statement? If I remember correctly, at that age we did not care about how bad the traffic jams were or how polluted our cities were.

But today’s kids are much more exposed to information. We should not underestimate them. My nephew has traveled to USA & Europe and so if he makes a comparison, I cannot discredit him immediately. I want him to love this country as much as I do but when he asks me why it is not as beautiful as Europe or as organized as the USA, I have no answer. It just makes me realize that times have changed. No matter how much ever worse India gets, our generation will always love it because we have grown up with an emotional bonding but today’s kids are different. They are more practical than emotional and so if in the future, India wants to remain the youngest country and keep its young & educated ones at home, we must change.

And come to think of it, what is wrong with it? We ape the western culture but all we have taken from it are the bad habits – excessive fast food, television, addiction etc. We have learnt to drive, bribed and got a license, bought expensive cars but we have forgotten to demand good roads to drive them. We do not think twice before bribing or breaking the law. How many people actually know which side to overtake from or when to not honk? Have we learnt to give the ‘right of way’ like the Americans? Look at our cities and towns. Do we have tree-lined streets? Do we have good quality playgrounds & parks? Do we even have pavements where people can walk? Do we have garbage free residential areas? Do we have good traffic-jam, pot-hole & beggar free roads? Do we have good public transport? Can we relax during peak hours? Then how do we say ‘India shining’?

Most 7-15 year old kids I know today want to study and live abroad when they grow up. Think India think. How to keep them at home? How to make them fall in love with this wonderful country again? How difficult can it be to have good & safe roads, better infrastructure, tax and education system? After all, it’s not rocket science. Come let us all work together to make India a better place. A place which is clean organized and cultured – ‘ekdum imported jaisa’ in Munnabhai’s language. Let us take the best of the western world, combine it with our culture and get the best of the East & the West. Then not only Indian but all the kids of this world will say ‘I love India’. Vande Materam. Jai Hind.