A Billion Dependent Reasons

I am an Indian for last 21 years now. I was told since the time I could figure out various sounds that, no matter what, this will be your identity till your last breath. Having tasted the various spices and issues of my nation, I now see myself detached from the identity of being! It might sound anti- patriotic or expatriate for that matter, but the truth is, in the last 21 years only the time has changed and of course my age. The people who were rich then have either died or will RIP, rich, but the ones who were poor have experienced the wrath of life to an extent that they definitely want to die! The absurdly complex phenomenon of corruption has been diluted so severely into the system that even an illiterate goon finds no difficulty in adopting; understanding and mastering its concept that will leave the MITians run for their money and intellect. I am no politician, nor am I a statistician who has developed the right numbers and figures for the ones below or above poverty line, or equations that defines the course of our future, and neither do I have an ‘alchemists mantra’ to segregate the iniquitous and the candid. I am not even going to claim the famous Bollywood theme saying, “Main ek aam aadmi ki aawaz hoon!” (I am a common man’s voice!). I say what I see! I believe in what I see! And I definitely don’t see any protraction in development my nation should have retracted to a time, long in past. Renovating airports guarded by slums, building malls booked by fancy names and enameling the Western lifestyle is not a symptom of development but a condition that forces an individual to think that things have changed…Every car can be polished and buffed from the exterior to make it look new, but only the engine and suspension knows its longevity. We are a democracy, is where our politicians start exploiting us, the only definition they know is, ‘Power derived from the people’. But well again, in the process of deriving, they forget the element that fused into their powers- ‘WE’. We have ministers who are older than the age of my New Nation. It’s a proven psychological fact that the brains processing abilities take a rain check as we grow old, for I have not heard of a person becoming an Einstein at 70! So the point is, if the people governing my country are not able to generate ideas that will have radical outcomes or are worried about a limb surgery due to a chronic disease or boycotting a nations security for their own, how will those people be able to make a nation look ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’? But let’s not get carried away, ‘a change begins at home’, a phrase I picked up early in my life and ‘Blame it on them’, should be the Jamie Fox, ‘My Nation’ mix. Like it or not, we are the ones responsible for our own chaos, by now, even Spiderman knows, ‘With great powers come great responsibility’. But we like to experiment with our powers, the Daredevils as some may call and then censure everything of the products of experiments. Nothing crops by its self, every step is a result of the previous and the next will be the result of now. We the people lack determination to change ourselves, we like to live under the quilt dusted by our English ancestors, a life of royalty is what we all care, but royalty is a tag that comes at a price by appreciating what we have and preserving its importance! Only 63 years of Independence and development for a nation that dates its existence for over 63 centuries? Something has definitely faltered on our way to ‘now’. A single foot might be able to kick some dust, but a billion pair can create seismic revolution…