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Sunday, October 04, 2009

The usual rant on growing up and growing old

Peeping out sheepishly from the window into the rain-drenched, tar-shined Sardar Patel Marg that lead me home, I was getting rather nostalgic when the bus halted at Dhaula Kuan. Just near the south campus that groups a number of colleges, including mine (sigh!!!), this place connects everyone to every where. Infested by nervous freshers, hurrying scholars, job karne wali aunties, perpetually hyper businessmen, kohl eyed kids, lanky hawkers, impoverished families and all kinds of travellers. Couldnt stop thinking of the umpteen number of times I tried boarding the right bus (Window seat, DTC) to home from here while my friends made faces and bid adieu as if I was about to leave the country forever.

A sense of Déjà vu as I heard a PYT group bidding sentimental farewell to each other and the otherwise ‘khaali’ bus was jam packed with the ‘college ka crowd’. A series of conversations and the usual reaction followed…

Then I wondered if I am too old for my age or a misfit in my generation or may be both.

Ever wondered if education is strictly limited to degrees or whether it means liberating people. Has the tired government and the education board really revised about the need of the hour?

Obeying to your parents/grandparent/both doesn’t necessary make you a ‘paragon of virtues. Not that I am against family bonding and ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’ sentiments yet a concerned advice to a friend that doing a Ph.D would be bad because her parents would have a tough time trying to find a groom for her is a DEVASTATING advice and not even remotely constructive.

A friend was telling me the other day that I was too laidback when it came to dressing sense and that I should go for what she called a ‘makeover’. It was supposed to boost my confidence and morale. And I was under the impression that I look reasonably civilized in my existing garb and that’s the only purpose clothes are to achieve. We still haven't come out of those tall-fair-slim-convent educated stereotypes, have we?

Gandhi Jayanti went by and all you heard was people foul mouthing the Mahatma for uttering satanic curses, black magic and ruining the state of affairs in the country. We all forgot what he stood for and what he hoped his countrymen would live for. What ever happened to the common man’s faith, hope, goals, grit, determination and a vision for his/her country?

There is a difference between a leader and a politician that we all need to understand. For me Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi was a leader and a man who was (ill) fated to influence the destiny of a nation and not individuals. What are the ideas that we are living for to build this country that has already been cleaned out by inequitable distribution of wealth, lack of awareness, greedy yet powerful decision makers, redundant policies, inability to make informed choice and the poor assortment of representatives in the Parliament.

Instead of making fun of ideas, I think we need propaganda to make people at least identify what they want to stand for and change. What kind of future they want their children and far generations to have? Instead of being ashamed of what they feel, shouldn’t they understand that there are millions who support their idea but are located else where? Stand up against menace like female foeticide, illiteracy, corruption, poor civic sense, sexual oppression, suppression of whistle blowers, fanatics, Raj Thackrey, poor community co-ordination, immobilized youth power in the country and so many.

Wonder if I am a menace now. It is not easy to walk straight through a crowd of dopies

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