The Iron is Hot, Lets Strike NOW!

While being critical about anything and everything comes very naturally to most human beings, very few are those who actually have the resilience and the will to actually go out there and change things.

We are right now living in an India which very genuinely can become a superpower by 2020. As perceived by the present President. Just give this a thought right now. Look at India right now. We are in the first quarter of 2007. In the next 13 years, we have to attain that position... We have the manpower, we have the brainpower and we have the natural resources. And there is no dearth of the ability to raise adequate finance...

The media, and through the media, the common man must, and is gradually realizing that it is within their ability to rise up and do something. While the media, you may say only broadcasts that news which sells. Let us use this very aspect of the media in a positive manner and let us stand up to make a difference. The saying that a hand is much stronger than five fingers stands very true here. If we all stand up and take a stance against all wrong, then we can make India the country we want it to be. If a few thousand people can help get justice in the Priyadarshini Matoo case, if they can make the court order re-trial in the Jessica Lall case, then imagine what would happen if the youth united as one. And it is not difficult. All it needs is the right motivation.

The current population of the country is roughly 1 billion, and the age group 0-14 constitutes 30.4% of the population. That makes it 30 million. The age of the average Indian is 24 years. It is not about changing corruption, or population or anything of that sort. It is about changing the way one thinks. Because if we change a particular habit, then the person may change only temporarily, but if we change the thought process, then that is a permanent change. A change for the better is the need of the hour.

We’re living in a democracy, but sometimes I myself wonder whether we are utilizing the democratic nature of the government to the fullest! We are being fooled by the government because of the lack of awareness. The criterion for a person to be called literate in this country is if he can sign his own name. This is plain ridiculous. If the criterion was changed to something stricter, say knowing A-Z then India’s literate population may just drop from the current 60% to somewhere around 20-25%. The need is to ensure that basic primary education is imparted to each child, across the length and breadth of the Country, free of cost, with the actual infrastructure, in the same manner that the ‘pulse polio’ programme is driven. The villages should have clean drinking water, proper health centres and electricity. Let the Corporate's adopt villages and change the infrastructure in each such village.

We must realize that there are various ways in which this can be changed, and like everything in life, the change will be gradual... Most people don’t practice what is right because they’re busy enough with their own worries to think about the nation. What we fail to realize is that if we develop as a country, then the country itself will become a better place to be in.