"INDIA": A pledge

64th Independence Day and we are no better than who we were, back then, as official "slaves". Makes me wonder, how fruitful has this independence really turned out to be? Illiteracy, over-population, poverty, corruption, pollution, female foeticide, casteism and WHAT NOT: there are problems galore, waiting since 1947 to be addressed by a united nation. Anyone listening? No.
Not by people, not by leaders, we are governed by differences. Differences of cast, color, creed, religion, rich-poor and so on. India is one: one Hindu, one Muslim, one Sikh, one Christian, one rich, one poor, one man, one woman, one upper caste, one lower caste: India is "one". 


How to bridge this gap between being ONE and "one"? 
What if we, the youth, pledged something like what I've written below. I don't know, maybe, we should?

• I will not give to this land another corrupt Indian. I, will be ruled by my conscience, not the lack of it. I, may or may not try to fight corruption, according to my capacity, but I will, certainly, perform my responsibilities righteously. I will be someone my nation, and all those who sacrificed their lives to give me a free country, would be proud of: an honest, sincere, responsible scientist, Engineer, doctor, pilot, writer, singer, dancer, police officer ...whoever I grow up to be, I won't be a blot on the name of my country. I pledge.
  
• Never will I discriminate between my fellow country-men and women. My general judgement of people will be governed by their character and moral values—the way our culture teaches us—and not by the color of their skin, their surname(s), their lifestyle and/or their financial backgrounds and most certainly not by their religion. I will truthfully play my part in living up to the age-old slogan that we've forever been proud of: 'WE ARE ONE'. Presently we aren't, but I will try my best to justify it.
  
• Defense, politics, civil and allied services, police etc: these are the core sectors working where, one can really bring about a difference in the society. The country needs more people to work in these areas with the correct spirits, correct intentions and correct methods. The cleanest has to often rise from the dirtiest, it is high time our generation stopped running away from these sectors just because some evil minds have gotten to rule them. If so, we have to set things right, instead of participating in the blame-game. I promise myself, to make any possible effort(s) to do the same—to enter these powerful, though sensitive and dirty at the moment, arenas—for this is the best way I could serve the country I owe my life to. If not so, I will still try to serve my country and my people as whoever I shall be, whole-heartedly. 
  
• India is my country and I owe my life to it: I shall never forget this, till my last breath. I shall also never forget all the sacrifices that went into giving me a free country to live in. Thus, India will forever be the country I ought to be proud of—truly, sincerely, genuinely. I do not give myself the right to curse this great nation, to mock at it or its people, to praise another nation while criticizing my own or to NOT respect its, my, national flag, national anthem and other symbols of the entity that my country is . There are things not right with it, yes, very unfortunately, but if I do not have the guts to work towards eliminating all that is wrong, I also do not have the right to criticize them. 
• Awareness: I need to play my part, by encourage my fellows to do the same too—that, is how things can actually change. It is high time development stopped being so one-dimensional: confined to only the cities, only the upper classes and only the powerful. We, as a united nation only, can help bring about the kind of revolutionary transformation that some most specific areas need. If those in power have lost their conscience, we cannot afford to lose ours. Our constitution-makers rested enough power in our hands, to ensure that we weren't ruled by selfish jerks. India wasn't made a democracy for nothing, my people need to be made aware of their power, so they do not have the chance to sigh ..."what can I do". 
  I will vote. I will not let morons come to power and rule us. We are the public and we have to stop acting like Gandhiji's monkeys: deaf, dumb and blind to all that is not right with the system. I will vote, and that is the least I can do.
  

Sounds surreal, doesn't it!?! Imagine each one of us promising our own selves all of that, what a country it would be. Man!
But but, we don't care a devil! Do we? I mean, it is a good feeling seeing our flag being hoisted and all ...standing upright during the national anthem in places where we must ...and my heart sometimes actually swells with pride listening to stories of people who died for us and all and those amazing touchy patriotic songs—they make me say all the time you know, 'feel a gayi yaaaar'. But do I care more than that? Heck no!!!
We, the youth of India, shall continue being the hypocrites that we are, and that Indians have always been—that,  is our unofficial, yet strictly obeyed pledge, dude!  

See! With the last line, I myself violated the second last part of the so-called "pledge" ...'I won't curse my country and its people' and blah. Hypocrites we all are. 

Funnily, self-confessed hypocrites.

Jai Hind!
Or no wait, Jai Ho—the song that won one of our Indians Ihe Oscar. See, I love my country so damn much! B)