Pride should always be balanced by the reality of the reason
for that pride. Now when we say we are proud of our country shouldn’t we take a
look around and find what did we invent of the thousands of (really useful)
things around us? The 100s of types of plastic this computer/mobile is made up
of, or the chipset on which it runs or the operating system that makes so many
things possible? or the rubber that is in your tires or the engine that drives
you to everywhere, Let alone the vaccinations that have literally made you live
this far or the life saving drugs that some of us have used, What has India
invented? So why the hell are we proud of India so much? Why facebook is filled
with how everything, yes everything has its root in India, that is not even “past”glory
that is “false” glory.
We are
the people who however educated might be are ready to play loud music near
hospitals in countless of our festivals and marriages. We put caste first in
several of our decisions. And let’s not even talk about how many of us believe
that stars and planets hundreds of light years away have the ability to affect
our lives. Of the thousand things that we use from when we wake up till we
sleep what did we really come up with first? From the tooth brush to clean
water from LPG to motor engine to railway to paper to a simple zipper or anything
small and big what has India really invented? What is our contribution to
humanity? A culture that forbids alcohol consumption eventually to give way to “social
drinking” or is it the relentless rant about how our Vedic books have all the
knowledge in the world? It’s one thing to be working in Microsoft and Google
and whole other to come up with a company like them. Doesn’t it ever get annoying
when people (falsely) say most of NASA is Indians and so are most of Google and
Microsoft?
Our
country could be great but then great countries make sure that every innocent
life that is lost is accounted for, we lost 160+ people on 26/11, by terrorists
shooting randomly, and next day we went to offices and somehow that signifies
the spirit of the nation? How? And if it does what is that spirit? You can’t
stop us? Of course no one can stop us we are a billion. But isn’t every life as
precious as the billion-1 lives are? How can we get mad at a nation that
protects its people by strictly implementing the security policies at their
airports? Just because he is a Bollywood star? Shouldn’t we implement our own
security procedures as strictly as they do? Why do we get so emotional about
something that is just plain practical?
Yes we
have one of the best space programs there is, we do, but what do we do with all
the satellites that we launch? How much of our crop still is at the mercy of
the weather which can be predicted to almost pin point detail by all those satellites
and all those super computers we built. Why
are we using most of the essential infrastructure and time for accommodating meaningless
entertainment and news channels can we really afford that?
And yet,
facebook is filled with posts telling how our nation is the best, how our Vedas and
other books have some truly essential knowledge. But haven’t the developed
nations have developed without this “culture” and these “books”? How did they
do it? And if you say that, eh the way they live is just not correct or India
somehow has better living standards you are missing the point.
The
point is, of the 100 things you use around you right now, if you cannot point
out single one that is invented in India or you feel its “chalta hain” for
people to stay on footpaths and get run over to their deaths by the Bollywood “Stars”,
we clearly have a long way to go and just by saying we already invented
everything in some ancient books is just plain hypocrisy.
