If I ask you a question “What are you proud of in India?” then probably you will have many answers, probably I have some answers like rich heritage, glorious past, national monuments, and many such things, richest cricket board, largest rail network, highest battle field, the list will be too long. But if I ask what is your contribution in keeping the pride and passing it to next generation than probably there isn’t much.
From time and again in many of my previous posts, I keep coming back to the sorry conditions of driving on roads. So is it related to our national pride? Probably ‘yes’, probably ‘no’. Couple of year’s back I had gone on vacation to Sri Lanka. It is a poor country, not a single highway, under terror for couple of decades, but as soon as I step in the Colombo airport and spoke to custom officer, I felt a difference. Airport was far better than any other airport at that time in India, though now India has much bigger and better airports. When I stepped out of it, army was everywhere. The guide and our driver gave a brief update of DO’s and DONT’s. That included not to litter anywhere in public and keep all the trash in the car. Roads were not as wide as we have in India and there were no dividers, but still people managed to follow lane driving. In fact, in morning, during office hours the incoming traffic in the city is more than the outgoing, so the incoming traffic gets the 2/3 (two-third) of the road width and the outgoing gets the remaining 1/3 (one-third), and it is followed without any dividers or a traffic cop. Another example was autos. They were the same ‘humara’ Bajaj, but of course driver was different, because you will not expect an Indian auto driver to tell you that he will not carry more than three passengers. How you behave on the road goes a long way in defining your country, for which you can later be proud of.
On similar lines, let me take another example. India is hosting the 19th Common Wealth Games in October’2010. It is only the first time it has been hosted by India and second time in Asia. Now compare it with Olympics hosted by China in Beijing. CWG should be same to India as Olympics for China. It should be a matter of huge pride for not just New Delhi but for whole India. China has spent approximately 40 Billion dollars to host the Olympics. China built 12 new venues of total 37 for hosting the game in Beijing. They transformed the city, and probably whoever visited there for the first time (or even the return visitors) were spell-bound with the glittering city. For making this kind of event a huge success it is not just the government’s but also individual responsibility. I was told that on the day of the opening ceremony all industries in and around Beijing were shutdown to bring down the pollution. The opening ceremony was the best ever experienced in any of the previous events.
Coming back to Capital, Do you have traffic congestion around airport, the first entry point in the country? YES, during peak hours it may take minimum 30 minutes to reach the main road out of airport premise. Are people aware of such a huge event being hosted in Delhi? Not many. Ask an auto driver, he does not know. The progress of work is slow, and you still don’t see the transformation. Probably the only good thing that has happened as a result of CWG is the metro, which is no doubt the world-class. In September 2009, Commonwealth Games federation Chief Mike Fennell reported that the games were at risk of falling behind schedule and that it was “reasonable to conclude that the current situation poses a serious risk to the Commonwealth Games in 2010″.
In 2008 a new 4.43 km runway, the longest operational runway in Asia became operational at IGI Airport, Delhi. It is fitted with the highly sophisticated Instruments Landing System (ILS) on both sides, and is built to the highest Code F standards. Even with the state of art technology, there were 200+ flights delayed 2 days back.
What will happen to our national pride if we have politicians like Raj Thackeray and Police Chiefs like SPS Rathore who signifies the national shame? Or consider the root of Naxalism which goes back to 1967 started from the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal, as of 2009 40 percent of India’s geographical area is under Naxalite threat. So what is the root cause, in simple word it is the over exploitation of humans by other humans. I will let Vishal talk more about it. But the fact is that there is no pride in the fact that 40% of India is under direct influence of Naxalism and people like us may be the cause.
To make a contribution, it is not important that everyone has to give dedicated time, rather it is the way of life. Not everyone can become a socialist or run an NGO, but what I do in my day-to-day life is a big part in showing what we actually are. Even though India is an emerging superpower, we still see and hear lot of things and incidents happening which are the matters of national shame. As an individual we can play our small but significant role so that we can say “I am proud to be an Indian”.
