Important..please read before continuing

The more serious posts are at the beginning of the blog. I ran out of good topics and started doodling :P
Unfortunately, they aren't written as well as the later posts. . .
Your choice

PS: It surprises me, how I have to validate every single thing I do. I mean, there was absolutely no reason for me to write this note, and even less, to write this postscript, or the postpostscript, that i will write after this one. Maybe, I do not like being misinterpreted. or maybe if there's any criticism that needs to be dished out, i'd rather do it myself.Or maybe i'm just a megalomaniac who wants to be all encompassing and always in a position to say: 'I told you so', even if the 'so' is some inherent flaw in me :P

PPS: Or maybe i just have too much free time, writing long posts to an imaginary audience. . . .

PPPS: Wait, that would be megalomania. . .

Saturday, June 6, 2009

PATRIOTISM

Patriotism….love for one’s country…The pride felt at all things Indian…be it a 1000 year old temple or a 20 year old hotshot computer programmer….It is lost we say in today’s world where the kids(sounds funny, me saying this..!!) ape the west, be it the fast food, choice of clothes, cavalier approach towards commitment or ‘disrespect’ for parents and elders…

We (the generation of today...) seem to think that all these superficial things, increasingly unhealthy lifestyle and increasing important of self are what made and make the western world successful and rich…Is this really the price one must pay for progress. I don’t think so…Fact is, if we, the Asian continent or even just the Indian subcontinent, were left to our own devices we would have progressed as much as the west has now; maybe at a slower rate…but differently… maybe with less perversions in our lifestyle than they exhibit now…It’s true many of our customs were unhealthy inhuman and above all unequal…we were divided on the basis of our parentage and gender….but who’s to say….that these would not have been wiped out as we progressed technologically….We had our share of visionaries and reformers….Justice Ranade (hehe) Sardar Patel, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar among others…

What I’m trying to say is that each culture; owing to their natural tendencies, where they were born and what they carry in their DNA have different tendencies, different characteristics…different ways of reacting to certain situations…We Indians definitely had the ability to conquer the world…why didn’t we ??Because, simply put it wasn’t in our nature…We are by nature laissez faire …Relaxed…..unbothered and as we say in Konkani, sushegaad… (I love this word…It is what I am…It means sloth taken to it’s extremes...Sigh...)The ones who Veni vidi vici (came saw and conquered… !!)(or tried…)..The Romans… The Britons… The Germans and the Americans… that’s their forte…their thing…..Each culture (not the Americans…they’re just a bunch of immigrants… so club them with the Europeans…!) left to their own would have acted differently…With no one to conquer and (supposedly steal technology ...though I don’t believe that’s all true)who knows the Britons may have been completely different as a people…No one can say…

Coming back to Patriotism and love for one’s country…It is said that today’s youth has a shocking prejudice against the country of their birth… (As regards India ...Could be it happens elsewhere as well)They want to go abroad… to a bungalow and a 2 car family…to social security and malls and fizzy drinks in the refrigerator ...to freedom, to a land of promise…..fed up with the red tape, corruption, nepotism and the stifling environment (metaphorically) in our country…Our social reformers and ‘patriots’ chastise them….scream at them and tell them to be the change they wish to see in the country…Come back….join the government…they say…make it better…

Who’s right…who’s wrong… As always…nothing is cut and dried…black and white right and wrong….As always …there are grey areas and more pertinently…there are points of view…perspectives…It is true that our country’s governance is , in the main decadent, it is also true that we must be the change to see it…also true is the fact that this life is hard, cruel and filled with threat…Sachin Pilot, Madhavrao Scindia, Rajiv Gandhi, Pramod Mahajan.. They didn’t just walk off into the sunset …. Conspiracy theories they may be…but there cannot be smoke without fire and these many brush fires cannot be accidents…..So….where were we…the life is hard….but to win at the Olympics one must train hard…To spend money one must earn it…To see the view off a mountain… one must climb ..it….All this is very good…but …that is only if one wants to…With our life we can always choose our way of living it…So we can go to Switzerland, Uganda, New Zealand or Ulhasnagar if it pleases us to do so…but in that case we cannot crib and wait for a change…

And as for patriotism…it has always been the cause of all battles and wars…I want your piece of land….because it has oil…or game (way back in the BC’s.!!)My people are smarter and more efficient than yours so we will rule over the world…All this talk of stopping regionalism is bullcrap if we fail to see that patriotism is the worst kind of regionalism because each region or sect has enough power to fight for what they want or (worse) claim to be rightfully theirs….All this pride and this arrogance will lead to our downfall. Stop this regionalism…Let us be one as humankind….and if extraterrestrials do exist, let us live in harmony with them…. For no one wins a war…it is war(allied with Death and Murphy !!) that wins them over…

PS: Seriously…..

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1 comment:

  1. Lynette SequeiraJune 6, 2009 at 2:53 AM

    A big thumbs-up for this one Sumedh........

    Just wondering, how wide is your readership Sumedh?.....coz a lot of people need to be reading what you write. A lot of it is very thought-provoking and well-written. Keep writing!!!

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