1945 - The year is best remembered for the twin atom explosions over Japan by the United States of America that hastened the surrender of the Axis powers and also heralded the end of Second World War.
1947 - A nation referred to as a sub-continent with people speaking as many languages as could be imagined and following different faiths etc achieved independence from the British Rule led by an apostle of peace and non-violence, without shedding any blood et al.
We see that Japan on to our east and Germany to our West started their journey of reconstruction of their war ravaged economies at the same time as India on attaining its independence. But after a lapse of six decades where do we stand. Germany and Japan are considered economic superpowers and form part of the powerful G7 Group of nations. India is still considered a developing nation - a sleeping Asian giant etc. But we remain that. No one has any idea if we will wake up and when. India has been considered to be a powerhouse of knowledge and much of the secrets of life and learning that are being unearthed in the West were supposed to be known to indians from the vedic times itself. With such excellent credentials like abundant natural resources, knowledge levels etc why are we still lagging behind, instead of being trend setters and leaders.
I personally feel the reason could be attributed to our lack of discipline and national pride. We take pride in doing everything against the existing rules and conventions. Laws are broken with impunity by the people who make them in the first place. I feel it very disgusting to read notices in prominent public places which go - 'Do Not Spit Here', ' Do Not Pass Urine Here' etc. The said notices can be seen in any city, town, metro in this country of ours. The funniest aspect here is that after a lapse of time the notices get obliterated by constant spitting and you know how. The disgrace is that we have to put up such a notice and the added insult is that inspite of putting up such a notice, people care little for small decencies. You can see vehicles jumping traffic signals even when a traffic police is present at the scene. National properties like buses and trains are defaced and destroyed without any qualms. IST which should read as Indian Standard Time is more aptly read as Indian Stretchable Time.
Why is this happening? According to my very personal view, I feel the genesis of the whole thing can be traced to the 'Civil Disobedience Movement' launched by Gandhi at the time of our freedom struggle. He exhorted our people to boycott anything British and break all rules and laws framed by them. Immediately on our attaining of our independence and the subsequent partition and the religious riots, he was busy in bringing peace and sanity to the nation. Before he remembered to tell the countrymen that now that the country has become free and we are the law makers, we ought to respect the rules and laws and inculcate a sense of discipline into our lives, he fell prey to an assassin's bullets.
Maybe we will turn into responsible citizens only when Gandhi comes and tell us so. We have to Wait for the Mahatma then.
