From one citizen to another...

This goes to anyone who definition of patriotism is one or many from these...

a. Watch cricket, shout at all the Pakistani players and applaud the Indians no matter how badly they suck.
b. Be an audience to all the Pakistan bashing Hindi movies and come out with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
c. Pay your taxes and feel that your job is done.
d. Disregard the Indian brand of goods and buy a Tommy Hilfiger, a Red Tape , a Lee Cooper with a feeling that India is really improving.

But brethren and otherwise, our duty just begins now.. A few startling facts should paint the picture clear...

a. If International standards were employed in gauging poverty, a humungous 390 million of our population is below the poverty line...that is almost 40 percent of the Indian population.

b. A mere 28 percent of the entire population of India has access to clean sanitation facilities.

c. Around 1 percent of the population of India is HIV infected. If this trend were to continue, then in a few years the largest concentration of HIV carriers in the world would be in India.

I know that we have been hearing that there has been a burgeoning and wealthy middle class that has been developing, the IT boom, the Telecom boom and the Auto boom and the huge remittances that NRIs have been flodding into India. But the truth of the matter is...

a. IT employs a bit more than 1 million people right now, which is less than 0.1 percent of the population.

b. The remittances are not public money and most of it is squandered away into buying real estate or something of the like rather than being spent or invested into capital markets. So even though India is the largest receiver of remittances from NRIs, amounting to around 17 billion, they are contributing very less towards the development.

c. India does not have a single auto testing facility comparable to the likes of Mira, UK or HMTRI, China. There are critical gaps in India’s auto infrastructure with no facilities for crash testing, wind tunnel tests etc. The one that is envisaged is supposed to be up by 2015. That is a decade down the line !!

d. The so-called IT boom is already under a lot of flux with increasing attrition and wages. Companies under a lot of pressure to retain their profits are constantly eyeing newer and cheaper markets like China. It wont be long when we will be saying "My job got Shanghaied".

Well, then the quintessential question arises....What can we do ? How can a single citizen help ? Here are a few tips... These are not elixirs and their efficacy is not tested but the fundamentals are strongly rooted and their success depends on how widely they are employed.

a. Be Indian, Buy Indian.
Avoid the glamour of the west. West is not the Best always... buy a Liberty footwear and you will know the difference. Avoid those Cokes, and Pepsis if you can. The money each Indian spends on Indian goods remains in India, and is routed back towards creating a more profitable industry and in the process everyone around it flourishes. This will not only empower the Indian companies to compete locally but one day they will be global players too.. competing with the Lee Coopers and Red Tapes in their own homeland.

b. Defy corruption.. Go for eGovernance.
Corruption is the biggest cause of concern for modern India. We are a part of the system and in many cases we might have to succumb to it unwillingly. The best way to get rid of it is to avoid it altogether. The Government of India and the World Bank are pouring millions of dollars towards eGovernance. What this means in simple terms is that most governmental tasks can be done on the internet. This will have a myriad of benefits. It will avoid long queues in offices, save time, save effort and can be easily accountable. Be in the knowhow of what can be done online and what cant be. For e.g Most RTO registrations, Travel registrations, Payemnt of water, electricity, sewage bills can be done online. Any buffoon would agree that paying online is simpler than standing in a queue for hours together. Whats more, this will help avoid any form of interaction with humans leading to avoiding corruption slowly but surely.

c. Raise Concerns and Grievances.
Raise your concerns, Give your suggestions. Be it a small pothole on the street across your house, a faulty cable hanging on the light pole or be a leaky drainage pipe. As long as you learn to live with it.. you will end up living so.

d. Oblivion is not bliss.
Know your rights, know your duties and know what is going around you. Even animals are curious creatures. Man, the most fantastic and supreme being on the planet, if devoid of curiosity will soon become an extinct species. Ask a receipt every time you buy stuff, park your vehicle or pay your rent. Use Credit\Debit Cards rather than cash. The biggest sin one can commit is being unaware of what is going on.

e. It is never about Religion.
Religion is supposed to set you free. The very instance a religion tries to tie you down, it loses its motive. As long as one is a firm believer in his faith, nothing can deter him from what he knows or what he believes. Stay aware from emotion arousing conflits, most of which can be politically fuelled. A fight over religion never helped anybody and it is the last thing India can afford. One must be magnanimous and forgiving. This is the most essential difference between humans and other creatures inhabiting the earth. Every man has the capacity to forgive and it does not take a saint to do so. Religion is for Man and not the other way around.

Ofcourse, these have to go hand in hand with others doing the same. But atleast there has to be a start. The light is buring and shining brightly for the masses. What's needed is to reach out towards it.

~Dead Pep