Who is an Indian?

When our countrymen visit a developed country, say America or UK, they take to the queue culture of that country as duck takes to water. We eagerly look around for bins to dispose off waste and take utmost care not to litter the public space. The best part of all this is that we smile and even ask our children to behave well. No spitting, no littering and, of course, no urinating against the walls!
However, a quick and strange transformation takes place as soon as the plane touches down at the Indira Gandhi International airport, or elsewhere in India, and we get the familiar sights and smells of our beloved country. Most of us do not mind elbowing or shoving others to take hold of our baggage on the belt, without even saying ‘sorry.’ Soon we show our true colours and live up to the old adage: ‘While in Rome, do as the Romans do.’

Even at places where the people are decent enough to queue up, we explore all the subversive possibilities to get to the front of the serpentine queue. Oh, the agony of standing in the queue! If all else fails, then a search begins to locate an agent so that the queue could be bypassed by paying a small fee. Why is this change in our conduct as soon as we arrive in our own country? Why do we bid goodbye to the good manners that looked so wonderful in foreign countries? Why do we dump the basic etiquettes in the nearest dust bin on our arrival in India?

The answer is simple, it is in our culture. We follow the ‘chalta hai’ culture in india. If you jump a traffic light, there is always a way to ensure you don’t need to pay the fine. Rather, you bribe the traffic constable and continue to your destination. It’s a country where people are found of short cuts. There is a short cut to everything. In a country where 40% of the population is below the poverty line, and rich are getting richer and poor getting poorer , this is bound to happen.

No wonder you see an escalation in crime and burglary. Unemployment is growing and youngsters are falling prey to easy lure of money.

The basic necessities are not taken care of. We all talk of development but the government is not even committed to ensure that these basic needs of the people are met. You have neta’s who venture for overseas trips every now and then. But when it comes to replicating the learning's from their visit abroad and finding a method to the madness in their own country, they are clueless.

The whole country knows that who is corrupt, every third month the roads have to be done again, every time the bridges fall but who cares for the public.

Instead we have to pay more taxes, hike in petrol,diesel prices and more costly vegetables. They think this will cure everything and GDP will rise.

Right now the only thing rising, is an uproar, a young india is rising and soon there will be a revolution. Time has come when young india takes up the mantle and changes things.

Yes, India is the most backward nation when it comes to safety or the value of a life of a person. There are hundreds of people dying but no one cares. Not the police, not the administration. Unless there is a change, there will be loads of people leaving the country and settling abroad. And this doesn’t augur well for the country. The time has come to take the fight for our future in our own hands and make a difference. Yes, its high time we tell the people that yeh sab nahin chalta hai, and they need to change their mindset or get washed away by the tide of change.

The time is right to change the system, to change our way of thinking, we need to change the policies and the backward laws that are in place and only then we will see a change.

But Is the PM listening? (Theek hai?)