National Pride!

The opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games made my heart swell with pride, even if momentarily. In fact that is what these transient extravaganzas are at best capable of. A fleeting moment of national pride. In fact my elder daughter reminded me today morning of the tremendous capability our country always had in creating "tamashas".

The fact however remains that the ceremony was extremely good, in fact perhaps the best ever that the country would have witnessed on its soils. But the ceremony alone should not and can not be a cause of joy. That the game makers indulged in a totally different kind of games ever since the time the games were slated for Delhi is a sordid aspect of the games that can not and should not be forgotten.

That this transient extravaganza has emerged as the reason for the sudden fervor of national pride amongst the citizens of this country is a cause of serious concern. That our population is reduced to seeking pride in what at best is an outstanding "tamasha" is definitely not something to be happy about.

I would really feel proud, when India emerges from the shadows of poverty and deprivation and takes its place in the list of developed nations. I would indeed be proud when we have been able to create infrastructure of internationally acceptable standards across the length and breadth of the nation and not just confined to the capital city of Delhi. I would have been proud if the massive amount of expenditure that has been been attributed to the games had been fully utilized for the purpose and not been siphoned off to a very large extent mainly to grease the already bloated pockets of the corrupt people in charge of organizing the games, an event that our "developing" nation may have been better off without.

Love not Pride

Being an Indian, I love India but do not take pride in it.
Being a railwayman, I love Indian Railways but do not take pride in it.
How can I take pride in my country, that is interlaced with poverty and rampant corruption. A country that even after 60 years of independance has failed to provide even the most basic necessities to its citizens. A country that ranks high on the corruption index but very low on the human development index. A country that is almost at the bottom of the list of nations and perhaps ranks marginally above its even more lowly placed neighbors.
How can I take pride in my railways that has sacrificed deliverance for rules and procedures. Rules and procedures that do not facilitate, but obstruct deliverance. A railway that is least concerned with HR, a system that makes any development a monumental task, a set of officers who have and apply only negative powers, whose focus is only self gratification, not welfare of the men at large.
Love yes but pride no. Love is there for anything that is close to the heart. Pride can only be for excellence, not for rot, howsoever close to the heart it may be.

Should we be doing it?

I often wonder whether, even though we can and also shall, we should be organizing the commonwealth games. The moot point is whether a country that is unable to provide twenty hours supply of drinking water and electricity even to the citizens of its capital city should be organizing an extravaganza like the commonwealth games? Does a capital city where many of its citizens have to carry out their daily morning ablutions in the open, quite often along the railway tracks deserves to organize a sporting extravaganza the outlay on which could have served its inhabitants in a much better way?
And to top it all, the decision makers also appear keen to bid for the olympics! The prospect and also the implications of this decision makes me shudder.
Opinions may vary, but the fact remains that a person deprieved of the basic necessities and also the basic dignity that a human being deserves shall remain unconcerned. The games shall definitely touch the lives of the high and mighty, but the lives of almost ninety percent of its citizens shall remain untouched. The event, by no stretch of imagination can instill a sense of pride in the common man, as is being widely expected in the elite circle.
After all, for a man sitting on a heap of waste and refuse, the talk of pride in the nation is surely a long shot. Not worth attempting, but shall we ever learn? Never, despite being almost at the bottom of the list of nations, and that is why we are where we are.
This republic day, let us all pledge to attempt excellence and pull the nation out of the abyss it finds itself in rather that rejoicing in the transient extravaganza that the games really are!