DEVELOPED INDIAN MINDS – THE ULTIMATE ROAD TO DEVELOPED INDIA

Let me first admit that the idea of this post is not conceived by me. In fact I have borrowed both the inspiration to this post as well as the Title from my blogpal “Phantom”. I am sorry Phantom, but this was required to keep up my promise. For the original source of inspiration please visit Phantom at : mayavi.blogspot.com and read the blog titled “Will our Attitude change ever” dated the 16th January, 2005.

It is about how much each individual can contribute by even small deeds and minimal abstinence, towards development of a country. In the context of a country it is highly misconstrued that development means only economic development. In fact it refers as much to social development, development of moral values, development of ethics etc. And every individual whether rich or poor can definitely contribute a lot towards each of these aspects of development, more so by abstaining from certain unethical habits which have adverse impact on the economy, society and health of the country.

In this post I am focussing on a particular unethical habit or say sin committed by passengers travelling by trains in India. Let me confess that I myself have been guilty of this sin and that is the reason I took it upon myself not only to abstain from this sin but also to do my bit in highlighting the same to others.

I am referring here to the simple act of throwing used tea cups, plastic bottles, empty food packets and all garbage that we produce while travelling, out of the window of the train and make both sides of the Railway tracks among the most unhygenic places. The Indian Railway has laid down more than 63000 kilometres (kms) of Railway tracks in India. Imagine the whole stretch of the 63000 kms. being littered with garbage generated by the passengers and the magnitude of damage it creates. The range of damage includes Air pollution, spread of diseases by decomposed materials, corrosion of the railway tracks by chemical reactions, harmful and unlawful use of plastic materials by villagers surrounding the tracks to name a few. And the worst of all is the crime of attracting small poor children who would be encouraged to pick up those thrown food packets to eat the left overs which is a shame on any civilised country.

Now imagine the expenditure to the Government in undoing all these damages created by our very much avoidable sin. Some of these damages cannot be prevented and results in long term depletion in health of human resources in the country.

On the other hand if we collect all the garbages generated by us during our journey and put it in dust-bin in the nearest Railway platforms it would be so much economical for the Railways to segregate the degradable and non-degradable garbage, clean them up fast, use materials like paper cups etc for recycling, use the organic matters for production of organic manure which can be in-turn be used for providing us with pesticide free vegetables and a more healthy human resources. Let us understand that in proper disposal of garbage there is not only lot to be saved, but there is lot to be earned too.

I hope I am able to convey how a small sin can have such a huge adverse impact and how its abstenance can do a world of good to us. The impact of this sin is no less than the Tsunami we faced only that the impact is slow and invisible. All it needs is development of our minds enough to realise not only the good that we as individuals can do to our country but also the grave impact of the bad that we individuals are doing to the country.

If you find substance in what I have just told please spread this word of abstenance within your circle of acquaintence and request them in-turn to continue this chain of awareness creation, I am sure with our little efforts India can develop much faster.

One more campaign is long due to be launched for which I solicit the help of our bloggers associated with media to make it stronger and far reaching. The trains of the Indian Railway is among the most unique in the world where we have toilets open to the track below. I do not think we can ask for a more worse environmental pollution than this. Do you know that maximum corrosion or damage to the Railway tracks and steel sleepers joining these tracks, are caused by these open toilets. Indian Railway imports special non-corrosive steel much costlier than ones used internationally, to overcome this wear and tear. In this era of civilised, educated, sophisticated and westernised society that we live in, is it not high time that we make vociferous demand to stop use of this uncivilised primitive form of toilets in the trains.

DIFFICULT AND TESTING TIMES

I always believed that it is very good to face the most difficult times of life at an early age in life as that helps us become very matured, stable, rational, mentally strong and makes us value good things in life. Most importantly it prepares us well to face any difficulties that may arise at an age when we are physically and mentally going down the hill.

And I thought the god had blessed me with enough testing times to make me mentally strong and stable enough to face any challenge without losing my nerves. And just as I was gaining this confidence and also faith on my writing ability being healthy and tolerable and was planning to put in more efforts, God has presented me with my most testing time ever in the form of hospitalisation of my father with a deteriorating kidney.

This was a Tsunami of sorts for me sweeping away all the confidence and strength I had gained. Its just that I love my parents so much that my mind is just not able to think anything beyond my father at this moment. And that is the reason I could not post anything this week.

But I am sure my father, who has right through the life been my source of strength, would win over his problems and also push me as always to pass this test too and help me become a stronger, confident and a better person in all aspects. And with that I hope I would be able to give more informative and enjoyable post in future.

WHATEVER HAPPENS IS ALWAYS FOR THE ULTIMATE GOOD

I always used to preach that whatever God does to us or happens with us happens ultimately for the good or better only. And I have been severely criticised for feeling so from absolutely all quarters, but this one belief stays and has been instrumental in carrying me through my life successfully and that is why I see something good happening to this world even in the backdrop of the tragic Tsunami.

Please do not mistake me, I am not stating that Tsunami was not a tragic or unfortunate event, it is undoubtedly the worst tragedy to have happened in a long time. But at the same time, it has brought about the people's force and unity in the forefront in a magnitude it has never happened before. There were some comments in other blogs about ineffectiveness in the Government's effort in relief operations, but the fact remains that the relief and rehabilitation operations are going on in full swing by the force of the people who have suddenly learnt to work as a unit independent of the Government's support.

This peoples’ force and unity is the good thing that has happened amidst this great tragedy. A thousand salutations to the force. Let this be a realisation to all of us that we, the people, are a much stronger force than any Government and our strength lies in our ability to serve and help. I was given to understand that a woman named “Roshni” has individually campaigned and collected more than Rs. 20 lakhs for the relief fund. Let us all strive and become “Roshni – The One woman army” then I am sure no tragedy would be strong enough to overwhelm us.

On a deeper thought I have always realised that a tragedy, whether personal or National, in itself does not inflict so much of a misery and problems as done by the aftermath of the tragedy. And this effect of the aftermath can definitely be controlled by the peoples’ force with an attitude of rendering selfless service. We have to realise that we can be happy and peaceful only if our fellow human being are also happy which was evident to a great extent when we saw the cancellation of New Year Eve celebrations in most part of India.

Let this fire of Peoples’ force rendering selfless service ignited by this huge tragedy be burning forever so that history remembers this event more for the awakening it created among people than for the tragedy itself.

THE BEST WISHES FOR A TRULY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS YEAR 2005

For once, considering all of us as a Global family, the last few weeks of the year 2004 has been the darkest and the most confidence shattering of all the years we would have seen in our life mainly because of the brutal manner in which our weakness against nature was exposed.

May the year 2005 compensate for everything and be a splendid year with all the lessons learnt, realizations achieved and rationality prevailing and let this world truly be a global family not just for economic reasons but as much for social and humanitarian reasons. May we accept and respect the nature as our true mother with all our humbleness and believe in its natural ability to take care of all our necessities to have a peaceful coexistence in this world and refrain from trying to extract from the nature something than we really do not deserve and create a situation were we require disciplining again.

May we learn and try to compliment each others’ necessities and satisfy them to the optimum benefit of all of us in this global family and let the word, “I , me, myself” be removed forever from the dictionaries for all practical reasons.

May the year 2005 be a model year which brings out the best of the best in all of us contributing immensely towards making this world the best place to live in, setting an trend for many more happy and prosperous years to come.

WISH YOU ONE AND ALL A VERY VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.