07.14.06
Swaraj is my birthright, and YOU can have it
That’s the very sentiment echoed by today’s generation.
What the hell is Swaraj, anyways? Any takers?
“It is swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves.” Gandhi
“The principal theme of Hind Swaraj is the moral inadequacy of western civilization, especially its industrialism, as the model for free India.”
So well, we rule ourselves today. We all have the democratic right to vote. We have the right to free speech and movement and the right to buy property.
We’ve given ourselves a few other rights as well:
The right to drive on both sides of the road.(Welcome to Poona. You can choose which side you want to drive on. )
The right to dirty roads, railway stations, bus stands and public property
The right to abstain from voting in elections, since that’s so middle class
The right to pee in public.
The right to use railway tracks for public demonstrations of emptying the large intestine
Are we ‘rightly’ using our rights or are we abusing them. What do the youth of this country stand for?
What’s our take on something like say the environment?
We all claim to be goddamn environment conscious. (The hole in the ozone layer, El Nino you know.)
Are we?
1. We do not use public transport .. since it’s a waste of our time.
2. Our consumption level is really high, we have more clothes than we need, we eat more food than we need, we waste food in restaurants and don’t carry leftovers back. (Ever traveled abroad? Everyone does this.)
3. We have too many material possessions. Be it clothes or accessories. Everything comes from the earth. So pretty much we’re using/abusing resources of this planet and believe that the recycled paper book that we paid a bomb for, allows us to stake a claim for being environmental !!
4. We believe that the milk bag is something that deserves to die in the dustbin
5. Taking a cloth bag to shop for vegetables is again so middle class. More plastic wasted.
6. Newspapers. Read many. Throw all.
Contrast this to our parents who cleaned milkbags and sold them, collected and sold all newspapers, exchanged old clothes for steel utensils, fixed any gadget that was broken, even better-valued every gadget and used carefully, took a cloth bag for shopping, rickshaw-pooled, never ate at restaurants, used the bus, wore clothes till they wore out, used milkbottle caps as a 3M scrub to clean vessels.
Are we socially aware?
Are we patient?
Are we civil?
What would we do to help other people? Damn why is no one helping the accident vicitim. Would you? Come on .. it’s more important to go to work or write that exam or just go to college and while away time. Who cares about a human life?
How much better are we from the previous generation, when all we do is crib?
It is swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves.
Let’s not seek lofty goals and nurture un-fulfillable ambitions. Let’s keep it simple and easy.
So what’s easy to change?
1. It’s difficult to go and clean the streets. So maybe it would be a good idea not to dirty them in the first place. Forget what others do or don’t do. Let’s not do it.
2. Have a plant in your balcony, and nurture it. It helps prevent global warming to that minute degree, but still does it.
3. Make a donation to a charitable organization. Even something as simple as 100 Rs a month help.
Try these places locally.
http://www.karuna.org/karuna_2002/punesavings.htm
http://www.indianngos.com/c/catalystsforsocialaction.htm
http://www.muktangan.org/
4. Conserver paper. Use plastics only if unavoidable.
Let’s change, just a little bit and watch that grow into something bigger.
The Intellectual Terrorist
-blows your mind
