8:00 P.M.
Mom : Yelling at me to leave that sofa for sometime & help her in the household chores!!Dad : Having an altercation with me for the television remote :)!!I : Lazily lying on my sofa with the remote in one hand & the sandwich in the other after a hectic schedule at the college!! I was switching on between the channels when I saw something like this flashing on the T.V screen "BREAKING NEWS:
President Pratibha Patil's foreign trips cost record Rs 205 crore!!
I was shocked!! 205 crore!! Rs.205000000!!!!!And she belongs to a country where almost 400000000 people are marked as 'people living below the poverty line'!!In a country where people prefer to die of hunger rather than eat from the penny earned through unfair means!!In a country where the person's half of his life's income goes in obediently paying taxes & bills!!In a country where about 5000 children die everyday from hunger..!!In a country where 50% of the children dream of going to school but can't!! In a country where every hour a farmer or a laborer commits suicide leaving his family with only tears!!
I know,to establish foreign relationships you need to travel being a president,attend conferences,meetings etc. but the news(www.thehindu.com) also reads "A series of RTI applications has revealed that Air India incurred over Rs. 169 crore on use of chartered aircraft, always a Boeing 747-400, on the foreign visits by Ms. Patil, mostly accompanied by family members.A further sum of nearly Rs. 36 crore has been incurred by the External Affairs Ministry on accommodation, local travel, daily allowance and “miscellaneous” expenses, according to its information "Man...You are the president of this country..The leader!! And as the saying goes"leaders must have followers", if it gets actually true in your case,I fear whats gonna happen!!You are indirectly injecting false thoughts into the minds of the innocent children-whom we call the future of the nation!!An incident: Prerak,My neighbor ,a 12 year old boy who's brilliantly intelligent & smart..When people ask him what he would like to become in the future he says "I want to be a politician"..When i first heard this I was happy..I thought at least there are some who dream of being someone but not an engineer or a doctor!!Then I asked him why..Just a simple three letter word and I was aghast when i heard him say"They have so much of money..they travel in Audi's with a driver wearing that uniform..They live in classy bungalows with the guards at the gate...etc."Not a single time did he say that he wanted to become a politician because he wanted to serve the society,to help those little kids go to the school,to help those destitute so that one day even they dare to dream about these things ...But No...Entering politics means enjoying money,power,status!!What kind of wrong signals are these people are sending!! People choose you because they have hopes from you!! They want you people to prove the saying "Politicians are the people who promise to build a bridge where there is no water flowing" wrong!!And this isn't the only case!!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_politicians_in_India_charged_with_corruption shows a list of the Indian politicians charged with corruption!! I know..many of you might think "Yeh to wahi purana topic...Corruption..kitna sun aur padh chuke is baare me...Kuch nahi hoga is desh ka!!" ("The same old topic of corruption!!Something that has been heard by us a million times...Nothing's gonna happen!!")I realize that we all are busy...busy attending the parties,working hard to impress our bosses,busy flattering the promotion head for the rise,busy watching the daily soaps & what not!! But..Does this all really matter??Are we all so busy that we dont have the time not only to think but act??Hats off to Anna Hazare-the 72 year young man and his brave team who at least took a step..Annaji-The person whose shaky voice still has a power to force the millions to think,with a body so fragile that it can tolerate a fast for 290 hours..There were thousands who thought and acted as well..They joined the Anti-Corruption movement..But did you??No!!Even I didn't!! Why?? Because we were busy & will always be--paying the bills,sending our children who were lucky to born in well-to-do families to International Schools,Going to the posh restaurants and many simply enjoying their afternoon nap,isn't it?? 1947:India attained Independence20??:India declared corruption free..
We all have a part to play in this movement!! Stop giving bribes to that traffic police when next time you get caught,to that greedy college trusty who promises to admit you to his engineering college,to that government official who promises to get you the permission to open your own saloon...!!!
I promise to play my role for "CORRUPTION FREE INDIA" because I dream of "CORRUPTION FREE INDIA"Do you??
This post is written for "Stayfree:Time to change" contest..:)
