Saturday, August 13, 2005

Unity in diversity?

Aug 15. The only thing that we remember related to this day is...a days holiday..school parade....mittai...oru flag shirt la kuttikiradu...PM's speech from red fort...some stupid movie on tube...some actress or actor who might not even have paid their IT will talk about desabakhti and Naatupatru...

Thats the only way i remember this day being celebrated right from my school days till now. To be frank we indians really lack a strong sense of patriotism. Most of us are blinded by regionalism and casteism. The sense that one is a tamizhan or bihari or bengali or kashmiri or gujrati reigns more than the act that we are all INDIANS.

Fortunately since i was a southie brought up in north i had a chance to analyze all kinda people in close quarters. When one guy in my college was supporting the fact that the northies are a selfish bunch of people, i reciprocated that not all of em here are saints as well. One can never brand a breed from one instance.

The fact is that we need to imbibe children with patriot values right from childhood. What this nation needs for growth is INDIANS and not regional people.

I am still surprised how united we are still as a country after all these shortcomings. The best cause when we all unite as a nation is when calamity strikes. A Tsunami, Kargil, Flood, Earthquake and Cricket (nejama illaya sollunga) and these are times when we unite as INDIANS.

Any ideas to increase patriotism among this gen X?

5 comments:

Neha said...

Harish,
Quite a few of the gen-X are being brought up abroad the first few years of their life. avangalukku ellam naatupatra imbibe panna poreengala? anniyan la vara maadhri...modhalla carelessness a ozhikkanum :(

ada-paavi!!!! said...

patriotism is fine but jingo patriotism? doing things like wishing ppl happy indenendence day (is this a deepavlai or wat) or treating it like just another holiday, this is irritating. the meaning of independence has been lost to the preent generation (which i am a part of)

Harish said...

Welcome Vatsan
U r absolutely correct
Infact i would say that to celebrate independence day we must work on that day and increase the productivity of the nation
Repeating the same old things makes it mundane and worthless

Directhit said...

I would say that most people (currnt generation and tht incl me) have almost got irritated and have reached a state of giving up on the scenario in our nation.... politics sans corruption is a dream now... anniyan was a thought provoking movie for most of us..... but the theme in the movie was not something which none of us were oblivious of ....... all of us knew and know what is to be done.. rather all of us would have so many different kind of solutions to get our country to a better position... but the power to get it done and the manner in which it should be done is what is not known to many(all) of us!! what we want primarily is people to be more responsible about the nation and to act against the government (both the ruling and the opposition... both are useless) .... a revolution in the lines of movies like Ramana/ Indian/ Anniyan is what is needed now..... we do unite in terms of calamities perhaps but namba oorula sethadhukkappuram vaaykku arisi podaravanga uyiroda irukkum podhu vayithukku arisi poda maatanga!! thts the ground reality!!! and added to that the politicians have been using Caste/ Religion/ Zone differences to their advantage..... if only people cared more about fellow human beings and animals more than they care for money/religion and caste....... only then India and the world would be a better place to leave!!

Harish said...

Anoop
Welcome :-)
Perfect!That was a nail on the head.
U summed it up better and very nicely
I wish we could do something about this :-(