It is rather easy to describe the people of India (that includes me as well), in one word. IRONY. Exactly. There is no particular way to describe the people as a whole. But through many observations you can come to a conclusion that they're much closer to the definition of IRONY. There is irony everywhere in whatever we do. We watch English movies but when somebody talks English we keep 'em aside. We say Hindi is our national language but how many of them in Tamil Nadu really accept it as a first language or atleast as a second one?( A lot of people select French in their higher secondary. Wait. Where did that come from?) We frame laws to keep our tradition(dhotis) but we tend to move towards a western culture. We have grown enough to wear short dresses but we do not have the maturity to understand sex. We stress on agricultural growth but we make most of the youngsters aspire to work for Google, Microsoft etc. We find IITs and IIMs to be sub-standard but we are ready to settle down in foreign colleges that is much more sub-standard. We prefer to remain jobless in foreign countries rather than landing up a smaller job in our own country.
We talk pages about quality but our actions are towards sacrificing the quality for the sake of costs. We tend to follow a system but find ways to deviate it as much as possible. We talk about having a professional growth but all that we need is money. We seem to be caring for the society but we keep our mouth and everything else shut when it comes to taking up responsibility. We talk as though we want to help the society first but suddenly out of nowhere, we have a lot of other things prioritized before helping the society and make sure that it is the last in the list( sometimes not in the list even). We remember our Gandhis and Nehrus but we do not seem to take up even one ideal of theirs for practice. We say there is "Unity in Diversity" but can anyone attend a session in the Parliament to find out whether the tagline suits India or not? Our diversification is ever increasing and the key indicator is the new states that are popping out every now and then.
We read articles of cultural heritage, our traditional music and art forms everyday but at the same time we encourage the slow inclusion of horrible music in cinema and drama. Children are taught traditional music and made to listen to "Why this Kolaveri di?" openly. People own 2BHK apartments with air conditioned rooms, a Mercedes Benz, a smartphone and at the same time talk about simplicity. If doing penance on the Himalayas, naked with one piece of cloth is considered simplicity, then probably our people will live a simple life if there is a separate house, fully furnished, with heater facilities (for the cold), malls nearby and some grocery shops at the mountain top. They won't stop there. They'll call it Renouncement. We use the air conditioners, waste electricity, cut down trees, encourage factories to pollute and talk about reducing carbon footprint and mitigating global warming.
We talk about traditional food items but prefer pizzas as they come straight to our mouth(irrespective of cost). We want to be famous but we do not want to work. We want to have money but we do not assess whether we're deserving or not. We create so much of a sensation about corruption in the media but we nearly fall for it every second somewhere in the country. We have merit based systems but favoritism is the ultimate tool used everywhere. We talk about the rape cases that have been reported. What about those which are hidden in the domestic lives of many women of this country? We have a great fan following for football but we're much worried about who will get a place in the opening slot of the batting line up. We satisfy ourselves with BPOs and KPOs when we can really try harder to move to the top. We curb our own growth at the expense of hard work and for the want of comfort. We never try to stop ourselves from being in the comfort zone. We seek to uplift the status of poor people and hire them to do our non-value adding chores in the house. Women of this country want to be treated equally to men but they need separate seats in public transport. They'll bring hell down to earth if their seats are occupied by men.
We sacrifice technicalities and nuances as it stands in the way of fame of an individual. We have increased our margin for error by giving credit to cheap work without integrity. Ultimately, we are in between two extremes, one is the reality and the other being the ideal. We talk the ideal and do the reality.
Who are we really? Why can't we define ourselves? What is wrong in defining ourselves? Why don't we have the ability to define ourselves? What do we need to define ourselves? Why can't we create our own world and get a recognition for it? Why is the feeling of oneness absent in us? Why are we not able to talk on one term? Why are we not able to justify "Unity in Diversity"?
The most horrible part is we're accepting all these and living a happy life. Or are we calling it happy just because there is a need to? I don't know.
-SATZ
