These Are The Best Of Times..These Are The Worst Of Times!

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Charles Dickens may have used these lines to describe the disruptive state of affairs in the 18th century England and France, and today, almost two and a half centuries later in the 21^st century, they serve as the perfect allegory of the current condition of our mainland – India.

India has a glorious provenance and a progressive present, where any individual can look for opportunities with certainty. The British left us in a state of misery, bogged down by ages of oppressions & loot. Nonetheless, we managed to emerge – not just to survive, but actually flourish and take our own role on the global podium as an upcoming leader. There are multiple areas where India has been acing the performance charts. Despite being one of the most populous countries in the world, India accomplished the daunting task of polio eradication – a significant achievement of the country in the field of science. We have been able to achieve such feats time and again, including creating very low cost medical treatments as compared to the developed nations, so that they become affordable for the majority of public; developing one of the most low cost space programs in the world; manufacturing cars available within INR 1 lakh. All of these suggest the brilliance of the people of this country and how they have been able to achieve goals with limited available resources – mastering the art of frugality! Speaking of brilliance, India is known to produce rich minds with CXOs of multinational firms coming from Indian origin, talented workforce all over the world in the IT sector is known to come from India. Sports, where cricket was the only known face among the mass, has reached new heights today, with importance given to fields other than cricket. This can be figured from the medals the country has been winning in various international games in the past few years.  

Today’s India recognizes the need for better infrastructure for its talented youth to be able to contribute to the economy. This is reflective in the fact that India has been working on improving its ranking on the ease of doing business. Today’s India feels like an enlightened India where the government is trying to gather a mass momentum for a better tomorrow. One of the greatest signs of growth can be seen in our gradual movement from the base of Maslow’s hierarchy. While we still have to manage the basic necessities for a large chunk, as a society we have not just aged, but matured over the years to actually talk of well-being of the society as a whole. The radio is filled with ads related to girl child development, education, sanitation, consumer rights etc., each of them prompting the citizens of this country to bring small changes to their lifestyle to contribute to the community’s progress. While a series of years in the history have witnessed a male dominated India, today efforts are being made, and even realized in the direction of women empowerment. The decisions pertaining to the life of “granny” in her young days were related to whether she should be kept alive or not, which house she should be married off to! With the passage of two generations, things have changed for the “precious granddaughter”, where her family is thinking about her career and all round development.   

While this is a sign of a progressing nation, there are multiple instances where mass has been mobilized only to bring harm, so that objective of a few can be achieved. The Ayodhya verdict, which is finally settled for good, was undoubtedly the most awaited one for the entire nation, to the extent that this has been one of the major agenda of elections in the country for over decades now. This is a classic example of how emotions of the mob are played upon, for the benefit of power and position. How far reaching the impact of such selfish strategies may be, are of concern to none. Rising riots for reservation, mob lynching, war over religion etc. have become rife. A news headline referring to any of the above or similar issues may bother one, but are no more shocking. This in itself reflects a very sad state of affairs. 

On one side we see rays of hope for a shining future of this country, which has been trying to make efforts to achieve utopia. However, all these efforts seem to go in vain and are overshadowed by the insensitive selfish acts of a few. The irony is, the same mouth will denigrate his own country, who started spitting dirt in the first place. Vices in a man, aiming for personal gain are an innate part of human nature and getting over them will need a climb further up the hierarchy’s triangle. However, rationale and reasoning can be cultivated, which may actually be a solution to the chaos created by the unnecessary influence by acerbic elements in the society. Man needs to rise to reason and prevent himself from falling prey to a series of devious stratagems.

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” These were the words of Rabindranath Tagore, his dream for free India and today, when the country stands at the cusp of leadership and anonymity, every Indian should make Tagore’s dream his own, and push our society and hence, the nation towards the climb. There is fire rising in the placid waters of the ocean again. We need to make sure that this epoch is not left bereft of its light and warmth.