India is the perfect example of unity in diversity, a melting pot of race, religion, caste, creed and languages.  Remember lines like these and others that were thrust into our sleepy heads back in school ? Why, they meant a whole lot more than marks on offer for emptying that on the exam paper.. It was something that we could take pride in and celebrate..

Have you ever thought back at those lines that we read and drank deeply of ? Where is this unity in diversity ? It’s said that individuals cannot corrupt the whole, yet when we come across Raj Thackeray openly threatening to bash up Biharis and even more openly carrying out his threats,  we can expect this unity in diversity thing to wake up in our dormant minds and oppose what we see right? Irrespective of whether where we hail from?  Hell, no.. I see young Marathi colleagues of mine (read educated and professionally qualified youth) whom I don’t really know in person, having Raj Thackeray’s mug-shot set as the desktop wallpaper.  I dread to think what would happen to me if they here me talking about what I really feel about him.  I didn’t see collective disgust pouring out of people when unspeakable atrocities were carried out. 

Many of my own friends cheered when Muslims were slaughtered in Godhra and they said they got what they deserved.  They had it coming.  I didn’t know what I was to feel.  I certainly didn’t feel like remembering the lines from our school books then.  

Is there anything at all that we are united in?  All of India united over something? Yeah… I suppose our defeatist attitude.  We have such a tremendous sense of believe in fate and destiny that we don’t feel the need to do anything for that destiny to be shaped into reality.  We don’t succeed and what do we do? We just shrug our shoulders and put the blame on destiny. 

I came across a quote by Gandhi on my friend  's blog:

<p align="justify" style="margin: 5px 10px; line-height: 150%;">"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

Now,  who are these poor people that I need to imagine while thinking about what I want to do or not ? And pray how are their lives supposed to reflect any change in my decisions?  I'm a system administrator and a conscientious one at that.  It's my concern to see to it that my facility operates without a hitch.  How the hell would a poor homeless guy on the road be affected whether I do my job well or not ?  It's something I can't even begin to comprehend.  Now, had I been in a communist state, my salary would have been snatched away towards a gazillion causes I didn't even know existed and I probably would have been only slightly better off than that homeless guy on the street, and even that is not to be taken for granted.  At least that's the idea I got after reading Ayn Rand's  'We the people', a caustic account about communist Russia.   

Rand writes about qualified engineers not being employed just because their parents were private businessmen (bourgeois) or because they did not belong to the communist party.  Are we living is such a society? Thank God Communism or it's tattered remains remains only in parts of India and not the whole of it.  Are we not the best nation on the face of the planet for having the best of culture and traditions and a tolerable governance?  Or is that a myth?

We have our problems with governance but when you see a picture as stark as the one painted by Rand, one feels we are on paradise.  Nobody stops us from achieving whatever it is that we set our hearts upon.  In the movie 'The Pursuit of Happyness', Will Smith's character wonders how Thomas Jefferson knew to include the word 'pursuit' in the declaration of independence.  The actual line in the American Declaration of Independence says
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of  Happiness."

Don't we often revile the Americans for their lack of culture ? Their lack of family values? And pride ourselves on our culture and heritage.. And still they could come up with such a gem while we couldn't.  
Even after more than fifty years of our own independence,  we don't believe that we can get what we want by stretching ourselves.   Reservations are required to help bring up the downtrodden.  Downtrodden?? Who are we trying to kid?  Those who are downtrodden continue to remain so while those who are reaping the benefits of lower academic cut-offs and subsidized fees are the ones who zip around town on the latest two-wheeler in the market or better yet, an imported SUV!!!  And what of these downtrodden?  Will they ever reach out and come up?  No, how can they? Their fathers and grandfathers could not.  It's destiny that dictates that they can't come up.  


Once a poor man, always a poor man.. anybody who questions their fate is a heretic.  While a few raise themselves above the squalor and stench of their gutters, most prefer to remain right there.  I have seen people of South Indian origins selling vada pav and chai in 'kopchis' (little thatched roof/tarpaulin covered hutments) in Mumbai, facing up to the strong-arm tactics of Raj Thackeray and his kind, the corrupt police officers who demand steep haftas (bribes) to allow them to operate, and still make enough money to not just sustain themselves, but also to help their families and relatives back in their native places.  I met a Bihari paan-shop (betel nut) owner who said he was sending money back home where his son was studying law! 
Are these people exceptional human beings? Or are they just going in pursuit of happiness which is what every living human being ought to be doing?

We are so used to attributing our failures to destiny and what not that we even express keen surprise at times tinged with jealousy when we come to know that a person succeeded in getting out of the rut.  A typical exchange would be like this:

"Do you remember that xxxyyy?  The guy who used to borrow my spare slippers to wear  to college?  The guy who used to beg me to give him my old clothes ?  I saw that guy in a Honda City the other day!  He saw me, but did not even salute me! The gall of him! He just waved cheekily as he sped away!"
Now, here is a guy who lent a needy man slippers he would not wear, and clothes he would have thrown away and expects the other be subservient to him all his life!  Such is the attitude our own loved ones just one generation separated possess. 

And that Gandhi quote that set off this entire blog post..  Why the devil should I worry how my actions will affect the anonymous poor ?  Do they worry about how their own actions and non-actions will affect their own lives? About how they can get out of their own rut if they try ? Poverty is something that can be shaken off, but what cannot be shaken off is their firm belief that they can do nothing about their own suffering.  It is this very thought that unites most of us Indians.