just to keep myself informed of the issues that are making news around the world. Many headlines catch my special attention, those are special ones, for which I steal an extra minute to go through the first few lines under the bold letters. One such piece of news that never misses my eyes(although it disgusts me too) is about the on-going debate over Star Plus' new reality show Sach Ka Saamna.I am not writing this post, to put my own views about the show-whether it should be banned from showing or not(Although I firmly believe it should be banned), the spectrum of my perspective is much bigger than that. The post is about The Lost Indian Dream and dirty fishes that are making the pond(read our society) dirty and Sach Ka Saamna is one such dirty fish.
Indian culture stands for honesty, truth, love, respect, faith, brotherhood. But look around you, what we are seeing today is not Bharat-a society that Ved Vyasa had envisaged when he was writing Mahabharata. Ask your self is it the same country where great leaders like Harshvardhan or Shivaji were born-fearless and poise? Is it the same culturally rich land that gave birth to half dozen religions of the world and had space to accommodate many more? Is it the same democratic republic which Pt. Nehru was talking about in his 'tryst with destiny speech'?" I quote:
...Through good and ill fortune alike she(India) has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength...
We are losing our individuality day by day. Our culture is getting dissolved, in the pursuit to materialistic satisfactions. Nudity is selling like hot cakes both in electronic and print media. Children are brutally murdering their parents, dumping the age old values. Even the festivals, that were made by the great men thousands of years ago to create a decorum in the society, have been commercialized. Politicians are selling the country for pennies to fill up their pockets. They have time to discuss Negar Khan-how she was shown bathing on a reality show on Sony Channel and the disgrace it is bringing to the women in India, but they don't have time to discuss the woman's reservation bill which is pending from the past 25 years. And when the question arises "Who is responsible for all this?" the blame game starts-we point at someone, they point at someone else and that someone else point on some other 'else' and it goes on and on until the circle complete and then...... another circle starts.The truth is that we all are responsible for this. The common man, the politicians, the film stars, the media, the businessman every one-from top to bottom-is corrupt from inside and it includes both you and me as well. We all basically are hypocrites and I can prove that too.
- Marriage is no longer about union of two families but about a partnership between two families to exhibit the might of their bank balances.
- We will sit and watch films like Kambakht Ishq and Murder with our kids, but when an add about the use of condoms, issued in public interest, is being displayed on TV, we will change the channel.
- We keep criticizing the newspaper and TV channels for promoting vulgarity, but its we who demand for it(else why would any one buy you something, when you do not need it?)
We abuse the politicians for filling up their pockets, but when there is a need to build an extra floor to our house or get our children admitted to an engineering or medical college, who themselves could not pass any entrance exam, we are the first ones to push the bundles of cash forward.
- We design a TV character called Mihir, keeping Lord Ram in mind and make him do everything that Lord Ram himself never stood for. Mihir marries Tulsi(character based on Sita) and then marries Mandira(no idea on whom her character was based) after Tulsi leaves him. Later on Mandira is out, Tulsi is in. Then Tulsi is out and Mandira is in. Then Tulsi again comes back. Thirty years later. Mandira's Son is in and Tulsi's Son is out. Then Tulsi's son is in and Mandira's out....... And we see Lord Ram in Mihir.
The conclusion is simple. We all have become hollow from inside. Therefore either we should stop cribbing about everything that is happening around us or else we become the change we want to see in the world. In my opinion western influences, are not always bad, but we must make sure that it doesn't change us, the person we are inside.
The day of our Independence is on the horizon and what better day could we have to pledge and start working towards the betterment of ourselves and the society. We must unite in this common interest. We must fight so that India no longer only known as the back office of the American companies but as a country that stands on its own beliefs and values, something that no one can uproot, come what may. Let us pledge today that our culture and values are going to live on and it will survive.
Today, let us celebrate our Independence Day.
