Working towards a better tomorrow

'Beauty is only the first touch of terror we can still bear.'
 - Rilke


Sometimes we don't see it ourselves - the ripple beneath the surface of the smooth waters, the dirt beneath our shoes or the holes in our pockets. Behind the beauty stands the beast, he loves her and she loves him, that's how the story went and that's how the story goes.
Today we pride ourselves in being the fastest growing democracy - despite the whirlpool of chaos, distress, political fiascos and unnecessary (even harmful) jingosim. Rilke was probably talking about the bad underlying the good - he was probably talking about that which couldn't be seen or sensed. I would like to paint a different not so pretty picture for you though - We sense the bad, we see it and close the doors on it.
Bad need not be anything definitive - it could be red tapeism, it could be corruption, it could be the most unacceptable form of ignorance or it could be the fact that we choose to ogle at it without doing anything about it. It is only until recently that we have started to step out of these closed doors.
We celebrate Indianness and call ourselves culturally nourished, all the while in another part of the country the daughters of our soil continue to be harrassed, burnt, tortured, raped and broken.
The other day our respected Home Minister spoke of how even someone like Kasab was being tried fairly and justly for his crimes against the country emphasizing on the quality of civility this country has to offer. Why then is the justice system so fraught when it comes to the common man - one of our own?
You take to rebellion when Indians are subjected to racism in Australia but how exactly do you deal with it when it runs rampant in your own neighbourhood? Do you fight or even lift a finger to protest?
On the brighter side,
I applaud Corporate Social Responsibility, I applaud the inclusive growth agenda just when it looked like the government had grown immune to those who live a sub standard level of existence. After all what good is the green revolution when people in your country continue to starve to death? And what good is the technology boom when there are a vast number of villages devoid of a very basic amenity called electricity? And what good is the pharma boom when health care is the privilege of only a handful few?


Lets face it - we live on belief. Belief is like pneumonia - it is contangious and it spreads. Even though it lets you down it doesn't stop you from growing.
Remember morality comes from within and it doesn't exactly stop at that.