Is this freedom ?

"Tonight, at the stroke of midnight when the whole world would be sleeping india would awake". These were the words of india's first prime minister, pandit nehru, after india gained independence. Ten days back, the same country has celebrated its 59th anniversary with manmohan singh talking about "aam aadmi" and the ever increasing GDP growth. Enough of this hokum, i feel india is still under a deep slumber much to the chagrin of kumbhakarna.

I fail to understand how our PM could talk about GDP growth when, an americanism to use, 72 % of our population gets less than 1 $ per day. Just because some people of the organised sector flush with cash does not mean our country is self sufficient. Once china or philippines get their workforce compatible with global standards all of the parvenus would be nice stories for desi version of "lost". Our politicians hark about their agenda and about the references of pogroms in history text books. They do not make any attempt to let these books be read by every child. All they do is shouting vociferously. In a way, we the people are to be blamed. Whenever anything happens we play the blame game and blame the politicians. Our country needs atleast thousands of the likes of arvind kejriwal, jaya prakash narayan etc., All we do is debate or write a critique(like this writer is doing right now).

The current generation is way too prone to knee jerk reactions and coupled with radical movies like rang de basanti this is the "rang de basanti" generation. Bullshit. Not getting to know facts and just protesting against reservation is more of an attempt to hog the spotlight than getting to the root of the problem. We ask two cardinal questions but never wait to listen the answers. Why ? How ?

Venality has become part of our bureaucracy. Jugaad has become part our mindsets. We have accepted bribery as part of the machinery and who has given the fillip to this depravity. Its US. How many of us care to ask for the bill if the shopkeeper reduces 200 on the mobile phone price. Thanks to kbc and big b's insistent plea to ask for bill, i have started asking for the bill. Let me assure you, its not a nice thing to ask for. Those eyes of the shopkeepers abuse you nothing less than SON OF A BITCH.

I see no difference when we were under east india company and now under the UPA government. The freedom has only made us more lazy. Earlier we were slaves to the east india company, nowadays, we are slaves to technology. Am not a luddite but the scenario is as such only. Atleast, we used to work as slaves. After independence, we became even more laggard in out work. Some of the current generation use technology to abuse. Freedom of expression exists only in the preamble. If you are a movie star, be with the draconian policy of the government. Dare you waver and your movie will be banned. Recently, the government has imposed a blanket ban on all blogs because it seems they were "anti-government". So if an article is remotely seditious, the person is done for. Michael moore is a very lucky guy. Even though his documentary fahrenheit 9/11 was hugely seditious, america has still let him release the film.

Hypocrisy is something which is synonymous with we indians. Our beauty queens talk about mother teresa and after winning the crown shake the coffin of the same lady with their on screen antics. Our politicians are brand ambassadors for this emotion . Ulfa, naxals, militants of kashmir, bodo are all still "fighting" for freedom. With one major blast every week, life has no guarantee in india. No wonder then that the recent survey showed that india is the 125th most happiest country. Thanks to a dude known as saddam hussain we are ahead of iraq. A recent display of hypocrisy was shown by our PM himself. While waxing eloquent about the GDP and FDI, he also made clear that the prices of LPG n kerosene will be increased.

Every 28 minutes one women in our country gets abused, every one hour a woman gets killed. And we speak of 33% reservation for women in parliament. AT this rate, leave aside representing parliament our sex ratio would be so skewed that a women will have to marry atleast two men. If a girl elopes with a guy against her family's wishes the girl is killed in the name of "honou killing". Its time we break these shibboleths. Our premium institutions are setup using the tax payer's money but the "cream" goes away to contribute to the federal reserves. This is INDIA for me. And it will be like this for atleast years to come. Am loathing at myself and this country.. Are u ???