I fully expected to wake up to the sound of 'जहा डाल डाल पर सोनेकी चिडिया करती है बसेरा' or 'मेरे देसकी धरती' today morning. But surprisingly all was quiet and has been so till now. Is it that everyone is headed out of town for the long weekend? Because it is useless to assume that people have suddenly realized the ill-effects of loud music. Things just don't work that way in India. Whatever the reason, I can happily say that I am celebrating freedom from blaring patriotic songs. Hello peace!
Must say that every year on this day I wonder if there is anything to celebrate about. Then I watch people from war-torn countries fleeing for their lives with whatever belongings they can carry with them. And I realize that we have come to take freedom for granted. :-( Recently I read in one of the Mint columns about the acute food shortage that was felt in India for the first few years after independence and how we had to depend on food aid from the US till the Green Revolution happened. That wasn't news. What shocked me was that the Prime Minister had told the nation to skip one meal a week so that food can be saved. We seem to have come a long way since then. Many of us don't think twice about piling on more food than we can consume on plates and then discarding it. :-( And that's just one uncivilized aspect of our sad lives these days. I could go on and on but the billion dollar question is how are we going to change all this? Do we even have the will? Do we even realize that we are going down the wrong path?
I would have been engulfed in these gloomy thoughts but an article in the Mint saved the day for me. Surprisingly enough, it was about the syndicate bank scam in general and loan brokers in particular. I read about how the bankers grant the loans in exchange of gifts. Such is the state of affairs in this country that I wasn't even a bit surprised. The fact that surprised me was a tiny paragraph towards the end of the article - one retired bank official mentioned how bank chairmen routinely order their staff to process loans that aren't clearly in the bank's best interest. Most of the times they get their way but there are instances when someone or other decides to put their foot down and saves the bank from the costly transaction, even if it means retiring from the same position without any promotion in sight.
On this Independence Day, I hope and pray that we have more of such people. May their tribe go by leaps and bounds. Perhaps all is not lost yet. Happy Independence Day India!
Must say that every year on this day I wonder if there is anything to celebrate about. Then I watch people from war-torn countries fleeing for their lives with whatever belongings they can carry with them. And I realize that we have come to take freedom for granted. :-( Recently I read in one of the Mint columns about the acute food shortage that was felt in India for the first few years after independence and how we had to depend on food aid from the US till the Green Revolution happened. That wasn't news. What shocked me was that the Prime Minister had told the nation to skip one meal a week so that food can be saved. We seem to have come a long way since then. Many of us don't think twice about piling on more food than we can consume on plates and then discarding it. :-( And that's just one uncivilized aspect of our sad lives these days. I could go on and on but the billion dollar question is how are we going to change all this? Do we even have the will? Do we even realize that we are going down the wrong path?
I would have been engulfed in these gloomy thoughts but an article in the Mint saved the day for me. Surprisingly enough, it was about the syndicate bank scam in general and loan brokers in particular. I read about how the bankers grant the loans in exchange of gifts. Such is the state of affairs in this country that I wasn't even a bit surprised. The fact that surprised me was a tiny paragraph towards the end of the article - one retired bank official mentioned how bank chairmen routinely order their staff to process loans that aren't clearly in the bank's best interest. Most of the times they get their way but there are instances when someone or other decides to put their foot down and saves the bank from the costly transaction, even if it means retiring from the same position without any promotion in sight.
On this Independence Day, I hope and pray that we have more of such people. May their tribe go by leaps and bounds. Perhaps all is not lost yet. Happy Independence Day India!
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