I don’t wish this article to end up as another op-ed article in a newspaper. I don’t have any experience in the field of journalism apart from being a journalism student. Neither do I possess a scholarly vocabulary. I would like to express my very basic concerns, which aren’t confined to any individual but would appeal to the masses across India.
The concern of a farmer might be why he isn’t able to have the same standard of living as the people who survive on his annual produce – this, despite the fact that the farmer puts in hours of physical work daily.
This may not be the concern of a CEO or a corporation. The CEO might be wonder why he still can’t afford a diamond-studded watch, in spite of the net worth of the company growing manifold over a fortnight.
The employees occupying the middle and lower positions in the corporate hierarchy might be wondering when they would be able to afford popcorn at the multiplexes without feeling a crunch on their monthly expenditure.
Imagine if Edison had kept his invention of the light bulb to himself. Each person today then would have to make their own light bulbs from scratch. Imagine if freedom fighters would have only fought for personal independence. What would happen if soldiers only protected the borders of their houses?
Some people think that problems can be solved by getting rid of minorities in India. Even if this happened, what happens afterwards? You remain in the same state where you hold a bucket and wait in line to perform your morning ritual. You are in the same state where you are still in a race to afford popcorn or a diamond-studded watch. The farmer who feeds India still sleeps hungry.
Some might rejoice at prospects of India’s GDP increasing but the questions still remain the same. A farmer’s kid may be wondering when he would get a new pair of slippers while a CEO throws tantrums over buying a Mercedes. A middle class student, meanwhile, hopes his college provides him with decent placement and a good salary package.
A general concern cuts across class lines – have we forgotten about society in order to fulfil our materialistic needs? Have we failed to realise that different people may be dealing with different problems? Some want a toilet in their home while others want smoother roads.
Have we failed to realise that basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education and safety have become unaffordable? Have we simply resigned ourselves to the fact that these things should be a matter of affordability?
Tiny creatures like ants have more systematic colonies than humans. Lions live together with pride and even the sheep lives in flock. Have we not heard the old saying – birds of a feather flock together? Did we not study in history that man evolved from the Stone Age to this era due to a focus on the collective progress of civilization? What would have happened if the man who discovered fire had kept it a secret?
Today, a large number of Indian children do not attend schools because they cannot afford education. How are they going to sustain themselves if we do not equip them with the necessary tools? There are 194.6 million malnourished people in India but public dustbins are overflowing with food that has been wasted. Who would want to be a pick-pocket if they were able to earn? Why would someone perform morning rituals on railway tracks if they had a toilet in their home? Why would someone sleep on the footpath if they had a roof over their head to sleep?
I don’t know how many of you know about relay races – the second runner cannot start running unless the first runner passes on the baton to him. So, how do expect to successfully start running the relay race of development while leaving behind the prior runner?
Have we become so selfish that we have failed to realise that development is a relay race too and not an individual race? Why are we not uniting across classes to solve the problems of unemployment, poverty, lack of education and healthcare?
Why don’t we unite to establish a society on the principles of justice, rationalism and progressive thinking? When the pillars of your house crack, do you wait for it to collapse or do you get your house renovated? When the pillars of the society are facing major cracks, why are you waiting for them to fall? If the society falls, you fall too. We all fall.