In our school days, we used to take pledge every day -
"India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my country…."
It's a long time when I left the school and I hardly remember it.
Am I following the pledge?
Only "Idiots" will ask this question and "Idiots" will answer it. So let us not even ask it, so answering is automatically kept aside.
"India is no longer left a country to sacrifice something for"
"भारत देशासाठी काहीतरी करून दाखवावे असा देश राहिला नाही आता आता हिच गोष्ट बरोबर वाटू लागली आहे ... देश म्हणजे काय हो ? इथले लोकच ना ? आणि लोकच असे असतील तर कोणाला ह्या देशासाठी काहीतरी करावेसे वाटेल ? .... "
These are extracts from some blogs that I read recently.
Are these statements correct?
I don't know. I don't want to find out whether these are correct or not.
And even if I ever want to find out answers of these, I admit (with all due respect to everyone, actors of the state, and writers of these statements)– what should I do with these correct statements or wrong statements? Do I know the remedy? I might know… do I have power/ authority to fix it? Is it possible to completely eradicate the devils which resides in "us"?
So, in short, the questions are unending. I am leaving them aside.
Some days back, when I read these statements, I was confused, What should be the reaction? Anger, pity or total agreement……!!!
It was a reaction, without any application of thought, conscience. Now, after a little thought, I am very happy with these statements.
These are clear indicators of awareness amongst us. If people are reading it and they are replying to these, it means, yes, there are people who are thinking about country, they are ready to spend some time of their busy schedules on this very important subject. And I thank all of you of raising the concern.
This subject will always lure creative minds, have a look at movies that depict shows common mans anger. A character says, "लोगों में घुस्सा बहोत है, उसे आजमाना बंद करो!!".
Kudos to the writer of this of catching the nerve of people in very correct words.
We will always have writers and film makers who will raise these concerns. (Or as some says, they will cash on popular subjects, knowing its guaranteed hit!!!)
OK fine.
We should thank all of them, but what next, don't we need to stand up and resolve the problem. This reminds me of sentence from management book, "Problems have a way of hanging around and growing larger if ignored". How we want to see ourselves? As passive, inactive, cribbing person? Or as proactive, reliable and with "Let's do it" attitude. The answer is with us.
Now, let us get little bit realistic and try to solve problem.
Being in software industry, I will use our parlance.
Everyone of us is able to find existing problems – Corruption,
Unemployment, Illiteracy, Nexus between politics and bureaucracy, terrorism, increasing crime, population….
The list is never ending.
Can I say that, we have identified the 'Problem Statement'? Yes, I can.
Is the scope very wide? Yes, it is.
What do I do, when my customer gives me unrealistic demands, I strip them down to a extent which is possible for us to deliver.
So can I strip our 'Problem Statement'? Yes, I can.
What should be followed up and what should not be? Let us take it one by one -
Corruption - Do I have authority/ power to check on corruption? (In ideal case, everyone has authority as a citizen, but in ideal case, aren't we suppose to ensure zero critical bugs in releases? We are, right, so why do we have production supports? So, let us stick to real life scenario and not get too much idealistic)
Unemployment, terrorism, increasing crime and so on and so forth, it is not easy to find feasible way of 'Contributing to Solution'.
As we do in our work life, I am here trying to find out 'Commonly agreed most feasible solution'.
Illiteracy – Can something be done here, I think, yes. But, how?
Can we support Persistent Foundations effort - Student Sponsorship Program?
Can this be a start-up towards achieving bigger goals?
Can we "Proactively" spend some time in making sure that the children are not dropping from school after they are being sponsored for a year or so?
Yes.
This can be first step.
This can be our first 'Module', The First 'Milestone'.
Let me go back to the 'Problem Statement' again. It is very huge responsibility, isn't it, if so, we need support from everyone to get it done. Right? (Do you remember management keywords, team efforts,
collective responsibility.) I think we apply these jargons only in our professional life and keep them locked in safe when it comes to social life.
If I am cribbing about the way, we are governed in this country, then, it is high time for me to 'Improve my performance in social life also'. There are no 'Performance Improvement Programs (PIPs)' here.
I leave this the discussion here, and will wait for second milestone to be discovered by the team.
