I haven't written in a while, and now that I am back I have picked the prickliest subject there is. Recently in a conversation my right to question domestic Indian policies was brought into question, I was also accused of indulging in soft American democratic psychobabble. I hope the few lines I now think are worth putting down don't sound like defensive whining, but come through like the crystal clear thoughts that they are in my mind.
There are a few kinds of people who will not be open to this discussion. If you truly believe that I have forfeited my rights to take an interest in and talk about my country just because I have decided to further my education and career in the United States, then there is nothing I can say that will make you change your mind. In any case the title of the Blog is not 'In defense of my inalienable right as a citizen to be concerned about and have opinions about my country, its governance system, its policies and its people.' I consider that well and truly defended.
Democracy as a word has become commonplace and innocuous. Its meaning seems abundantly apparent and its importance unquestionable. However, as an ideology democracy is a lot more than just being a government 'Of the people, by the people and for the people.'In fact democracy is the perfect anti ideology, one of its fundamental requirements being that all existing ideologies must be embraced and understood. Is democracy just a system of governance or can it be more than that? Can it be a guideline to living our lives?
Democracy gives us the right to vote for our leaders. It gives us the choice to choose an agenda we believe in, a leader we have confidence in and a chance to speak out every time we believe our trust is being misplaced. Democracy has in a way become synonymous with freedom. The freedom to speak out against injustice, to protest, to make our own choices. But I personally think democracy is a lot more than that. I think democracy is more than being able to speak out, it is the opportunity to listen. It is more than airing opinions, it is about fair and reasonable debate and the opportunity not just to change minds but to have your own mind changed.
Democracy as an ideology embraces empathy. We are all brought up with a considerable moral background, we are taught to understand right and wrong. But it is impossible for us to assume that we can understand every perspective and every circumstance. If we are to live by democratic ideals, we must learn to listen to and understand the circumstances of our fellow human beings. Democracy gives us a platform to bring about not just the change we want, but the change a collective wants.
Does democracy impede progress? That is a question that will have me labeled as a heretic in the country I now live in. However democracy does entail a system that slows down the implementation of policies. As an Indian I cannot see my country moving forward economically as fast as China, because we cannot compare to the swift decision making of a single person. That does not and should not however bog us down. Democracy opens up our perspectives to far greater things than just our own needs. It requires the patience to listen and learn. As a country we need to keep that alive. Within our government and within the next generation. Don't just add to the cacophony, listen.
P.S. This blog was a draft since September 09. I came in to do a New Year's post, but thought I couldn't leave this one unpublished. So Happy New Year ya'll! May new and wondrous things happen to us all!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Inheritance
I have grown up hearing history or reading it. I have always been at the receiving end of accounts of glory, horror, hardship and greatness. I spent a very trouble free childhood. I never had to face or even understand the concept of hardship. I was brought up with a healthy respect for our condition and the awareness of suffering, but I never suffered. In a broader sense I was born in a stable country going through a longer than normal period of constant growth and high promise.
During my childhood, we as a family had to deal with many issues related to ourselves and our position, but there was never anything we had no control over. We lived through some rough times for Bombay as it was then. We saw the riots; we were there during the serial bombings of 93. But curiously, those events seemed far away and not capable of touching us. (Of course I now realize that was because I was too young then. Too young to really grasp horror).
I went through the education system at a time when a new understanding for alternative and exciting fields was beginning. Where parents and children alike were grasping at new careers and better and more efficient ways to mine their talent and interest. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to follow my own heart. Experimenting, hitting cul de sacs sometimes, but having the luxury to learn and retry. I sometimes underestimate this power I had back then. This shield that allowed me to blunder as only a young adult can and yet be able to rise again and prove myself. All allowing me to be who I need to be.
I was never oblivious of my surrounding pain and suffering, I just never had to face it. I could be and was an audience to life's dramas. Without caring about or understanding the implications to my life. I was as carefree and happy go lucky as an audience at a Shakespearean tragedy. My tears were just those shed in sympathy by an audience.
No more. No more have I got this luxury. No more can my generation even think that they are protected. Our jobs are at risk, our lives are at risk. Maybe it’s the frantic urgency of a 24 hr update media frenzy, but it has left me and my fellow people in a state of extreme vulnerability. Our very lives are threatened. I am no longer a listener to the woes of generations before me, but a sympathizer of people my age. I don't have to go to history books to know what a war is like, I just have to turn on the television or even just talk to my boss, who's son is in the Navy.
I don't have to look at grainy black and white photos of people standing in soup lines, I just have to look down the corner of my street. I no longer have to try to imagine the fear of people living under constant threat, I can hear it in the voices of people I care about. I now witness history. Every day, new numbers regarding the state of the global economy. The legacy of the blunders of the past now unfolds at my feet. Careers collapse around me. Companies, giants are falling.
Not only the manmade disasters but the natural disasters come knocking at my door. I saw people swim through floodwaters to get to the basement of my building. I watch the Weather Channel in awe as a hurricane with storm winds stretching for 500 miles threatened to hit the Gulf of Mexico.
My entire generation of people and I have come to face these things which were once fabulous beasts of fantasy. What I couldn’t decide was whether this is a fate unique to my generation, or whether all generations feel this way when they get to be my age. After all when WWII came knocking around, when the Berlin Wall fell, even when the dawn of our Independence and the disaster of our Partition arpproached, there was a generation of twenty to thirty year olds wondering whether such things could be reality.
I finally understand the real nature of what later becomes history. I have figured out that you need to get to a certain age to really do so. I have finally understood the meaning of growing up, or rather of coming of age. You come of age when you understand that not only are you the one impacted by historic events, you are the center of historic events, the cause and the victim all at once. The complexity of the world hits you, the interconnectedness becomes apparent. One understands, we understand, that for all its beauty and its flaws, we have finally inherited the Earth.
During my childhood, we as a family had to deal with many issues related to ourselves and our position, but there was never anything we had no control over. We lived through some rough times for Bombay as it was then. We saw the riots; we were there during the serial bombings of 93. But curiously, those events seemed far away and not capable of touching us. (Of course I now realize that was because I was too young then. Too young to really grasp horror).
I went through the education system at a time when a new understanding for alternative and exciting fields was beginning. Where parents and children alike were grasping at new careers and better and more efficient ways to mine their talent and interest. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to follow my own heart. Experimenting, hitting cul de sacs sometimes, but having the luxury to learn and retry. I sometimes underestimate this power I had back then. This shield that allowed me to blunder as only a young adult can and yet be able to rise again and prove myself. All allowing me to be who I need to be.
I was never oblivious of my surrounding pain and suffering, I just never had to face it. I could be and was an audience to life's dramas. Without caring about or understanding the implications to my life. I was as carefree and happy go lucky as an audience at a Shakespearean tragedy. My tears were just those shed in sympathy by an audience.
No more. No more have I got this luxury. No more can my generation even think that they are protected. Our jobs are at risk, our lives are at risk. Maybe it’s the frantic urgency of a 24 hr update media frenzy, but it has left me and my fellow people in a state of extreme vulnerability. Our very lives are threatened. I am no longer a listener to the woes of generations before me, but a sympathizer of people my age. I don't have to go to history books to know what a war is like, I just have to turn on the television or even just talk to my boss, who's son is in the Navy.
I don't have to look at grainy black and white photos of people standing in soup lines, I just have to look down the corner of my street. I no longer have to try to imagine the fear of people living under constant threat, I can hear it in the voices of people I care about. I now witness history. Every day, new numbers regarding the state of the global economy. The legacy of the blunders of the past now unfolds at my feet. Careers collapse around me. Companies, giants are falling.
Not only the manmade disasters but the natural disasters come knocking at my door. I saw people swim through floodwaters to get to the basement of my building. I watch the Weather Channel in awe as a hurricane with storm winds stretching for 500 miles threatened to hit the Gulf of Mexico.
My entire generation of people and I have come to face these things which were once fabulous beasts of fantasy. What I couldn’t decide was whether this is a fate unique to my generation, or whether all generations feel this way when they get to be my age. After all when WWII came knocking around, when the Berlin Wall fell, even when the dawn of our Independence and the disaster of our Partition arpproached, there was a generation of twenty to thirty year olds wondering whether such things could be reality.
I finally understand the real nature of what later becomes history. I have figured out that you need to get to a certain age to really do so. I have finally understood the meaning of growing up, or rather of coming of age. You come of age when you understand that not only are you the one impacted by historic events, you are the center of historic events, the cause and the victim all at once. The complexity of the world hits you, the interconnectedness becomes apparent. One understands, we understand, that for all its beauty and its flaws, we have finally inherited the Earth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)