I felt ashamed at my insensitiveness and decided o take up the blame for failing to inculcate the spirit of patriotism in my children’s mind even when they were young. Even now I am encouraging them to study well only to get a placement abroad and not to help others here and to build a better nation. I was shocked at the total disaster we as parents were creating in the minds of our kids in the name of better jobs and foreign citizenship. At least I was little consoled by the fact that I was not the only mother doing this, at the same time worried about the out come of this seed being planted in the minds of the youth of today in the future.
When we ourselves don’t have the concern to build a better India how can we create a youth force which will have to safeguard and develop India in the future. How can we inculcate the great Indian dream in the young minds without changing OUR attitude towards the nation. Our generation should change first to show by personal example that we do care for the nation, its development, for its safety, its cleanliness, and natural resources. How many of us really cared to clean up the garbage piled up next to our house. Don’t we think that the front gate is our boundary line and anything after that is public property. Why don’t we start with the extension of our boundary line, first outside our gates.
Imagine what a difference it will make when we all clean up that little area around our house. When our children see this will they not be inspired to extend it further in and around their schools. In other countries people do community service voluntarily and in America people are punished for minor crimes by attributing community service for a period of time. why don’t we start something like that. we can form small communities area wise or in every street and offer help to that communities hospitals, schools and temples. Its not a one man’s job considering the fact that these services had been neglected for decades. We need not go out of the way to do this full time, at least let us spare a portion of our free time if not all. India has opened its doors wide open to so many diversified cultures, religions and traditions, why don’t we open ourselves to do just a small community service not only to help India grow but also to create a good inspiration for our children.. Why don’t we start this new year with this resolved resolution .
why don’t I start it in my life first I thought before sending in this message, as I was damn sure that what cannot be followed cannot be preached. With much clarity and overwhelming patriotic thoughts I further thought of ways and means to bring about national integration into my family first. First I decided to collect biographies of our national leaders whose life breathed patriotism, as I believe in the words ‘history repeats itself’. Maybe their life’s would inspire at least one of us or someone who visited us, so my next plan was to prepare pamphlets about them and their words of wisdom and stick them up in the wall which was otherwise filled with calendars and scenery from European countries. I am also thinking of collecting some nice pictures depicting our natural richness and splendor to make greeting cards to be sent on special occasions for our friends and foes.
I made up my mind to see to it that I don’t throw garbage anywhere and everywhere, so I decided to get a garbage bin in which couple of house near me can also use to throw their waste. I remembered the phrase I read in a book about new year resolutions, ‘A year from now you will wish you had started today’, fearing the worst I decided not to wait for the new year to start my work, as I had long lost all belief in making resolution only for the day never to be followed. I also read somewhere that “to think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing”, Here I come Mother India, you have long awaited for your dear daughter to mature enough to help you and nurture you, as a token of my newly gained regards for the nation I stood up and paid my respects and devotion to our “Bharath Matha’ hoping and praying for my success and all those who wish to follow suit. Jai kind.
PS: this article was published in the month of jan last year in EVES TOUCH magazineAnd thankyou all for being patient enough to have come this far to the second part as well...
