A Country becomes great, only when its people care about,

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India, a 1.4 billion strong country, the largest democracy in the world, one of the youngest nations, having all the diversities in, caste, color, culture, climates, ethnicity, languages, beliefs, Gods, dogmas, seasons, geography, etc. like a rainbow in the sky. We are so blessed and have so many natural privileges, that are not available in any other part of this planet. But, how many of us know about India and value its rich legacy? We have every reason to be proud citizens of this great country. But, do we have adequate reasons to be proud of the current situation and state of affairs of this great country. Should we not be pained, by the way, we are alleging each other and spilling out hate via every possible medium of expression and communication? Are we not spreading unrestricted toxicity in our surroundings with our insecurities, callousness, and vicious thoughts. How many of us think to be INDIA AS A GREAT COUNTRY?

Cribs and complain is the national character of this country. Each one of us has grievances from every existing thing in the surroundings, be it the system, the society, from close relations, with destiny, from God, and finally from ourselves. We want to have everything at the cost of nothing. From culture to agriculture, we have all the reasons for complaining, because we are not prepared to fight. Passing the blame at all levels is at the core of our national character. We always tend to blame every other person from situation to entity, except for ourselves. The reason is we are not prepared to accept failures, which are an integral part of life. Since we don’t accept failures, we don’t make adequate efforts to improve ourselves.

Indirectly money is the only God of every Indian, be he rich or poor. We please every deity and God, either with precious gifts or money. How to mint money is our religion. To be financially sound is the only certificate of our character and status in society. India is a vast country with all the diversities, but there are a lot of common traits amongst all of us. Despite all this, it’s almost impossible to characterize people. Everyone is so different to believe and to understand. A common habit among all of us is, we closely monitor what others think and certainly poke our nose into others’ matters. We always commit more than, what we can deliver. We are eternal optimists, unreasonably philosophical, have a laid-back attitude but of course resilient.

Everywhere in India, life is out of the question without spiritual and religious dimensions. Each one of us is a firm believer in one religion or the other and spirituality. It connects the people with nature in a unique way. You can’t draw a line between religion/spirituality and the everyday life of an Indian. It’s completely a different and unique way of thinking about life and the world on the whole. Each one is intoxicated with the opium of religion with variable intensities, which, sometimes give wounds and sometimes heal them. We are an amazing society, where we never forget to give everything a tag of right or wrong, but still can’t draw a line between the two.

India’s diversity or lack of homogeneity means that “most Indians view other Indian as a foreigner”. He is Haryanvi, he is Punjabi, he is Gujarati, and so on, which is always the mode of identification of a person we generally meet. We are so curiously excited and interested in other matters, that we easily learn to absorb, mimic and clone simultaneously and perfectly. We are accustomed to quick fixes, where no job is done properly despite the availability of adequate resources and proper time. We are always in the hunt for shortcuts and temporary solutions instead of a permanent and long-term solution.

CHALTA HAI is another unique feature of our real national character. Not learning or adapting, rather compromising with the circumstances without making any effort is our attitude, because we don’t believe in fighting the adverse situations in life. We always come out of our actions or guilt by equating and giving the other’s examples. Need to bribe someone, “Sab lete dete hain, iske bina to kam hi nahi chalta”. Witnessing some bad elements troubling some girl, “main beech mey kyon padun”, clearly reflect the real character of our society. Very often you will find a taxi driver spitting on traffic signals.

Undesirable constant comparison with anybody and with any situation is a general part of our conversations. Just see where US and China have reached, and our country “sattar saal ke baad bhi wahin ka wahin hai”. His son is more brilliant in his studies. Insecurity is one trait, which all of us nurture so religiously. We always try to take credit for every good thing that happened in the past or relate the current achievements in any part of the world with ourselves. There was a joke circulating in social media after the defeat of Pakistan by Australia in the 2021, T-20 World Cup, where Mathew Wade scored three sixes in the 19th over. Now the Indians claim that Mathew Wade is Mahant Vaidya, and Australia is ancient Australya, a part of India.

Most of the Indians after attaining a financial position start believing themselves to be not only an important rather an indispensable person for society. VIP syndrome is a common disease with which most of us are suffering. We don’t keep ourselves limited to our original identity, rather always in hunt of additional recognitions among the society. We are too much of a collective society to be seen as individuals. We are afraid to be different. Being in a group or part of a faceless crowd, we feel ourselves to be comfortable. We always display our status or success even in general discussions to get acknowledged for social acceptability.

Unfortunately, the invasion of western culture has done great harm. We are trying to be what we are not. We have grossly in indulged in imitating western countries in their pursuit of wealth, comfort, recognition, and power. Being preoccupied with materialistic things, we have little time to shape for better things in life. We need to understand that it is not enough to only foster cognitive intelligence.

In ancient times, our national character was based upon our high sense of spiritual values. Our ancestors, who devoted themselves to the study of Nature, philosophy, and acquisition of knowledge set great examples of human values. In ancient times piety, clarity, sincerity, simplicity, and integrity were outstanding attributes of our national culture. India is her people. It is these people who need to change for the nation to improve. We can’t afford to be passive citizens. Rather we need to carve new pathways where none trod before us. We need to face the issues we are having as a society but take responsibility as individual. We will have to foresee and work hard for what we can achieve. Society becomes a civil society, and a country becomes great, only when its people care about, how it is to be governed.