Before the 'Obamania' falls out of fashion I'd like to share something. The day after the new President of the United States was sworn in, a teacher of mine said, during class, that the reason Barrack Obama won the presidential elections is his exceptional oratory skills and moving rhetoric. I don't completely agree to that. The Obama Effect is an example or sign of 'The Old Order Changeth' - of the old giving way to the new. A single word echoed through a continent for several months. That word was "Change".
Across the globe someone else held up a cup of tea and said "Jaagore". And haven't we all felt the power of it ! So in a country with over 60% of it's population under the age of 25, we could correctly imagine the magnitude of the difference that a change in power could create.
Imagine a population that is not only educated but can also educate. Imagine a population that rises above regional & religious differences. Imagine a population that is expressive. Imagine a population that truly values intellect & is performance oriented. Imagine a population that is individually accountable and responsive. Imagine a population that is void of prejudices. Imagine a population that is alert & invoved. Imagine a population that is globalized, online and connected. Imagine a population that can make the right choices. Imagine a population that is correctly aware: from ecology to AIDS. Imagine an India with its young empowered.
There are two 'official' days for nationalism in our country. And for about 60 years we have diligently spent them acknowledging and celebrating the heroes of yesterday.
Now those revered heroes were not sent by divine intervention during the first half of the last century to free India from its cliched shackles. They were amongst us all the while and just needed an appropriate opportunity to be moulded into the form that we remember them for.
Similarly, I may not know what's wrong with the economy today and how to fix it, but somebody else does. I may not have the talent to shine at the Olympics but somebody else has. But I do have an idea about the effect of a transition, about the potential of the youth and I have shared it with you. And even though it doesn't make me a hero, it makes me matter, atleast for today.
Likewise, let us all see the 'appropriate opportunity' around us. And rise to it too.
We all may not have the big solutions in mind. But if we individually, responsibly, consciously and as a part of a larger whole make the right choices about all that involves us, very soon we'd feel a change: A difference that WE would have made.
The age of 60 is a time for introspection. One can well imagine a retiring individual looking back into his youth, to judge the course of his life and derive a personal verdict. He asks himself whether he has mattered. And in time We, as citizens of the Future India, should be able to answer that question positively.
Into that heaven of opportunity my Father, let my country awake.
Here's wishing you a thought provoking Republic Day.
Thank You & Jai Hind.
- Abhinav Nayar
26.1.09