Monday, October 11, 2004

A Hypocrite lives on?

A Hypocrite lives on?

So, you want to change the lives of your people? After an admission to the London School of Economics and a degree in computer science from IIT Madras and setting foot in London, having spent a couple of months and a couple of lakhs of rupees– You want to return to find out what your country’s all about - for an year and make your move for the life ahead?

Your defense – You have absolutely nothing to lose, a year spent learning about villages, their people and problems is a year well spent. Moreover, you are going to give yourself one more shot at all those scholarships that you missed out on. And very very importantly, you get closer to finding out what you really want to do in life!

Notably, you haven’t said a thing about doing things for your country and other saucy stuff like making sacrifices to put yourself on that imaginary pedestal that only you would see.

You definitely want to make money but you want to make money and bring about a change all the same. And you definitely don’t want to be one of those ‘revered’ people perched comfortably high and away making donations that seem to vanish as fast as they come – doing little more than providing that mask to hide your guilt each time your country cries for help.

Do you want to see yourself in a position trying to convince the next generation that you sacrificed a lot to serve the nation- and make them see for themselves – the change that you have brought? – although they don’t seem to be spotting any?
And turn into one of those grumpy old men unwilling to accept change and trying to convince people that you are a worthy idol for them – with that two-bedroom rented house of yours and that old atlas cycle you ride to work– the days of sacrifice are far behind us today – Nobody’s going to do as you did if all that’s all your efforts are going to get for them.

For God’s sake, please don’t tell me that you derive satisfaction from the fact that you have changed lives of people although nobody seems to know about it. Sacrifices are a thing of the past; nobody’s going to make them for you to ‘change your nation’.

If you want to spearhead change – you have to be a leader – a leader of this generation –have ample money to get things done, be comfortable with change and technology and importantly be a worthy idol for today’s materialistic world.

While APJ Abdul Kalam is admired, Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar will have a large audience, they are listened to more than the former. On the same note, there’s no doubt which person’s going to get more ears when an RKK and a partner of McKinsey speak.

Well, you’re a part of this world and you can’t say the world is completely gone bonkers. You don’t have to change your goals – you’ve got to find ways to work round this world to achieve your goal.

So what was all the talk about coming back for a year – does it fit in into this world as it is now?
The Hypocrite lives on then… if that’s what you want to call me.