Before our independence there was only one goal - freedom. It was difficult for us to be slaves for the Britishers and work for them. Hence there was unity among us. We had a common goal and we made a bloodless revolution in the history of the world.
Post independence, we are left with lot of freedom. In a country or a family or a team or a ship, if there is no good leader or a father or a captain, it becomes chaos. Everyone in this country have become so free that no body cares to listen to the others, but always want the others to listen to them. Now we are so free that we can do what ever we feel like doing. We do not have any rules (oops.. there are rules, but we do very well know how to break them). Everybody has become self-centered. What happens if everybody wants to sit on a single chair at the same time and there is no queue? Chaos and Confusion!! This is the current situation of our country.There was a popular patriotic song in Hindi "jaha daal daal par sone ki chidiya karthee hai basera.. woh bhaarat desh hai mera..jaha satya ahimsa aur dharam kaa pag pag lagta dera .. woh bharat desh hai mera.."
There were days when we banned the foreign clothes and burnt them up and started weaving our clothes. Today we pay lots of amounts to import and purchase the foreign clothing. Peter England, Oxemburg, Arrow, Louis Phillippe, etc. Every product that we use is foreign. Soaps, Shampoo, Tooth paste, clothes, food, jewellery, what not? Why are we trusting the foreign brands and not ours? We believe that those products are more genuine than ours. Though they cost more, we opt for them. Why dont we trust our products? Why do we feel that our products have poor quality than the others? Why do we laugh at the songs once sang about the greatness of our country? Why do people want to settle in the abroad and become permanent citizens of those countries? Is it only because of money? Are we really poor?
In countries like USA, Canada, etc. where there is a social security, life is different. Children's education upto 12th standard is free of cost. There is not much stress or pressure on the students to get a good rank in the engineering or medicine entrance tests. Their system of education is different. Those who want to study will go to the college and attain education in the field of their own interest, be it arts, anthropology, archeology, music, marketing, painting, etc. There is no competition and fight to attain state ranks or country ranks. Individuals are accessed and graded by their own calibre, assignments, quizzes and hence there is no ranking system to create stress and pressure among the students. Further more there is no fear for fetching jobs. English, being the common language throughout the country, people would leave their parents and home towns in search of jobs and start living independently. They would earn money for their education, thus relieving their parents from the stress of paying lots of amounts for their education. They would take up any job and study while earning (rather, earning while studying). Jobs need not be white collar ones. I have seen Indian students working for pizza huts, restaurants, malls, wallmart and other retail malls, gas stations, etc. Hence in such an environment, only those students who really are passionate to pursue their studies would study and the others would happily work and earn.
Work culture is also quite different from ours. Every individual is paid on hourly basis. Hence they get paid for the amount of work they do. Usually everybody works only for 8 hours a day; 8 hrs of productive work, unlike our system where we stay in the office for about 12 hours though there is productivity only for 7-8 hrs. Hence we end up accumulating stress. Due to the disturbed food habits that we have and due to the irresistance to the various tastes and varieties of food that are available in our "God knows how clean they are" restaurants, we end up facing health related problems.
The entire world knows that medicine and doctor consultation are damn cheap only in India!! Any RMP (Registered Medical Practitioner) or even a pharmacist in a medical shop would prescribe medicines by listening to the patients complaints and symptoms. In the US, every individual pays certain amount every month towards medical insurance. In case of any ailment or disease, they get coverage from the insurance company, otherwise which they cannot afford to pay the medical bills, since medicine is a costly affair there. Doctors there do not take the risk of prescribing medicines just by listening to the complaints. After a series of certain specific tests, they do prescibe the medicines. Since medicine is cheap in India and since there is no medical insurance for the common man, we do not bother about our health and body unless we face serious issues. Since there is a fear of paying huge amounts to the hospitals, people in the US try to maintain their health by taking proper rest, good exercises (gyms, swimming pools, etc. as we see are hence constructed in every apartment).
Continuing about the work culture, there is no official retirement age in the US. As long as they are healthy (usu. till the age of 70 years), they keep working. They try to use their brain and muscle till their death, unlike here in India, where we quit working after 60 years of age. Quality of work is given utmost importance there in the US. Quality of the product, cleanliness at the place of work and environment, systematic approach, honesty and integrity have made their companies and products reach the entire ch the entire world.
Why don't we have cleanliness in our environment? Why are our products poor in quality? Is it because we do not have enough money? Nope. We do have money. We have lot of money with us, but it cannot be claimed to be said as money in official records, because it is black. I believe that we have lot of potential in the form of money to repair our entire system, which no body wants to do.
What is black money after all? Is it black in color?The money an individual gets from any source which pays him/her unofficially, for which there are no records, no bills, no receipts, no taxes, is termed as black money.
In the US, there are two kinds of taxes. Federal tax and State tax. IRS (International Revenue Servie) considers Federal tax for the nation and State tax for the respective state for which the tax is paid. Taxes are deducted at the source (Salary). Also, people who deal with any kind of business also pay taxes. There are bills for every item that we purchase. There are records for every transaction that we make. Hence the government gets money from the people in the form of taxes, which it uses for various purposes, which are directly evident in the US society.
How many of us pay taxes regularly? We know that there are many businessmen and popular figures in the society who made huge profits yet never paid taxes. Yet we adore them. We have lot of money with us. We want our government to mint money but we never want to pay or give back to the society. Help to the society need not be in the form of voluntary donations or giving food. If every one of us pays taxes regularly, we will have more white money, which could be used for common purposes. Why are US roads so beautiful? Why is the traffic highly regulated? Why are the rules strictly followed there? Given a google map or a map quest map, any individual can reach any place in the entire US. How many years would it take for us to see such luxury in India? After looking at the cleanliness, roads and traffic regulation in the US and UK, I felt that the Britishers should have ruled for 50 more years to have established such system in India too.
Now the next question arises. If we had good sum of white money, would it be properly utilised with out any corruption? Due to the ineffective buearocracy that we have, oops...that we encouraged to have in our judicial, legistative and administrative departments, we have successfully murdered the honesty and integrity and hence knowingly encouraged corruption and crime.
We are very happily living in our indisciplined chaotic society and have no worry to think about how to bring in change, since we know that we as individuals cannot do anything, "ANYTHING" against the gigantic elements like corruption, crime and pollution which are deeprooted in our society.
I am not Motta BOSS as in Sivaji, but as an Indian who really wants to see our products, our companies fetching fame in the world, I wish there could be only white money, which could be efficiently and effectively used for the nation and therefore see the true independence of India. We shall then sing the songs and make the freedom fighters feel proud to see clean, honest, happy India.
