Can we get Patriotic??

No sacrificer and no Saint, can ever rise high,

As do the simple serving folk – who for their motherland die!!

Being an ex soldier and at times having experienced the ultimate urge for that supreme sacrifice for the Motherland, I often wonder how to inspire the younger generation to even start thinking on these lines. As I sit and brood, all I can do is implore the youth to merely salute, the brave and the dauntless, who lay down their today for our better tomorrow. Probably, this simple act of remembrance will ignite that much needed spark of patriotism in every heart.   

 Yet, patriotism does not mean going out to the battle front and laying down your life. Patriotism in the hinterland pertains to realising & respecting our independence and retaining it at all costs. For the past six decades, our country has relished the feeling of being independent. The younger generation has been born and brought up in an independent environment. As such, they seldom realise the pains and travails of being subjugated. Therefore, it becomes the first & foremost duty to respect our freedom, retain the unique experience and strive to take our country to greater heights of self reliance so that we do not have to look up to other powers for assistance and jeopardise our freedom in the process.

The journey from being an under developed country to a fast developing nation has been exemplary for India. We are now very much on the roads to fast becoming a developed country with undoubted potentials of attaining super-power status. Our intellect is fast invading the developed world. So much so, dependability on the Indian brain has increased many folds in these countries. Our social, spiritual and cultural ethos is being adopted by the western world in their quest of searching the ultimate sense of well being.  

Nonetheless, the road to progress has never been a bed of roses… There have been formidable obstacles. We have to overcome these and set our sights right. We have to focus on the positives to nullify the negatives. Our country is faced with internal unrest brought about by external instigation. Student unrest, in a frenzy of politically motivated provocation, is becoming common. Class & creed based division of the society is proving to be an eternal termite that is in the process of eating away the threads of unity. Materialism is fast catching up with the youth. Family ties are gradually weakening. Lure of the west is goading the educated away from the Motherland. There is a tug-of-war in progress within his mind.

My advice to the youth is simple - let us not forget, intellectually as well as politically, the direction of all true progress is towards greater freedom. Strive hard towards making the nation self reliant in all respects and attain that ultimate independence - a situation where we have our own rules and our own say. A situation, where we are not unduly bullied and held at ransom by the so called Economic "dadas" for even the simplest requirements. Class & creed, sect & religion, haves & have-nots and all the like weakening agents have to be fought back tooth & nail. May be we can emulate the freedom fighters of the yesteryears in this manner.

One has to continuously ask oneself -

What is my place? My Time? My friend!!..... What is my duty?

And ,what am I? And, what my power??

So must one ponder, hour after hour…