Skip to main content

The Cost of Freedom: Responsibility.

Exactly 5 years ago, almost around the same time, I wrote 'The Dream Called 'India'...', my understanding of the dream that those who fought for the freedom of our nation must've seen, 69 years ago.

Today, I am at the crossroads that has me turning cynical to the very same dreams that I believed were real and obvious. And that, not because I've lost the faith, not because I am any less determined to be a part of the change; but because I'm instigate and angry seeing otherwise happen all around me. All the time.

Over the past few weeks, I've been struggling with many things that I see around me, and trying to get to the literal 'root' of the problem, and maybe I'm seeing things, but it takes me to a common conclusion about the country we have become: We love our freedom, but we love skirting the responsibilities tagged along with it, even more. And, there, we forget that the freedom comes with responsibilities. The burden of responsibilities, is the sweetest cost and reward, both, of freedom.  

We love our freedom of speech, but we also love disrespecting someone else's, just as much. Just look at how unashamedly we abuse the media of this country, that is only but a reflection of the general populous. We resort to name-calling and abusing those who have an opinion that doesn't fit well in our psyche, without ever giving them a chance to tell their side of the story.

We love unabashedly abusing the government for providing inadequate, incompetent roads, while conveniently disobeying traffic rules flamboyantly. Right from not following signals, to driving under influence, to driving on the wrong side of the road, to avoiding the simple safety helmet or seat-belt, to handing a  ₹50/- note to escape a ₹500/- fine. 

We take pride in Indians who have achieved great heights elsewhere, while continually overlooking the greater problems of why they didn't achieve the same in this country. We take credit for the progress of companies and countries elsewhere, while our country and companies stay stuck in the 'developing' phase.

We talk a big game about equality among the sexes, and soon after, discriminate explicitly between the things the daughter can't do, while the son can, or vice versa. At the end of the day, we still see our women in the kitchen and completing household chores, while the 'man of the house' goes out and earns.

I could rant all day, and I'd still not tire. I could point out each and everything that I observe, day in and day out, and the list would still be incomplete. But this is about the real, core issue about do we deserve the freedom bestowed upon us by the Hon. Constitution of India? Are we worthy of that freedom, if we abstain from fulfilling our responsibilities?

I recently came across this incredible video of Dr. Shashi Tharoor at the Oxford Union Society, where he debates why Britain does owe reparations to the colonies. Since, I've only been wondering, did we win our Independence, and thereafter our freedoms, at a rate faster than what we could understand it, digest it, cherish it? Right about now, it sure seems that way.

Let's be clear, I'm not taking the side of the Government and saying they're as pure as the Ganga. Hell, I loathe our elected representatives to the Lok Sabha. Even more so right now because they have just wasted most of one month of the monsoon session of the Parliament, for no concrete reason, but just to prove that they can do it and nobody can stop them! Various real issues of the citizens pending before the Parliament will just have to wait a few more months before any decision can be arrived at.

But, before we lift a finger at someone else, and demand our freedom, let's look into ourselves, and think, do we actually deserve that freedom? And, that leads me to ask, are we as a country really responsible enough to deserve the freedom we have?

Yes, I am ranting. Yes, I am complaining. Yes, I am picking and seeing the flaws, over the victories. But, that is because I love this country, and I can't see it be disrespected this way by people who demean the nation with sheer, unashamed, blatant, dirty hurls of abuses. And, there isn't anything new here that I haven't said in numerous other posts before today.

Responsibilities aren't an outcome of freedom, they are the requirements to deserve freedom.

Let's listen to what the next person has to say, before judging him on the basis of who he is. Let's wait for those 5 seconds at the next signal and actually wait for the signal to turn green, instead of believing it must have. Let's fix our education system and create worthy professionals, who'll make more a difference to this country. Let's just hit the brakes on the discrimination and treat every individual with the same dignity and respect that we want for ourselves. Let's not forget that we are the system and the change begins with us, not elsewhere.

Let's be better citizens of this country, this Independence Day, before we demand some more freedom.

Jai Hind!

Comments

  1. This has started a whole new thought process in my head. I really hope it does the same to each one who reads this and we all start doing our bit responsibly.
    You've nailed it 👍.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As always, your posts manage to take everything other than bullsh*t. This post reflects your maturity and the wisdom. Freedom comes at the cost of Responsibility. Well said! I feel elated and privileged to be one of your readers. Well written. Keep writing.

    Peace, Poetry and Power
    Bhavin Shah
    http://www.bhavinshah.in

    ReplyDelete
  3. About "deserving" freedom? Umm, every individual is born free.
    But about deserving freedom, which is, like as said, "supposedly" tagged to us when we are born, which we, India, had to fight and die million deaths for to snatch it off Birts' hold?
    Well, your blog answers that so well.

    Kudos! Keep writing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thought provoking article. Loved the sentence "Resposibilities are the requirements to deserve freedom". Great writing..!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Bit Too Grown-Up... A Bit Too Early?

Note from the blogger: Please, please, please try not being judgemental about me and anything about me from what you read here. It's purely a result of my numerous thoughts. It's always been something I have wondered about... When's the time when you can finally call someone a grown up? When you can finally say that someone is mature enough to take care of himself and how his life is lead? When's that independence, that freedom conferred to him? When can he realize for himself that he can? That he will? Sometimes... The whole concept of English education too, bewilders me. More so because, it uproots the so-called hard-core Indian culture, its tradition and values from the minds of students like me who give themselves the freedom to have contrary views or be cynics to it. May be that's how we are or the way the double-standard of education has left us with... Either ways, it's the way it is... I know most of our parents haven't studied in English medi

The Gandhi Way? No Way!!

Disclaimer: This post is purely a substance of my personal opinion. By this, I don't mean to hurt the sentiments of the republic of India or the person regarded as the Father of The Nation, Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. If anyone would be offended by reading anything that goes against the nation and its principles, even if it's pointing the flaws so that we, the next generation could live in a better India, you would rather not read it hereon, that would be my sincere request to you, as the blogger. Peace. No hard feelings. Sitting on the stage, looking out at the crowd and people gathered around him, he rises and speaks. "I'm on a fast unto death, from now on, till my demands are met." Around 79 years ago, M. K. Gandhi, a political prisoner, changed the way protests were held in this country, India, chiefly dominated by politics and the so-called people's movements... He then rose in this battle, while serving a jail term on political grounds for the eq

Education & India: Part 2 of 2

Cross-posted from Not Just The Talks . Like I’ve said earlier (by that, I mean in Part 1 ), my life revolves around the state of education in India today, being a student. And I lead from where I left, in the first post, in this one. 1) Colleges: The basic requisite for a successful post-education life-in-the-real-world, as I’ve heard so far, begins from colleges. Schools are those parts of our lives, when we’re shaped and also protected during the process. But, in colleges, we have our first interaction with the real world. So, it wouldn’t be immature-ish of me to say, that ‘That’s where it all begins...’. There’s not much to say, except that what I’m (by that I mean everyone in their respective colleges) taught is purely theoretical bullshit. Something that has been in the textbooks since ages. And, even if it has been ‘revised’ lately, I’m assured, when I open the first page, that all I’ll study, will be something that isn’t even present in real day life.