Patriotism

Two days back I was watching a video on facebook. A friend of mine shared it and it was about patrioism. Video shows how people say 'I love my country', 'proud to be an Indian', etc... And then there a lot of poor, illiterate people and a lot of people living in slums without proper food and all, about all the crime and corruption that has become too common in India. Every guy who saw that video was asked to share it and so they shared. Everyone gets a little high on patriotism when they watch such stuff and wants to do something that will change the conditions of life in the country.

To change something, what must you do? Do something about population control? Do some sting operation to expose corruption? Kill terrorists? Punish all those mafia and dons and all? Whatever the answer is, the bigger question is, are you capable of doing that, even if you are, are you willing to do that, make a commitment for some 20 years to something like that. Just to get some form from a government office you have to go around them for weeks and you get too pissed off just by that, a change in the system takes a lot more than just that. And definitely, it never happens like in the movies.

We blame politicians, that they do not do their jobs. That they take up that particular position to serve the people, but they do not do that. If Dhoni drops a catch, we start with "WTF... It was such an easy catch and he..". How many of us can take a catch like that? That doesn't really matter, because when you have a player at international level, he is supposed to take those tough ones, he is supposed to win matches for the country, he is supposed to score runs in every innings, he is supposed to put up a decent performance before the media. Everyone is "supposed to" be doing something.

Now, what about you, me, us... Students. What are we supposed to do? Do you really think you are doing what you're supposed to do? People get into a school because they want to learn, if they just want to put peace, they can just sleep at home. The worse cases, people get into institutes like IITs and then start cribbing saying this is not good, that's not good, I'm not enthued in this, I don't give a shit about this, blah blah blah. If you did not want to mug, if you did not want to put fight for acads, why the duck did you even write JEE?

How many people going to college know what's happening in classes? How many can put it into use. I have a feeling it's only around 5 percent in an average college- 5% of people can appreciate what they're being taught, others just mug it off for exams and forget it after those 3 hours. What would happen if this 5% were turned to 25%? To 50%? I'm not talking just number, I'm talking about the quality of the civil engineer who built that 20 floor building in the city centre. The rate at which the country progresses is definitely in proportion with the quality of the people who work in some field. If the standard engineer in some ship building company is another Isaac Newton, he can build a better ship with lighter weight with higher speed with lower fuel consumption at a lower cost.

Extend this to law schools and medicine schools. Probably the same numbers apply here too, I'm not sure though. If every professional school increases its useful intellectual output by 10 times, or even 3-5times, India would become the best in no time.
In Asian games China got nearly 200 golds and India got 15 golds and we were too proud about that, that was our best performance after some decades. That's because every dude plays some sport only to impress a girl or that bunch of guys who are putting pseud or just to escape from all the shit in his life, but how many are really serious about that particular sport? How many are ready to give his job away because he got a chance to 'raise the bar'? I've known some weightlifters, some really go hard at it, push as far as they can till it's not physically possible anymore, and some just think they're fighting too f-ing hard and give up when they get the slightest pain.

Another thing, if you were to trust your life with someone, or heck, if you've earned some 10 lakh rupees (you fought really hard for that cash) and you have to give it to someone so that that guy can invest it, open a store or do some other business with that money and in the end give you a share in the profit, who would you give that cash to? To this dude who's too damn irresponsible, who pays to go to school, pays for the bus, and then goes there and peacefully sleeps, boozes atleast twice a month, spends a lot of cash in fags, watches a lot of movies as if there were nothing else to do, or may be does drugs too? Or would you rather give it to the guy who's more responsible, boozes or fags, but is yet under control and does his work on time? Which kind are you really? The question is, can you trust your life, your cash, your partner with yourself?

I'm no professional writer, I'm not sure if I've put the point through. What I'm trying to say, if I'm saying something, is, if you really want to do something for the country, or for your parents, or for anyone, you don't need to make donations or go to schools to educate kids and all, atleast do what you're supposed to do without fooling around. If you go to school, try to know what's happening there, if you play some sport, aim for something, don't just hang your nuts in the field. Be responsible.