Was’nt it just a year back, India revelled in it’s filth and poverty being made a spectacle on celluloid? – ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ – one of the largest grosser made by one belonging to our erstwhile colonial rulers. It filled coffers and brought in laurels for all involved. People marveled at the realistic cinema, the display of the underprivileged, rung in a wave of slum tourism!
Well, not taking away anything from the movie….I liked it too …as within all that, there was this intriguing story telling that kept us gripped. Made us relate to the people and their ethos.
Cut to 2010, CWG - is’nt it the same filth and dirt in the face of our so called international patrons? Are we not all feeling ashamed that our International guests are turning up their noses? Are we not feeling as if all is lost and we have taken a severe beating!!! We an IT savvy country, home to some of the richest men in the world, we who take pride in immersing our idols in rivers and seas, we who vehemently clean our houses and gardens and don’t think twice before littering public places, we the ultimate gurus of Yoga and spirituality having millions of people not having basic peace at home.. leave alone spiritual.
Yes, we have been betrayed by money eating politicians maybe… but, can we the people get away by pointing fingers?
We Indians are the first to voice an opinion – coffee table discussions, chai time chats, TV shows, office chatter, or people like me blogging like this!! That is a legacy we have inherited… nothing bad about it, but, that is all, we are just good at voicing opinions and discussing feverishly till we get our next topic and move on!
The chasm between our celebration of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and so-called bowing heads for the CWG fiasco goes on an shows our own hypocricy.
No way am I supporting what we have displayed to the International community; especially about something so basic as hygiene and cleanliness; but, then, am just questioning – is this something new?? We live with this day in and day out with our famous ‘chalta hai’ attitude. There is nothing new. Just that we are feeling bad because someone from outside came, saw and pointed fingers.
Why we – me myself, the other day, I was aboard a plane with a foreign national sitting next to me. I cannot explain how embarrassed I was as I was reading the newspaper which had glaring headlines about CWG being India’s shame! It was a plane and I had no way to escape. I just hoped and prayed that the gentleman does not strike up a conversation or borrow the newspaper from me!
I was relieved of the tension after the plane journey was over with no such occurances. We all will be relieved in a few days when after some patchwork things will go on, and all our guests will leave.
We will move on and continue to live in our so called ‘filthy’ conditions. There will be bigger and different issues for Venkiayah Naidu to shout about, there will be other issues for Sheila Dixit to defend, there will be other pastures for Kalmadi to explore as he would allegedly have filled coffers, there will be another realistic cinema made and we all will scramble to take credit as Indians, we will continue to have our strict and stringent poojas with rules and regulations that will maybe put off a simple religious person into aethism, we will continue to drive our cooks and maids to perfection conveniently ignoring if they themselves have enough water & basic resources at their homes, we will continue to teach our children about how to save the environment and ourselves litter the streets……
We are very good at quick fixing things!!!
I remember we had the CWG Youth Games in Pune, and the stretch with stench and garbage near Spicer College which we, the people of the city were subjected to daily; were quickly concealed for the foreign folks coming in! How silly, our administrators don’t seem to know that the very Spicer College houses so many foreign students who have also been seeing this filth daily for years now J Aah.. one technical point though…. Maybe it’s because these people are supposedly from countries a notch lesser than ours or so called Third World countries.. so it’s ok!
Our own homes…. How many time have we dumped things in haste here and there when we know that some guests are to pop in!
So, it’s there…. And maybe not only within us, outsiders too. All want to put a pretty front in front of outsiders. But, the sad part now is we have failed to do that even! And had exposed our ugly selves – all bare.
I am a patriot, I cannot stand anyone speaking ill of my country, my heart cries at what has just happened with the CWG mess…. But, then, my only point is… it is only now, it got catapulted as a point of talk between all. This has always been there and unfortunately maybe here to stay…..
We as a people are bunch of contradictions! We want something, strive for something, have something, and end up doing something else!
We the country with a Hotel Taj Palace that speaks eons about grandeur and hospitality, also have the Dharavi.
We the country owning Jaguar also make the Nano.
When we are in places like Singapore – the spick and span cleanliness is amazing… but, maybe after while gets onto our nerves because we so miss our street vendors, hawkers, maybe an occasional litter on the street. Yes, we miss it. We may not state it… but that’s the environment we have grown up in… Singapore like surroundings start looking sterile and clinical to us and not real and alive!
So, maybe we cannot build a Singapore… and realistically, let us not even attempt! But, let’s at least get back the India of the famous, old charm that we always heard of…. ‘Sone ki Chidiya’.
We have great potential…. But, when is it going to collectively shine?? Not by ignoring our own people and putting a show in front of outsiders. Our own people who don’t have toilets in their homes and have been used to other innovative means are not going to change overnight because some visitors are visiting…. All this hoopla doesn’t even matter to them! They don’t read the morning newspaper, they don’t have to deal with international co-workers, they don’t have to nor want to put up any front!
They are already having their hands full with dealing with upper echelons of society within their own nation! They are worried about where they get their daily wages from.
It’s we the pseudo, noveau rich, urbane population – who flinch at poverty, won't give a dime or damn for anything, think we have arrived at the international scene, shout from rooftops about our corrupt politicians and again get them to power or worse still don’t even vote… see it’s too beneath us to be associated with politics you see!!
We are the ever so resilient, ‘chalta hai’ folks who should be ashamed and this is well deserved shame… not because someone dirtied those places, not because someone ate the money and didn’t get the job done, not because it’s someone else’s fault. We should take collective responsibility and reflect upon ourselves, introspect, understand the real ‘we’, try and decode if we really want to change, if yes – what we as a people want to do about it!!!!
