What were the dreams!

So we had a very painful freedom struggle, we wanted to be a country, rather than a British Colony; we wanted to live on our own terms, and so we fought, fought really hard. And it was 1947 when it happened!  Our Leaders then had dreams, great dreams, and beautiful dreams for the baby born. They wanted the baby to make them proud, very proud, but thankfully they are not here to witness the monstrous avatar of their little one, or they would be devastated. Yes.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.

Here we fear every other thing, women fear men, poor fear rich, the head bows down: Ashamed.

Where knowledge is free.

Here everything is priced, priced bad! And knowledge? You pay for it, pay a lot.

 

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments. By narrow domestic walls.

Here we don’t remember what unity is. It has been long, the word seems alien.

 

Where words come out from the depth of truth.

Here, words mean nothing. We say a lot, do so little. and truth? We are no longer true to even ourselves.

 

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection.

Here, who cares about perfection, as long as money keeps pouring in. Individual gain is what matters.

 

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.

Here the stream has long been polluted. We have forgotten what it is like to think, not only for ourselves but also for others.

 

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action.

Here, the mind is pulling us back. Instead of moving forward towards light, we are heading towards the very dark.

 

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

No, we are no more awake. Far away from it actually. We are in such deep sleep that it is difficult to say if we will ever wake up.

 

Clearly we have been an unsuccessful lot. We have not lived up to the expectations of those great humans. In the process we have disappointed ourselves more. What we thought could be a country of goodwill, has lost its way midway. What we really need to do is to remember those dreams and try to make them real. It has been more than fifty years; we could be a lot closer to a Glorious India! Let us remember Tagore’s words and try to hold our heads high, take pride in our country, and not be ashamed.  

Let’s hope it happens. The beauty returns. Soon.