The Indian Dream : By Shariq Siddiqui

A special write-up by Shariq Sidiqui (XL 2001) on the Occasion of Independence Day.

Its really well thought out : so I'm reproducing it here....


Dear all

Wish you all a very happy independence day.

I'd like you to join me in taking a few minutes to think about what freedom means. Not the usual crap, I promise, but bouquets and brickbats welcome.

The freedom we have always had, as Indians, is something we take for granted, because most of us have never known what it is like to live in (or be a citizen of) a country that is not free. Not all of us have had the opportunities that we might have had if we had been, say, Swedish or Japanese. But you have to admit that there has been nothing that has held us back from enjoying what was indeed available, while the stock of what was available has constantly grown.

There's a lot of history and culture and a glorious independence struggle that people tend to talk about when talking about India's freedom. But all that is in the past, and it's time we let go.

Really.

What we truly can look forward to as Indians today, is the freedom to dream. Before we get lost in jingoism and cliches, let me just quickly reiterate that India has indeed arrived in the world - as an economy, as a world power, as a place where sucessful people come from and a source of great food and dance moves. All these things are on track, but does that really matter to you? What really matters to us individuals is not whether or not we win a seat in the UN Security Council, but those little personal things that make life as an Indian so frustrating yet so endearing...

There are a million things that are wrong with our country, but yet today, we are in a position to be proud of what we are, not what we were. We are in a position to dream. In more ways than one, there's indeed no looking back now. Just a dream, and a prayer, that we continue to shine.

I hope that my hopes are shared by you.

My generation has indeed been a lucky one. We learnt to be humble by being born in the era of shortages (of everything except of newborn babies), learnt about the rest of the world by growing up in the age of liberalisation and the Internet and benefited from turning into professionals at a time where India started to make a serious mark on the rest of the world. May we continue to churn out such generations of engineers, MBAs and accountants and may we create enough opportunities for them so that they never have to leave home to live their dreams. May we also churn out as many theatre actors, world class athletes, marine biologists, speech therapists, forensic scientists, landscape architects, scuba diving instructors, shopping channel gadget inventors, management book authors and pressure cooker valve wholesalers. May no one have to ev

May our villages have reliable enough electricity to be able to charge mobile phones. May our farmers drive BMWs and never have to consider suicide, and may our cold drinks be free of pesticide. May our film directors actually develop the talent to make a movie capable of winning an Oscar. May your children develop the good sense to not dream of making it big through Indian Idol. May we continue to be surrounded by servants, but may we able to afford them a life of dignity - of good schools, of clean beds, of family vacations and of email addresses.

May we all be able to afford cars, but may we also have the good sense to avoid buying them unless we understand their impact on the environment. May we have enough real roads to drive those cars on, and enough world class transport to rely on when we don't want to drive. May it become as easy to travel within the country to gaze upon its wonders as it is to fly to Dubai, and may we continue to bring in millions of people from around the world to see what this !ncredible !ndia is all about but without soiling our streams, mauling our mountains or further crowding our cities. May we all be able to move around our country comfortably and quickly, instead of just freely. And me way able to move around the world without ever standing in a long visa queue.

Let cops and other "government types" remain corrupt, but may they develop a conscience. May the miracle of Indian democracy continue to thrive, and may we continue to have these many channels at every level for voicing our dissent. May our governments get more competent and less corrupt with every year that passes. May the right sort be attracted to politics, and may the rule of law continue to be upheld. You may not agree that the rule of law exists, particularly if you happen to live in UP or Gujarat. But may we continue to have the freedom to not live where we don't want to. May we also develop the ability to enrich wherever we do live, while we continue to enrich ourselves.

Someone recently commented, "India is a bizarre place - you can piss in public, but you can't kiss in public!" May we keep our neighbourhoods as clean as we keep our bodies, and our souls really as clean as we claim they are. May we also never be interested in cleansing other people's souls. May we acquire the freedoms we don't yet have; give up the ones we shouldn't have; and not bother to aspire for the ones we don't really need to have.

Last year I met an elderly Frenchman who had lived a full life, being well read, well travelled, having headed a few companies and ministries and written a few books. He started to talk to me about the beauty of the Indian people, but then interrupted himself to look me up and down and say, "...but you're not really Indian. You're a global Indian. You don't count".

May there be a day, when every Indian counts.

May we have no compatriots who are invisible to us because they are too poor. May we develop enough respect for safety and human life that it doesn't take the loss of life to run into four figures before we notice. May our cities be free of slums, but may their inhabitants have alternatives and opportunities. May we learn to uphold the rights and dignity of the individual.

May all expats like me one day find no need to go venture to foreign shores to make their lives complete, and may they all find all their needs met while living amongst their own people. May bureaucrats and monopolists around the world continue to cower in their synacures in terror of competent Indian professionals and tycoons. But may the Lakshmi Mittals and Vinod Khoslas of the world find the Jaipurs, Ludhianas and Coimbatores of this country worth coming back to.

May we never have to compromise our religious or other beliefs, and may we never feel the need to force others to compromise their own. May the demons who think nothing of massacring thousands, realise that vengeance is a lazy form of grief. May those who grudge us our freedom realise that they have more to gain by immersing themselves into India than by blowing it up. May every Indian learn to appreciate all aspects our "Sanjhi Virasat" and the true wonder that is Indian diversity.

May we have teams and personaliities worth being proud of in every sport, not just cricket. May we get back that pride in being Indian, and may we be surrounded by wonderful people who we are just as proud to call Indian. May we become as welcoming and understanding of other cultures as we once were.

We may never win the race against China, but may the rest of the world continue to secretly wish that China (and indeed everywhere else) was "a wee bit more like India".

The best thing about this dream is that it's already happening...

Amen. Jai Hind.