Why are we a sleepy nation ?

This is what I composed somedays back...

Today I received a chain e-mail from one of my friends asking to refrain buying petrol on 22nd of September 2005 and he had asked me to forward it to as many friends & acquaintances as possible, which I eventually did. But that incident set me thinking. There is so much power in the electronic communication and all we need to do is explore it to the maximum. Supposing an individual has 50 people as acquaintances / friends. These 50 people will get to know instantly of an issue we want to convey. They will be talking around in their neighborhood & can spread this through word of mouth. They might also be talking to their siblings in other cities or their parents in the villages and relatives in some more other cities. So even by conservative estimates a single person can communicate this to 100 other people. These 100 people can then reach out to as many people as they possibly know and covering the entire population or even 70-80% of it should be an easy task. 70-80% of the population adds up to a sizeable number in absolute terms. This kind of collective voice no one can ignore, not even our apparently deaf politicians, civic utilities etc. This means can be used to communicate your point of view on different issues of general interest, politics, issues involving the ‘common junta’ (‘junta’ is always common by the way) etc. This model can be adapted to any neighborhood, city, state or country. There are so many things we want to speak about, speak against, injustice meted out to us or to our acquaintances by a shopkeeper, a departmental store, politicians, our company etc. and we tend to keep quiet thinking that nothing will happen even if one takes up the cudgels.

Let us collectively take an oath that we will be responsible citizens always fighting for our rights, justice and anything that ought to get attention of common man. I am not a great leader like APJ Abdul Kalam who can give inspiring speeches, I was always taught in life to be silent, a good listener and take all things in life with a pinch of salt. I was taught that all things in life are not meant to be yours, you may or rather will not get or supposed to get some things in life. I was always asked to keep my feet within my ‘chadar’ (‘mattress’ for the uninitiated). Somewhere along my adult life I have now realized that life has endless opportunities for those who will explore, who will not be intimidated by their circumstances, who will fight & lose than not fight at all.

Jai hind !