INDIA AND YOUNGISTAAN

I remember I read an article somewhere named ‘Conversation With The Mahatma’. Although I can’t recall the name of the magazine or the writer, I clearly remember what it was all about. It had made quite an impact on me and I remember writing a speech based on that article for my school assembly.

The article was rather a simple one conveying the message that today’s youth is capable of doing anything they want and carry the nation to the pinnacle of success. We don’t have to be Gandhi or Bhagat Singh for that. What we need is passion and determination, courage and the will to do good to others since now its not the British we have to fight but poverty, illiteracy, discrimination, terrorism and the like.

The article inspired me a lot and I thought that I will change the future of my country and help India shine in every possible arena. I firmly believed that my friends will too do so as we all are full of passion to do something good for our country. But that was 6 years back. Now I’m 19 and I know that its not as easy as the author of that article made it to be. I’m sure everyone will agree, right? So now even I have joined the club like millions of other Indians where we only question-“Why is that the dream of creating a free India still remains unfulfilled? Why does freedom for many still not include socio-economic freedom? Why this, why that? Why?

We may come up with many complicated reasons. However, the answer is quite simple. Surprised? Don’t be as its true that we all know about these problems and want to do something about it. But how many of us are actually doing anything except coming up with endless questions? Yes, that’s the answer to everything.

I don’t wish to advice anyone through my article nor do I have any such reason why TOI should make it a part of this edition. The reason why I mailed it was although I believe that today’s “youngistaan” need not be advised, we may sometimes get lost in the journey of our lives due to the various pressures we face. Thus, my article is just an attempt to inspire today’s youth and lit that extinguished flame of patriotism and the will to do something good for our motherland.

All what I want is for my generation to understand what Nehru once said about paying tribute to Gandhi, “People talk of memorials to him in statues of bronze or marble or pillars and thus they mock and belie his message. What tribute shall we pay to him that he would have appreciated? He has shown us the way to live and the way to die and if we have not understood that lesson, it would be better that we raised no memorial to him, for the only fit memorial is to follow reverently in the path he showed us and do our duty in life and death”

By: Nikita Chakravorty Cotton College, Guwahati Degree 1st Year (Political Science)