Being away from India not only gave me perspective, but also stirred a strange thought of the capabilities India can have as a strong country. Its definitely not a patriotic feeling or a proud emotion for India but a sad ironical thought. Personally, I have very little sense of politics and none when it comes to how politicians work, but it is common sense that draws this faint conclusion in my head that India could have been a great country only if our politicians and citizens were capable of handling and resolving issues that are now so big that no matter what anyone does, won’t be solved without major personal and national reforms.
When I arrived in Australia from India, I was ‘someone’ in my thought. Someone important even though I didn’t do anything important to deserve it. But, for my own self I mattered a lot (in my own head), just like many youngsters in India strongly feel nowadays. They have this acquired sense of very high self esteem or superiority complex and to escalate that self esteem and pride, they spend a lot of money (the money that they can not / should not afford in the first place) on branded clothes, phones, perfumes, cars, fuel, night outs, outside food, and other similar ‘high status’ things. Even though with very little resources and no sense of reality these youngsters like me still go on and spend that kind of money on self claimed ‘necessities’ just to get a heightened sense of fulfilment that we belong in the upper class strata of society and compete with irrelevant peer pressure. We run away from our own reality, responsibilities as an individual, our country’s present degrading status in the whole world, and worse we choose to close our eyes on the starving and deprived people who do not even have enough to buy two proper meals in a day.
Many intellectuals in and outside our country have contemplated the ‘faults’ of the system and everyone seems to blame the ‘West’. Now I wouldn’t say Australia is proper ‘West’ but it is a Westernised nation and honestly I feel more down to earth here than I ever was back home in India. Being here feels like being back in time where life was simpler, people were happier and means of living were easier. And from this far a distance life in India is not only chaotic but it resembles living in a giant bubble. A self imposed bubble of things that we do not require; respect that we no longer have for our elderlies; and zero empathy for the poor. From our TV Channels, media, magazines to simple things such as personal text messaging- everything in current ‘Western Indian society’ has a false sense of superiority complex. We’ve not only grown selfish with our attitude to living a commercial life, but we have also become greedy and inclined towards showing off materialistic goods which we didn’t require in the first place.
When I hear about the prices of basic necessities like onions, tomatoes, and other food items going really up in India and then when I go shopping through the vegetable markets in Sydney, I spend about 2$ for a KG tomatoes and about 5$ a bag for onions (5kg) as the closing price. I can’t help but observe that I spend less here on the same basic food items (not to mention better quality too) than my family in India on the same thing. Sure, they have the money to afford that price, but then did someone mention the vast difference between the salaries of a normal middle income salaried person in Australia and Chandigarh? The contrast is so huge, yet the prices are comparable. Isn’t it ironical? Now not only the basic food prices, many other things such as clothing, commodities, clubbing, electronics, etc. is cheaper here than in India. People here buy what they like and not look at the brands. People value their hard earned money and spend it wisely. In reciprocation, retail and food industry values their customers and consumers which is a rare sight back home in India.
On the other hand, we as youngsters in India only desire the best of everything. By the best of everything- I mean the most expensive and highly priced American brands (which to be honest are non existent here and are only bought by a very small fraction of oz population). The best of phones like the current model of iPhone, the most expensive shoes that there is in the market and we judge a thing by the price tag not by how comfortable it makes us feel.
Additionally, the government too keeps their eyes close on major issues, just like a regular citizen runs away from their harsh personal and national reality. We blame our government for misleading us, corruption and everything else where all we want to do is have fun, buy branded goods and eat at overly priced restaurants. May be its time that we looked under our own hoods and valued money and our farmers/labour and stopped following a wrong image of being a Westerner- where I have realised that being a Westerner means living within our means which is earned by working and participating as a useful hand in the economy, a sense of responsibility towards the country, government, laws, empathy towards those who are less fortunate than us, no care in the world about what phone one uses or what car one drives as long as it is non polluting and efficient; value for money in terms of food, quality, education, etc. and uttermost respect for the labour class for their part in growing the economy. India has the resources and manpower to be one of the best and most responsible nations of the world, only and only if its every individual is cultivated with a sense of responsibility towards the economy, people, government, environment and most important- their personal self.
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