Jeffery Sachs once said (I didnt know that he said it, Nandan Nilekani says that he said it, in his book Imagining India) that Indian rural schools have changed a lot from the last time he had seen them, but then he wonders very seriously, if thy are adapting fast enough for the changing times and if their growth rate is justified for the pace in which the rest of the world, and even the rest of our own country, is moving...
While I didn't need a Jeffery Sachs to tell me this, it just served me a harsh reminder..that we are not sitting on piles of time. If the popular though irritating I.T jargon that something was needed 'yesterday' were to be used in this case, it would be that 'the schools needed to have upgraded last year.'
We have no time guys...every day, every month that passes by is another step closer that poor children all over the country have taken towards the inevitable state of '10th pass' or '12th pass' but without a clue of what they gained in the last 10 or 12 fruitless years. Our support is invaluable for the children to make it through. Unless there is a mini revolution of sorts by the youth that did make it through, viz. people like you and me, this country will never attain the greatness that it can.
We need to work towards the development of the nation, from wherever we are, through whatever means we can. We cannot sit and watch petty injustice send these children to doom. That is tantamount to being party to the crime. Let us stand up like true men and be counted. Let us show our brothers and sisters (For a long time, I thought this phrase was just used for providing a dramatic effect and used it very sparingly in my writings...now I really feel it. What pride Swami Vivekananda would have felt in penning down the national pledge!) that we are there for them. That we will let no cheap actions by cheap souls cause them pain. That together we are indeed a family and that despite existence of a wide variety of hassles, we will strive to give them all the support that they need.
We need to work towards the development of the nation, from wherever we are, through whatever means we can. We cannot sit and watch petty injustice send these children to doom. That is tantamount to being party to the crime. Let us stand up like true men and be counted. Let us show our brothers and sisters (For a long time, I thought this phrase was just used for providing a dramatic effect and used it very sparingly in my writings...now I really feel it. What pride Swami Vivekananda would have felt in penning down the national pledge!) that we are there for them. That we will let no cheap actions by cheap souls cause them pain. That together we are indeed a family and that despite existence of a wide variety of hassles, we will strive to give them all the support that they need.
Because, and I again borrow from Swamiji, 'In their well-being and prosperity alone, lie our happiness.'
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