We are today's people...people who could have been born in any country...it would make no difference whatsoever...we would still be the same...we are men, women, children, rich, not-so-rich, beautiful, ugly as hell, stupid, smart, everything...but hello, Indians? Yup, that too, by chance.
What else would explain why we do so little about things we feel so much? Why Mumbai and Mangalore, inflation and intolerance, crime and corruption that are so much a part of our with-it generation speak suddenly take a hiatus when we go voting? O sorry, that should have read "...when we are supposed to go voting" , because, hello, when was the last time you, or I, voted?
I am in my late twenties...and I haven't, as yet, "seen the inside of a voting booth"*, nor the queue that leads to it...no. And neither have most of you, my friends, because you like me, are everything but Indians...except by chance.
But then, what am I talking about...aren't we too busy with our careers, our love lives, our children or parents, our clubs, holidays, pets, cars and gizmos to be worried about voting? Isn't it enough that we stand for every (at least public) screening or playing of the national anthem, that we buy tiny flags to decorate our dashboards or workstations from those dirty little children on the street every republic or independence day, that we forward patriotic messages (okay, cheesy sometimes) to each other on those days, that we wear tricolour clothes to theme parties thrown on those occasions? Haven't we at least heard of Bhagat Singh and watched at least one Manoj Kumar movie with tears in our eyes? And most importantly, aren't we paying taxes?
We are citizens, but non-committal, opinionated but ineffective, intelligent but indifferent...is it any wonder that our leaders are the same?
* Quoted from The White Tiger , and correctly as far as I remember
