Another Day in Paradise

"She calls out to the man on the street,
He can see she's been crying
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet,
Can't walk but she's trying... "

~from Another Day in Paradise
by Phil Collins

Phil Collins could well have been referring to India when he came out with this mesmerising single towards the end of 1989, to highlight the plight of the homeless across the world... The soulful composition and the gut-wrenching video can be a splendid metaphor for the state of our country. Sixty years into independence but still far away from freedom from poverty, hunger and deprivation.

I feel proud to have been born in India. It is a great country and I have lived most of my life in Bombay, which is in itself a great city. While every country has its share of problems, we in India seem to have more than what we bargained for when we broke the shackles of imperialism 60 years ago. The India for which thousands laid down their lives still eludes 700 million unfortunate souls, who hope that a day will come when they will be heard and have a share in the spoils of economic prosperity in the increasingly globalised world.

India has turned out better than how most believed it would when we won our independence. Nobody really gave us chance. The general opinion among the world community was that India will be another Africa and will forever depend on aid, will be swarmed with goons and hooligans, will be a hellhole with political instability, civil wars, military coups, strifes and total anarchy.

Nothing of that sorts happened. Though as a nation we have had our moments when the people of the country have disgraced the nation with their reprehensible acts, like the Emergency, terrorism in Punjab, terrorism in Kashmir, the Naxalite movement, we have also had moments of glory such as the Green Revolution, the Economic Liberalisation of the early 90's, explosion of Information Technology enabled services, the telecom revolution, Operation Flood, nuclear capability and development of some of the finest institutions like, free press, democracy, highly disciplined armed forces, multi-lingual and multi-religious culture, and civil organisations like the Supreme Court, the Election Commission, and world renowned educational institutions like TIFR, IISc, JNU, and the IITs and the IIMs.

But you might not expect this to be unusual for the country of our size. Still sixty years is a long time and we could have certainly done better. We have certainly done better than most of the countries that became independent around the same time as we did. This is closer to the truth if we look at our neighbours. We are better off from where we started compared to them . Now I would not have liked to have been born in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal or Myanmar. I am sure not many would.

But all said and done, I want this Independence Day to pass off peacefully without any untoward incident in any part of the country. We cannot experience true freedom if we live in the shadow of fear and in submission to the enemies of the state. Happy Birthday India! Rock on!

"Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in paradise,
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise..."

Happy Independence Day, Jai Hind!
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