Patriots

What all publicity stunts to celebrating independence day!!

It’s 11.15PM, 09 August 2014. Sitting by my dining table sipping a cup of hot cardamom green tea, I received the fourth invite/message to change my profile pic to that of the Indian flag. 

On one side there is Gaza stories and posts filing up the social networking sites – pleading for the life and safety of many innocent children. On the other hand here is this rising need for my friends to show the world their pride by flooding their Facebook wall with pictures of the national flag. (I am quite unsure if promoting any these updates will actually have an impact on the current world issues. Pardon my ignorance).

Ironically, I happened to read an article in one of the online edition of a national newspaper about foreigners cleaning up one of the “most attractive” beaches in our country (name not revealed in order to protect the image of that particular State). The picture showed a few tourists picking up plastic wastes from the beach. The title read (if translated into English) “it’s in their blood to keep their surrounding clean” – mocking at our dear patriots’ love for their country, if I may say so. Had each of us tried to keep our nation litter-free, this news would not have appeared in the papers today.

I do not believe any other country is better than ours, be it in cleanliness or development, because we have the potential – we have the resources and the man power. The only thing we lack is enthusiasm.

Why not start by taking an oath to genuinely love our mother land and protect its natural beauty and historical treasures? That way we won’t just help ourselves or the country at large, but leave a better environment for the generations to come.

Coming back to where I began, no offence to those who chose to change the profile pic; you have your rights to love your country and express it every possible way, but next time if you could try to make it a little humane and nature friendly...

Good night, sweet dreams.