The truth about the conceited Indian youth!

While the country and the rest of the world is singing ballads of the way Indian youth has helped the country to come up on the global scene, I feel we "THE YOUTH" are being given too much importance and credit for where India stands on the global stage today.

Yes! The Indian youth has been instrumental in bringing about the much needed change; however I feel we have not succeeded completely in bringing about the sense of socio-economic responsibility within ourselves.

The other day I went to a local Indian theater playing one of the Hindi movie. As a pre-cursor to the Independence day celebrations, the theater is playing the national anthem just before starting any show until the Independence day (I liked the thought!). When the National anthem was played:
1. Each and everyone of the elderly people (men / women) stood up immediately.
2. Less than half of the Indian youth stood up willingly.
3. Quite a few of the Indian youth did not stand up at all during the whole course of the Anthem.
4. Nobody actually sung the Anthem (but for me).

Is this because we - the Indian youth is ashamed to stand up and sing our National Anthem, and salute the National flag? Do we care so much that you may be made to feel out-of-place by others? I was surprised to take a note that we didn't care. It is not Indian to not give the due respects to our nation.

Right after the movie, we came back home and we were discussing if the Indian youth has finally managed to revive the sense of socio-economic growth of the country. Most of us felt that it did. To begin with I felt it did too. But as the discussion started taking a shape of a balloon that is going to burst aloud, I was taken by a shock to know how conceited the Indian youth really is! Already frustrated with what I saw in the theater, the discussion started to test my patience, when someone said that the credit is only to the Indian youth for where India is today, and
that our previous generation did nothing to make India a part of the so called global village! Most of us felt that it is because the Indian youth is awake, and literate and mostly aware of the potential opportunities, that India's GDP was exponential in the last few years! They felt that they were contributing to the country's growth because they were transferring a few hundred or thousand of USD to India (Completely ignoring the fact that people do pay tax, and a heavy one for that matter, back in India!). If this is what the Indian youth thinks they are doing or they should be doing to help India climb up the ladder, then well.. it's time to say "May God save India!"

Maybe, I am talking on the basis of a few people that I know. But, it was quite evident from the scene at the theater that there is a considerable size of youth population that is as conceited as as those few people on whose thoughts I have based this article on! It goes without a saying that, we somehow feel that we are far more superior than our ex-gen, simply because we stay for a good amount of time in countries abroad, make some good amount of money in terms of INR, and then go back someday to own an impressive size of property and investments and carry ourselves around in a noticeably expensive car, all of which, our previous generation wasn't able to achieve. But who is to account that we are doing all this by their blessings, sacrifices, hard-work! Yes, they may not have been able to contribute to the country's GDP in a major way. But, they did what they could in those circumstances, when the whole nation was still struggling to be self-sufficient. I see an entrepreneur in each and everyone of my previous generation! With such little income to manage with, they did great! They paid taxes (maybe more in terms of %), they took good care of their families, they built their houses, they did investments, and more importantly they gave us the education and all other luxuries that made us feel "We aren't that poor after all!". But the inside story is that they have accepted a lot of sacrifices with arms wide open in order to make us feel that way! At their time, India's economy wasn't quite so dependent on IT sector. It was mostly agriculture, banking and manufacturing. Most of our parents belong to any of these sectors. They did what they could at that time. And who are we talk about how well they did? I think they did excellent! I think I wouldn't have been able to do half of what my parents have, given those situations and circumstances.

And coming to point, we can not rule out the fact that India has achieved its feet in the global scene, mostly due to the growing IT sector! Who brought it to our country? Us - the Indian youth? Nopes! It was the very same ex-gen! Just the fact that IT is doing so well, and India's economy is riding high on the basis of IT, gives us so much right to disregard the efforts and hard labor put in by our ex-gen? I personally do not think so!

I think it is time that we grow, not just financially, but also mentally! It is time that we don't just respect ourselves for being Indian but take the pride in being one! It is time that we give our ex-gen their due respect and credit for their sacrifices and hard-labor for having helped us transparently in uplifting the Indian economy. I, from the bottom of my heart, believe that it was a collaborative work model that was implicitly followed by our ex-gen and us, that has brought economic sunshine. It is just a legacy that we - the Indian youth, have carried forward, and it lies in our responsibilities that we pass it on to our next-gen with the same grace and responsibility as our ex-gen passed it to us.

After having talked so much about the economic growth and the exponential GDP growth in the recent times, what remains to be seen is how we-the people can bring about a socio-economic reform with a revolutionary touch! How we don't really need a Midas touch, but a willingness to make a difference to create the difference.

Long live the revolution! Long live the Sacrifices! Long live the Martyrs