A commenter says I am not being a true Indian because I seem to be impressed by western culture and values, and Obama. Naqwi will whole heartedly agree with him because I also use lipstick. It runs in the family, my mom won’t step out of the house without her lipstick either. But I am every bit as Indian, as the mother of little girl who lives in a leaking house on the way to Mulshi. Lipstick or no lipstick.
Many of us believe we will never change, this country will go nowhere, this political system will never change etc. I just can’t live with that sort of belief.
If I were to truly believe today that Indian politicians (and suddenly it’s become not-so- cool to say they are useless, like when did we ever say they are good?!!) cannot be taught to behave responsibly and do their job....
That kind of apathy or indifference or pessimism is not something I can ever accept. And that is the thinking that makes us bribe and find loopholes in Laws made for civilised living.
Can you wake up you every morning believing you couldn’t get up?
Will our kids work hard in school if they believed they would never succeed?
Would Abhinav Bindra have worked so hard if he believed he could never win?
I think this sort of brain washing is the talk of POLITICIANS. It suits them to keep us hopeless and demoralised.
I have (maybe it’s an escape?) brain washed myself into believing, most successfully, that we can achieve anything we set our heart to.
It has worked for me. I think it works for everybody. You believe you can, You will; You believe there’s no hope, you will never succeed.
And I am convinced that we are going to see better days in Indian Politics, without which any progress is an uphill task. The so called elite and the upper middle class have set a trend and maybe, if the candles continue to be lit, gradually even the darkest corners of rural India will light up too. It isn’t as if they worship the politicians.
I meet people and everybody is determined to vote. That is the first step. And they are all hoping to vote for someone NEW that’s already the second step.
And this shows we are more awake than ever before.
So I am going to continue to Hope and sign Petitions, join Peace Protests and light candles.
But that will not stop me from dancing to western music, wearing sleeveless (why just sleeveless, backless also) western clothes and expensive, shiny, glittery lipsticks.
These are my values. My Indian values.
