~* What I Don't Want To Do When I Grow Up *~

Deciding one’s profession is perhaps the most important decision youth have to make. As soon as you are out of school as an adolescent, everyone begins to ask to that one question: “So, what career do you want to pursue?” You are expected to know the answer well before you are eighteen years old. Well meaning uncles advise you to assist your father in the family business, your own father wants you to become the best software engineer there is and join Bill Gates at Microsoft. Your mother, who has seen you grow up in front of her eyes, wants you to pursue painting, which is very close to your heart. But there is one field which is absolutely no one recommends: politics.

And with very good reason. Yes, I do not want to be a politician once I grow up. Politics nowadays is a field littered with scavengers, vultures who want their share of the pie before the Motherland can have hers. The people themselves have lost faith in the system of governance, with our democracy being labelled as a joke. Yes, we are considered to be the world’s biggest democracy with the maximum number of voters. But then Muslim leaders target the Islamic population and Hindu fanatic leaders are no less, embarking on a campaign of Hindutva. Local parties want to oust all the North Indian population from Mumbai, claiming they take away the local’s right to employment and space of dwelling. When the country’s own leaders want to divide the masses on grounds of religion, faith, caste, greed, race or belief, you can understand that the state of governance in the country is poor. The country’s political system is at war with itself, almost choking on the level of bureaucracy and red tapism that exists.

Politics in our country has been reduced to nothing more than a blame game. The Parliament has begun to resemble a crowded fish market, with no one listening to the other person. Thus, in such a condition it is not advisable to take up politics. You will lose all that is close to you, your morals, your conscience and your values. The system will not allow you to survive otherwise.

To be the proverbial lotus in the dirty lake will be increasingly difficult in times to come. I do not want to be a corrupt politician leading my country to certain doom. I want to help from the outside, without involving myself in the faltered system which could not prevent the terror attacks in November despite being warned. There is now certain anger in the masses towards the governments it needs to be channelised in a positive way.

More politics, back biting, bureaucracy and blaming is not the answer. It is time we ourselves from organizations to solve the country’s problems and help the poor and needy. Taking active interest in the well being of society is a fundamental duty of every citizen. If we educate ourselves and others effectively about this, I am sure India can rise and shine. India will once again be the golden songbird of the world. I will forever be devoted to the service of my country. As I say in my pledge to the country daily: - “To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion. In their well-being and prosperity, alone lies my happiness