Some 20 years ago, Panaji Jaycees had arranged a talk by Placido D’Souza a former foreign services officer. After his talk, the floor was opened for questions. Since nobody was asking him any questions, the Chairman called out my name. I asked him, ‘How do you project the image of India to the foreigners?’
In such situations, when forced to ask questions we tend to ask queries that we have answers to. If I were asked the same question, I would have waxed eloquently about our great heritage, our rich diversity, our impressive history, our great culture, our heroes, so on and so forth…
But his answer was an eye-opener… Mr D’Souza said, ‘We project India as the land of the white revolution (milk), green revolution (agriculture), telecom revolution…’ He was basically talking about verifiable achievements from recent history instead of over glorified generalisations from the distant past.
We depend on a distant past to justify our pride in our country… But if we connect to the real achievements that are going on, we connect to the present. We must also accept and overcome our shortcomings. The past, good and bad, tells us where we have come from. But our response now, determines where we will go.
We need to identify our role (in the present) to write the script (of the future) of India. We must choose to be sincere, sensitive and responsive citizens. On every surface we walk… to every person we meet… in every situation we encounter… may we play a positive proactive role for our India!
We cannot rest on real or illusory history
India needs us to act NOW for posterity!
~ Pravin K Sabnis
In such situations, when forced to ask questions we tend to ask queries that we have answers to. If I were asked the same question, I would have waxed eloquently about our great heritage, our rich diversity, our impressive history, our great culture, our heroes, so on and so forth…
But his answer was an eye-opener… Mr D’Souza said, ‘We project India as the land of the white revolution (milk), green revolution (agriculture), telecom revolution…’ He was basically talking about verifiable achievements from recent history instead of over glorified generalisations from the distant past.
We depend on a distant past to justify our pride in our country… But if we connect to the real achievements that are going on, we connect to the present. We must also accept and overcome our shortcomings. The past, good and bad, tells us where we have come from. But our response now, determines where we will go.
We need to identify our role (in the present) to write the script (of the future) of India. We must choose to be sincere, sensitive and responsive citizens. On every surface we walk… to every person we meet… in every situation we encounter… may we play a positive proactive role for our India!
We cannot rest on real or illusory history
India needs us to act NOW for posterity!
~ Pravin K Sabnis
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