SPEAKING FROM THE HEART ... 11

SPEAKING FROM THE HEART ... 11

Our eminent citizens are irresponsible. That makes it all the more important for us, ordinary citizens, to take up the task of nation-building. As Shakespeare says, "When old men fool and children calculate." Our cumulative work for the common weal can make all the difference.

When I see men of international renown in their respective fields engage in frivolous pleasantries on social media and give themselves up to compromised living in a corrupt world of crony capitalism, I feel sorry for the fate that has befallen our mother, our motherland, and wonder when she will be strong enough to 'shake off this sterile curse'.

People may accuse me of choosing soft targets when I criticise the aloof unconcern of our so-called celebrities to the plight of the billion strong poor in India. But my respect for them makes me choose them as the target of my ire rather than the roguish politicians, ministers et al, for whom I have little respect and harbour lesser hope of anything good coming from them. I have expectations from our celebrity cricketers which I do not have from our politicians of pretence and perfidy. Hence, when I witness their tomfoolery in public, I cannot restrain myself from giving vent to my frustration and consequential anger. But it is all out of a lingering hope yet that they will perchance deliver more than they do in terms of a modicum of social service that at any rate they do.

Awake, great ones, and look around you to redress the terrible misery of the masses. Your self-involvement would be better served this way when you find your luminous beings spread out in the body politic of the nation that is slowly dying a painful death. Awake, great ones, awake !

Written by Sugata Bose