"Independence"...

As we stand at the threshold of 61 years of independence today i am set into thinking what does independence mean to me ? A nation's independence trickles down to each and every citizen of its country.A nation's persona is a part of that country's inhabitants' character.Our great fathers freed us from the oppression of the British.Even though we were not under a slavery regime physically; we were slaves of a suppressed mind.Somebody else made decisions for us.And that according to me is the greatest bondage-to be deprived of.."Independent thinking" ..Independence on this 15th of August means power to independence of thought.The power to being individualistic instead of being passed down blindfolded opinions.If we look back to the recent past even after years of independence we lacked the ability to actually prove that we were independent.Foreign Investors were resisted by politicians till a free market was declared in the early nineties..Paranoia ?..When computers were considered a possibility in the eighties to be brought into the nation, the idea was scoffed at by saying that 50% of the population lived under the poverty line and how would computers remediate that ?..Righteousness?.. But if we look back today just because some visionaries dared to be different then, we are where we are today.Today we claim ourselves one of the most fast paced economy in the world.Why ? The service industry proved to be a boon to the Indian Market.It established the world over what we can be in terms of competency and quality.But while we celebrate this i realize that (independent thinker that i claim to be ..) we are yet to go forward.Traveling opens your minds to other's opinions , their ideas.In my short life till now, meeting many people from different parts of the world, I realize my country's worth.Culturally I hold India in the highest esteem.None has what we have.The strongest fundamentally if you know what to embrace.However let's not blindly glorify what we have' coz we are not free of our demons either.Let's try to annihilate evils like female foeticide, dowries,killing in the name of religion,casteism as our independence greys. That would in actuality signify a strong growing independent country with the largest democracy with high caliber for maturity. Economically I know we are the leaders in service industry, the haven of outsourced labor. But are we just that ?Isn't it time we thought for ourselves to give rise to new ideas rather than to execute some outsourced work from foreign shores. I am not here to write an article on what we lack or to preach .It's my responsibility to do every bit I can for my own country like any other.And when I look around i think the winds of change are here.My generation holds the key to a more daring and successful India.And it makes me really glad that I am a little bit of India's historic bouncing back and I have every chance as the other to contribute.We are daring to dream , daring to think,daring to do and raring to go.We are finally absorbing our independence in the right sense to march to where we actually deserve to be.Let's make a little pledge to ourselves that every year this time we would save a little bit of time to introspect where we are and destined to be so that the dream which our nation's fathers dreamt for us would no longer be a dream but a successful reality..I pledge...

~A,proud to be an Indian.