Small things

Sometimes I keep on brooding over small but strange ideas. There may be so many others thinking on similar lines too. Here in India we, namely; leaders, politicians, intellecuals, business men, administrators etc. keep on dreaming and making tall claims that India is emerging as a strong and developed nation. We make India Shine. True, when we hear that or read about that we feel proud of our nation.

But, on the other hand it also makes me to introspect how true are our claims? The fruits of developed have not completely percolated down to the rural area. May be in terms of mobile communication it could be true. How about infrastructure facilities like good roads, good schools and good health facilities? We have a clear divide between Bharat and India despite the tall claims. I would like to testify my statement by illustrating one small example. Let us take a look at our National Highways, forget about the other small roads. You hardly find any decent rest room or decent hygenic food joint adjacent to the highways. I am not talking about the inconvenience faced by passengers travelling in their own vehicles - they can afford to go into the hotels in the cities nearby. Think of the ordinary passengers - specially women passengers - travelling by road transport services. Think of the humiliation they suffer through these ordeals. Or take the ordinary bogies in the train where there is no water, no cleanliness, no doors working properly.

This may sound like a very small thing. But is it not a part of a civilised and a developed society? When we can afford to spend crores of rupees on so many populist measures, can't we spend, a part of that at least, on these small things in the public interest? I strongly urge our netaas to pay heed to the common man's necessities and work out a national programme to address such small issues.