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If we want to make our nation great in the eyes of development then we need to pay the price of responsibility.

Walking on the pedestrian walk I was lost in my own thoughts, naïve about who is next to me or where I am heading to, but suddenly a splash of tobacco spit came from somewhere onto me and brought me back into reality. And the next moment a realization came to me that whatever we may claim ourselves to be, developing, proud “Indians”, but at inner core we remain irresponsible and uncouth. The spit in the open was a proof of it.

The truth is that we don’t restrict or restrain ourselves at just spitting; we are quite ahead of it. The foul odor at the bus stands or in the parks or at any green pasture that you may see beside the pavement of road, is none other than the  smell of a natural phenomenon that is expected or needs to be done in washrooms. Even though it is clearly mentioned that they are not supposed to such an activity which turns the serene environment into a filthy one or even after being compared to dog that pisses at every pole or tree or wall, they have turned so ignorant that nothing can stop them.

The “Kuda kachra” that our neighboring aunty throws or the chips’ packet that you threw at India Gate, on road, in park, at any other picnic or public place while enjoying with your friends last time you visited it, is actually a mar on the beauty of our land which we seek to be in the list of world travelers and tourists, who may barely suggest someone else to visit after being mistreated and cheated several times. Or they may suggest them to visit us to know our simple garbage disposal facility and our backwardness and poverty. Is love between a couple so fragile that it needs to be mentioned at every pillar at a fort or qila that they were together sometime?

If our car gets a scratch we start quarreling like idiots and begin using vulgar and grubby words which shows no mark of literacy, education or civilization. Following the traffic lights is a dream that may not be ever completed. After an accident no one cares or in other words dares to take the victim to the hospital.

Our biggest activeness and callousness, both, is shown in the indulgence and ignorance of eve teasing and stalking of girls, respectively. Some of us are vigorously active in worrying the famines and others are unbelievingly callous and ignorant in reporting or stopping such acts. Our tolerance level has both increased and decreased; though in opposite directions. The situations where we should be strictly intolerant, there we have turned increasingly tolerant and vice versa.

Cheating, murders, rapes, acid attacks, communal riots. How many times and by how many ways we will shame our India.  Don’t say that everyone’s doing it.

It is good to know our rights but it is very appalling not to know your responsibilities and duties. Check it on your own, ask yourself your rights, and you know them all, excellent. Now ask yourself what are your duties. Oh no! You failed. You better or may prefer to stay dumb on this question. Nope? You don’t agree to me, then you are either too intelligent or you are too arrogant to accept your mistake.

As Mahatma Gandhi has said, “It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.” And also, “To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility.” We have an option for everything. Who says there isn’t? Can’t we throw our garbage in proper dustbins? Every revolution begins with a single initiating step. Admit mistakes. Stop complaining and making excuses. Begin small. Take initiative. Develop a daily routine. Practice self- discipline.

We need to increase tolerance within us and we’ll have to respect others and our environment only then we can begin and win the fight against such an irresponsible behavior.

If we are worried about the future, then we must look today at the upbringing of children. They must be taught in the beginning years only. “Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

If we want to make our nation great in the eyes of development then we need to pay the price of responsibility.