Vasu
Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com
In the 1970’s and in 1980’s the term “Lakpathi” or “Lakshadhikari” was what the guys wanted to become, simply meaning that they would like to somehow earn 100,000 rupees and that was it. The value of money was not measured in real terms, but a simple amount of money was constantly used to show the society’s tendency to accept a certain amount of money as the necessary resource to live a life of comfort. That term was absolutely a measure of financial success of a person in all of India, not just in rural areas. Many movies were made with the concept of a man with Rs. 100,000 rupees and many books written on the same, and definitely every person who was capable of thinking wanted to become a “Lakshadhikari”.
Coming out of school and just beginning to look at real life, I would be lying if I said I did not want to be one along with all my friends, and live the life of comfort and luxury in the early eighties. By studying hard and completing education and getting a professional degree, along with good habits and great family was enough to start to think of building a future full of promise and happiness. Every youngster dreamed of the same stuff, and I am sure each one of us felt that life is as simple as just do follow your heart and things will work out. None of my close friends relocated to countries outside of India, and have made great strides with their respective careers and families in India, and whenever I think of them it gives great comfort to think of them in the most endearing terms of childhood friends, and whenever I get to speak to them it still take me back a quarter of a century and the days of dreaming about a life without discomfort, and a life full of happiness.
Then the reality of today is very different from a generation before and its aspirations and dreams. Children seem to grow into adults without the focus and direction that needs to come from educational institutes and parents with a stable environment. We have a major scam or a tirade of negative verbiage every day, and these days we seem to even dig dirt on dead people and start to blame them for the ills of the society. The television, print media and the internet only have negative aspects of what is being done by the politicians in power; which is pretty much to retain power and never worry about the common good of the population.
There is no consensus about managing the resources the nation has, and there is no agenda driven by the needs of the people. If there are pockets of leadership that wants to drive the people’s agenda, it never gets heard, except when the person is dead and then all of a sudden his plan become the news of the day. No one seems to care about the young folks and their need to get quality education and training to prosper in a country which has great competition for even the smallest work to be done. For a generation of bickering and back stabbing politics, the country’s young people can’t dream of even simple things, except to look forward to the next crisis that is almost all the time expected. How will they plan and achieve their life’s ambitions without the support of the systems from their infancy?
When you really look at the disarray in handling of the simple people issues by the elected leaders, and their focus on continued emphasis on what was done wrong by someone in the opposition, there can never be emphasis on what is needed now and for the future. There is no denying in the fact that if a mistake was done it needs to be corrected, and if someone willingly did something wrong they need to be punished. The time just cannot be spent in just digging dirt and abuses, rather in planning and execution to the country’s enormous requirements.
vasureddy@aol.com
In the 1970’s and in 1980’s the term “Lakpathi” or “Lakshadhikari” was what the guys wanted to become, simply meaning that they would like to somehow earn 100,000 rupees and that was it. The value of money was not measured in real terms, but a simple amount of money was constantly used to show the society’s tendency to accept a certain amount of money as the necessary resource to live a life of comfort. That term was absolutely a measure of financial success of a person in all of India, not just in rural areas. Many movies were made with the concept of a man with Rs. 100,000 rupees and many books written on the same, and definitely every person who was capable of thinking wanted to become a “Lakshadhikari”.
Coming out of school and just beginning to look at real life, I would be lying if I said I did not want to be one along with all my friends, and live the life of comfort and luxury in the early eighties. By studying hard and completing education and getting a professional degree, along with good habits and great family was enough to start to think of building a future full of promise and happiness. Every youngster dreamed of the same stuff, and I am sure each one of us felt that life is as simple as just do follow your heart and things will work out. None of my close friends relocated to countries outside of India, and have made great strides with their respective careers and families in India, and whenever I think of them it gives great comfort to think of them in the most endearing terms of childhood friends, and whenever I get to speak to them it still take me back a quarter of a century and the days of dreaming about a life without discomfort, and a life full of happiness.
Then the reality of today is very different from a generation before and its aspirations and dreams. Children seem to grow into adults without the focus and direction that needs to come from educational institutes and parents with a stable environment. We have a major scam or a tirade of negative verbiage every day, and these days we seem to even dig dirt on dead people and start to blame them for the ills of the society. The television, print media and the internet only have negative aspects of what is being done by the politicians in power; which is pretty much to retain power and never worry about the common good of the population.
There is no consensus about managing the resources the nation has, and there is no agenda driven by the needs of the people. If there are pockets of leadership that wants to drive the people’s agenda, it never gets heard, except when the person is dead and then all of a sudden his plan become the news of the day. No one seems to care about the young folks and their need to get quality education and training to prosper in a country which has great competition for even the smallest work to be done. For a generation of bickering and back stabbing politics, the country’s young people can’t dream of even simple things, except to look forward to the next crisis that is almost all the time expected. How will they plan and achieve their life’s ambitions without the support of the systems from their infancy?
When you really look at the disarray in handling of the simple people issues by the elected leaders, and their focus on continued emphasis on what was done wrong by someone in the opposition, there can never be emphasis on what is needed now and for the future. There is no denying in the fact that if a mistake was done it needs to be corrected, and if someone willingly did something wrong they need to be punished. The time just cannot be spent in just digging dirt and abuses, rather in planning and execution to the country’s enormous requirements.
To
allow the young people to dream, and think of the future is what will drive the
focus and force of the nation. If the
elected officials have no time to do people’s work then they should never be
elected. The democracy always allows for
a choice, and the choice should be the right future for the country.
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