EUNOIA
BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD
By Swayam Sarkar, Infosys Toastmasters Bhubaneswar - SEZ
How many times have we been blaming the ‘system’
for being the way things are? We say child labor is
prevalent because the government has not taken
enough initiatives. We complain of corruption but do
not hesitate to bribe policemen after flouting traffic
rules. We grumble about inoperable administration
machinery but still go looking for government jobs.
We protest, we object, we disapprove. But that is all
we do.
In recent times, there has been an increase in the
brain drain, the bright minds seeking better
opportunities outside the country. The question we
need to ask ourselves is this. After 69 years of
independence, why have we not progressed into a
developed nation from a developing one? Why is it
that in a country which has the one of the largest
number of doctors and engineers in the world, people
die of easily curable diseases and lack of basic
infrastructure? What is so fundamentally wrong with
our way of thinking that does not let us see past our
own self?
In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “The
reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the
unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world
to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man.” So is it time to become the
‘unreasonable man’? To shape the world in your own
vision? So when I ask you to start changing the world,
you will answer, “But what can I do? I’m just a single
person? How can I change the world?” We could start
with the smallest of things – learning to stop littering,
saving water and electricity, using public
transportation more often, obeying traffic rules,
respecting other human beings, irrespective of their
social or economic standings.