The Great Indian Rising

There was a man in our neighbourhood who used to spit paan (betel leaf and betel nut chewed after a meal, which turns your mouth red) in front of our porch every night. When morning came, we had an extra task of cleaning up our walls while feeling disgusted. No amount of pleas or threats worked in this case and the cold war continued till we moved out of that place for other reasons.
I love to travel by train as I enjoy watching our beautiful country's landscape unfolds through the window. Verdant fields, red earth, lakes, coastlines, hutments...But I hate to look out the window in the mornings especially near the stations as the railtracks serve the second purpose of being the lavatory for a majority in our country. Here the shy,coy wife/daughter, the sober father/son all sit, chat and watch the trains chugging along while they perform their morning duties nonchalantly.
The other day we were hurrying through a street, fortunately in a car (with the advantage of having a window to close) and were shocked (as usual) to see men turned to the walls, attending to nature's call. I would be only exagerrating in the negative If I have used the word shocked as this has become a usual scene through out our country. And I always thought women suffered fom urinary incontinence! Not only that, but men can stare at you at a bus stop or a shop, measure you up from top to bottom, even when you are well dressed (fully covered) but when women happen to pass a street with a man pissing round the corner, it is she who feels embarassed (and even scared that she might have seen too much) and looks elsewhere.

How can I ever forget our dear Indian brothers turning our nation into 'spitsville'?

BTW, did I call them brothers? (Un)fortunately I am reminded of the ever increasing number of rapes, assaults, and abuse unleashed on their 'sisters'. Children and grandmothers are not spared these days either. Is the media to be blamed for portraying perverted images and corrupting youngminds with warped ideas of sexuality? Or is it our own fault for lacking to provide a moral basis (though we often boast of it) to each generation in our haste to hoard wealth for them?

Every Indian city has a newface each day, with malls, multiplexes, boutiques, exclusive shops, joints, pubs springing up. Each screaming of better entertainment than the other. Fashion shows, music concerts, cricketmatches (this is the fusion of fashion, movies, music, cheerleaders and lastly and the least, sports), food festivals, raffles, inaugurations, movie campaigns and what not are held to mark the growth of a metro. Yet the bylanes still carry unattended rubbish heaps swarming with flies, street dogs take their nightly stroll in huge groups.
As evening darkens, the elite clink glasses of champagne and dance to techno music, men and women, some who came to work over a construction project (there is a mass exodus from villages to urban areas every year) for a measly sum and others who lost their land to the 'dream' project of someone else, huddle up with half empty stomachs under the flyovers and the unfinished patios of huge multiplexes, to get a goodnight's rest and dream of a better tomorrow...
We have super and multi speciality hospitals mushrooming everywhere and yet many do not adhere to basic medical requirements regarding hygeine of equipments and premises.
Inflation has hit the roof, an alltime high in 13 years, people have gone on a ricewater diet ( I am talking about the common man), farmers (the media likes to use the word 'ryot' rather than farmer as this sort of blinds our eyes as we feel that some 'ryot' has killed himself and not a farmer) still commit suicide, the number of jobless, homeless pushed to the street continue to increase, begging, prostituition, petty thefts increase... Elsewhere, an India-born industrialist purchases another billion dollar mansion, the richest Indian builds his costliest home in Mumbai, political parties hold day long debates in air conditioned rooms on the nuclear deal, buffet lunch and dinner soon follow, the average Indian viewer satiates his sentience with the lovelives, whims, diets and pilgrimages of his Bollywood (disgusting, why cant they find an original for this at least?) icons and from the tabloid news channels that churn up in disgusting details the criminal exploits of some mentally sick individual.
Our country boasts to be the largest, still working democracy (owing to the successful elections, by-elections, often too many, barring the leg-pulling, remote-controlling, party-hopping, new-part-forming, backstabbing and all other power plays 'normally' adopted by polititians of our country) and yet, the word 'democracy' is a farce as far as the common man is concerned. Many stay away from exercising their rights to vote (deceived to think as the best way of defiance to the ongoing anarchy), others 'over use' it and still others are unaware of any rights. Hence we have qualified criminals, bootleggers, tenth failed loud-mouthed dadas, ambitious (ofcourse for their own sakes) businessmen, tongue-tied moviestars as MLAs, MPs and even ministers!
We project our 'tolerant' secular image with pride but forget those dark days (not far behind and could be nearer in the future) when slightest provocation lead to communalism which rendered many homeless, fatherless, motherless...orphans, destitutes raped and left to die in the street in the name of whatever. Yes we are tolerant enough to entertain all those religious political parties.
The government boasts of rise in economy, the bulging purse of Indian middle class and the boost in per capita income. I quite agree as younger men and women are getting employed even before gradutaion. I personally know many who have quit college to work and make quick money, where they exchange their identity for an 'Erich' or a 'Michelle'. We are now bestowed with a generation mostly undergraduates, unskilled and having dearth of pros. But has anybody seen the coming danger? I hope so. The power of Mammon is quite intoxicating. The new xyz generation is finacially independent, yet, emotionally unstable and mentally confused. Morality takes a back seat here while all boundaries are blown apart. A veritable ticking bomb...

Is this the great Indian rising to turn in his bed and sleep again?