The Loop

Whenever I travel by local trains in Mumbai, especially when they are stuffed like luggage with people, I feel ashamed of my country. It didn't have to be like this. So much hard work put in by the common man, leading his/her life in conditions crazily adverse at times, is all going waste because our leaders are incapable and unwilling to set the right framework for the nation to progress in areas it needs to. Rather than lubricating our economic machinery, all they do is to add creaky friction to it. And then they argue how better they are as compared to their own kind from another party. Their focus is on fooling the section of this country, which is struggling for basic daily meal, by drawing mirages with words. And the hungry, poor, dying majoring of India holds on to that hope and votes for whoever draws it best. What else can it do? Hope is built into life itself. And for someone hungry and dying, hope for the next meal is the biggest hope. What's the way out? Are we too culturally challenged to be able to deal with it? Or have out centers of power become too powerful for us to be able to uproot with better alternatives? Or is it that better alternatives do not exist in our context? In other words, the same question - are we too culturally challenged to be able to deal with it? And I realize the questions form an endless loop we are all stuck in. At least for now!