Kartik Viswanath- What can I do?

Not all, but many of us sometimes get this feeling in our gut that we need to do something with our life, that change must come within us and around us and because of us. I don’t know if you can identify with this, but if you can then you must know how painful such a feeling is. It might come because of somebody you meet, something you see happening around you, or maybe even just a very powerful movie.

And when this happens, the question we ask ourselves is simple…what can I do?

It’s the answer to that question that’s a bit tough.

I thought my first entry should talk about these very questions, the need to think about social issues, the need to create awareness and a concern about the problems faced by society. It’s only when we take the first step that the rest of the path will unveil itself to us.

Most of us live an insulated life, insulated from the pains as well as the joys in the lives of so many around us. As long as things in our life are going well, good food, good house, good bed, good friends, it takes a bit of an effort to pull out of our cocoon and take a look around to see what the guy next door has to deal with. Such behaviour is perhaps our choice, albeit on a sub-conscious level. The reason being, if we do happen to notice the hardship of another, we’ll then have to worry about him, thus ruining our perfectly good life. All this might sound cynical, but if it is, then that would mean things aren’t as bad as they seem, which is great since that’s what we all want in the end anyway, don’t we?

I’m afraid I don’t have any answers to these questions, and I don’t think any of us really do. Further, I confess that I myself am sometimes one such person, a person who does not want to know about another’s suffering, primarily because I fear it will ruin my sleep. It’s so much easier to just block it all out.

The Mumbai terror attacks had me in confused state of mind. On one hand, I felt sad and angry, helpless yet responsible, but on the other hand I felt like I really didn’t want to hear about all that anymore, that I just wanted to laugh some with my friends, eat some good food and watch some stupid Govinda flicks. The latter sounded so much easier, so much more something I’d like to do.

Working out these two opposing forces will require some thought.

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The Author is a II yr college student and head of the Sri Venkateshwara College Website Team of DevelopmentChannel.org

Srishti Gupta- The System We All Love to Hate!

When I look around me I feel the upcoming generation will be a socially conscious one. It’s been over one year of college and its an amazing feeling that almost everyone I come across seems to be involved in some socially responsible thing or the other. Citing the example of my own college, there are a few students helping the visually challenged people in the campus, some have taken up the responsibility to teach the under-privileged children or there is also a lot which goes to some village with an NGO regularly to provide any possible help to the poor villagers.

The crux is that even the most fashionable people studying in popular DU colleges not only think about social issues, in fact, they try to do their bit to improve the situation too. Its not about any single university or place. I have friends in various engineering and medical colleges who are associated with voluntary organizations and are doing considerably great things. Youth of the nation seems to be highly aware and motivated. These subtle things I feel have a profound message in them.

But the situation around sometimes defies even my positive anticipations. The country is going through a difficult phase where maladies like corruption, rampant violence etc. are proliferating and consequently prosperity is declining. Probably the reason is that, we feel strongly for things when we are young and not a part of the system that we love to despise and as we grow older, we seem to be swallowed up and become of part of the same system that troubled us in our youth. Perhaps this generation can break this cycle of inevitability.

The time lapse between wanting to change the system and becoming a part of the same is an important one. I am sure that people who constitute the present work force of our country must have had the fervor to change "things" around them in their youth. The fact that the situation is bad now proves a very vital point. We may desire to do great things in life but by the time we are experienced enough to make a difference, our priorities change. There are so many things like career, marriage, family and material goods that begin to become priorities and we prefer to somehow manage with a known evil, rather than enthusiastically attack it. There are many people who have a strong urge to do things in the just and right way but often stop themselves due to the oft-quoted practical constraints of life.

I guess there is a time in everyone's life when you feel very strongly for those little things around you and there is a desire to change things, change the system…But they say the "system changes you". Well, this need not always be the case. If you stick to your ideals, imbibe a social consciousness and are bolstered with determination and commitment, you’ll find that it IS possible to change the system, but sometimes you have to start by changing yourself.

And if my assessment of the current generation is accurate, a change is coming- and the socially conscious new generation will lead this change!

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The Author is a IIyr Maths Honours student and part of the Core Team of DevelopmentChannel.org