You must have watched this video on your Television sets. If it does not play here properly, here is the summary :-
A large tree trunk has fallen on the road, which is blocking the traffic. The many vehicles blocked by this tree includes a school bus, a police jeep, and a car with beacon light carrying a politician. It is raining heavily and due to this every one is watching the scene from their vehicles as if waiting for some unknown force to come and remove the tree. A typical "this is not my job" attitude. After some wait, the politician is told by his staff accompanying him that another car is waiting for him on the other side of the road block. He, very conveniently, gets down from his car, walks across to the other side and rides away in the car which is waiting for him there. Meanwhile a small child who watches this scene from the window of his school bus gets down, walks up to the tree trunk, throws away his school bag and while braving heavy rain, makes a gesture of lifting the large tree trunk with his tiny hands. Ashamed by this, the rest of the onlookers also come forward and join the little boy who is already drenched with the rain water. In no time the tree trunk is removed.
Well, that is an advertisement of "Lead India" campaign of Times of India and has depicted a hypothetical situation which sends home a very strong message that nothing can block our way if we shed away the habit of saying "this is not my job" and make a collective effort to remove the obstacles.
And today i received a mail from a friend with this picture which is a glaring example of "this is not my job" attitude. And this is no advertisement but a handiwork of a man entrusted with the job of painting the edges of the road.
In this case the object fallen on the side of the road is not a very heavy tree trunk but a small branch not weighing more than a couple of kilogrammes, which could have been very easily kicked away, even by a single person. But see what the painter has done. It is high time that we wake up. This is not the way that we will usher our country into being a superpower. We will have to put in that extra bit. Attaining average is very easy but going from average to high average and then above average will take extra effort. To take the steam engine from 50 kmph to 60 and beyond, extra shovels of coal have to be put in its furnace.
Happy Independence Day
14 comments:
Balvinder,hats off to the child.We must look upon such children as the future of this country.As for the neats are concerned,they are the most shameless characters God has created for India.Yesterday,two children of a minister in Delhi Govt needed medical attention due to suspected flu....this was the breaking news in the media and three Drs from Govt hospitals were attending to him at his house.
I LOVE that video! Yes it is an inspiring video! I wish we have more such videos and even News Stories to inspire us to do our bit for our country... Reminds me of how Swadesh and Rang De Basanti(the movie) could inspire!
And the picture sort of sums up our attitude :( Sad...
But this is such a perfect post for 15th August Mr Balvinder Singh, Happy Independence Day in advance :)
@BK Chowla I can imagine this happening! The fact that it is being shown on the TV is worst, I fear we will get used to watching such news and stop even feeling the inappropriateness of it :(
I love that video too Sir. IT is extremely inspiring!
but the second pic made me feel gloomy...
it sums up our attitude as IHM says..
Mr. Chowla, yes, the children are indeed our future leaders. And the politicians, should be told "either lead or follow or get out of the way".
How sad that three doctors attending to a politician's son at his home while the common man languishes in the governement hospitals where every thing else is available except hospitality.
IHM, yes that video is indeed inspiring and when, yesterday, i got that other picture in the mail, i was struck with a striking similarity between the pic and the video where the "this is not my job" attitude is clearly visible.
Thanks 'happy independence day' to you too.
Abhilasha, yes such kind of attitude on our part fills one up with gloom when we are dreaming of ushering our country into being a superpower. Look what China is doing with whom we are trying to compete. It is high time we wake up.
And Mr. Chowla, IHM and Abhilasha, i have added another paragraph at the end of the post which you may like to have a look at.
Hi Balvinder,
I think this particular Lead India Campaign was adjudged the best ad last year or the year before that (the unsurety because I don't remember the year)...isn't the Indian cricket team also present in the ad....
Ash
Attaining average is very easy but going from average to high average and then above average will take extra effort. To take the steam engine from 50 kmph to 60 and beyond, extra shovels of coal have to be put in its furnace
YEs, I agree whole heartedly Sir! you have said it so well...
Ash, you are right. This was adjdged the best ad some time back.
Abhilasha, thanks.
Happy national day! That kid is so inspiring and that silly painter deserves to be jailed!
Happy Independence Day, Balvinder. Enjoyed reading this beautiful post, and the message. Yes, we all need to shovel the coal!!
This ad of Lead India was, and is, inspiring, and I too have always been fascinated by that young kid - wish, pray and hope that we have more such kids in our GenNext. Sometimes I feel that our generation became selfish somewhere down the line. How? Well, people before independence were honest, upright and selflessly fought for our independence; our generation was born in free India and did not imbibe or pass on those values to the next generation. I don't know how or why it happened - but it did happen. How can we correct this situation is what each one of us has to focus on, despite the numerous challenges. Reaching this far has been no mean achievement though, but we have far greater potential, and we still have many 'miles to go' before we reach there.
Lazy King, thanks, yes the kid is really inspiring and we actually need more such inspirations no matter what quarters they come from.
JP, you have thrown a very relevant question at ourselves. Where have we gone wrong ? Where, down the line, these values have been lost. Where have we slipped up. We have to ponder.
I think we ourselves are to be blamed. We only expect good behaviour from our next generation but while it comes to setting an example, we miserably fail. The next generation is bound to follow what they watch us doing.
Only our history books are full of inspiring stories of sacrifice and valour. How many of them we actually see being practiced today.
JP thanks for the food for thought.
Happy Independence Day!!!
The video is very inspiring....if every person puts his or her own house in order, country will be changed.
I dont care much for what others are doing, but try to see that my family is not like that.
Renu, very right, it all starts at home. Put our house in order. Everything else will fall in place.
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