A country is made great or otherwise by its people. This is what we have been inculcated with always and holds very true too. This is what we know, think, and feel better to think so and we want to be happening around us, especially in the country, which we very passionately think is our motherland, say Bharat.

Every facet of this preoccupied and obsessed cube of conviction, embalmed in deep yet ordinary and thick yet amenable juice of patriotism and mera-bharat-mahaan chauvinism, seems emanating from our theoretical education system and hypocrite social structure. This may not be true only for our country but it comes out to be more relevant to where we stand today as proud citizens of a country being throttled up and ahead by the youths brimming with loads of knowledge and acumen, and more significant in what and how much we aspire for in coming years before so-called ephemeral wave of IT and BPO reaches shore.

Energy of youth is insuperable but focus of that energy is vulnerable. Courage of youth is unique but again, finale of that courage is feeble. Nobody should disagree with that youth in our country is fighting to secure his or own future rather than doing something to uphold the first sentence of this write-up. If we ask to ourselves whether we have the dying love for our country, an impulsive answer would be yes but if we ask whether we are doing something for this, then most of us, although reluctantly, have to say a whispering no. And youth may not be held guilty for this, but only probably. Only a healthy, serene and contented mind can think something creative and contribute to the welfare of the country.

I have stayed in US for few years and I have realized that a good amount of creativity comes from a quality and worry-free life and a high level social infrastructure. Anyone of us can use this reasoning as an excuse to explain why we are not able to do better than what we are doing. But, this concept is more or less cyclic, or say recursive. Individuals' exertion drives the society and then a time comes when society begins to drive the individuals and when these both things have happened in a society, then only it makes up a great country as whole. In a country like ours, I doubt if individuals could ever drive the society and if it happened at all, it happened in a very distorted manner resulting into a situation as of today where society is driving the people in a way which I think is illogical and immoral and hypocritical in many means. And I feel that I am also victim of this somehow. I can't preach to others because I am just as good or just as bad as others and I haven't done anything outstanding to standout of the multitude. Everyone struggles for living everywhere in all the circumstances and I have been doing the same. I too have a pair of eyes similar to others, which dream about an engineering college or something like that, and then a job after that. May be some went ahead and did more. But, still we all have not been able enough to take a few minutes off our time and invest that into something without expecting any returns. This is the part where we can do something.

I am not trying to moralize the people but as an alumnus of one of the Navodaya Vidyalaya schools, I strongly feel that I have got much more from this school (read 'this country') than what I have got even from my family. I owe a lot to country at least because of this, but not just. Somethings are true irrespective of being a Navodayan or not. Being a citizen of a country itself implies to act as and to be an accountable citizen and it doesn't need any extra frills to be adorned with, to make us behave responsibly. We all indubitably know that 7 years at such a school have transformed us into a better human being in thinking, in words and in actions in our bursting capability, which I feel, is limited only by our non-conducive surroundings. Even today, more than 10 years gone by since I parted with Navodaya, I still find myself in close proximity of that great institution which stands for the betterment of not so privileged students to help them persevere, perform and progress. Even today, thoughts of Navodaya conjure up a family in my mind; a family knit together with fibers of innocence and tenderness of childhood. Having been in a lot of schools and other educational institutions, I find this is the only one whose memories evoke a lot of sweet memories overwhelming me with emotions of affection and togetherness which we closely shared while being in the hostel or in the classroom or in the mess or on the playground, and all this is because of just more than the fact we all spent precious 7 years of our life; that too in a span of our life where all three hands of a child's future clock, never-dying spirit to struggle and excel, inner urge to stand up for what is right, and spontaneity to accept everyone with warm heart, can be aligned in a natural and permanent manner. And Navodaya, in my opinion, is one of those rare platforms which can catapult some highly responsible and impeccable individuals into the future of our country. It enthralls me to envisage that just 7 years spent at Navodaya can affect and even sometimes decide too, the various aspects and course of my life spanning 70 years or so. And if everyone of us gives efforts, equivalent to just 1 year of his or her life, back to the society, then our country can get a life of thousands of years more to live up to glory and honor of the days gone by for which we savor the pride of being a Bharatiya and also of the days coming up for which citizens of our coming generations will be able to take pride in reveling themselves in grandeur of being a authoritative part of a happy and developed Bharat.

At some point of time in our lives, we have to decide on what and how to give back to the society taking some hours off of our daily chores; and as saints have said: time is now or never; the right time to start anything is now. How many of us have got the time after leaving Navodaya to visit again the alma mater? There are hundreds of students entangled in webs of improper guidance and fragile inspiration in those schools and they need our help to emerge as strengthened and focused individuals when they pass out of the school. Our few hours or days with them can streamline many years of their lives. In the same line, I am too determined to do something so that I can assure to myself that a little part of big things happening in my country is because of me. I am not here to give somebody options or suggest ways to do something, rather I feel I am writing this all to instigate myself and if it can help me somehow then, in high probability, it can do something to others also.

Say Salaam India !

This article is written by our alumni
Manoj K Maurya,
Honolulu,
JNV, Faizabad, UP