After months of postponing the start of this blog,it is finally up and running. However, I figured out that the 500 character limit that Blogger imposes as the introduction of the blog is too less to convey the purpose of this blog and the topics that it is going to deal with.
Let me tell you an incident that really touched me.I study at Birla Institute of Technology,Mesra.The train journey back to my place ,Bangalore. is a very long one traversing as many as four different states.The train passes through the eastern side of the country and takes a swerve in Andhra Pradesh to enter Karnataka.On that day,I struck a conversation with a middle-aged farmer who seemed as much bored of the journey as I was.He began explaining about the crop he grows and the agricultural methods that he uses.Though a class 6 dropout,he was well acquainted with the changes that have come in farming and also had a good grasp of the importance given to agricultural practices in various government policies and plans. While we were travelling along the coastal villages of Andhra Pradesh,acres and acres of crop that were damaged met our eyes.Other people sitting in the compartment told us that the scene before our eyes was due to the damage caused by a cyclone which had hit the state a few days ago.Mounds of rotten crop were strewn across fields.The farmer sitting across me was looking intently at the fields which had a depressing look about them.All the conversation that was going on around me in the train was about the average farmer who provides food that we eat and the losses that he has to face.The farmer sitting opposite me maintained a stoic silence all through it.One could witness the pain he was going through.He considered the loss of a fellow farmer as that of his own.
This incident re-iterated my beliefs that all our countrymen have a common thread connecting their values and emotions.We idolize our cricketing heroes,whistle when our favorite star comes on screen,blame the apathy of the system after reading the newspaper every morning,haggle at markets and other places,applaud talent and academic excellence and many more.It is this connection at the basic human level that has enabled us to survive as the largest democracy even though customs ,traditions and practices vary with every 100 kilometers of distance travelled.
This blog will enunciate that common thread..The opinion of a nation trying to impart it's footprints on the sands of time.From Panchayats to Parliament,Cricket to issues with China,Show stoppers to Social workers,everyone and everything will be spoken of !
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