I believe the Socialist Republics of the world failed because they gave too much importance to the lazy poor, not the poor people who worked hard and yet failed to earn enough to sustain themselves. I see the same thing happening here in India. I see mobiles with fancy ringtones and wallpapers, tight jeans and even bikes with young men of the poorer class. And the government gives out rice at Re. 1/kg for them, allowing them to spend the rest Rs. 99 on luxury rather than necessity. They work for a day, earn enough to tide them through the next few days of non-working, loitering around in tea shops and then go to work only when that money runs out. They neither save for the future nor worry about it. Why don't our youth have a commitment towards work and its ethics?
'Caught in a strange land in a net with other butterflies, I'm a caterpillar yet undecided to remain a caterpillar and perish or turn into a beautiful butterfly and live a life full of joy.' Readers don't laugh. But I came up with this one night recently when I was travelling in a train. I tossed and turned, not being able to sleep, upset over unexplainable things and frustrated over events not in my control. Then it occurred to me that our life and its usefulness depends on our decisions -- whether to remain a crawling caterpillar whose existence otherwise is either ignored by all and sundry or who is cursed for just being there and thrown out with a stick, or to develop wings of life and metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly whom everybody adores for its beauty and colour, for its flitting liveliness, for its service to the flower's pollination... I thought that I should be a butterfly, of service to others, but then again I thought, anyway, who really cares?
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