Did You Ever Love Me? by Rithvik Singh is a tender contemporary poetry collection about love, heartbreak, longing, self worth and learning to let go. Its greatest strength is emotional accessibility: Singh writes directly to readers who feel intensely and care deeply. The collection offers comfort without pretending heartbreak is simple, though its simplicity may occasionally feel familiar to seasoned poetry readers. Did you Ever Love Me? Have you ever loved someone so completely that, after they left, you were left wondering whether they had ever understood what they had been given? Not merely whether they loved you, but whether they ever noticed how much you loved them, how much patience you offered, how many small things you remembered, or how often you chose to stay when leaving might have been easier. There is a particular loneliness in that question because it rarely arrives at a dramatic moment. More often, it finds you while you are doing something completely ordinary. Yo...
The question I ask to my readers here, is for a simple thing. We all live in a society, an eco - system and we naturally need a leader. The teachers of my nursery and primary classes always told me (and so did the numerous fairy tales and fables that I read) that the Lion is supposed to be the king of any jungle. So to my mind, every jungle has a Lion who is majestic and is the leader, their has to be a cunning fix and some innocent rabbits.
So, where is India's Lion? I am not sure, many people would agree if I say, Dr. Manmohan Singh is the leader we are looking for. Contested elections, just once and lost, never to face the public electorate again, I somehow can not see him as the great leader. If you do, please write in your comments.
Now who is next? Many of you shall say, why not Rahul Gandhi. It is a family business. Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, he has the lineage behind him. But then I am not one of the mass janta. I like to see merit more than the blood. As for his qualities, I think we would be able to find many more politicians having similar or better qualities.
The more I write about it, I feel India has lost the whole apparatus of spotting leaders. In a country that's population is more than a billion people, does not have a leader? It is a disgrace. All the more, for like I wrote above, we have destroyed the apparatus and have no intention, whatsoever to make it right.
I say this with conviction that Indian political parties have now become the political versions of old age dynasty rule India has had. Like the Chola kings, or Mughals, or other dynasties, we now have have political parties in the same avatar. Like them, we have family appointed yuvraj and princes. They amass lot of wealth and live life of luxuries. As it used to happen in old monarchy systems, where the heir apparents, determined by thier birth,were given an area or a region to rule until they became the kings, so happens in India. (An example of that monarchy is like we have Prince of Wales in London, where Prince Charles lords over Wales). In India, we are now repeating the formula, like Rahul Gandhi has been given Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, in other cases as well, till the political heir is not ready, he is given some other responsibilities to nurse over. Like DMK's Stalin ruled over Chennai as the Mayor before taking up as the deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu. (Of course, it goes without asking that this move is a progress towards him getting the throne).
So, the chances of getting a good leader out of such parties is very difficult. I believe that if you are so self centered to appoint your heirs as your professional and social heirs, than you can never be that good of a leader. A good leader will always, according to me, chose a worthy successor. In India, we now only have a handful of parties that are not under dynasty rules. And it goes without a mention that their future is not very bright. The BJP is one, the group of communist parties is another, then their is the Janta Dal United who is doing good, but only for Nitish Kumar.
Public devotion for monarchy is extreme in India, but as excess of everything is bad, so is this devotion. Nepotism, corruption, sycophancy is a result of all this that is weakening our motherland, each passing day. Ideals, values are all going for a toss.
India has had some good leaders who were not necessarily known for their fathers or mothers. One such leader was Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Mahatma Gandhi was another. In modern India we saw Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was perhaps one of the best leaders of his times.
Following shall suffice as the answer to the question I posed in the title;
" India is not facing a leadership crisis. It is facing a crisis of reluctance,
to change and to reform,
to revolutionize and seek,
a system that breeds the best of the leaders,
that protect and uphold,
the integration and dignity of our constitution."
So, where is India's Lion? I am not sure, many people would agree if I say, Dr. Manmohan Singh is the leader we are looking for. Contested elections, just once and lost, never to face the public electorate again, I somehow can not see him as the great leader. If you do, please write in your comments.
Now who is next? Many of you shall say, why not Rahul Gandhi. It is a family business. Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, he has the lineage behind him. But then I am not one of the mass janta. I like to see merit more than the blood. As for his qualities, I think we would be able to find many more politicians having similar or better qualities.
The more I write about it, I feel India has lost the whole apparatus of spotting leaders. In a country that's population is more than a billion people, does not have a leader? It is a disgrace. All the more, for like I wrote above, we have destroyed the apparatus and have no intention, whatsoever to make it right.
I say this with conviction that Indian political parties have now become the political versions of old age dynasty rule India has had. Like the Chola kings, or Mughals, or other dynasties, we now have have political parties in the same avatar. Like them, we have family appointed yuvraj and princes. They amass lot of wealth and live life of luxuries. As it used to happen in old monarchy systems, where the heir apparents, determined by thier birth,were given an area or a region to rule until they became the kings, so happens in India. (An example of that monarchy is like we have Prince of Wales in London, where Prince Charles lords over Wales). In India, we are now repeating the formula, like Rahul Gandhi has been given Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, in other cases as well, till the political heir is not ready, he is given some other responsibilities to nurse over. Like DMK's Stalin ruled over Chennai as the Mayor before taking up as the deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu. (Of course, it goes without asking that this move is a progress towards him getting the throne).
So, the chances of getting a good leader out of such parties is very difficult. I believe that if you are so self centered to appoint your heirs as your professional and social heirs, than you can never be that good of a leader. A good leader will always, according to me, chose a worthy successor. In India, we now only have a handful of parties that are not under dynasty rules. And it goes without a mention that their future is not very bright. The BJP is one, the group of communist parties is another, then their is the Janta Dal United who is doing good, but only for Nitish Kumar.
Public devotion for monarchy is extreme in India, but as excess of everything is bad, so is this devotion. Nepotism, corruption, sycophancy is a result of all this that is weakening our motherland, each passing day. Ideals, values are all going for a toss.
India has had some good leaders who were not necessarily known for their fathers or mothers. One such leader was Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Mahatma Gandhi was another. In modern India we saw Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was perhaps one of the best leaders of his times.
Following shall suffice as the answer to the question I posed in the title;
" India is not facing a leadership crisis. It is facing a crisis of reluctance,
to change and to reform,
to revolutionize and seek,
a system that breeds the best of the leaders,
that protect and uphold,
the integration and dignity of our constitution."
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