To be a Republic

For those of you not aware of the significance of this day, today is India's republic day. It is the day that the Indian Union first began using its current constituation. The other day, a friend and I got into a conversation about whether or not the quality of life in India was better when the British still governed the country. I pointed out that conditions may be bad right now, but at least we can hold ourselves responsible for the state we are in, rather than some king ruling us from 6000 odd miles away. What's more, we can actually look forward to improving the situation (no matter how hard that may be) by taking things into our own hands.
That got me thinking about all the sacrifices this country and its people have made, and continue to make everyday, just so we can be a democratic republic, not JUST a free country. After all, China is a free country, and also a prosperous one. Except they don't get to choose their leaders, their representatives and by association, their laws. True, they have one of the fastest growing economies in the world but they still do not have true freedom of expression. One only has to take a look at the large list of failed democracies that have emerged from former Asian/African colonies to realise what a huge achievement it is for India to be where it is today.
So, my friend, if you are reading this, things are indeed better now than they were under the British. Our polity is flawed, and a lot of the stuff does not work. But there is also the fact that India's politics is dominated by leaders formerly considered low caste. We have managed to achieve that without having reserved seats in our legislatures. We've also managed reasonable economic growth after liberalisation. In my opinion, we've gotten way farther than the Americans got (and this is just an example) in the first 56 years of their republic. These are indeed reasons to celebrate. Happy republic day to all Indians!

Blogger Solidarity

I suppose I could adopt an "I told you so" attitude to it, but I really can't. If it hadn't been for the lack of certain geeky features, my blog too would've been hosted on livejournal.com. Especially since 90% of my friends chose to put up their rants/thoughts there. If you haven't heard the news yet, the servers of livejournal went down, totally down. The situation's so bad that even their home page isn't available anymore. All the poor guys have got up is a time-stamped account (dare I say blog?) of their desperate efforts to remedy the situation.

In this time of darkness (pun fully intended), I would like to express support and solidarity to the folks who've temporarily (I hope) lost their blogs to digital oblivion. This might seem overtly dramatic to some of you, but you wouldn't believe the amount of value some people attach to their blog. And why shouldn't they? After all, aren't blogs the "Dear diaries" of the digital age? So here's to all you live journal users: May your blogs come back to life without any problems, and lets hope something like this NEVER happens here at blogspot(Whoops! Did I just jinx blogspot??).

New profile photo. Oh joy! 

New profile photo. Oh joy!