We always have a choice between easy, easier, and easiest. Well, what about hard, harder, and hardest? Or simply impossible? No, nothing is either hard or impossible. So long as words like ‘can’ and ‘do’ are willing to go along with ‘us’, ‘we’, and ‘our’, in a broader perspective, the possibility of magically transforming everything into easy, easier, and easiest remains. We just need to reimagine and probably begin with #ReimagineIndia. Opt for the easier alternative. Always.
So, would I want our politicians to disappear? Or criminals to vanish? Must thieves, rapists, murderers, and dacoits evaporate or dissolve into thin air? Come on, this is not reimaginging but fantasizing. To reimagine anything, we do not make people melt into nothingness but do it differently. Opt for the easier alternative. Always.
Differently? So if it isn’t people, would I want actions to wane or vanish? You know, wanting action verbs like corrupting minds, killing opposition, bribing for small gains, robbing public property, defacing monuments, breaking regulations, jumping traffic lights to suddenly become non-existent? Come on, this is not what I am talking about. I am suggesting an easier alternative. Always.
You see, life on earth wouldn’t remain as adventurous if people who abuse and abusive trends aren’t there. To wish for the negatives to disappear is like wanting a sea without wanting to win over rough waves… or wanting to interact with people without wanting their incessant chatter… or listening to music without wanting to solve ambient noises… or enjoying the charm of Indian beaches without wanting to walk further from vendor clusters. Wishing away rough waves, incessant chatter, ambient noises, and vendor clusters isn’t the way I’d want to reimagine my country. I want them all to remain as they make my country’s DNA unique. Yes, even politicians banging tables and rushing to the well showing their anger is necessary to the sort of democracy we have. The fringe groups with their unsavory agenda, Khaps in Haryana, Naxalites infecting tribal belts, the stone-pelters of Kashmir, and the likes of Karni Sena with their meaningless protests are as essential as Gurjars weaving in and out of traffic in the North, priests in certain temples asking women to stay out, the mullahs shouting in favour of triple talaq, religions busy converting and yet denying the act, tycoons involved in financial frauds managing to fly out… well, we have such a wide variation of negatives that the list would be unending. The point is that wishing them all away is not going to give us a country that we love so much.
Now just imagine for some time that we cease to protest against the actions that we think are bad for a nation. Imagine we lose our voice that must be raised above the din of negative voices. Imagine we stop to rise and come together as one in our fight to make the country move forward. Imagine we bow our head and accept every blow. We do not have to imagine as this is what we are slowly edging towards. This is dangerous. This is fatal. This is suicide.
We must, therefore, understand that the power to protest, the strength to get up and move as one, and the will to find and give a life to our voice are needed to keep building bridges from one generation to another. Evil never dies and it keeps reappearing in different forms. So, wishing away evil in a certain form and losing our voice makes us susceptible to a return of evil in a different garb. Wishing away evil is never the solution and is too magical and fantastical to even imagine. Fighting it is always easier and to #ReimagineIndia as a country of fighters and thinkers with a voice is what I yearn for and, I believe, this is far easier than any other solution anyone can ever suggest.
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The solution that I have suggested is probably as easy as the one shown in this video:
Note on the video: Shot in a narrative manner, the video showcases how these six Indians are re-imagining India and using Visa to make things simpler and hassle-free for them. Visa’s new ‘Reimagine India’ launch brings you imaginative and unbound payment experiences, like never before. The video captures how the living space is transforming around us, right from changing the outlook of using public spaces and fitness beyond walls to celebrating festivals in a noiseless way and staying close to nature through urban gardening.
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#ReimagineIndia
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Arvind Passey
05 March 2018
