Famous words by a man of grit!

Do they apply today to our current situation in India?

Yes, in my opinion.

I write today because I am deeply grieved by the twin blasts in Hyderabad. It is an abominable act. Dozens dead! :(( Many families disturbed. So many dreams shattered. All innocent. We all condemn it.

We are quick to blame our government & intelligence agencies. The question is immaterial of whether they are inefficient or not, who is paying?

US - you and me and the multitude we term as the common man.

Are we going to just wait for someone to incarnate and take away this bain?

Can't we do something about it? Are we just puppets or what? If we as intelligent, diligent & responsible citizens were to become aware of our surroundings, we can probably avert future incidents.

Didn't anyone notice the package which the bomber must have left at Lumbini & Gokul chat? Someone did notice the package at Dilsukhnagar in time to avert another blast. Kudos. Is there a mechanism which alerts all public places, within seconds after the first blast? There was a gap of a few minutes between the first & second blast. Could this gap have been tranlated into the difference between life and death for those at Lumbini Park?

What processes can be implemented to ensure that the first blast - (now a days, theres never just one, its by default a series, it seems :( ) - is the last?

Prevention of the first or even reducing loss of life, in the first would be the ideal situation. But we must aim at preventing the second and the series. The more efficient we are at prevention, the less attractive this means of making political statements is, to the perpetrators of terror. It must be expensive & highly risky to arrange blasts? If they do not achieve the results, do you think they will continue? I don't think so.

To a more alert people of my Nation.

I saw this little piece by Sharukh for TOI on "DOING"

Doing is everything. If India is to dominate then we shall have to become a nation of DOERS and not spectators who crib.

This is not a Cricket match guys! This is not a game. There are no rules and the stakes are not trophies but our lives and those of our loved ones, we are talking about.

This is going to be one hell of a cynical and boring piece. Read at your own risk.

Is it the 59th year running that we have become Independent? Well what did I do to gain this "Independence"? Independence from what? What has changed? Instead of another country screwing us, we are screwing ourselves! What's the big difference? Instead of our people being exploited by the RAJ, our own brethren our exploiting some of the others! Sounds like Rang De Basanti?

May Be! I heard a cliche somewhere "With great power comes great responsibility!"

Who has the power and who should be reponsible? We are a democracy and have the right to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea! Is that freedom? We still have cadavers of the RAJ in most of the government functioning and the bureaucracy is stifling if not strangling!

Neighbours are killing our masses in the name of freedom struggles what we call terrorism and we are stoically making speeches! Inflamatory! So be it! We have become a buch of eunuchs! I am sure their kind will feel insulted on being compared with us. I guess they are better, because thay have nothing to lose and have more courage than us, so called ....

If we call ourselves a sovereign then why is it that we need to negotiate with others to fix an internal problem?

If we call ourselves Republic, the only reason I see is that all our state secrets are known to the common public of other countries. The "re" is for repeated, I guess.

We gave ourselves a constitution which is about the ripe age for retirement! We claim equal opportunity and enforce laws for reservation. We are in the habit of assuaging for the sins of our forefathers or is it just political greed?

Blasts in Mumbai not once but twice! 1993 & 2006! What have we done? ZILCH.

Hezbollah captures 2 soldiers and Israel sacrifices 90 soldiers to gain their release in a month long invasion of Lebanon. We sacrifice hundreds of innocents to save a bunch of jokers!

Kargil! Outcome? ZILCH! Handshakes with the perpetrator and competition to vie the favours from Big Brother!

I am sorry, I find nothing to be happy about this Independence day!

I am part of the system and am equally responsible for the state of affairs today. Since I am guilty too, I shall keep quiet and smile and wish everyone a "Happy Independence Day" knowing within, that I am escaping from the fact that we need to confront our inability to change things!