IGNORANCE..

Subhashchandra Bose once said to his fellow Indians, "Tum mujhe khoon do, aur mein tumhe aazaadi doonga..."("You give me your blood and I'll give you freedom...") . These words came during the extremely difficult and do-or-die situations of our Freedom Struggle. That was a time when all of India came together and fought for its independence from the British Rule. It was the sheer grit and determination of the average Indian who came out in large numbers to achieve a common goal ; Independence.
Subhashji's words may seem out-of-context and gory- or even laughable - to the average Indian of today who doesn't even care to cast his vote during elections. He doesn't realize that he's lucky to belong to a country that holds democratic elections to parliament every 5 years unlike most of our neighbours where bullet prevails over the ballot. To feign ignorance in most aspects of nation building is the only despicable commonality I notice in our men today. To celebrate a mere 55-60% voter turnout is akin to celebrating apathy. For a country that boasts of 70% of its population belonging to people aged under 35, there is a lot left to achieve.
A humble start to purge ourselves off this ignorance is to ensure that we all vote and also catalyse our neighbourhood by encouraging all eligible voters to step forward and vote intelligently. As a popular ad running on TV keeps saying "This time, lets not vote FOR .. but VOTE AGAINST.... " - against our IGNORANCE.