The Blog Of Dysfunction

When we talk about “liberation” for our Motherland, most people think only of the need for liberating the uneducated, the rural poor, and the oppressed ones. However, I demonstrated in the last two articles that even the educated one’s do need various kinds of liberation and Indian Bloggers dedicated to that cause can surely attain much. With that said, we will move on to the uneducated masses who live in darkness and poverty because they cannot read.

Let me begin with an incident. A few months ago I was visiting a friend in MP when a girl of 18 or 19 from the neighborhood came to sweep that house. She knew my parents because they had lived in that house, and was very happy to meet a person from that family. After a week of her work, I gave her some money and offered a book. Her reply stunned me. She said she did not know how to read and that she has never been to school. I could not believe my ears. It kept echoing in my mind.

My God, I said to myself, if this girl and my girl (along with a couple of her cousins) were given the same raiment, makeup, and accessories, and if they were made to sit in the same room for an informal conversation, and if I told a stranger that all of them (except one) were students in prestigious academic institution, the stranger would never be able to pick up from a distance the one girl from among them who had never been to a nursery — let along a college. So innocent, smart, and attractive was she, but inside of her she was not given what is every Indian child’s birthright — basic education.

What is happening to the children in my Motherland ??

There are millions of children like this girl. We do not see because we do not ask. It is always convenient not to know the wants of others. But we need to do something. Of all the problems, illiteracy is one against which Indian Bloggers can definitely do a lot of things — yes I mean a lot of things without terribly disrupting their life and without emptying their coffers (if that worries any of them).

I am sure that any Indian who loves the motherland can spare a couple of hours every week. More so if you live close to a slum or if there is a colony of scavengers close to your residence. All what you need to do is to call some of them to your place — even to your garage or your verandah if you do not want them to initially get into your living room. Offer them some slates and pencils and tech them the alphabet. Meanwhile collect paper on which they can practice later — such paper, with printing or Xeroxing only one one side is thrown by the tons in every town every day. I get about 10 to 20 kg of such paper every month which I recycle to students. You too can find if you look around office, ask college students and senior school students for blank papers from notebooks and files of the previous year.

Try this. Call them three to 4 days a week. Do this for an year. By that time you will be hooked to the gleam in their eyes. The empowerment seeping into their lives will become the light that will make you keep going.

Lord Jesus once said “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul”. How true. As a corollary let me ask you, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but does not care a hoot for his fell humans”. Such people forget that in the last 200 years many Indians, most of them unknown to us and even to history — gave their life to bring peace, freedom, independence, and affluence to those young Indians who now do not care for fellow Indians. Thus the minimum each one of us owes to these heroes of the past is to make life a blessing by empowering a few people in this generation.

Does this look like too much to you? Then let me ask you just one question: have you learnt only to receive and selfishly amass in your life? Don’t you owe anything to God and to man in this life?

I am not finished yet on this theme …

Guest Contribution: Dr. Johnson C. Philip
Visit My Blog At The Panacea

Earlier Articles In This Series
Blog To Liberate India — 1
Blog To Liberate India — 2