Earning respect

We need an attitude makeover...

August 28, 2013 06:10 pm | Updated 06:10 pm IST - chennai

Irresponsible in thought and action. Photo: H. Vibhu

Irresponsible in thought and action. Photo: H. Vibhu

Recently, I saw a foreigner kicking a water bottle into the drain. It’s no big deal as we do things like these all the time in our country. But the point is we have seen and heard that most foreign countries are clean and litter-free.

Agreed that the open drains and unclean places are our mistake, but the foreigner wouldn’t do something like this in his country. It may be out of love for his country or fear of the fine he would be asked to pay. Their attitude towards India is our mistake. We don’t give our country its due respect. We just consider it a developing nation, but frankly, how long can a nation go on developing? Isn’t 66 years already a long enough time?

When our country wins medals at the Olympics or the World Cup, we all, in spite of our caste, creed and the various differences, are proud of it. This shows that we are proud to be the winning country. Wouldn’t it be great if all other countries looked up to us and recognised us.

There is no point in playing the blame game. There is corruption in some form or the other in every step and level, and there are people rising against it. In this chaos we may not be able to make great changes but a little change in attitude can go a long way. When we can adopt so much from the west like their culture, food and clothing, why can’t we adopt their attitude of respecting their country?

The writer is an engineering student

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