Little Anant is back home! After 5 anxious days of search and wait there is a huge sigh of relief for everyone who wished well to the agonized family of Naresh Gupta, CEO of Adobe India . An outpouring of good wishes and prayers came out for the innocent child who was kidnapped ironically just a day before "Children's Day" in India.
The pain and helpless of a father, desperately waiting for the safe return of his kidnapped child, is evident from Naresh's words after Anant's rescue:
I have never felt so helpless in life. Support from the police and administration helped save my son. I requested low key media coverage earlier as kidnappers would have taken undue advantage of our position. I got overwhelming support from everyone at my hour of crisis. But I am not a coward and won't change my lifestyle or flee India because of certain criminals. Life goes on. I am not bitter and still have hope in the system
Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) of India have become crime infested with increasing number of attacks on women and elderly being reported in the Media.
Though Naresh's words are brave -- his pain and sentiment is shared by common citizens of India. Indian citizens pay their taxes and dues -- and get very little or almost nothing in return from the shameless system that is run by corrupt, self serving politicians and a laidback set of government workers. There is no social security for those of us who work in the private sector.
From Police to infrastructure to governance -- much of the country is in bad shape. Being a middle class Indian is a regular experience in helplessness and frustration. Yet, we keep working, hoping and praying for a better India that Nobel Laureate, Rabindra Nath Tagore dreamed of:
Where the mind is without fear and
the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
let my country awake- Rabindra Nath Tagore
Nobel Laureate - 1913
”Where The Mind Is Without Fear”
I choke with emotion whenever I read this poem. I hope Tagore's prayer comes to life soon.
