Towards a better society

Hello All,

I’m Anupama. I’m a proud Gujarati. I’m from Surat and I’m proud of that, too. I believe nobody can beat our Surti food and Surti spirit. I’ve heard that even during the floods, people ate Ganthiya, Khaman, and Locho! They’re real Surti Lalas. And of course, we can’t forget generosity of the people of Surat.

I earned my first university degree from Ahmedabad. My father and uncles studied there, too. My mother is also from the same city. So I got to hear and learn a lot about Ahmedabad. Because of my 5-year stint with the city, I am lucky to have firsthand experience of the city. I must praise Amdavadi culture. There, even during a street fight, they’ll address each other with respect – “Shun bhai tame pan, jara juvo to khara! Tamari bhul chhe toye pachha mane kahesho!” Well, this was a scenario a long time ago – almost 17-18 years back. I hope this culture is still intact.

Now, I’m in the southern part of India – Bangalore. This city too has a charm of its own. Apart from pleasant weather, we must appreciate people’s accommodativeness.

So, basically whether it’s a place or people, we all have our own positive aspects. But in today’s time, I feel, we’re not ready to make enough efforts to expand those positive factors. We’re not ready to learn something good from others. Rather than converting that good into better, we’re making bad worse.

Why can’t we become better if we are good, and strive to be the best if we are better? Here’s the catch. When it comes to becoming ‘the best’, the competition factor pitches in. I feel we take ourselves too seriously. “I want to have the best – the costliest car in the family”, “I want to have the best house in my friend circle”, and the list goes on! Why can’t we have that same craving for “the best” for the whole society?

I feel there is always something good in most people, and also there is always a scope for improvement in most of us. Can’t we learn something good from each other to better ourselves without that competition bug in our mind? And if we start doing it, then definitely we can have a happy, healthy, nurturing, and positive environment for us, and also for future generations.

It seems very idealistic but if we together start working on ourselves, then we can make it a reality.

Written by – Anupama Desai, Content Writer from Bangalore