It’s a little over 70 years,
Since we threw the British out,
Thanks to the Mahatma,
We did it without a war,
Though selfish power-hungry men,
Didn’t let the good start easy,
But, that’s not what I’m thinking of today.
I’m feeling that the fight is not over,
But it’s different,
There are so many new bads – garbage, climate change, smog, traffic jams;
And still all the old wrongs – greed, violence, mismanagement, poor governance;
Not to mention rising contamination, intolerance, apathy, imitation and consumption;
So what are we to do? Turn our face away, immigrate, drink, beat up somebody, cry?
Or wait for politicians, cinema stars, big firms, activists or journalists to make things right?
Except you know deep down – they can’t save you or me,
You know deep down the only hope is the power within you,
But, this is what the Third Revolution is all about – no top down forcing, no violent overthrow –
Just making a few small good things really happen and letting them ripple across,
Building pride, changing behaviour, making spaces for change,
So let’s lead by example.
Let’s clean up ourselves – road by road, school by school, shop by shop, village by village,
Then the rest of India will have to follow!
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Jai Hind and Jai Ho to all from Kameshwaram!
To lead by example the third revolution, we picked up the construction waste loosely buried in the Kameshwaram Panchayat school yard. There are no games periods in this school due to the stones in the yard and the lack of sports material. It’s going to take many more sessions of waste picking to make the yard fully safe for children, but we have inaugurated the games! We gave some balls, skipping rope and a ring and the Principal of the school delighted all by inaugurating the skipping rope!
May the happiness of these children in the Panchayat or village public school (the others are private) give you the power to make positive change happen in India and to marginalized groups anywhere and everywhere in the world!