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| | The WE CARE FOR CHENNAI Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Reply to Mr. Chandra Gupta from Govind Srinivasan | Views: 129 | | Sep 27, 2004 10:59 am | | Reply to Mr. Chandra Gupta from Govind Srinivasan | # | 
Govind Srinivasan | | Hello Chandra Gupta,
I would welcome you to make your postings in the WE CARE FOR CHENNAI network itself.
Thanks for your query. I don't want to give you the feeling that I want to be in an independent struggle to liberate Chennai roads. But then, we just have to turn back a few leafs of the history of our own country.
Lokmanaya Balgangadhar Tilak converted Vinayak Chaturthi as a festival for inspiring Maharashtrians to get the national pride and unite them in the struggle against the British Rule.
N.T. Rama Rao created a Regional Party in Andhra Pradesh, putting the slogan "It is the maryada (self-respect) of Telugu Talli (Telugu mother) that is in danger" before the Andhra People. Even 2-3 years before he started his "Telugu Talli's Maryada" revolution, he was content with being a Film Actor.
The Assam Students Union sprearheaded, probably, the most visible and significant struggles in Assam, to bring the unemployment problem of the Assamese people. And they ended up forming up the State Government in Assam, floating a Regional political party, the Asom Gana Parishad.
Lech Walesa, an Electrician by profession, whose public identity was just as a Trade Union leader, having had no political links or proven political background, (not even completed High School) won the Nobel Prize and became the first Non-Communist Prime Minister of Poland.
Mahatma Gandhi went to South Africa, just to continue his Lawyer profession, but his political life started over there, taking the British Government to task and he ended up reaching India, making himself as one of the most rememberable,reverred and unique symbol of the human race.
The life of George Washington Carver still serves as the epitome of racial discrimination and he was treated with all the disrespect and contempt by the then-racially-minded Whites (as a society) in America, including the Scientific Community. But, that did not deter him from his research in Agricultural produce. The peanut industry in America today owes a lot to the inventions of Carver.
Take some of the well-known names in the Indian Industry for that matter like Dhirubhai Ambani (Reliance), Brij Mohan Lall Munjal (Hero Honda), TV Sundaram Iyengar (TVS)and Karsan Bhai Patel (Nirma, to name a few. They were common people before they started the venture of their life. Appreciate the fact that they had a lot of set-backs and they continued their journey with what their mind dictated, undaunted.
Now, let me share with you the question. All these people, about whom I have talked here, had never imagined, earlier, the kind of incredible accomplishments they had made later.
The problem before us is not so big what these people had accomplished in their life time. We are common people and there is no second opinion in it. But history has shown repeatedly that it is the common people who have re-written the course of history.
"CHENNAI ROADS" is a symbolic one I have chosen. My take is this. It is the ROADS in a city that depict the will and intolerance (to substandard living) of the people. We don't need to just stop with talking and doing about the ROADS OF CHENNAI. But this is one area in which you can make the mass come out and take part physically in any progress work.
Yes, we don't need to stop just with ROADS. But neither I see anything so common a problem to talk about that can involve the masses. WATER is a problem, far far bigger than ROADS. But that falls in the political domain of public action. Our country has enough political roads to solve the WATER problem and I don't want to lay one more road to solving it. But, yes, we can, and definitely we can, talk about the WATER problem also, provided we get a legitimacy to talking about it and literally doing something to alleviate the crisis. There is no point in making one more voice heard but there is always room for making one distinct voice. Why not that be coming from us? We can get legitimacy, only after proving that it is a PURE SERVICE-MINDEDNESS that drives us to action and not a search for POLITICAL IDENTITY.
Govind Srinivasan
Chandra gupta writes:
> hi mr.govind
>what can be done about chennai roads, we as common people cannot do anything i feel
>keep in touch
>bye
>chandragupta
Private Reply to Govind Srinivasan | | |
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