Do we have milestones to celebrate in Independent India?

It's that time of the year again. The nonchalant patriot in us wakes up from a year-long hibernation to 'celebrate' the spirit of Independence. And what is it that we celebrate? Independence of the kind where people kill people in the name of honour,terrorists from a neighbouring country hold a city to ransom for nearly 60 hours, extremists kill to survive and farmers suicide. And, those in whom we rest our faith to lead the country by example, hurl chairs and benches at each other in the House orthrow pots outside it.  Oh and not to forget, we still have an overwhelming 836 million people who live on a per capita consumption of less than Rs 20 a day. The featured picture should give you some idea too.

Chandrayaan1 launched

But we all celebrate.

And we have cause to do so.

• India's won the inaugural T20 World Cup in a thriller against Pakistan in 2007
• We launched Chandrayaan1 successfully: India's first mission to the Moon - 22nd October 2008. We have of course been successfully testing Agni missiles and ISRO has launched the PSLV C14 in July 2010.
• AR Rehman won the Oscar for his Jai Ho number in  'Slumdog Millionaire' in 2009,  getting the world to sit up again and hail India's cultural expertise after Satyajit Ray won an honorary Academy Award in 1992 for his "rare mastery of the art of motion pictures" back in 1992.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5FFs_ulyFA

• And, Ratan Tata kept his promise to fulfill every man's dream of owning a car with the launch of Tata Nano - the world's cheapest car at just Rs 1 lakh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Mw6BuMJEM

Besides, India is today recognized as a super power in making. Its gross domestic product is the 5th highest in the world. It is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, thanks to liberalization of trade policies in the last decade. India is acknowledged as the third largest storehouse in the world for technically qualified workforce and one of the most knowledgeable lot too.

There was a time when we depended  on others to feed us. And today more than 2300 high yielding hybrid varieties of food grains and cash crops have been developed which make India self-sustained in food production. That several tons of foodgrain rot owing to lack of storage facility, isn't anybody's concern of course, and the powers that be continue to deny the such stories.

They perhaps forget that we are now a very well-informed lot, thanks to the Right to Information Act of 2005 and no matter how much they try to hide, we get the real story, the true picture.

The Commonwealth Games, another case in point. What could truly have been a milestone, is mired in controversy. Here's a plan that can still save it. But only if Mr Kalmadi's listening!

President Pratibha Patil on board the Sukhoi

Sadly, while doing this post, I could hardly think of any recent milestones, apart from these, that India can be proud of

Kapil Dev with the World Cup

as a  country. There have had several individual achievements, particularly in sports -  Abhinav Bindra, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Saina Nehwal to name a few, in arts - Arvind Adiga won the Booker, in Politics, we had the first woman president in Pratibha Patil, who also happened to be the first to fly in a Sukhoi. They've certainly got the world to look at India asa competitor, but honestly, the country needs to get its act together before it becomes a force to reckon with.

So which milestone are you celebrating?

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