Thursday, January 21, 2016

Being Humble - Abraham Lincoln


Abraham Lincoln's father was a shoemaker, and Lincoln became the US president. The first speech that Lincoln delivered on the inauguration of his first term was interrupted right at the beginning. 

A man stood up and showing his shoes said, 'Mr. Lincoln, by accident, you have become the president. But never forget that your father was a shoemaker. In fact, in my family, your father used to come to make shoes for everybody. The shoes I am showing you were made by your father.' 

The whole Senate laughed; they thought they had humiliated Lincoln. But with tears in his eyes, Lincoln said, 'I am immensely grateful to you for reminding me of my father. He was a perfect shoemaker, and I know I cannot be that perfect a president. I cannot beat him. But I will try my best to at least reach close to his greatness. As for your family and the shoes my father has made, I can inform the whole Senate that there may be other aristocratic families that my father used to make shoes for. He has taught me a little bit of the art of shoemaking too. If his shoes are not working well, if they pinch you, if they are too tight, or too loose, I can always mend them. I am my own father's son. Of course, it will not be the same as my father, but he is dead.

Being humble means being humble and not beating your chest about it.
We have a person who has now become the Prime Minister boasts of his once being a chaiwala, but that is just to get votes. 
He is not being humble by any stretch of imagination just as his boast of having a 56" chest which has now come down to 5.6".
Why isn't India progressing while the US even being down is looked up to by the cream of our youth?
Why does India spend money on their education and raising them and when they reach age, they rush off to the USA, inspite of having to pay high visa fees?
It is just for what we see in the above.
Abe Lincoln could become the President of the mighty nation in spite of being a cobbler's son (we call then dalits in India), without any reservation policy.
The reservation policy in India has benefited only the fatcats who are already rich and becoming fatter, people like Ram Vilas Paswan.
But what immense damage is it doing to India where the cream of our youth go abroad  because a person getting 30% marks becomes his boss because of our reservation policy.
The reservation policy has just become a vote bank policy just like the minority policy. Our leaders do not believe in it as is evident from the dalit students death in Hyderabad. There has been no basic change in the mentality of our leaders inspite of 70 years of independence.
Why?
Because our very education system promotes it.
When in school, I read in our history books that India has a caste system and I thought it was all history. We in school were one and we never asked anyone his caste. In college too we did not have any caste disputes.
However, after college, when I started working in Bihar, I saw the caste system in full force and since, being politically conscious I am seeing that it has become a driving force of politics in India.
The political parties just want to continue milking it for the votes.
As long as it persists, India can never make progress.
Give the people who have been treated badly by society, free education up to Higher Secondary Level. Rather make education compulsory up to this level for all children in India. We should not see any children on the streets during school hours, they should be in school. College education has become very expensive. We should take reduced fees for all economically weak people.
But once in the job market, the best should be employed irrespective of caste, religion or language.
If you do not get the best teachers, doctors, engineers or administrative officers how  can we get good students, good health, good development or good government?
With people passing with 30% marks occupying such important posts, how can India progress?



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