Day- 115

 Travelogue : America-Five( final part)

Quietude

What the author liked during this brief sojourn of a fortnight  here is that the place is completely quiet, clean and pristine pure. The air is simply marvellous and the water quality is excellent such that people can  use tap water directly even for drinking. Can we visualize such a situation back home now or in future?

The overall scenery, where I lived, reminds  some regions in Kerala, with extended greenery, valleys, rivers and everything that the nature can give.  Having visited places like Darjeeling, Shimla, Ooty, Andamans and Haridwar etc, one is left wondering where all the quietude has gone at such places. The answer is not far to seek, though.

The US has one fifth of our Population and land area five times more. There are strict policies and enforcement  and both locals /even immigrants have great love towards the American Flag, country and what it can offer for them.

The pride for the nation is evident. They have sacrificed much over the centuries. They know the value of freedom, democracy such that they jointly strive to preserve it. In countries where the national pride is lacking and most are trying to increase their numbers, the result will be only an ecological disaster/ despair and application of Malthusian theory - today or tomorrow.

One doubt, though, remains- how the Americans must be reaching their Gods, as the Public Address system-loud speaker- is not used/resorted to for that noble purpose at any time - as usually seen at  other countries !!!

People ,from other parts of the world, who see countries like the US will realize/wonder what could have been possible  at  home country  also and how one misses the good things in life due to the form of democracy/governance, religious dogmas, human policies, backward thinking, illiteracy, ignorance, negativity and self-defeating actions currently prevailing.   But let me close this narration on a positive note as begun: 

“The Future belongs to those who Dream”

Americans are living their Dream. May their Dream live on forever!!!

***ASK NOT WHAT THE COUNTRY WILL DO FOR YOU,

    BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THE COUNTRY*** J F Kennedy

Be happy. Be safe.

ॐ

8 AM

NB; This  travelogue was written on 29/ 8/2018 from Philadelphia(USA). 

Recently the Tokyo Olympics got completed on a grand scale despite the pandemic conditions. India secured  7 medals, highest in our Olympic History which is a matter of  great pride for all Indians. (USA had more than 100 medals- even in this Olympics- only country to achieve this feat and ranked first in overall medal standing, that is excellence in sport worth emulating).

A related point is relevant. Being a faculty since long, the aspect of Excellence engaged my focus for long. Olympics come and go, but we are always anxious of winning. Success is not assured till it is achieved. This is for want of  real excellence. Focus is restricted to Olympic time, and long term training is not attempted/ seen. 

This, I had covered, among other areas, in my book-Nurturing Excellence ( 2006) which carried an excellent foreword by Mr.P N Joshi, former Chairman of United Western Bank Ltd and Board member , Saraswat Co-operative Bank Ltd.

Recently  I saw a video from our Hon. PM., where he stated that if we identify, after mapping, some new recruits from Army and if they are trained for long, they will easily fetch many medals. That is real visionary thinking, need of the hour. Current Gold medal winner, Neeraj Chopra, incidentally is an Army person!,

We can hope that the current achievement will spur our athletes  to reach further heights in 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Congratulations to the Indian contingent to Tokyo Olympics and specially to medal winners.

India  vs. USA

In our country  it has become  a fashion to compare with USA for anything and everything and bashing the US is a big pastime seen everywhere-whether it is in TV, social media etc.

It is possible that such critics may not have seen  the US except through photos, videos and movies.... if they had seen in person, they will never ever try to either compare India with them or even attempt to criticise them.  This is a big subject hence will not go into detail.

We will only restrict to just one area, as that topic is hot today. Olympic games achievement. Let us see where they stand and where we are-

USA- since 1896 Olympics-- American athletes have won a total of 2,656 medals (1,070 of them gold)- US boycotted Moscow Olympics, else the count would have been still higher!

India- since 1986 Olympics- including the Moscow one - we have won 35 medals( 10 gold of which 8 are for hockey- one was at Moscow!).

So our share of medals will be barely 1.3 % what the US achieved.... a long way to go indeed!!!