My name is Gattani, Mahesh Gattani. This is how James Bond introduces himself. My name is Bond, James Bond. I was told this even before i saw a single James Bond movie, at one of my school seminars. James Bond, a character, maybe fictional but with such strength, passion and dedication that the biggest villain fears his name. We have had such characters in real life as well, maybe showing their virtues in other ways, but deeds lower to no one. But they are usually forgotten with the swing of time.That i believe is one of the biggest tragedy of the modern world.

We live in a time where we desperately need such figures. We live in a time where there is more violence, more agitations, more disturbances, more corruption, more politics and more problems than ever before. Than again, this is also the time when there is less courage, less truth, less faith, less brotherhood and less peace. How did we end up like this? We are supposed to be the most civilized species with the biggest brains. What went wrong?

Case in point, India. I love my country. I want to see it prosper. I want it to be the best there is and the best there will be. But with a heavy heart, i can also say that the way things are, my dream would only be a dream. This is what i usually hear from people in my generation. I agree completely. So many scams, so much dirty politics. Not a single politician can be trusted with public wealth. But then again, what can we do apart from having a blind trust? People say we have the power to vote, but what if i think none of the candidates are right for the job? What if all the candidates have a criminal record? Our constitution has been written and re written such that criminal records are bad only for weaklings, not for people with money, people with pocket big enough to bribe the corrupt officials.

My anger is the same as most of the country. The feeling of being helpless. We cant judge those corrupt politicians, because there is a case already going on in some court or the other. Even though everyone knows who is the culprit, even then there is a court case, which runs for years and years till the country forgets about what was the reason of the trail.

I am helpless. If i say i don’t want this person to lead my village or my state or my country, i have to choose another one like him. If i want strict rules against bribery, against wrong use of power, i am told some bill is going to be passed in the parliament, a bill which doesn’t have want i wanted at the first place. Things are actually very simple. People who are making the rules, if they make a rule which in turn would have an impact on their pocket, they wont do it, at least not until they have a loop hole to find their way out. And we as the citizen would be there, same old, helpless and pathetic.

In India, rules are for poor, for the helpless. For people with money or man power, there is always a way out. These people make the rules, its obvious they will take care of their interests before they look to ours. This belief, that they will take care of their interests before ours, shows how little we trust our politicians, our own selected and elected politicians.

Solution? I am not sure, but the first step is certainly we have to make them more accountable, I don’t know how though. We have to stop bribing politicians and people in power, its just like feeding the dragon. And lastly, We have to strive to be a person with power or money and not getting corrupted in the way. This way we can be the ones making the rules, we can be the ones implementing them and seeing our nation prosper.