We are a nation of 1.4 billion. Nothing is beyond our potential to achieve. Look at Narendra Damodardas Modi. He was born in a humble family, and in the Kafkaesque world of the caste system as practised in India, from not just a “Backward Caste” but a very Backward Caste. Ancients were wise, thousands of years ago caste was based not on birth but on occupation. A soldier was a Kshatriya, a scholar and maestro of rituals, a Brahmin, if in business a Vaishya, and if engaged in manual work, a Shudra. Each was born a Shudra and through education and occupation entered into a caste. Each caste was considered co-equal with others, there was no caste hierarchy. Work was different, but each was equal. In Australia or Germany, a plumber or a carpenter is not considered inferior to an academic or a lawyer, which is a far better way of viewing life than to look at people hierarchically, classifying each as superior or inferior in varying grades. Such a view of people ignores the reality that we share a common humanity. Narendra Modi went through extreme hardship for the initial part of his life, but never allowed such a situation to make him feel that he could not just aspire for the top but reach there. In 2014, he became the first “Backward Caste” citizen to become Prime Minister of India. Our democracy is stronger as a result, while US democracy has yet to elect a woman President since the country was founded in 1776.
When pushed down, do not stay down, get back up. Never regard yourself as incapable of such a move. It may be illness, or an accident, or ingestion of too many chemicals passed off as harmless because standards for food and other requisites are so low across the world. An example is that favourite dish, palak. Unscrupulous people lace it with chemical additives, besides growing it with chemical fertilizers of uncertain effect on the human body once ingested. We take palak for not just its flavour but because it is supposed to be good for the body. Unadulterated palak is, but not variants that reek with chemical substances, and which we swallow with relish, unaware we are ingesting slow acting poison. Every item should have on display the chemicals used in their growing, harvesting and storage, just as all products need to reveal how much is the share of foreign components and from where.
In that way, domestic companies will not be able to pass off cars almost wholly made in China as Indian. Let foreign suppliers produce from India, including components, as such a move would also in most cases cut costs while not affecting quality. Do not let health problems darken your view on life ahead. Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) at a young age. In ALS, muscles atrophy and finally become useless. Hawking could have given up and spent his life as merely an invalid. Instead, he went on to become a scholar who stunned the world with his writings and discoveries. He was relentlessly being pushed down by an incurable and eventually fatal disease but stood out as among the greatest minds in our society. Accidents happen, limbs are lost, many if not most go on to lead almost normal life with prosthetics. Look at heroes who were pushed down but rose up, higher and higher, for in such lives it is clear that as long as the mind is unconquered, including by hate and fear, we are winners.