The Jonases are those whose stunning looks are matched by the worldly sophistication of their lives. They are everywhere keeping up with things, dragging those with them to the climes of international espionage and creating a furor everywhere they go. The conflict fuels them, and gets them in the throes of emotion that provides a joie de vivre. The places to be in are endless, the things to do are endless and in the swirl of high society while the wealthy remain immune becomes heady for the tawdry. So while in simple terms one does not wrestle with the pigs since it makes one dirty and the pig actually enjoys it.
This last line was unequivocally recited by Dr Balaram Bhargava, a fictional, rather semi-fictional character of the movie “The Vaccine War” he sums up India’s policy as such. While Covaxin was the first indigenous vaccine to be made from scratch by any country, India did achieve a lot in the midst of the crisis. But by taking a stand against those who took unfair advantage and kept the spirit alive to be independent, unsubscribing to toxic policies of hedonistic nations the country had a major win. Rising to the situation, the Indian scientists concocted in record time and for the first time ever something they had never done before. That’s the high and mightiest lesson in working with self-belief, a lesson that various scientists in India from space travel to vaccination have been serving up to the nation time and again over the last couple of years. The naysayers have found their answer and so have the haters, while engaging with them is not the need of the hour, taking a stand is.
As a Bharatiya, a person from Bharat it is indeed a proud time to be an Indian, one in six people in the world is Indian and that fraction is just going to rise over time. While the simple-minded and high-thinking tribe takes center stage in this country, there is also the milieu who are hoarding up what is necessary to keep the economy boosted. The essence of the country though lies in its simplicity and the wealth of knowledge of the past steeped in self-awareness and self-belief. While no country is inferior to another, everyone marching to the beat of their own drum, and respecting the differences is India’s win, and taking pride in diversity is its intelligence. The best thing about India yet, well that’s definitely not keeping up with the Jonases, it is in fact staying miles away from the Jonases.
Getting to your dharma with the world watching, in spite of it judging and being firm in the stance got India miles ahead with the vaccine and will continue to get India vastly ahead in all that it undertakes. The attitude is for the win, after all, it is the attitude that claims the altitude.
Vedasri Siddamsetty 