ELECTION '09

India, the biggest democracy, and in few days, I am going to be the part of the biggest democratic election of the world. So, I just thought to take out time and write something about the same.

There is a sense of responsibility and duty without any doubts for voting. But I was just thinking some days back, “Is my vote going to count? Is it going to make any difference?” The immediate reply that I got from my mind was, “NO, it won’t make any difference, cos the candidate you vote for isn’t going to make any difference if he gets elected, I m sure he would be just sitting, chilling in the Parliament, enjoying his status of a top citizen of India, going for some international tours as an ambassador of India, doing unruly behavior or doing a bollywood movie or acting unruly or indulging into Corruption and once found guilty, he would resign and then jump in for the next elections..!!”

We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's never a candidate. ~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard

Thereafter, I was invited to be a part of the panel in two panel discussions on the role of youth & students in this election. It was indeed a great experience and fortunately I have one more invitation for a similar discussion this Sunday (26/4/09), I was quite dominant and a bit aggressive in those discussions, but it changed my whole perception towards voting.

Post the first discussion itself; I really felt that we should all vote only after a deep analysis on all the candidates and their manifestos. So, I downloaded the manifestos of all the candidates of my constituency and starting making a SWOT analysis of the same. Unfortunately, here in India, we do not get a chance to have the complete life bio-data of the candidates. Also, after this, I started asking a set of questions to my class-mates, colleagues, friends, etc. and unfortunately I found out that only around 10 to 20% of them could name all the candidates running from their constituency. I was disappointed that they call themselves YOUTH and even then they cast their votes without even knowing the name of the candidate, only for a particular party. If we do not get out of our mindsets for a particular party, then who are we to blame the system?

After that, I took up this challenge to ask as much youth as I can to go through the manifestos and only then cast their vote. It was then that I felt that youngsters like me who has already analyzed the manifestos of all the candidates can go and vote for the correct and deserving candidate. Also, I plan to take this ahead to a very massive level till the next Loksabha elections, make everyone aware about their responsibility and duty and how they can perform that precisely and accurately. If all the 60% of the voters who are below the age of 35 years can be made aware that they need to stop blind voting and use their vote for really making a difference, then it will yield fruitful results towards a stronger nation. And then perhaps we can hope for a bigger change in 2014.

“You are helping elect a bad candidate if you are good citizen, voting without analyzing” – Hardeep Pathak

It is by the same thought I have posted this on my blog, hoping many youngsters can still go through it and if this can motivate a few to act in the similar way.

After talking about the voting aspect, I would also love to comment on the political system of India, which I guess is the main encumbrance in India’s growth. I completely support the solution provided by Shree Lyngdoh towards changing the election system. What I criticize the most is that due to the system, even a person getting 20 or 30% of the total votes can get elected with a whooping 70-80% of the populace in his own constituency against him. This is not it, even he can become the Prime Minister of India, by just getting a meager 20-30% of votes in a stretch of 25-30 kms of his constituency. The system that is practiced in France is that there is firstly, this type of election held and out of that a voting is again held for the top 2 candidates. This will ensure that one of them gets atleast the support of more than 50% of the populace. And this will also ensure the end of addressing petite issues like caste or religion based voting and also ensure the end of hate-speeches like that of Mr. Varun Gandhi.

“One week is a very long time in Politics”- Winston Churchill.

We still have a complete week before election, so I just request to all of you who have taken the pain to read this (which means that you are a responsive citizen of India), start acting dutifully, make others aware about doing so and utilize your vote to elect the best person.

There is not much that can be done in this election but we can do a lot if many like-minded people like us (I include you also in this us, if you are still reading) can get together, talk about elections even in the time when there are no elections, reach out as much as we can and make a massive movement in the whole nation, not to vote without analyzing a candidate, and to cast the abstention vote if none of the candidates actually deserve. And if we really are able to make this movement massive till the next Loksabha election, we can actually demand the whole life bio-data of all the candidates, throughout the nation, and whosoever fails to do so, won’t get our votes.

“I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians” ~Charles de Gaulle

FAMILY

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
~Diane Loomans, from "If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again"

What you all are going to read now, isn’t anything really great but it’s the most important thing for me. So, let me try to make it interesting for you too.

My dad, something more than the world’s most caring dad, I can undoubtedly say that he does not need to go through this verse of Mr. Diane Loomans, as it says “If I has my child to raise over again”, but I am proud to say that my dad has already done that. He has been everything to me, but my greatest limitation now has become that I can rarely show my affection and care for my parents. Anyways, I am trying a lot to improve on that front. My dad has never restricted me from doing all that I love to do and encouraged a lot for that. Whenever I present a new idea to him, he just makes me aware about all the limitations or dangers that the idea can pose. And those are always the ones about which I would have never thought upon if he wasn’t there to alert me. I love him a lot for that. I hope I would be someday able to live upto his expectations and express my love and care for him.

What's done to children, they will do to society. ~Karl Menninger

My mom, I can firmly say that, has kept this in mind always, unaware about the quote from Mr. Karl. She has always loved me a lot and many a times, I am able to show my love and care for her, the way she does. I love her suspicious nature too, and she is always there with me whenever I have had a small spat with my dad, to support me and then finally, when I would calm down, she would caress my hair and make me understand everything. She is the best example for those who say that a mother can never see her child getting hurt and she would be the first one to shed tears of happiness on some achievement of his child.

I happened to go to Japan last November, and my mom, packed a bag full of snacks, while my dad made a list of all the things to carry and got them and packed them personally. My mom was the only one to shed tears on my departure for just 17 days, while my dad was the only one to tell me spend and enjoy as much as you can, you might not get such chance again within a few years. When I was first admitted in Baroda for studies, during the initial days, my mom used to call me up every 2 hours and cry silently and pass the phone to dad when she would not be able to talk further.

Mom and Dad, I am really sorry that I cannot express myself openly about how much I love you, I wish someday I could. But I promise I will stand by your expectations and thanks for always being with me, understanding me, helping me, caring for me even though I do not many a times, letting me do what I love to do, etc, etc, etc, etc. (The list is actually endless. I think I shouldn’t have started this list, which I cannot complete).

My big brother is a hell of a brother. Irritating many a times, gets angry on small things and fights with me over petite issues, but cares a lot, always guides me and encourages me over something, gives his best when I ask for some help. His problem is just that he can never express his care for his near ones. Hats off to him when it comes to studies, getting 5-6 degrees aint any piece of cake.

My family, apart from these blood relations, consists of many more, about whom I think I should better mention in some other blog.

The Story till now

Mrs. Hina Pathak, the wife of Mr. Harendra Pathak, gave birth to their second child on the post-Christmas day and the propitious Boxing Day, 26^th December, 1988 on a fine Monday morning in the land of rising Entrepreneurs, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. I am still figuring out the reason why my grand-father named that child HARDEEP.

Born in an extra-ordinary family of teachers, I was always extra-ordinary throughout my school life. World’s most caring dad always used to encourage me for multi-tasking, his contribution is the topmost in making me who I am today.

“This education system is going to lead you nowhere. You need to discover atleast one love in some other field than studies and be a leader in that” – My dad

“Moral values and self-discipline will only complement your education”- My mom

“Anything you do, do it with full interest until you are self-satisfied” – My Big bro

My mom and dad made me learn every possible thing during my school time may it be Math, Skating, swimming, key-board, cricket, karate, yoga, dance, tabla, horse-riding or mental calculation (my big bro is a real pro in that). I hopefully developed love towards two major things out of them all, Cricket and Studies (especially Math).

Till I entered the higher secondary, I was the most promising student for my teachers and parents. And to meet up their expectation, I fortunately scored 90% in the 10^th grade board exams and entered one of the most reputed schools of Ahmedabad, St. Xavier’s High School. Unfortunately, trying to accustom with the so-called modern students, I was deviated a bit from my image of a sincere student and a studious boy. For the first time in my life, I flunked the first terminal exam in 11^th grade, and then the route continued till the last Board exams until 12^th. In the 12^th grade, I was sick with broken ankle, migraine, stiff back & dengue for atleast 5 months. But in the last month, I tried to cope up, and the student who was promoted to 12^th from the 11^th grade, scored 72.2% in 12^th grade finals.

My entry into a college called Parul, somewhere in the out-skirts of Baroda happened to be the most boring part of my life, which fortunately ended shortly once I entered LD College of Engineering to do my Plastic Engineering. And I was fortunate to secure the last seat in LD in the last re-shuffling. MY REAL LIFE (I love to term it that way) began there. As I read in my cousin’s blog, College brings out a man out of you; I found everything in my college life till now (with a minimal exceptions though). Actively participated in all the college events till 3^rd sem, became the chief coordinator of the college magazine, managed a few events, won many friends and the most special ones, NAGAMESE friends, coming every year in my college from the far North-East of India, was exposed to the real college life in the first year itself (I love comparing it with Chetan Bhagat’s five point someone and the movie Dil, Dosti, etc., but all the minute details cannot be published here).

“Doing Monotonous thing stiffens your life” – Hardeep Pathak

For a change from the routine life, I joined 3 organizations in my initial part of college life, Lions’ Club, YuVA Unstoppable and AIESEC, but could develop interest only in YuVA and AIESEC. Being one of the most active AIESECer, I gained a lot from the organization and also became the Vice-President, External Relations (VP-ER) of the Ahmedabad chapter. Learned Marketing, Communications, Branding, Sales, Networking, PR skills, HR Processes, Goal Setting and striving to achieve that, Performance analysis, reviewal mechanism, organizational behavior, team dynamics and all the fashionable business skills in today’s world, during my VP-ER term. I am a hell lot thankful for that and also for making me learn some important lessons of life like defeat, to AIESEC. Yes, I was defeated while running for the office of the President of AIESEC Ahmedabad. But I did not regret it for a longer duration as in few days after that I got into the core committee of YuVA Unstoppable.

YuVA proved out to be a completely different experience than AIESEC, leaving aside the direct impact and the indirect impact thing, leaving aside the difference in the cultures of the two. From the values that my parents have instilled into me, I was ever inclined towards the social sector since my childhood.

“Your interest will always start showcasing itself right from your childhood. It is just with TIME that you will know your lifetime interest” – Hardeep Pathak

I could not see the beggars asking for money being pushed apart by someone, I would insist my dad to give him/her something. The day since I got my personal vehicle, I could never see anyone dragging his petrol-less bike to the next fuel station, I started pushing such bikes till the fuel station and it would be hard for anyone to believe that till now, I have atleast 1500 bike-pushings in my account, with a record of pushing 17 kms in a day. These small feeling of being kinder got vent in YuVA and I strived to work harder and harder always for any social cause since I got into the Core Committee of YuVA.

“Everyone is born with a specific purpose in life. Discover your purpose and start working on it and for it” – Amitabh Shah, founder of YuVA Unstoppable

I am thankful to YuVA that I have now found my interest and the purpose of life and believe it or not, nowadays I am into planning my whole life in the social sector. I and Saurabh Rawal (my cousin, with the same interest in life) are just figuring out the ways to take this interest to a bigger level, or probably the biggest level in the course of few years or decades.

“You should do only what you love to do” – Steve Jobs

And I am proud to say that I don’t have any interest now in Engineering for I have found the interest of my life, my purpose of life and the thing that I love to do.