I love my country. I love India and can die for my country. These are the phrases one hear from many people during independence or republic day. We can also see this on people's facebook status, during chit chats, etc. But I wonder whether one has any idea of what a nation is & what constitutes it (although nation is a very abstract concept). I would like to ask what a person mean when he says that he loves his country & can die for it. What is this nation & whom does he love? Is love to our nation only limited to our territory & national security. Doesn't nation mean our people, our forests, our animals, our water, our air, etc. But no, that doesn't strike us. That is not what we love, we only love our country, nothing else.
I think the reason for this is very deep. Sometimes I feel this society is a big hypocrisy. All show that they are very virtuous, loving and caring, but all care nothing but about themselves. Lip service is the rule. Lovers (or rather so called lovers) seek love instead of giving love. Parents want their children to become good doctors or engineers (rather than good human beings), so that their children can fill their expectation shoes & earn them a reputation. A woman looks for a husband who is rich (as if she is incapable or physically handicapped to earn a living for herself). A man looks for a beautiful wife and objectifies her in the process. If this is the attitude of a person towards his close ones, one can imagine his attitude towards others. These 'others' for him are nothing but sick bastards born to annoy him.
So for me, if you want to change the society, then first change yourself. Start loving yourself so that you can realize that whats inside you, is the same inside others. This is the only way through which you can start loving others. And note that, selfishness (which I discussed above) and self-love are two extremely different things.
To sum up, these so called phrases like, I love my country, are a big lie. My message is that either don't say it, or if you do say, then mean it. The next time you see a girl with torn clothes begging around streets, don't be indifferent towards her. She deserves the same privileges, if not more, as you have, of basic education, health & food.
