The erratic swinging of the stock market makes headlines every day. They reflect the mood of the nation. Upswing-happy! Downswing-gloomy!
Why the upswing today? Because a Covid vaccine manufacturer had managed to get past the rigid health regulatory controls, and also that foreign investors had decided to invest in India.
Why the downswing last week? Because, a vaccine volunteer had cried foul!
And that is how the mood of the nation changes every day, not due to sadness or happiness. Not happy because an innocent man’s been released from jail, a poor person has won Kaun Banega Crorepati, or because an autorickshaw driver returned someone’s hard earned money, but by numbers going up on some share market board!
Wake up dear country!
We can be the richest country in the world, maybe as rich as China, but like her a nation where the state can mercilessly kill you, if you dared protest like what happened at the Tiananmen Square Massacre, where ten thousand people reportedly were killed for peacefully protesting.
And yet we aspire to be like Shanghai! Tut! Tut!  
Or like Russia, where one man rules and bends the rules, so he can continue ruling!
Shouldn’t our mood be joy, when protests are allowed in our democracy? Yes, that farmers maybe blocking roads, but they are being heard, and that should make our moods lighten and swing high, because we are still a country, where the poor are heard!
Likewise, shouldn’t it swing low, when women are thought unfit to decide, who to marry, and laws passed for their safety, which actually say how incapable they are when not rolling out chapatis in the kitchen or feeding babies?
But no, our moods swing up with wishful thinking that money in the bank, brings great happiness!
Our moods swing down, when we hear that subsidies are going to be given for the poor and needy!
Strange as it may sound, but our national mood swings need to be reversed! Our headlines in the papers should start reflecting stories of goodness and harmony, not the profits of profiteers!
We are a nation of good people, and our tolerance and understanding were once the best in the world, and that needs to start coming back into our lives.
Isn’t it better to walk down the road with smiles, greeting everyone who passes you by, then to be driven to your grave or crematorium in a Mercedes Benz hearse after being hated for the money you made from the sweat and tears of others?
Let the upswing and downswing of the stock market start reflecting: Upswing-gloomy! Downswing-Happy!
This, till we adjust our thinking, to the happiness of our people, being more important than the prosperity of a few..!
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