The post-liberalization generation is truly the 'free country' generation. Cable TV became a staple in their teenage years and opened up the world. One no longer had to visit or fly over America to get the accent. Useful hours spent watching soaps, sitcoms and music videos would do the trick. As a result a whole generation is no longer Indian but citizen of the world.

One can see the young citizens of the world everywhere. Especially hanging out at the coffee pubs and pizzerias with attitude, coloured hair and accessories (going nowhere without mobiles, shades). These 'can-do' people unfortunately do not think beyond their tiny realm. Educated, sophisticated, with seemingly unlimited opportunities they unfortunately ignore India. Though they (OK, I will include myself) have many a scathing opinion on the state of affairs, tired governance and truant politicians, hardly anyone will actually do anything about it. They are proud to be Indians (in an appropriately 'cool' manner) but are unwilling to make a difference.

In the pre-Independence era we had a whole generation of people - and I will cite clichéd examples of Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Naoroji - who had the same ideology. Highly educated people who had studied the law and understood policy were able to steer a nation to freedom. Today India has a lot more educated people than she had then but what are we doing for the country. If we could overcome the yoke of 200 years of colonial rule surely 50 odd years of corruption and irresponsible governance should be easier to shrug off. But it requires a generation of people to do it and India seems to have lost a generation. Indifferent to the country we take on the world individually.

The only time we think as a nation is during cricket matches (and we lament as a nation after our team loses, but well at least we have a sense of togetherness). Else we are apathetic towards India. Instead of taking a collective responsibility for the country we just adopt a 'whatever' attitude saying, "India is like this only". And we tolerate our country as much as she tolerates us. When we travel abroad we would never dare litter the roads let alone relieving ourselves on any wall or shrub, but it's all right to do so in India. 'Free country' in literal terms. We don't have fines, we don't have rules. And we don't have dustbins and toilets placed conveniently in every street corner.

A friend told me of a lecture she had attended at her school in the U.S. where the professor said that the best engineers come from India. It has been established and acknowledged that Indians are the more intelligent and hard working peoples amongst the immigrants in the U.S. If we can be so outstanding as aliens in a foreign land why can we not be good, responsible citizens here?

India I think needs an image-building exercise to sell herself first to her citizens. Go not west young Indian.