Let's make ourselves deserving first.

Charred buses, damaged public property after the protest (who is at the loss??? We are)

                 It was a decade ago, when I was in school. Computers were rare (atleast for the lower middle class family like mine) unlike the present time when it’s an essential household item now.  My school had a computer lab and there were 10 computers in that room. The total strength of my school was more than 2000 students, so most of us hardly got any chance to operate it. On my way to school, just 50 meters far away from my school gate, there was a small structure being built, I thought maybe there were building a public lavatory but wondered why weren't they building it on the main road. One day, we came to hear about the news which was creating buzz in the whole school. There was a NGO which was going to install some computers on that structure which I previously thought as a public toilet. That was it, a small computer lab with four computers. During the day time the keyboard were kept outside and the monitor was inside those four small windows. They would shut the windows after five in the evening and open it at 10 at the morning. There was no one to keep a watch.

        Although, we heard from many about it being a free service to all but we were still cynical. Besides that, we were always scared of operating a computer without assistance as we always heard our computer teacher saying

    “If you’ll press the wrong button, it will damage the computer”

 and the fear of unknown always prevented us from operating in it.    I had my previous schooling from a private school and there was computer lab too. I knew to play games, music and typing and because of that I was leading my gang of four on that day. I told them I will show them how to operate a computer and they followed without any resistance.

         When we got there, we were disappointed to see the long lines of students waiting for their turn.  I made my way through the crowd to see what was going on there.  As usual, the school bully boys had captured all the systems.  We didn’t even think of waiting looking at the lost list of bystanders.  I told my friends that we will come some other day when they all will get bored of it.  Soon the hope turned to despair when we saw the condition of that public lab. The keyboards were missing most of the keys.  Everyone who got the chance to work in the systems took out the key with initial letters of their name.  Frustrated by this, it was shut permanently maybe by the same organisation who thought of providing free computers to the students.

       That structure is still there and wearing out gradually, lies inside piles of rubbles, telling the story of apathy of citizens and students of this city. This is just one incident of my life. I have been through many similar incidents which fill me with disgust. 

We always keep complaining about inefficiency of our government and law and keep criticizing politicians. These incidents really make me believe that saying;

  “We get what we deserve”

        Let’s make ourselves deserving first than we will be in a position to criticize. Let’s take an oath that we won’t destroy any public property and not even any private property. In protests too we destroy and damage public property then we wonder where all the public money is wasted.  Why can’t we take care of the public property like our own? If we change our behaviour and attitude towards this we will certainly be able to create a better tomorrow.