Republic Day 2018 | YOUNG MINDS AT WORK: Kids' vision of India 2022

Students from Mount Litera School International share their views on how they would like to see India on its 75th year of Independence and their goals to achieve it

A diverse Hogwarts Express

Idea: Farhan Choudhury (Student)
Writing: Meher Pestonji (Parent)
Wouldn’t it be great to ride a train from Kashmir to Kanyakumari? We’d admire the beautiful snow-clad mountains, Rajasthan’s desert with its camels and cacti, the expansive plains around Delhi, the sultry beaches of Goa, tea plantations at Coorg, gracious backwaters in Kerala with its picturesque fishing nets and with each new image, we’d fall in love with our country that is blessed by Nature.

To make this trip worth it, this train will make a stop at every single state to let passengers in. It would also have an app to helps the diverse range of passengers communicate with ease.

The app would translate languages to suit  the need of the two or more in a conversation. Imagine, being a Kashmiri and fluently speaking to a Gujarati, or a Maharashtrian without having to worry about language barriers. Oh the joy of being able to  exchange ideas with a Keralite without knowing their language.

I, personally, would ask my co-passengers about their school or college and exchange ideas on how to make learning more fun.

I would also ask about festivals in their respective states and tell them about mine. I will tell them that in my city, Mumbai, Diwali is celebrated with mithai, diyas and crackers; for Christmas, we decorate a Christmas tree with all the trimmings; and that we make delicious sheerkurma and biryani for Eid. I would tell them that this diversity is all we need to make India even better that it already is.

Now, let’s wait for 2022 to travel on this exciting train and make friends from all over India!

Be the solution to pollution

Gresha Chheda (Student)
We have been taught that charity begins at home; and similarly, sanitation and hygiene starts with you and me. My vision for 2022 is to see India a proud and a clean country. And in order to achieve that vision, my aim is to see this task of cleaning our country completed in the next 4 years. India is rich in terms of culture, heritage, tradition, languages; it is beautiful with all land forms — from mountains to rivers. If such a country is not clean, then it is a shame for all of us!

Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, had dreamed of a clean India. Swachh Bharat mission entails not only ensuring cleanliness, but also a pledge to build toilets on a national scale — across cities, villages and states. It aims at eliminating open defection, converting insanitary toilets into flush toilets. It also aims at complete disposal and reuse of solid and liquid waste. This movement will only be efficient if it passes from smaller groups to larger ones like a chain.

The states that have come forward in applying the policy of clean India are Maharashtra, Andra Pradesh, Gujrat and Madhya Pradesh. We need other states to come forward as well. “Go Green initiative”, “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, “Dasra” are some of the schemes and groups aimed towards achieving this goal.  

“Sanitation is more important than political freedom” —Mahatma Gandhi

Every citizen has right to sanitation, and we should work towards it. Clean India should be our responsibility as concerned citizens.

Let us all pledge and join hands for a cleaner and greener environment.  

Shifting gear from tolerance to respect

Idea: Vheer Khanna (Student)
Writing: Ruchi Khanna (Parent)
India was, is, and will continue to be a land where ‘differences’ are tolerated. Not celebrated yet, but certainly tolerated. So, what I would like to see more of in 2022 is Respect — respect for each other, no matter who we are. You may not celebrate the difference, but please, at the very least, respect it, because respect is the cornerstone of growth.

When you respect someone, you allow them to be who they are, knowing that they may or may not embody your beliefs. But even so, you trust them enough to know that they will abide by a general code of ethics that will not disturb your own.

If by 2022, we, as a nation of mature people, can come to respect one another, I think India will indeed be a very people-positive place that we proudly call home.

To that end, if we can theoretically teach our children this basic concept of respect, we can practically delete anger from our overtly-agitated society. It is important to understand that if tolerance stems from the ego where one believes that one is right, but still great enough to ‘tolerate’ you — then it is not respect at all. However, when one learns to respect another, the scenario changes. Then, not do we tolerate the differences, but are also open to looking at the world through another’s eyes. Respect encourages solutions to issues that are otherwise buried under heaps of judgment.

Whether we choose to waste time on useless dialogue that deepens our differences or grow to respect each other and focus on harnessing our collective potential depends entirely on us.

Five things to do for five years

Rewa Anand (Student)
We are working towards the goal of a New India in 2022 — 75 years of India’s independence. With five years left before that, we can work on one idea each year and get five things done to make our beautiful country even better.

Of the five things I think we should work on, the first is pollution. There are too many cars on the road these days. While cars are an important means of transport, there can be community vehicles. The government can ask housing societies to have society vans to drive children to school and working people to office. This will not only reduce pollution, but transport will also be much faster.

The second would be restoration of our monuments. India has many forts, palaces and caves, but they are not maintained properly. The sculptures are broken and the walls have scribbles written on them. I would like to see these sites restored.

Third, I want cleaner water bodies. I have seen videos of scientists turning plastic into clothes. We can have more research into recycling plastic into useful stuff.

The fourth thing I want to see is children being aware of what is happening in their country and abroad. In 2022, along with the usual news channels, I would like to see a news channel especially for children where animated characters read the news and present them in an interesting way.

The last one on my list is religion. I want people to start one big festival that Indians of all religions and regions celebrate together. Maybe that can become the new way in which we celebrate Republic Day in 2022!