THE INDIAN DREAM

Ever since the phrase “American dream” was coined in the 1930s there has been varying definitions about what it really meant.
While some talk of it as a dream of an egalitarian social order, others look upon it as the pursuit of material prosperity— a family with a comfortable home in the suburb, a large car, plentiful food and all the creature comforts to live the good life.
Whatever the definition Americans prefer, it’s probably not a bad idea to define what the Indian dream is all about.

For many of us of the Indian middle class, it is usually having a family with two children (preferably a boy and a girl) studying in reputed educational institutions, a steady paying job, a three-bedroom house (one for guests or for ageing parents), an up-market car, holidays in hills stations or abroad, a circle of friends to party with, contributions to a charity and no worries of bomb blasts or being mugged on the way home.

With oil prices shooting up and climate change all too evident perhaps it’s time to redefine that dream rather than make the mistakes made by our American friends or those living in other G8 countries.

Maybe having a personal vehicle is not such a good idea especially if you have to spend Rs 300 a day on petrol for the car just to commute to office. Not to mention cost of the vehicle, its maintenance, repairs and insurance. Instead, our dream should be to have an excellent public transport system like a metro rail that could get you to most places in the city without you having to pay too much or wade through traffic snarls.
If you have to buy a family vehicle, instead of dreaming about a gas-guzzling SUV to take you and the brats up the hills, a compact fuel efficient car may be the best thing to aspire for.Our dream houses too could undergo a change. They could be made far more energy efficient both in the way it is insulated against heat and cold so that we spend far less on air-conditioners or room heaters.
We could dream of a day where we would all have heaters or lights powered by solar-charged batteries that we install on the roof of our houses. Or even by community windmills if we lived in a co-operative society that has land to spare.

We could also think of doing away with the use of plastic bags for shopping and insisting that the appliances we buy or the bulbs that we install are energy efficient and don’t harm the environment when disposed off.
Call it the new Indian dream but it is worth aspiring for because we could lead the world by example in our quest to save ourselves and the earth.