The Guilt
During my first day in Munich,one of my colleagues accompanied us as the city guide.
After showing some buildings which were destroyed and reconstructed post World War,he then said some words which I sum it up in the below way:
"The world war II was fought in Europe mainly and Germany was the center stage. Many people died in the war but because of Hitler and the extermination (Holocaust) carried over by then Nazi German, we felt the guilt. We were ashamed of Germany and we dint show our Passport to any one. Our parents instructed us to speak in low voice and maintain low profile."
This was the most interesting thing I encountered in the entire trip. To accept the mistake done by previous generation and live with that is not an easy thing.
We as Indians never take any mistake on us rather we think the other way.
We always say India was a very great country and it has a history of more than 5000 years. We say that India was a rich country, with great intellectual value which the British & other invaders destroyed. We fail to accept that those generations had failed themselves with superstition, caste-ism. The stagnation in the science and technology area, the untouchable practice in the society is never accepted as failure.
For me not accepting the mistakes particularly post independence is the main reason for India not growing up. While Germany was working long and hard in the mourning mode, accepting the mistakes, we were 'celebrating' the independence in the party mode and we are still in the same mind set.Swami Vivekananda's statement "Araise, awake" was never propely understood. This will always be the greatest learning for my from Germany.
After showing some buildings which were destroyed and reconstructed post World War,he then said some words which I sum it up in the below way:
"The world war II was fought in Europe mainly and Germany was the center stage. Many people died in the war but because of Hitler and the extermination (Holocaust) carried over by then Nazi German, we felt the guilt. We were ashamed of Germany and we dint show our Passport to any one. Our parents instructed us to speak in low voice and maintain low profile."
This was the most interesting thing I encountered in the entire trip. To accept the mistake done by previous generation and live with that is not an easy thing.
We as Indians never take any mistake on us rather we think the other way.
We always say India was a very great country and it has a history of more than 5000 years. We say that India was a rich country, with great intellectual value which the British & other invaders destroyed. We fail to accept that those generations had failed themselves with superstition, caste-ism. The stagnation in the science and technology area, the untouchable practice in the society is never accepted as failure.
For me not accepting the mistakes particularly post independence is the main reason for India not growing up. While Germany was working long and hard in the mourning mode, accepting the mistakes, we were 'celebrating' the independence in the party mode and we are still in the same mind set.Swami Vivekananda's statement "Araise, awake" was never propely understood. This will always be the greatest learning for my from Germany.
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