Dial L For A Leader

Hello Friends,

I have asked a few of my friends/colleagues who do they identify as The "Leader". The responses have been mostly uniform - some one who can inspire you, some one who you can look up to, some one who unites people for common good, some one who you can trust and so on.

Great Leaders Of Recent Past - Can any one match them now ?

The next question I had was who do you think is that Leader in the current times. The answers I got were shocking (?) - none of them had replied immediately that indicates that we are in a short supply of the leaders. Even when they did answer, the answers were qualified with "With no clear choice of a great leader, I am prepared to say this is the one for now". We are in a generation of pygmies and it is increasingly becoming difficult to find a tall leader.

Polity

The most natural leaders are found often in the field of polity. The current generation of leaders are bereft of ideas, morals, conviction and the ability to connect with the common man. TINA ( There is no alternative ) is what is making them survive and pile on the agony across the globe. No wonder why we are facing crisis situations repeatedly with no real permanent solutions that are thought through - mostly inaction combined with vain hope is in vogue.

Do you think they collectively represent the global leadership ?

Economy

For a long period of time, no matter which side you belonged to ( Capitalist or Communist ), the world was making progress in making people economically stronger. With the free market regime firmly in it's place, economic diseases are easily contagious and the old adage of "When Greece sneezes, the rest of the world catches the cold" is very true. Again, there is no clear thinking leader or nation that has come out with a plan on how do we come of this deepest financial mess in which all of us are locked in. The rate cut scandals and the case of high flying CEOs at the cost of profitability of the companies leaves a bad taste in mouth.

Culture and Sports

Often, the general public takes a refuge in Culture and Sports for emotional relief and sometimes inspiration. A case in point was the triumph of the Afghan cricket team when their country was going through it's worst civil war. However, we no longer have countries across the globe that are unique in language, culture and traditions - we have rapidly lost our identities to please our global partners. With our deep rooted culture rapidly vanishing, there is nothing that truly bonds or creates an identity of which people can be proud of.

In the urge to "integrate", do we lose these very soon ?

I will end this by saying this :

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥७॥
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् ।
धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥८॥

This is from Gita that says that whenever there is a true need for the right to win over the evil, we would have a Leader (God's incarnation) - if there is any time for that to happen, this surely is the time !

I am dialing hard for the Leader - are you too ? :)

Cheers

Pavan