In 2014, I was a student at an engineering institute in Patiala. In 2024, I returned to the city for a talk at my alma mater.
Almost everything inside the campus had changed. New infrastructure, better facilities – its library is now one of the best in Asia.
But the city? It was exactly the same. Zero improvement.
And that was disappointing.
Why don’t people hold their governments accountable for development? Why have they accepted that this is how things will always be? Why does the world outside their homes seem like someone else’s responsibility?
A stable paycheck, regular outings for movies and dinner, and two vacations a year – that’s the comfortable cocoon many build for themselves. But when educated people choose to “mind their own business,” they don’t realize it, but they cause collective harm to society.
Silence, too, has consequences. And those in a cocoon realize too late the damage it has quietly done.