The performance of institutions currently functioning across the country ostensibly to subserve the purpose of training the successive generations from childhood through adulthood by the arduous process of learning has been rated far below both required standards and global levels on many counts, but most importantly on the count of creativity of products from the thousands of colleges of science, engineering and technology, not to sideline other pursuits. Not sounding over-sarcastic, a keen observer of the goings on in the country turned the spotlight on the growing number of vote-seekers vying to garner votes from the voting mass marked by a minor presence of sections with even elementary understanding of the spirit of democracy. Asking the question “Who says that the country is creativity-challenged?” and also answering he opined that democracy is not limited to the act of voting but enlarges to entice the gullible electorate with tantalising offer of gifts, get elected to the law-making bodies, grab posts of power and authority and achieve personal prosperity by fooling the diaspora displaying creativity although in a negative sense.

The creative faculty of the vote-seekers who clinch victory at the hustings by foul tactics mocks at the institutions of learning at all levels producing graduates lacking creativity barring exceptions to a negligible extent. In an act of pulling wool over the eyes of the country’s gullible masses as it were, the netas of well-marked political parties want the people to accept that India is a secular nation. Can anybody miss the drama of the netas sharing the spoils of power based on their castes?

The academics of all hues as well as the leading lights in society, recognised and respected for their track record as good Samaritans, take fascination to prick holes in the country’s education sector ad nauseum over many decades without any semblance of consensus on measures of damage control. Their unrelenting criticism of every aspect of the sector is well-taken but the powers that be both in the Central Government of the country and its counterparts in the 36 States and Union Territories, being engaged 24×7 in pursuing their personal agenda of enjoying authority with disdain, enriching themselves by unethical means, don’t seem to care less. The creativity displayed by the well-marked slice of the country’s population to their headcount by producing children only adds insult to injury as it were.

Even as the nation is fast getting into the grip of a growing number of undesirable elements holding the society to ransom, as being faithfully portrayed by the ever-alert media, the imperatives of creativity on the part of the land’s people to preserve, protect and promote the country’s social and cultural image in a vibrant economic march cannot be ignored. The land’s youth have their task cut out in saving the creativity-challenged nation with generous help from society’s mentors (if there are any).