In fact, the generation today in their thirties to fifties, are not able to reconcile to the fact of their having been denied to undergo such a pleasant change for the better, or transformation, so to say, when they were in the prime of their youth, information and knowledge wise, in the absence of now available channels and gadgets for the new generation. The fact is that our children in their teenage today are more alert, inquisitive, competitive, enlightened, informed and quizzical than what we had been in our childhood, thanks to the media coming out to be a very effective agent of information.

At the national level, problems of general nature affecting the youth in particular and the society in general, experience has shown, create in them concern for the nation while and problems of specific nature e.g. aggression, challenges of disintegration, resorting to extreme-isms, always call for a sense of commitment to the nation and hence such heartfelt overtures compare very well with feelings of patriotism on the part of modern day Indian youth.

News from all states, cultural information from all nooks and corners of the country and above all, their being allowed a specific and all pervading platform in the form of electronic media, has done well to further strengthen the bonds of nationalism. Not only the electronic media for its projection but also the print media which provides analyses, comparative studies, amalgamation of inputs, juxtaposing good and bad, criticising with journalistic and professional acumen all electronic media outputs; all this adds a new dimension to and sensible and judicious churning of the informative programmes of electronic media, and in the process, it provides a subtle appraisal also. And here the credit goes to print media in leading the youth in the right direction.

History has proved that for sowing sees of nationalism or emergence of inspiring leadership, an opportune moment is required and without these ingredients no transformation can have taken place, so smoothly. Some of the movies produced in the Nineties have also done well to promote nationalism. And when the protagonists as teenaged stars are there in the plots, of course woven in an ambience of romance, the feelings of nationalism, too, sprouts side by side, and the youth cannot remain unaffected.

It should be perceived as positive and healthy sign, as against all that orthodoxy of not recognising the transitional disposition and proclivity, generation after generation, that if the Indian youth have opted to go Pop, if they have decided to (cat) walk on the ramps, if they have taken up cudgels to fight against sartorial suppression on issues of (quite befitting) jeans wearing, by the so called weaker sex, than they have at the same time made India shine on the globe's horizon with luminaries like Kalpana Chawla, Arundhati Roy, Diana Hayden, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguli, to mention very few. Day in and day out we hear success stories of Indian scientists doing excellent research, may be, in alien lands but it reflects very satisfactorily on the more informed and knowledgeable competitive Indian youth.

It would not only be appropriate for us to provide grounds for the new nursery to bloom in flowers rife with fragrance of nationalism and Indianness by way of opening up all available channels of information but would also go a long way in checking forces which are out to waylay the youth to weaken the country. Ignorance may be bliss for philosophers by information is very vital for growth of our competitive, nationalistic youth.

The writer is Superintendent of Police, Fatehabad, Haryana.