“At the stroke of the midnight hour, whenthe world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.” These were the historical words of our first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, on the eve of India's much awaited Independence Day. However, has India really woken up from its sleep of dreams and aspirations? It was a memorable occasion when the rule of slavery came to an end and India stepped forward as a free country with zest and anxiousness. We were proud of the nation's leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and several others. Independence was an opening to opportunities, to greater triumphs and achievements. However, are we brave enough and wise enough to grab this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future? Since Independence, Indians have come a long way in terms of development. Our greatest challenge was eradicating poverty and hunger from the face of the country and we have managed to achieve 40% of it. Heavy industrialization brought about employment and development, and the Indian economy started booming from a completely agricultural product contribution of 60%. There was a significant development in the scientific and technological fields. Water conservation projects and satellites ensured telecommunications facilities to every village in India. Indian doctors won laurels for the country. However, India learnt expensive lessons in the defence industry that proved how poorly we were equipped for the defence of our sovereignty. In the last decade, India has made remarkable progress in the IT industry, Defence, Science, Economy, etc. However, the picture is not as rosy as it appears. The population is soaring sky high, disintegration of basic social and moral values, violence, brain drain and wrong influence of Western culture has maintained India's steady downfall. Someone rightly said, “Modern man is an intellectual giant but a moral dwarf.” The pledge we all took at the time of independence has now becom...