Today is Independence day for India. For our children it has meant that Sunday was a waste as they had to get up early in the morning, get into their uniforms and get to school where they sang ' Saare jahan se acha ' with lusty cheer and listened to their school principals jabbering on about being good honest citizens. Children of India must think that all adults are lying scoundrels. Wherever they look they see only thieves and thugs. They see their parents who work for the government, whether civil servants, police or judiciary, taking bribes. They see their business relatives cheating on taxes, selling substandard goods and boasting about the number of properties they have bought with the black money. They see all politicians are either criminals, thieves or shameless liars willing to sell themselves to anyone to stay in power. They see a Prime Minister sticking on to his seat inspite of a humiliating lack of respect, unwilling or unable to sack openly corrupt ministers within his government and defending the Commonwealth Games. They see a Railway Minister so callously indifferent to the death of people that she is holding election meetings while people are dying in rail accidents and extending a hand of friendship to Naxals who have murdered so many policemen in cold blood just to somehow grab the Chief Minister's post in Bengal. That is why young people today have little respect for anyone. After all, if you cannot respect your own parents who can you respect? Patriotism, honesty, honor, pride, respect do not come from speeches however eloquent they may be but from what they see. After all example is better than precept.