To realize how well off we are with respect to our ancestors here are a few comparisons:

1. Light – An hour of light of a Kerosene lamp costed 15 mins of work in 1900. Today an hour of light with an LED bulb requires work of only a small fraction of a second with much greater illumination safety and convenience.
2. Travel – A journey that cost a month’s wages in 1900 would today be at least fifty times faster, safer and more comfortable and require only perhaps a day’s wages.
3. Communication – A 3 minute long distance phone call in 1950 would have cost an average worker over 90 hours of wages, compared to only a few seconds work today, if at all, and would be clearer, easier to make and more reliable.

Similarly, for so many other activities-

When you spend less time working to obtain what you need, the TIME saved is for you to do other things– this is economic progress.

As this is the essence of what makes ‘Achhe Din’ and now keeping this background in mind let us try to grasp what has been happening these past few years and see whether the coming of ‘Achhe Din’ is only a myth or is it a reality?

To resolve a problem you first need to recognize and specify the problem. Let us start by looking at some of the many problems that our Country was facing in Mid-2014.

Many of these problems that have since been greatly resolved by the schemes of the new Government are those that affected the poor, especially in rural areas, and not so much us, the lower middle to upper classes of urban society, who did not face most of such problems. Hence, we don’t realize the great change the ‘Achhe Din’ that such schemes have brought into their lives. The ‘Swachh Bharat’ for cleanliness and toilets, ‘Ujjwala’ for gas connections, ‘Mudra’ loans for entrepreneurs, ‘Jan Dhan’ for bank accounts, ‘Ayushman Bharat’ for health care and insurance. Rural/village electrification and road connectivity and similar schemes.

For such people (many millions) Achhe Din is already a reality. But this is not the end, they all expect even more progress as years go by.

For the rest, look at the great increase in Domestic and International Travel and Tourism, the great increase in the purchase of 2 wheeler and 4 wheelers and Home Loans, the improvement in Infrastructure – Airports and highways and internet connectivity. The availability of power 24/7. All these have also, improved and eased our lives at home and at work and saved us TIME. But we have got used to what we have and do not recognize the Achhe Din that all these have already brought us and instead insist on looking for more. Those will also come, but if we then continue to look for even more without appreciating what we already have, then discontent and dissatisfaction will be the only result.

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