Making India Awesome Quotes

“Excel in your field: Whatever you do, try to be the best at it. There is too much mediocrity all around and we have learnt to live with it. However, awesomeness has no place for mediocrity. And do not confuse excellence with elitism. Being excellent at your work is different from considering yourself superior to others.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“people who have made India awesome aren’t all politicians. Most of the people that did this are not from the government. Whether it is entrepreneurs like J.R.D. Tata and N.R. Narayana Murthy, sportspersons like Sachin Tendulkar or musicians like A.R. Rahman, people from all walks of life have helped improve our nation. Not just celebrities, but E. Sreedharan, responsible for the Delhi Metro, and Dr Verghese Kurien, who created the Amul revolution, were all ordinary people doing their work extraordinarily well. Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda, two of the most influential figures in India’s history, never held political office. Aim to be one of those people who made India awesome.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“If we think it is okay to cheat in exams, lie to a ticket collector in the train about our kids’ ages and pay a bit of money to avoid a big traffic fine, then at some level we clearly don’t care about eliminating corruption all that much. At”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“is fun to see educated people shout and belittle other educated people!”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“India;”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“can run, you can hide, but you can’t escape my love”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“believing”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“In cigarettes, we have pictures of blackened lungs on the packs. But packets of potato chips don’t bear the picture of an obese heart patient, right?”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“a lot of debating, pontificating, finger-pointing, outrage and no problem-solving. The noise from one controversy will ultimately fade and make way for the next…and then, the next.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“They are not saviours, and it is unfair to expect them to be. It’s not them, but we, who have to solve our problems.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Making a nation awesome takes more than just Twitter outrage, street protests and a toppling of governments in elections. It asks for a fundamental shift in societal values, culture and habits.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“If a father buys his child toffees instead of books for school, it may make for a happy child. But does it make a good father?”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“No statues, please. School or statue? Hospital or statue? No need to explain further.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Here are the top four stupid procedures at our airports: One, an absolutely redundant item, is the silly bits of paper with an elastic attached, called hand baggage tags. Passengers attach them to their bags, and they are stamped after passing through the x-ray machine. Later, half a dozen people check your stamp until you board your flight. The stamp and the tag are redundant. Nobody should be able to get bags inside without an x-ray in the first place. If they can, and thus have sneaked in a non-x-rayed, unstamped bag, can’t they hide it in another bigger empty stamped bag? While the x-ray is required, the tag-stamp routine is unnecessary. In fact, the stamp creates a false sense of security—it seems like an approval.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Dress down. Charisma comes from integrity, competence and compassion. Not from expensive clothes.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“After a long time, we have had a stable mandate at the top. If the BJP blows this opportunity, it will set India back by a decade.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“So, bring on my Food, Fruit, Vegetables and Milk Security Act. Did I miss something in that? Oh yes, nuts. We do need nuts. Some nuts for all Indians, please. You know the kind of nuts I am talking about, right?”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Right now, they don’t, because they think you, the voter, doesn’t care.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Spurring reform in a nation also requires homogeneity in thought. People should generally agree on what a country’s top problems are and the solutions needed for them.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Fighting corruption is not restricted to naming and shaming a few corrupt officials. If we think it is okay to cheat in exams, lie to a ticket collector in the train about our kids’ ages and pay a bit of money to avoid a big traffic fine, then at some level we clearly don’t care about eliminating corruption all that much. At best, we hate the politician who gets to steal (while we don’t!).”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Applying the 80:20 rule, I would say that 80 per cent of our youth don’t even care about politics or government. What they care about are their lives—their jobs, their boyfriends or girlfriends and, well, that’s about it. We can call this set of people Self-focused Indifferent Indians.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Just as people gather on the road to see a fistfight, India gathers at night to watch TV debates.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Five, don’t get too trapped in the drama of relationships. Relationships are vital. Being a good mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend and lover are extremely important. However, don’t get too tangled. You have another relationship, with yourself. Don’t sacrifice so much that you lose yourself. Not regularly, but just every now and then, be a little selfish. It is when a woman will assert herself that she will be taken seriously. You are not here only to assist others in living their lives. You have your own life too.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Maggi’s tagline of ‘Taste Bhi, Health Bhi’, seems only half correct. Any nutritional expert will tell you that eating instant noodles for health is about as funny and implausible as using a cheap deodorant to attract dozens of women.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“A healthy society leads to lower healthcare costs, improved productivity at work and a better quality of life for citizens. Food is a big part of public health. About time we knew what we are putting in our mouths.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“The realization that we are responsible for the mess we are in—and that it isn’t ‘their’ fault—is the best hope India has had in decades.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“They say that the test of a person’s character is how he or she treats those less powerful than him or her.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“There is nothing unusual about such noise. Chances are that if you happen to read this some years later, and turn on the television, you will see a couple of fresh, new controversies—with a lot of debating, pontificating, finger-pointing, outrage and no problem-solving.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“Applying the 80:20 rule, I would say that 80 per cent of our youth don’t even care about politics or government. What they care about are their lives—their jobs, their boyfriends or girlfriends and, well, that’s about it.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns

“The test of a nation’s character is how its majority citizens treat minorities.”
― Chetan Bhagat, Making India Awesome: New Essays and Columns