Crisis in Every Generation - As received

Every generation faces a crisis. A moment of reckoning, when the people have to come together, if they are to bend the arc of history. Sometimes, the enemy is in flesh and blood. At other times, invisible. We can look back at previous generations, and perhaps learn from their failures and successes. In the 1930s, the French invested heavily in the Maginot line - since they knew that a war with Germany was only a question of when, not if. The Maginot line was a series of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapons installations built to protect from German invasion , named after French minister of War, André Maginot. The French considered it impenetrable. As fate would have it, the Nazi forces went through the Ardennes forest, a place the French thought was utterly unlikely. The defence was breached at a point, no one had imagined. They had been caught off guard. Within days, Belgium and Holland had fallen. Meanwhile, in Britain, Churchill had to tackle his political rivals Lord Halifax and the ousted PM Neville Chamberlain, who were advocating peace with Hitler. The collapse of Western Europe was imminent. It was, their darkest hour. The greatest battle Churchill faced, however, was not against the Wehrmacht - but self doubt and fear. The British depended on him to steer through the fog of war, even when he couldn't see clearly. When General Ismay asked Churchill if they should tell the people, the imminent fall of France, Churchill said, “Not yet. We must first arouse our old friends to an heroic resistance. France must be saved”. They couldn't find enough naval vessels. Churchill did the unthinkable - he sought the help of civilians to fight the world's most fearsome army . Operation Dynamo was born. 700 private boats sailed from Ramsgate in Britain to Dunkirk in Northern France. Some were manned by simple fishermen. They rescued over 330,000 allied troops. The rest as they say, is history. These words echo across time today. We can’t be crippled by self doubt. We slipped once and let the virus take us off guard, but not again. We can’t repeat the mistake of underestimating the enemy. Falling down is an accident, staying down is a choice. We face troubles, in more ways than we could possibly imagine. This is our generational call of destiny. Our darkest hour. We must arouse ourselves to an heroic resistance. India must be saved. Today, we need everyone to join the fight, not just the frontline workers - just like those brave men who joined the British navy on their perilous journey to Dunkirk. If we do small things right, the big things will take care of themselves. Our miracle of deliverance is in our hands.