On the midnight of August 14, 1947, the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his famous "tryst with destiny" speech, pointing to the star of freedom that was about to rise in the east.

That night, millions of Indians went to sleep with Nehru's words still reverberating in their ears - "The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman."

These magical words of an enigmatic leader encouraged every Indian, from poor to rich, to have a dream and work towards its fulfillment. The theme of the dream was prosperity, both personal and national.

A large chunk of the population was impoverished. They could not afford to buy food articles from the market. They dreamt of two square meals a day in independent India. The government's public distribution system intended to provide foodgrains at highly subsidised rates to people living below the poverty line. PDS induced them to dream again about two square meals.

But corruption continues to rob them of the dream, despite the Supreme Court's intervention. The foodgrains vanish from the godowns and surface in the market bypassing the poor.