What it means to be Indian...

All my friends know that drama queen is in full flow today. I only need a reason to egress into my DQ avatar and 15th August has become one of those days, especially now that I do not live in India.

I was reading today's Gulf News and the front page had this gory picture of a half burned human body, political riots in Egypt. The inside pages had pictures in similar vein from Syria to Pakistan. I always wonder what it takes for a human being to disregard the fundamentals of his conscience and butcher another for reasons which to me seem silly like territory, religion and politics. Largely. We are ready to kill for reasons like language even, so I'm not dwelling on the cause, just the action.

And then I hear the Jana Gana Mana or the Vande Mataram and the goosebumps appear, my shoulders square, I feel my chest tightening, throat constricting and the tears desperate to fall. At this particular moment, if someone has to ask me to do or die, I think I will!!! and happily too...

As always, my own split personality and thinking confuses me and I feel like a freak.

Although I live in another country, home is India. No matter how many years I live away from and what Passport I carry, my identity will remain India. But I don't like what I see. One of my favorite people has this famous quote, "there is no reverse gear in life". I have mentioned this in a previous post about Mangalore, that I cannot really recognise it now, not with all the communal and moral policing.

The same can be said about the country as a whole. The spate of violence towards women is distressing. I'm sure it's not a novel phenomenon this brutality. I heard someone comment that ever since the Delhi medico rape case made news, people are aping it. I don't think so, my personal opinion is that rape victims and families are more open to making public the news and the increased reportage is just a reflection of it. What you do not know cannot hurt you, it is said. We didn't know it was rampant as it is and now that we do, it shocks us.

Then there is this uber cool society where gen Y is living it up in cities. I rarely watch TV, but when I do if the program 'Emotional Atyachar' is playing on the telly I watch it. You know I get my kicks from cheap thrills. :D
It never fails to amuse, amaze and antagonise me, these young teens who say, "we got intimate", very matter of factly, as if stating something inevitable like the weather. That too with people they had just met in school/ college/ social gatherings. It doesn't take much I see and I'm not being judgemental. Just comparing how some sections of society have advanced and how the others are doing Micheal Jackson's moonwalk.

Who will marry the two extremes of Indian society...

Like everyone else, I want my country to be a haven, safe and secure, an investment for our progeny and our own little paradise on earth. To me, the essence of being Indian was already penned out years ago, in 1910 to be precise and this stands true, 103 years later. Kinda sad isn't it that it's been a century and we still harp the same tune...

Rabindranath Tagore:

“Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high,
where knowledge is free.
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.
Where words come out from the depth of truth,
where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost it's way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.
Where the mind is led forward by thee
into ever widening thought and action.
In to that heaven of freedom, my father,
LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE!”

Ok now all of you can wake too... it's a long post I know!