I am an Indian. For me this fact has always been trivial never rising above the layers of my sub-conscious mind. It is like one of those mere facts that has no scope for debate and in turn has no implications at all. Am I proud of being an Indian? Well I cant say that with a hundred percent certainty. Can I do anything for my country if there ever arises any need for me to dive headlong into a struggle for my motherland? Well, I can shamelessly state that I would certainly hesitate before doing so. For me nationalism is one of those transient emotions that are sparked to life only for very short periods..when I watch a movie like RDB that really touches my heart, when India manages to win something on a cricket pitch and similar such events. It then slowly fades into oblivion only to be dormant inside my conscience. I can confidently state that the situation is the same for quite a few of us. Even though the Mahatma would be turning in his grave due to this state of affairs in our country we carry on unabashedly hardly giving a damn.
So now you must be wondering ' what the hell is this guy upto? what does he want to tell us that we dont know already?'.. An insensitive little soul like me rarely gets pensive over anything. But when Raj Thackeray launched an anti-North Indian tirade in Maharashtra I was annoyed. Why? I am safely tucked away here in Hoohkee( as my French teacher so affectionately calls it) hardly prone to any MNS-sponsored hooliganism. It is not that I love each and every North Indian there is. Why is it that my blood pressure goes up whenever someone does something to disturb our symbiotic existence?? After a lot of deliberation I finally concluded that somewhere inside me is nested a deep-rooted love for my motherland and its admirable diversity. Any MNS-like agitation tries to put a question mark on our much acclaimed motto of 'Unity in Diversity' and as an Indian I cant let that happen. Am I exaggerating? Maybe I am. But then I look around me and I see that I have friends from Chennai, from Faridabad, from Delhi, from Jaipur or to put it short from everywhere around the country. And I realise that I am an individual that makes up the diversified kaleidoscope of Indian culture. And I smile to myself and realise that I am an Indian and rather proud of it......
Regrets - I
5 days ago
2 comments:
Unity in diversity, I believe, is a farce. At the end of the day, you are still looked at as a maddu, bihari or a dtc, as the case may be. You could have friends from other countries as well and overlook your differences in nationality- would that mean the entire world is united? Unity is a state where your regional/racial background means as much as your shoe-size, and I think, in our country we are far from getting there.
Post a Comment