While I wouldn't and don't really like to admit it I am somewhere ashamed of belonging to India. I would today prefer belonging to another land, somewhere like America or Britain. It is probably with that thought most of us, as in young Indians would choose to give up their citizenship at the drop of a pin. When a little younger and a lot less wiser, I was in love with everything India. I defended it like it belonged, even when it did not need defending.
Today though, I believe there is no true Indian. I am not going to act like I dont like the gradual crossing of our culture into a more liberal one. I am all for the english speaking, even when you could do away with Hindi or any other Indian language, or wearing western cloths or telling off a police officer or a Municipal Corporation employee claiming RTI. I love that India has always been truly secular. It is amazing how the practice of the core of our religions is way more important than how people dress or converse.
But India today is not what I always subconsciously hoped it would be like. It is not a kind place to live in. It's people are not sensitive to its environment or other people at all, to call people especially in Delhi self centered would be selling it short. As the west embraced the concept of Karma, we seem to have forgotten what it even means.
A lot of us are fortunate enough, have the advantage of not living the harsh life on the streets. We have the luxury of airconditioned cars, homes and offices. We dont have to live in a room with our 14 family members in less than 20 square-meters. We have advantage of flight, flight from addressing the today, the here we live in. We have the advantage of moving away from here to perhaps another more prosperous country. We do not have to worry about how most less fortunate people survive, their hardships and if we could in anyway help to change something in their lives. We are removed, like once people of of the Raj used to be.
The sad thing is that we seem to forget that this advantage should not derive our indifference, our ridiculous blindlessness to miseries of the less fortunate. It should not mean we stop contributing to the country we got our everything from.
Unless people as a whole come forth to want real change, not just for their own self, but for people at large India will always remain alien to all of us. The day we stand for each one of us, regardless of how closely we're connected we would not need Anna Hazare's who blackmail the government into taking the steps it would really never have.
There are better ways to change your surroundings, it is when you contribute to it on the grassroots level. Even a dog knows to live for itself. If only we could raise higher to contribute to the lives of not only the ones closest to us, try living by Gandhiji's "Be the change that you wish to see in the world".
Today though, I believe there is no true Indian. I am not going to act like I dont like the gradual crossing of our culture into a more liberal one. I am all for the english speaking, even when you could do away with Hindi or any other Indian language, or wearing western cloths or telling off a police officer or a Municipal Corporation employee claiming RTI. I love that India has always been truly secular. It is amazing how the practice of the core of our religions is way more important than how people dress or converse.
But India today is not what I always subconsciously hoped it would be like. It is not a kind place to live in. It's people are not sensitive to its environment or other people at all, to call people especially in Delhi self centered would be selling it short. As the west embraced the concept of Karma, we seem to have forgotten what it even means.
A lot of us are fortunate enough, have the advantage of not living the harsh life on the streets. We have the luxury of airconditioned cars, homes and offices. We dont have to live in a room with our 14 family members in less than 20 square-meters. We have advantage of flight, flight from addressing the today, the here we live in. We have the advantage of moving away from here to perhaps another more prosperous country. We do not have to worry about how most less fortunate people survive, their hardships and if we could in anyway help to change something in their lives. We are removed, like once people of of the Raj used to be.
The sad thing is that we seem to forget that this advantage should not derive our indifference, our ridiculous blindlessness to miseries of the less fortunate. It should not mean we stop contributing to the country we got our everything from.
Unless people as a whole come forth to want real change, not just for their own self, but for people at large India will always remain alien to all of us. The day we stand for each one of us, regardless of how closely we're connected we would not need Anna Hazare's who blackmail the government into taking the steps it would really never have.
There are better ways to change your surroundings, it is when you contribute to it on the grassroots level. Even a dog knows to live for itself. If only we could raise higher to contribute to the lives of not only the ones closest to us, try living by Gandhiji's "Be the change that you wish to see in the world".
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