When I was tiny, I remember my sister teaching me when the birthdays for people in our family are. She taught me that Aug. 13 is my own birthday and Aug. 15 is India's birthday! Yes, in a true sense it is. I remember very well in 1997 on the morning of Aug. 15 when I picked up The Statesman and something caught my eye - Two dominions are born - was the big headline. What!! I exclaimed as I saw Jawaharlal Nehru's picture. Then it struck me and I saw the date. Statesman intentionally draped the front page of their newspaper from 1947 after fifty years! That was fun. So our country was born in 1947. But we can't and shouldn't forget our rich heritage that dates back thousands of years.
Our country is in a bad shape now. I know that like every other person. It is terribly over populated, run by corrupt politicians and nothing seems to work correctly. In every possible place from health care to education and professors to cricketers all seem to be seeped in corruption. There are power failures at hospitals, villages still don't have motor-able roads, lack of proper education leads to problems in almost all places, religious leaders reign supreme, police officers work for political parties... you name it.
But, that is home!
That is the land I was born and that is the land where my roots are. In the crowded fish markets where Bengalis throng in the morning to bargain for the freshest Ilish, where school-college and office goers board buses like sardine cans, with the conductor crying "pechhoner dike egiye cholun" (advance towards the back - the most common oxymoron of the streets of Calcutta), in the Southern breeze that comes from the distant oceans, in the cheers during cricket matches... that's where I am from.
India will survive...The land which has withstood invasions over thousands of years by the Sakas, Huns, Greeks, Mughals, British and French does not have to fear anything. We came out of all problems, we will come out of this too.
That is where Indians will find their home...in the sage who sits in a cave in the Himalayas, in a tiny lamp that floats on the Ganga at Varanasi, in the colors of Rangoli and glass bangles, in the red bordered white sarees and taste of fish and mishti-doi, the platter of banana leaves and the fireworks of Diwali! That will never go away and with it the land stretching from the snow capped Himalayas with tulip fields in Kashmir in the north to the land of coconut palms, backwaters and tropical rainfall of Kerala in the south, to the fertile green plains of Bengal in the east to the golden desert of Rajasthan in the west will always be there to give us a feel of home...
Our country is in a bad shape now. I know that like every other person. It is terribly over populated, run by corrupt politicians and nothing seems to work correctly. In every possible place from health care to education and professors to cricketers all seem to be seeped in corruption. There are power failures at hospitals, villages still don't have motor-able roads, lack of proper education leads to problems in almost all places, religious leaders reign supreme, police officers work for political parties... you name it.
But, that is home!
That is the land I was born and that is the land where my roots are. In the crowded fish markets where Bengalis throng in the morning to bargain for the freshest Ilish, where school-college and office goers board buses like sardine cans, with the conductor crying "pechhoner dike egiye cholun" (advance towards the back - the most common oxymoron of the streets of Calcutta), in the Southern breeze that comes from the distant oceans, in the cheers during cricket matches... that's where I am from.
India will survive...The land which has withstood invasions over thousands of years by the Sakas, Huns, Greeks, Mughals, British and French does not have to fear anything. We came out of all problems, we will come out of this too.
That is where Indians will find their home...in the sage who sits in a cave in the Himalayas, in a tiny lamp that floats on the Ganga at Varanasi, in the colors of Rangoli and glass bangles, in the red bordered white sarees and taste of fish and mishti-doi, the platter of banana leaves and the fireworks of Diwali! That will never go away and with it the land stretching from the snow capped Himalayas with tulip fields in Kashmir in the north to the land of coconut palms, backwaters and tropical rainfall of Kerala in the south, to the fertile green plains of Bengal in the east to the golden desert of Rajasthan in the west will always be there to give us a feel of home...
বলো বলো বলো সবে
শত বীণা বেণুরবে
ভারত আবার জগতসভায় শ্রেষ্ঠ আসন লবে
2 comments:
This reminds me of the solitary sentinel at Chhitkul.
I also remember you commenting about the bloodshed and rivalry over Kashmir:"paharguloke to aar kichhu korte parbe na ogulo to thakbe" - so the country will remain - as you say. Let's hope that this will pass. (If I could have my way I would have done away with everything political - people and system - long ago)
I don't agree everything!
India will exist (as mountains stay) but will never get cured. The fact that we were invaded by "outside" gave us power/honesty to fight and exist for ages and make changes.
In this case the evil is within us, our mind and the acceptance to everything contemporary (eg: politics, corruption, cultural downgrade, quality of education....) is making it worse. I doubt we can ever come out from this deadlock in coming decades unless something drastic change happens, which in other words would be a miracle!
I would love to be hopeful, but I doubt....
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