Am I proud to be Indian??? YES I AM !!!
Why? For I was born here?
Or for all the achievements by people like A R Rehman, Lata Mangeshkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Kalpan Chawla, Saina Nehwal, Ambani Brothers, Vishwanathan Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Freida Pinto and by organizations like Force India team, IPL League???
Or because, amongst all the economies that got affected during the global meltdown in 2008-2009, one economy which made the quickest recovery is Indian Economy???
Or because Indians today are far reached in each field you may name , then be it Technology, Astronomy, Metals like Steel, Showbiz, Medical sector, Economy and number of economists that it boasts off, Travel and Tourism -with one of the wonders of world hailing from our motherland, Entrepreneurs, Startups, Fashion Industry, Our jump till Oscars, Sports???
NO… but because this land taught me what courtesy means! What help means! What gratitude means! And above all, what being a human means!!! It’s this country that taught me to bow in respect, to feel gratitude in return of help, to appreciate every appreciable thing, to show and practice courtesy and yes, it also equipped me with the power of forgiveness!!!
Like any other country, yes, we too have demons that we are fighting against, we to have problems like Poverty, Corruption, Terrorism to deal with. But, we are making concrete efforts. A country becomes outstanding not by proclaiming itself but by actions towards betterment. We may take time in process but we Indians comprising of almost 1 Billion odd people is huge force that can change the course of the world!!!
Each country has achievements to boast off, but what I am more proud of is the culture & traditions of my motherland, which taught me to be righteous and true in whatever I do in my life. A recent article published in Evening standard further goes to strengthen my belief...
Three cheers to India and its People...!!!!
Why? For I was born here?
Or for all the achievements by people like A R Rehman, Lata Mangeshkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Kalpan Chawla, Saina Nehwal, Ambani Brothers, Vishwanathan Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Freida Pinto and by organizations like Force India team, IPL League???
Or because, amongst all the economies that got affected during the global meltdown in 2008-2009, one economy which made the quickest recovery is Indian Economy???
Or because Indians today are far reached in each field you may name , then be it Technology, Astronomy, Metals like Steel, Showbiz, Medical sector, Economy and number of economists that it boasts off, Travel and Tourism -with one of the wonders of world hailing from our motherland, Entrepreneurs, Startups, Fashion Industry, Our jump till Oscars, Sports???
NO… but because this land taught me what courtesy means! What help means! What gratitude means! And above all, what being a human means!!! It’s this country that taught me to bow in respect, to feel gratitude in return of help, to appreciate every appreciable thing, to show and practice courtesy and yes, it also equipped me with the power of forgiveness!!!
Like any other country, yes, we too have demons that we are fighting against, we to have problems like Poverty, Corruption, Terrorism to deal with. But, we are making concrete efforts. A country becomes outstanding not by proclaiming itself but by actions towards betterment. We may take time in process but we Indians comprising of almost 1 Billion odd people is huge force that can change the course of the world!!!
Each country has achievements to boast off, but what I am more proud of is the culture & traditions of my motherland, which taught me to be righteous and true in whatever I do in my life. A recent article published in Evening standard further goes to strengthen my belief...
Three cheers to India and its People...!!!!
Your post reminds me of Akshay Kumar's speech in Namaste London or Shashi Tharoor's speech in TED conference about how versatile yet down-to-earth we Indians are. Whenever I read something like this, I wonder, am I really proud to be Indian? 'Proud'? I don't think so! For me, there is only a feeling of 'guilt'. I feel guilty towards India! Guilty of being a blind follower of Gandhi's 3 wise (?) monkeys! Speak no evil see no evil hear no evil!
ReplyDeleteHave we really preserved our culture in a way that we can bestow it to our next generations? Will we able to explain them the meaning and significance of our traditions? We can definitely teach to fold the hands in front of elders. But how many will teach 'why?'
Mr. Sebastian is impressed with the Indian hospitality and wants to be born an Indian in his next life. Probably, he has no idea about the racism in India. He will not enjoy the same hospitality being born as a wheatish rather than british. He doesn't seem to be aware about the craze of fair skin among Indians. He is disappointed with a bank, but does he know about the Indian doctors who recommend operations to patients just to cover up the expenditure they incurred in building their hospital? Unlike Britain, in India no one can raise a voice against such things because there is no evidence on paper!!!
What concrete actions are we taking against corruption, terrorism? Every other day there is a bullshit warning in TOI about the next terror threat. But has Mr. Chidambaram announced any concrete plan of action to fight terror? I remember the post 26/11 aftermath. The shameless behavior of politicians, the blame-games, Kasab's statements published in newspapers like of some celebrity..and then after some time one more attack in Pune. Are we really taking any 'action'?
I don't want to blame anyone else than myself. Because unwillingly I am following great Gandhi's great monkeys! And hence, doing NOTHING! I feel, there is so much to be done to at least make our next generations feel proud of their nation!!!
Guilty towards India??? No… never!!! Yes, we have problems like Kasab, Pune terror attacks, Poverty, Corruption but these problems exists even in Britain, and for that matter there isn’t a single nation that is not plagued by these issues.
ReplyDeleteIn our country, government has set up evening courts to speed up trials of culprits like memom brothers. In case of kasab, yes he is culprit and he will be punished but there are lot of things at stake when we speak about Kasab issue which we probably won’t know sitting outside. We talk about terrorism and India, well taking ‘action’ against is not only Chidambaram’s duty!!! It is responsibility of us to play our part with full honesty and make it happen. If a sea shore patrolling team was inefficient in detecting the terrorists entering into Indian shores, I doubt that could be called Chidambaram faltering… it is the sea patrolling team that is at fault… but what we do in return..? We ask home minister to resign!!! That’s incorrect!! Terrorism is now such a big curse that even Osama can’t eradicate it, if he ever thought of doing it!!! You have to deal with it no matter what… but its Indian efforts that is preventing those strikes from happening everyday… had it been Pakistan or Israel…I doubt I would have been alive today!!! Amidst such high tension neighbors, India has still managed to be one of the safest countries, what with Hockey world cup and IPL happening in so tight security and safety. We talk about politician’s blame game… well all politicians worldwide are involved in this blame game!!! Even US had issues like Watergate scandal, ENRON, the big Iraq War, Vietnam War, etc and the blame game as the after effects!!! Government is not about politicians… it is about people who live it..!!! Who implement it!!!
We talk about Poverty and Illiteracy… it is here that we have initiatives started by TOI such as ‘Teach India ’ that imparts education at grass root level all over nation. It is here that we have so many corporate firms tying up with NGOs to build houses for poor and underprivileged people. Yes, this will take time...but ‘actions’ are taken. It is in India, that we have so many innovations happening that we can boast of Chandrayan, Laser technology, Jaipur foot, etc.
We talk about Racism… well right now the most notorious nation in racism row is a developed nation called Australia!!! Also we have people like Tommy Hilfiger a noted US based fashion designer involved in racism row against his black clients. Racism probably started from white countries that hated black people and in process sowed the seed of racism worldwide…!!! And hence we can understand the craze for fairer skin for the fear of acceptance!!!
It took lot of guts by Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia to bring India out of global meltdown of 2008-2009 with least possible side effects… India is by far the first economy to come out of it!!!I don’t fancy Gandhi either… nor do his 3 monkeys… but I guess when actions implemented are so visible I doubt that Gandhian Ideologies still exists…
About culture and our traditions, well we can teach our children to join hands in front of elders, but then why can’t tell them why do we do this???…. We do this because we show gratitude towards our elders who made us see this world … who did everything possible to give us good education… who made all sacrifices to see that we r well fed…there is answer to every why, when, where and what…only if we want to face them and answer them…Every country by far, has same problems, but what differentiates us from others is our hospitality, our culture, traditions. We Indians still have humanity is us unlike other countries … though there are exceptions always. But by and large, India is shining for sure!!! I guess, its difference of only perspectives between us …I am too optimist to feel guilty towards India!!!
India is so much more than what you describe but yet we as Indians, only talk and never do those things we should. Respect? Gratitude? Those are alien terms for us now or atleast are soon becoming one. We feel proud of our achievements, highlight them as if there is nothing greater in this world, but when when something bad happens, we try to sweep it under our beds without trying find a solution.
ReplyDeleteoptimism is great to have but hollow feeling and shallow minds are a devils playground.