India has been my heart and soul for the past 23 years. Being Indian is what I have cherished all my life and will cherish till eternity. India to the world might still be a land of Snake Charmers, land of actors dancing around trees, a developing nation etc etc but to me it is my motherland, my love and more…
What has India given me:
Gandhian/Nehruvian Legacy: It was their struggle which helped India achieve independence. It was they who believed in the concept called India which was already in existence and just needed to be thread together. The Quit India movement, the non-cooperation movement all reminds us of our forefather’s struggles against the British rule. Though there ways might have come under some criticism but when an Indian sits down and reminisces he takes pride in the freedom struggle, the principles of truth and non-violence, the legacy that our forefathers have left behind, which never allows us to deviate from our roots.
Pluralism: An Indian is a single and a lot of things at the same time; he could be a good Muslim, a good Delhite and a good Indian all at the same time. I am in utmost awe, how Indians all over the world rejoice at a single mention of India in any context. It is amazing how on our 49th Independence day our then prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda managed a speech in Hindi without knowing a word of Hindi – the words written out in his native Kannada script which made no sense to him. I am sure this happens only in India.
Bollywood: The first thing that comes to my mind is actors dancing around trees and why not, I have grown up seeing the same and have never feel ashamed of the fact that the great Indian cinema industry has produced actors like Dev Anand, Amitabh Bacchan, Sharukh Khan among many others with their fan following not only in India but all round the world. I was particularly surprised when a friend of my from Tunisia ( a small country in the Northern Africa) greeted me ‘Namaste’ and went on to name a few Sharukh Khan flicks which even I had not heard off. I felt ashamed of not knowing the movies but on the inside I had a feeling of pride. It is this industry which has given me TV serials like The Ramayana and The Mahabharata which had such huge followings that businessmen were forced to shut shop on Sundays.
Cricket: I can truly say Cricket is one of the many religions in India and in fact it is much more. I myself follow Indian cricket religiously and treat cricketers like demigods. Cricket is something that binds India, holds it together and makes us feel proud; I still remember the days when the streets had deserted looks just because India was playing Pakistan in a cricket match. I am writing this a fortnight after the Mumbai terror attacks and Sachin Tendulkar has hit his 41st century taking India to a famous win against England and there are talks already of the win soothing the billion hearts of a country in shock & despair.
Politics: With all its defect & flaws Indian political system has managed to keep the country moving forward for the past 61 years. It has managed to produce some brilliant leaders (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru), brilliant speakers (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) to some good economist turned politicians too (Manmohan Singh) who have helped shape India to what it is today.
Education System: Producing the largest pool of Engineers and scientists in the world and also having the largest number of illiterates in the world is an irony in itself but I reckon the Indian educations system is one of the best in the world. Coming from a middle class background I can very well understand the priority given to education in our society. I was lucky enough to have passed out of one of the best Engineering schools in the world The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi I can very well say I have been there seen that. Right from the best of the brains to the best of the professors we have everything here we just need to realise the true potential of India.
IT: Coming from the same industry, it is the one which is very dear to me. Apart from bringing in the foreign Exchange the industry has helped realize dreams of millions of young Indians. Industry has helped the youth stand up on its feet, helped them start believing in themselves. Today an Indian can proudly associate itself with the fastest car in the world (Ferrari – TCS) to the largest plane in the world (Airbus A380 – Infosys) – all credit to our great IT industry.
Good start bro!!!
Happy blogging
BTW why didnt you start on Blogger
also the fact that google search “india” gives 711,000,000 results whereas the google search “united states of america” gives 149,000,000 results. Who’s famous now huh
It was very thoughtful of you to have included “Politics”, something which we regard as no better than scum even though we wouldn’t be any better than our neighbour in terms of quality of life or economic condition or any other good measure if it was not for our incessant faith in faltering democracy.
The point that is the most important for future of our dear motherland is: We need good capable people to come in 2 major streams, namely teaching and public administration/politics. They affect us in the strongest possible ways and hence it is imperative that we have worthy people in right places.
Jai Hind!!
perfect one to start with…
keep blogging
Good one to start with, and inevitably you mentioned IIT Delhi
Come on, Grow Up !!!
sahi bhai sahi..the creative and thoughtful chugh finally coming out..
baki sab to sahi hai but education abhi bhi sahi nahi hai..higher education has improved but primary keeps on worsening..dropout rates till 10th are greater than 80% and most of the people whom are considered literate actually only know to write their names(not very useful)..by a more broader international metric(reading, writing and algebra) only 40% are literate..so it is something requiring attention..we typically see only the cities where the situation is good.
anyways a very good article..keep writing more.