Mera Bharat Mahaan!

A conversation I overheard: (Conversation between 2 Indians - girl and boy- and 1 firang)

Firang: I'm planning to go to Kerala. Thoughts?

Excited boy (mallu roots) : Kerala is a great place! It's also known as God's own country for all the green and calm and peace you'll find there. Plus plus, it's famous for ayurveda. Ah, also the massages. Try them out... (goes on)

Me: :)

Firang: That's nice. I'm planning to go to Tamil Nadu on the way back... and what do you think of that?

Boy: I don't know what Tamil Nadu is famous for. Some bharatnatyam, idli, vada stuff.

Girl: The people there are soooo dark.

Boy: OMG ya! You know, they are darker that negros. Yuck!

Me: Almost up to slap him tight on his face. Stopped by A.

Girl: Kerala people are very fair and good looking. No?

Boy: Yeah! Of course! (smiles)

Firang: Ok.

(Inside Firang's head: Stupid Indians!)

Like firangs will care about color or geographic influence. According to them, whether dark or fair or good looking or ugly, an Indian is a freebie, is a cheapo and will go down to any extent to lick a**.

When firangs come to India they take pics of beggars and litter and famished slum dwellers... they see India that way! Well, some of them do take the trouble to shoot some good stuff... blah.

On the contrary, we do NOT want accept that every nation has a bad side... of course, if we show pics of mad men on the streets to our relatives, they'll laugh at us... yeah, we are that bothered! :)

People who read this will think : ah there she goes again... non-stop ranting and blah blah.

Frankly, I don't care. I write whatever my heart wants to write. This incident was running on my head in class, and for fear of losing the content I wrote it down on my palm...

Ok not digressing much, why are we like this? Let me add on to this, this excited guy works in the same office I once worked for... and when we had extra work to handle, he'd crib and rant along with his fellow team mates, discussing about how Indians are 'used' for cheap labor...

HA HA HA... Is all I can say!

With Independence day nearing... I want to know if we are really proud of the fact that we are Indians?

May be. May be not.

India does not have good roads- does not have clean bathrooms- is still poor- the coovam still stinks- there are no sky scrapers- there is great agrarian crisis- farmers are dying everyday- there are annoying power cuts- the untouchables exist- the richer are getting richer and the poor poorer- communal riots exist- the fear of getting burnt alive on the bus or train due to riots, the fear of being attacked by terror spreading groups on Independence day itself... !!! The irony - we are not free to celebrate our own independence!

Do we really want to say we are Indians?

I want to! India gave me what I call my home. It holds me with respect. It educated me. It taught me how to write what I feel like. It employed me. It gave me good food. It taught me how to pray for afflicted families. It taught me that whether tall, thin, fat, dark, fair, ugly, pretty, Indians are my brothers and sisters. It taught me how to play gilli. It taught me how to cry when my grand parents left me. It taught me how to look after my parents when they need me. It taught how to love my sibling. It taught me the sanctity of love and unity. It taught me how to value my loved ones. It taught me that God is nothing but parents and teachers. It taught me how to write on a slate. It taught me to pray before every meal. It taught me how to share my food with my friends. It taught me how to love myself. It taught me to go on... no matter what happens... it gave me confidence... always.

I want to say I'm an Indian and I'm proud. I'm indebted for all that my nation has done for me. I don't know of any discrimination, everyone is one.

Mera Bharat Mahaan!