IMAGINING INDIA

It has become a cliche to talk about india, in the terms of its rich cultural heritage, bio diversity, flora and fauna . it hence, becomes almost imperative on us, to introspect into the real india, the emerging india, the face of india that actually addresses our sustenance. so now when i start penning down idiosyncratic, and unconjured vistas of my land, i can’t really help borrowing the title of nandan nilekani’s book-imagining india.... so what are we really up to, when i imagine our country? I am actually, imagining myself, in a slightly wide perspective, which lands me in a pool of self realisation, as to what, when, and how, does our country sustain itself in the present scenario..... or to be very curt, how do “we” sustain ourselves..
Confining ourselves to taking pride in our past, celebrating the odes and ballads of the medevial grandeur, and being flabbergasted with the equisite artiste of the ancient india, is passe... the ‘new’ india stands much more than the assimilation of the paradoxes, which have been existing in a cheerful incongruity, for ages now.. and the new decade perhaps, heralds a whole new era of individuals, competent enough of metallising all these concrete convictions..
So now that we have already had enough of cribbing and lamenting over this turmoil, enough of emulating the west, for all its faculties, striking a dumb chord about our place, doesn’t really seem to be ‘cool’! so the positive stuff first, followed by its upside down implication.....
We have the third largest army in the world, although its not really large enough to curb the internal unrest caused by the maoists, naxalites, let alone the terrorists. we have scores of multi-billionaires, while more than a third of the population gropes in utter poverty. We manufacture volumes of aids medication, which satorically, is almost inaccessible to the masses. We have world’s second largest pool of doctors, engineers and scientists, while 35% of the population is illiterate. while we welcome the upcoming wave of acceptance with open arms, we still linger in the catacombs of trivial issues like same gotra marriages. The eternal, ecstasic beauty of the alpine valleys in kashmir, the backwaters in kerala, give way to the dingy, narrow lanes of slums and suburbs. So the most confounding issue here, is the formulation of a mature, unbiased inference about the real scenario in here.
People are killed in the name of religion. I’d rather wear gucci and chill, than chase shadows and illusions conjured by mandarins. At times, it becomes inevitable to fancy, that we are conservative people hustled into the staight-jacket of must-have liberalism. It really gets striking, as a matter of fact, that inspite of these inexorable impotencies, there’s neither blood-shed revolution, nor quiescence of despair, and the double edged predicament of the people, is to be wronged, and yet have no unconditional rights. Post independence, we stand, at the mercy of myopic power brokers and zealots, who interpret the very essence of progress, in a regressive aura , so as to suit their own political aspirations. So in such a dismal state of affairs, where most of the stategising stands deplorably inconsistent at the hands of the onslaught unleshed by a crippling infrastructure and an already crippled thought process, i guess, most of us would abhor the lackadaisical stance of the administration, and eventually end up detesting this sultry, untidy place, as a culmination of the nuisance that persists. RIGHT?
In that case, you’re absolutely WRONG! Well, that’s the most perplexing part of it! However hard you may feel like dismissing it, you wouldn’t ever be able to bring yourself to hate your land. The tang of the air, the taste of the cuisine, the vexing pot-holes, the intermittent supply of amenities, along with the honey-dewy strings of love that bind us close, every several thing, all and sundry, trickle deep into the most profound denominations of our heart, innundating our existence in its nuances. And somehow, we start connecting to every triffling pecadillo in our system, being a part of it, and celebrating it, and living through it. The incorrigible lapses, the nonchalance of the whole machinery, is so embedded in our life and lifestyle, that we seem to be flourishing on it. The feeling of being at home, flanks us like an undying refrain. And somehow, our ‘nowhere near to being perfect’ home strikes a chord with our innate gift of anarchy that foils all efforts of the inadvertent influences that intend to kill the spirit of we indians, to get on with the job, against all odds.
The spirit of india, that lingers in every ‘asli indian’, is so indomitable, that all other impediments, fall too short of zeal, to conceal our exuberant zest, to make it real big in life. With the whole kaleidoscope of possibilities knocking the doors, our stride is oriented towards the pinnacle of civilisation. So somehow, its now, as ‘cool’ to take pride in our prowess while not losing the sight of the ultimate objective-establishment of a progressive, social state. So there we are, we indians, with all our differences, all our strengths...... To make and move our world!! Happy independence day!
written by richa!