I suddenly, for a moment don’t feel proud to be an Indian. And why should I ? I am tired of hypocritical defense arguments in the name of patriotism. No doubt, I lived all my life in India, and I am aware of the fact that there has to be bad days and good days for every country, but this is what made me back my observation. I was cutoff from India for about 2 months, when I was busy with academics and a change of country. When I wrapped up my terms, I got to know from a friend’s Facebook status, that a major state was being pulled apart into 2, or may be 3, fragments.
I looked into streaming videos from the country’s major news channel. I see people fighting over a new state, from skirmishes to students burning buses and killing people when they are supposed to go to college, have fun, drink beer and make love. Offices being attacked because they denied to be shutdown because of a self proclaimed “bandh” in demand for a new state. Dun do anything worthwhile, and if some1 else does, dun let him do. The repercussions for this state divide were reflecting in other states having similar demands, the states of UP and WB. When I was born, India had 25 states and US had 50. When I die, I guess, both will have 50. In other news were the news of the absolving death penalty for some Mittal, who shot an IIM Grad Manjunath, working then for IOCL, for finding out an oil racket at his petrol pump. The 2 others involved were acquitted for lack of evidence. Goa’s Tourism Minister writing a letter to the CM claiming that Goa would soon become the “Rape capital” of India. Goa, the same state, where I had the most blissful vacation of my life. I shut it down. I tried to do something, but this was eating me inside. What the hell happens in India ? People who celebrate a Sachin century together kill each other for a state? A division which is as fake as the politicians who claim to have lost 10kgs in 8 days over a fast.
I was born in India and lived there forever, till I was here. And as I wonder now, during all that time, was my country this chaotic as it appears now? Or did I simply not notice because I got so much absorbed into the country and its culture. I had become one of them. If the former, then why is it changing? If it is the latter, then what’s good about the centuries old culture associated with my country? What should be I proud of ?. I ain’t, at least not now.
