I LOVE MY INDIA

I love my India
I sit in the general compartment of a train to go to a nearby town. Six persons sit on the seat of three, and six others stand in front. It’s hard to breathe and nature is not allowed to call you as some lucky persons always capture the toilets, the only space available with less human density. I see youngsters and elder men, using the filthiest language , with their teeth red chewing pan masala. I watch policemen and coolies distributing seats by taking/extorting money. You don’t need to die to go to hell. Most Indians travel like this!

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I love my India.
I go to visit my grandparents who live in a town, a sub urban town. The bus takes five hours to complete a journey of sixty kilometers, courtesy shining India roads. Being well off, my grandparents have all appliances which add luxury to your life like TV and fridge. But average electricity supply is around eight hours. I think about the growth rate of our infrastructure. Nearly eighty percent India live at such places, and worse !

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I love my India.
I read the morning newspaper and find the decision of a court case I have been following since years, a boy, son of an IAS officer threw acid on the face of a girl. The court and police, after struggling hard discover that evidence is not sufficient to punish the boy. In the meantime, the boy has completed a professional course and is doing a job. The girl’s father has spent his entire savings in her treatment and the court case. The girl is nearly OK, only lost her one eye and has incurable injuries on her face. The girl loses the case and I lose hope. This the fate of most cases !

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I love my India
Nearly after sixty years of independence, our politicians unanimously discover that they need to do ‘social justice’. They reserve half the seats for backward castes. They turn deaf towards an issue called academic excellence or merit. Providing assistance at primary level and allowing them to run along with other classes does not attract votes so they hand over the crutches of reservation, first at graduation level, then at post graduation level and then in job. Students fight but most of us know what shall be the fate of their struggle !

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What is India, the one growing at eight percent or one waiting to get drinking water, India seeing the software boom, posh molls or India where farmers commit suicides and Sati is glorified. What is India, an emerging superpower, or one doomed by politicians. Till you decide, I will keep on saying I love my India.

Proud of Our democracy

Two events involving our political leaders took place nearly side by side. One was marriage of Lalu Yadav’s daughter; the other was the sad demise of Pramod Mahajan.

Though both were simple events, common to the life of any society, but they conveyed a special message. Leaders cutting across party lines were present in both. The bitterness of politics was nowhere to be seen in Nitish Kumar blessing the daughter of Lalu or Sonia Gandhi giving condolences to Pramod Mahajan They must have criticized each other severely in public debates, thrown abuses, charged each other of corruption, yet they all realize the difference between personal life and professional life. Isn’t it democracy, to have ideological differences, to criticize policies, yet being together in times warranting it.

The magic of democracy is that though the surface looks turbulent full of clashes and differences, the stream is calm at depth, accommodating all conflicting views, giving space to everyone according to his hold on society. Every contender identifies the legitimacy of those in power owing to the public support and thus avoiding any bitterness, a virtue which can never be implanted in any dictatorship.

This is certainly a good sign of healthy Indian democracy, an institution in which issues are contested, not human beings.

A Random Diary

I sit here, idle, alone, thinking about future, thinking about past……thinking about life. I think about my family, I think about my friends…..about all those moments. Moments filled with success, failures. I think about how things will shape up. I feel hopeful, I feel doomed. I know past is gone and I know no one knows the future.
At times I feel lonely but this phase will pass and I know I will look back and cherish these days.

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My prelim exam is tomorrow. So many friends have called me to say best of luck. I do not know whether I liked it or not, I felt strange. They made me realize that something important was coming up, and those two hours mattered. I am not restless, but I don’t know how to react.
I was thinking why my friends called me and I felt all of us are alone. We all need occasions to talk to, to feel that we are together, in this new real world, out of IIT.

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The Exam is over. I feel it did not go well but I know I have fared better than others. My mind is never ready to believe that I will not succeed. I feel excited, life looks changed and I have to get ready for another assignment.

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Today I got the news that my paper is cancelled. And everyone consoled me ‘so what your exam did not go very well, its good for you. But I knew I would have qualified and now I shall have to waste another one month. I am not depressed.
I have the gut feeling that I will get through all these…I have to.

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Met my maternal grandparents today, nearly after two years.
They are old, and whenever I meet them, I have the feeling that this may be our last meeting. I remember the times when summer holidays used to be fun, only because of them, because of the kite, the cold water from well, the ride of a bullock cart, getting up with the sunrise and smell of morning air. Life looked bliss and all I wanted was that my summer vacations never end.
Now things have changed, so have aspirations. These things no longer fascinate me. I do not know whether I love my grandparents or not, but they long to see me, and that makes me feel guilty that why I do not feel for them