PERSONAL LEGEND..

I sometimes wish that I was born somewhere out of India. Not because I don’t love my country but precisely because I love it. Yes! I want to go away from my country because I love it; rather I should say that I want to love it. I mean I do love my country but I don’t think I love it as much as it, rightly, deserves to be.
Let me put it this way- I saw this show about a traveler’s journey through India. And the way that traveler described the simple things here made me feel like a total stranger in my ‘own’ country. ‘My Own’ of which I know so little. Suddenly my home felt more like a house. And this transition was anything but pleasant.

Its like when you are a stranger in a land everything is so new to you. Even those petty things which are we are used to back at home seem new. You want to explore everything you can. You wanna see it all, feel it all, experience it all, taste it all and imbibe it all, if you can. You don’t want to change it, you accept it as it is and appreciate it for what it is.

But when it’s ‘your’ place then you take things for granted. Like “this is how it always has been. So what’s the buzz about it?” But then I’ve seen tourists go “ooh!” and “aah!” with amazement looking at the number of people sitting (actually mostly standing) in a bus. And some have also asked the question that “How the h*** did they all fit in?”
But we did- SOMEHOW.
Now this would be of No interest to a native Indian because this is something we all are accustomed to this. So there is no point in being excited over the ‘mathematically challenging’ number of passengers.
Similarly, the texture our metropolitan cities have is no less than a conundrum for these people.
Skyscrapers and slums co-exist,
Chopsticks and papad co-exist,
Growing GCD and illiteracy co-exist.
And this is nothing but a miracle for that stranger, but NOT for us, because this is the way it’s always been so in al possibility this is the way for it.

Most of us head for some or the other hill station to beat the heat. And every time we see the mountains we go ‘Whoa!’
So why doesn’t the fact that Hindus alone have some 33 crore gods and goddesses has the same ‘Whoa!’ effect?
Our country deserves and needs that much-awaited attention from its COUNTRYMEN, as well.

So if I can give my land that attention it deserves then I don’t mind having to stay away from it. Only to come back with an eye of an explorer!