WELCOME TO INDIA

                       

BIZZARE. OVERLOADED. TECHNICOLOUR. CHAOTIC. GOLMAAL.                         JUGAAD. CHALTA HAI.

 \

“After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense.”

                                          ~ W. Heisenberg (German Physicist)

“If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India!”

                                        ~ Romaine Rolland (French writer)

“In religion, India is the only millionaire……the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.”

                                       ~ Mark Twain (American writer)

 You’d run out of words long before you’d run out of an India that all those words describe. And in not just one language but many, including the very special “Unicode”..

India is not a contradiction in terms .It sets the terms for contradictions. It’s the world’s biggest and the most energetic democracy, where people chuck out governments as frequently as they chuck out garbage. It’s a byword for immense wealth and terrible poverty, a realm of billionaires and beggars, the traditional  mahakumbh mela and the big modern malls,  weird tantriks and  the popular twitter, the numerous mighty goddesses and the shameless “female foeticide”, a country of unemployment and “U.S employers”, a boast of “Hamare Sanskar” and the ever increasing crime rate in the country.

Be it the unity in diversity or religious acceptance, scientific achievements or vedic preachments, dream land or nightmare for poor… India has always been the stage for almost anything moral, immoral, mortal and immortal values. Many renowned personalities all around the world had been mentioning about India in one or the other occasion, for righteous reasons. At the same time our nation was in the news

for many more wrong reasons. Of course, every nation is like a coin- having heads and tails in its history. We may call it “Shades of the Nation”. It’s a fact that India, among all the nations has maximum colours in its shades and here are some of

them:

CHALTA HAI INDIA: Aren’t we all aware about the infamous “I don’t care” and “ignoring” attitude. Dumping garbage on roads, cops sleeping on duty, the most recent and upsetting example of molestation in Guwahati where no one cared to stop and help whereas just preferred to watch the shameless act  ….and the list of this ‘Chalta hai’ attitude is endless. And yet we call ourselves the heirs of great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, who fought for the independence of a country which didn’t give a life to him (South Africa).

JUGAAD INDIA:  Innovative fixes, enterprising street mechanics and business ideas, bending/bypassing of rules, getting admission into educational institutions through donations rather than merit… everything comes under jugaad! Not always bad, but they it is put into use had crossed the limits and is narrowing the success chances of a common man. I think we MANITians need not be told what is Jugaad about, after all we consider ourselves to be best at it..

BIZZARE INDIA:  Strange customs and uncouth taboos, creepy rituals and superstitions, crazily mis-spelt signboards, and weird advertising taglines come under this. Only in India you can find a situation in which man builds a temple even over a milestone if its rumored that god resides in it! One doesn’t continue their journey for a while if a cat crosses their path (P.S. Even if it is an ambulance and patient’s is in the edge of death)!

PEACEFUL INDIA : Despite of the so many distressing terror attacks ,India has always stood up with courage and fought back but has never resorted to any sort of violence .Instead has always believed in peace and has treated the whole world as one family, thus following its one of the most intrinsic principle of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. 

CHAOTIC INDIA: Complete absence of order and system in our daily life, overcrowded trains, buses, roads, traffic rules never being followed, urinating anywhere and everywhere, and many more such examples are creating chaos in the systematic mode of our country. Everyone waits for the government to do every single work. If the road in front of their house becomes filthy and stinky, they still wait for municipality shifts, but never do they clean themselves. No one’s asking you to clean up the country. Just clean up your own houses. If everyone does it, country automatically gets clean (Here cleaning refers to discipline).

INCREDIBLE INDIA: The spectacular beauty, heritage and medley of color that is India. Multicultural and multilingual India is world famous for its beautiful monuments, enthralling fairs, colorful dresses, wild life and how can we forget the inexplicable magical Bollywood.

So what about the changes that will make this INDIFFERENT INDIA ,the truly INCREDIBLE INDIA, not just in our opinions but also that of the foreign visitors we welcome each day .Even though we are proud to belong to this culturally rich and divine country we must together pledge to make it socially beautiful too. As it has been rightly said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can  do  for your country”.

There’s no need to be ashamed of being and Indian as there are many proud things about us and there are many issues which need to be sorted out to make our country a biased coin with only good things to say about! As a last word, a call to the youth and teenagers of our country to help in the intellectual progress of our country. The youth is all powerful and if we join hands and dedicate ourselves to the mission of India’s upliftment, no super power can hold us back. Let us change this “CHALTA HAI “attitude of India and redefine it to “KEEP MOVING”!!. On the last note

                                BE PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN

                                                       ~Prachi Purswani,

                                                 Electrical,

                                                 2^nd year.