Review of views

The word view is made up of just four words through which one tries to express thoughts but these four words turns into five when reviewed by peers and changes into views. In my essay I get to know about the ambiguity that my sentences made which render complete different meaning to my thoughts that I want to express. By review process I got a chance to reduce ambiguity.

I completed my essay from the writer's perspective but after incorporating the questions of others and answering them I also came to know about how the audience of my essay may perceive my words and how should I as a writer should try to tackle them in advance.

Thoughts and views of peers served as 'they say' part and also compelled me to think more critically on some topics presented in the essay as the views of everyone regarding a topic may be different which I realized after peer review, review process made me realize that assuming certain things with not persuade readers as they may be of different viewpoints and the best thing to enhance any topic is to question it.

What it means to be Indian ?

India is recognized as a land of diversities.
Kerala is called 'Land of Gods' , Lakshadweep is known for '99% fun  1% land.'
Some people talk about India's golden history, some fantasize the rich culture that India has and some can’t stop praising the hospitality culture that are in the ethics of Indian people,” अतिथि देवो भवः”- (from Hindu scripture) meaning ‘The Guest is God’.
Below is the excerpt on how people get fantasize by the Incredible excellence of the diverse culture of India --

 

Some people contradict all the above statements and forms perceptions based on their personal experiences and argue that India is a land of poverty, corruption, illiteracy, blended culture and their list goes on….

I celebrate all the above facts as there are always two faces of the same coin, you cannot have same side up always after tossing the unbiased coin. To me India is my Motherland as I have lived here for seventeen years and have felt the richness, diversities of its culture and celebrated all the joyous moments like Diwali and Id, felt pain when the riots were going on. I do not deny the concept of diversity in India but according to me it adds a flavour to every aspect. It reciprocate the choices we can have for anything and we do have liberty here to choose because here diversity is not compelling us to make a certain choice.

I would like to further complicate it by adding my views on ‘What does it mean to be Indian’. Being Indian to me does not relate to anyone who have ancestors from India or to only those who are fighting at the border. It means to be unpredictable, undefined, It means the ability to be able to work with unrelated things without any hassle like on the one side we believe in scientific theories and remain technologically updated but we go to the temple/church everyday and follow all our traditions. Sometimes we request our teachers to repeat a topic in class and we don’t do the homework that the same teacher assigns to us. Sometimes we do things that we don’t love and criticize the things that we like. The song that encapsulate some of my emotion stated above is from Bollywood movie ‘Phir bhi dil hai hindustani’ released on 2000 :-

The quality that I admire the most and is one of the important trait of being Indian is of never losing hope. As an example we have our own Prime Minister who was once a tea-seller and is now the prime minister of the country because hope keeps us going and the ability to never give up opens the doors to even the impossible which is common in India. Dare to take tasks and complete it without complaining or fear is also one of the admirable trait of Indians, its not the absence of resources or even mind in some cases as most people will argue but a will to challenge the limits to the highest.Once we accept a task we complete it at any cost The image below is an example for this fact (credits Sankalp)

Sometimes people confuse others by mixing the concept of being patriotic and having love for country, I refuse to consider the two facts as same. My perception of India gets further complicated when the concept of home is added to it. I can’t help myself relating to the various aspects of India and thinking it as of my home. Although the geographical location of my home is in North India but I enjoy South Indian food, Rajasthani dance, Bengali clothes and the list goes on.

Home makes one feel comfortable and let the person enjoy and being Indian gives the chance to enjoy variety of every culture, tradition, and music not because of the geographic significance but because of the diversity of the talent people showcase and the best of all is that here all people are not doing this for monetary gain but only for their passion, their interest. One can find the latest sand art at the beaches and the traditional kathputli dance at Delhi. People here not only have Lamborghini Aventador in their garages but some have Ampala as well from the 80s. India is like a Grand library where you get to learn from history as well as you get to be familiarize yourself with political developments, its totally up to you what you want from it. Just as we have liberty to choose in our home.

The concept of Being Indian and home is so relatable that at least now we should accept our nation as our Home and start giving due respect to all the citizens as we give at our home to our loved ones. For being complete Indian we should not stand mute at the site of robbery or eve teasing but stand for the cause of the moment, so maybe one day pessimistic will not be able to call us ‘corrupt’ and will not be able to ignore the rich culture we have. 

Construction of nation is similar as home and it is in our hand, either we can use Ambuja cement or Birla cement, we can either choose to preserve this paradise or contribute to devastate it through our deeds by writing on the walls of the monuments and doing similar things.


Thesis :

Home is not just a physical place but a place to think, re-think, reflect and ponder upon while sitting on how to cover miles. By reflecting we can enjoy the true essence of every moment.

And yet Indian and India is Undefined.........

What does Home mean?

Bricks when put together even using highest level of architecture cannot build 'Home' unless our heart is attached to it. Architects build buildings but it is only the feeling from deepest level of our heart that urge us to call that place as 'The Home'.
At home it feels like as if we have met ourselves. Unlike other places we don't have to follow any rules that most of the times we are not even aware of and we are not forced to be conscious about our usual habits that by no means can be proved wrong. For me home is a place where comfort do not come from Samsung dual-split air-conditioners but from the feeling of being free, enjoying the real freedom, enjoying the unconsciousness by thinking on random subjects of my choice, singing in my own voice (although being a very bad singer) that I wouldn't have done unless I'm alone. The feeling of mental attachment towards home has become so prominent that it has become a part of human nature. As an example, whenever we are tired doing any activity the words that strike our mind are usually,"Oh God! I want to go Home". Now the term 'home' has become synonymous with 'complete relaxation'. The feeling of being relaxed and calm can be felt by just lightly thinking about word home.
Most of the time I forget all my worries when I see my home where I have spent so much of time engaging in the activities that are in list of my interest. To me home seems to be another world where I can think, re-think ,analyse and solve all my worries.It's a place where I have my own pace in everything I do or want to do. One of the things I like the most about home is working without being bothered by anyone unlike any other place. By this I do not mean a place of practicing complete laziness but a place with self-organized flexible schedule where interest and feelings are governing body and cause of almost all the actions.
To me home is like a paradise where I can follow my own set of rules (yes! I have none). Being at home is like staying calm,relaxed and at ease in performing most of the tasks. We don't have to pay heed to any passerby who may mock us just because he didn't like the site of anyone enjoying football match. It's a place where we are not scared of cheering our favorite team by producing all the possible kind of weird sounds that our vocal cords can produce, we are not afraid of cracking jokes that sometimes we ourselves could not understand.

But are all these things only about actions related to comfort or are about personal attachment. Is home just a place to feel  relaxed and be weird or a state of mind that make all these happen.
I am sure the answer is loud and clear and can be summarized into just a few words we all are familiar with i.e,"Home sweet Home".