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.........