Indianness
I came across this blog about 3 years ago and ever since I have always wondered 'what is Indianness to me?'. Now that I have made an effort to end my self imposed hiatus from blogging, I thought this would be a nice topic for me to begin my second innings with.
As I read a draft of this post from '06, I found it intriguing that my views about Indianness and patriotism had changed over the last 3 years. Back then, my views were of a confused individual; an misled patriot perhaps.
I practiced glorifying the good things and masking the not so good things. I believed that India was the best thing that could happen to this world even though, I was one of those umpteen number of people who had gone abroad with hopes of making a quick buck. The question 'what are you doing for your country and it's people?' was invariably answered with 'I send home money and it does more than just improve my social status'. I thought I was a patriot just because I aspired to be in the Armed Forces. I proudly told people that I went for the SSB interview even after I got my corporate calling. I was one of those people who scoffed at someone making a bad comment about my country. I took pride in every Indian victory on the cricket field. I was elated with the fact that an Indian might be at the helm of UN and also with the fact that LN Mittal was an Indian. I perhaps truly believed in 'India Shining' and I thought I played some part in it.
I had defined 'Indianness' as simply 'being proud of what our country is despite it's short comings'.
As I looked at what I wanted to tell the world back then I could not, but laugh at my naivety. The last couple of years have made me realize that I am just one of those innumerable, selfish individuals who have been thinking only about themselves and their close ones and never about the bigger picture. All I have done is to have believed in a falsely veiled picture of my country; a falsely veiled picture I had conjured up.
Things have changed now, albeit ever so subtly. I am still lured by better opportunities and better prospects. I still cheer for the cricket match victories and am elated about the medals we won at the Olympics. I am still happy that Indira Nooyi is heading Pepsi and that Dr. Pachauri won a Nobel prize. I am still proud about my aspirations on joining the armed forces. But I am still a mere middle class mortal who can only think about his priorities. I am too selfish to be selfless. But, the change in me however, is evident when I ask myself the big question; "what are you doing for your country and it's people?". Now my answer would be "nothing". I believed Mohan (from Swades) when he said, "I don't think my country is great however we have the capability to be one" and we all have our roles in making our country truly great. I now believe that 'India Rising' is a more apt slogan after all. I want more because I know we can be better and we can achieve more.
So what am I doing about it? I start again, by changing my definition of 'Indianness' to "accepting our responsibilities towards bettering our country, the country we all want it to be"
As I read a draft of this post from '06, I found it intriguing that my views about Indianness and patriotism had changed over the last 3 years. Back then, my views were of a confused individual; an misled patriot perhaps.
I practiced glorifying the good things and masking the not so good things. I believed that India was the best thing that could happen to this world even though, I was one of those umpteen number of people who had gone abroad with hopes of making a quick buck. The question 'what are you doing for your country and it's people?' was invariably answered with 'I send home money and it does more than just improve my social status'. I thought I was a patriot just because I aspired to be in the Armed Forces. I proudly told people that I went for the SSB interview even after I got my corporate calling. I was one of those people who scoffed at someone making a bad comment about my country. I took pride in every Indian victory on the cricket field. I was elated with the fact that an Indian might be at the helm of UN and also with the fact that LN Mittal was an Indian. I perhaps truly believed in 'India Shining' and I thought I played some part in it.
I had defined 'Indianness' as simply 'being proud of what our country is despite it's short comings'.
As I looked at what I wanted to tell the world back then I could not, but laugh at my naivety. The last couple of years have made me realize that I am just one of those innumerable, selfish individuals who have been thinking only about themselves and their close ones and never about the bigger picture. All I have done is to have believed in a falsely veiled picture of my country; a falsely veiled picture I had conjured up.
Things have changed now, albeit ever so subtly. I am still lured by better opportunities and better prospects. I still cheer for the cricket match victories and am elated about the medals we won at the Olympics. I am still happy that Indira Nooyi is heading Pepsi and that Dr. Pachauri won a Nobel prize. I am still proud about my aspirations on joining the armed forces. But I am still a mere middle class mortal who can only think about his priorities. I am too selfish to be selfless. But, the change in me however, is evident when I ask myself the big question; "what are you doing for your country and it's people?". Now my answer would be "nothing". I believed Mohan (from Swades) when he said, "I don't think my country is great however we have the capability to be one" and we all have our roles in making our country truly great. I now believe that 'India Rising' is a more apt slogan after all. I want more because I know we can be better and we can achieve more.
So what am I doing about it? I start again, by changing my definition of 'Indianness' to "accepting our responsibilities towards bettering our country, the country we all want it to be"
posted by navs at 12:06 PM
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