Hello Fellow Indians,
How are you all doing? It's been 10 long years that I left my homeland to pursue the dream that I along with my husband saw for a better life, enriched life and quality family time when we set up our temporary home in USA. Temporary coz we still had and have our roots strong back home in India. We came here with a plan of staying for few years, saving enough for a comfortable life back home, to pursue our passions, do what we might want to and give our kids a financial stability. Is it such a big deal/wish that you all taunted us, laughed at us, mocked us and made fun of us that each time we returned to USA our new home, with a feeling of loneliness, emptiness and a feeling of abandonment within our hearts. With each trip, our love and hope for our dream kind of died a slow death. We read about how great life was back home, how people had found new rays of financial freedom, and how return to India was fast flourishing, professionals who had returned were making a huge deal of how great their life had become, their wives were raving about how they lived king size and did no work as they had a fleet of maids and etc etc.Ideally they were living our dream. Part of us thought of dropping all we had here and going back, to our glorious careers and giving up the dogs life working for someone 9-5 Monday to Friday. The progress in the newspapers and revenue figures were doing the talk that India the new age formula for success was what all about. The issues of political instability, terror attacks and the day to day corruption to get smallest work done did not make any space in our mind, Common Man making rally's Anna Hazare's Lok Pal bill agenda were showing promises, The RTI/Right to Information started making sense to us. We kept trying to strike a balance between our Indian roots and American lifestyle, trying to make our kids more Indian than kids in India. Regular rounds of Hindi School, shloka classes, Indian dance forms were kept alive in our hearts and homes.
But then instances that happened tore our conscious and made us question , is this the India that we left behind? is this the same set of people who throw their old parents and fight with siblings over petty property maters? is it the same India where class and caste discrimination had gone leaps and bounds? where neighborhood love and watch has lost its identity in the huge high rise towers? IS this new age Indian really progressed? Has the Indian mindset really Progressed? Female Infanticide is still existent in great numbers even in Metro cities, Girls are not safe from eve-teasing, Women of all shapes and sizes are also not spared from un-needful touching, being in public places stirs a caution in the mind of a girl's father, Girls are still Girls in this progressive India....News flashes that I saw on TV last few days and then the entire weekend about the poor girl who dared t o live her dream and do what she liked, faced the consequences of dreaming the dream in Progressed India?
TO think about it, there were about 30 guys who abused her and the media and the cameraman with his crew simply took coverage and publicized the NEWS. The entire neighborhood watched and gasped, not one lady/women came to her rescue, there would have been a minimum of 100 women in that neighborhood, each having at least 2 hands and 5 sets of slippers at their disposal, but they were too lame to come ahead jointly and save the poor girl from the beasts, these citizens of progressed India have no right to be called Humans as their deeds are no less than the beasts, The Concept of "To each his own" is shining in the new progressing India, what my father goes, mere baap ka kya jaata hain, uska hain woh hi dekhe, is so prominent that it scares us to return home. The guys were no doubt at fault, but they just raped her body, the media and the people who watched the whole tamasha raped her mind and conscious as well. Who is at fault, the perpetrators who committed the crimes, the girl or the media who publicized the matter by showing the clips again and again to keep the fire burning?
Hence, I am writing to you all;
1. who mocked us and made fun of us apparently to hide your jealousy and lack of ability to have worked hard to achieve and try live your life;
2. who call themselves proud Indian, but do nothing to make India proud of you;
3. who say what can a Common Man do, after all he is too common;
4. who forget India's Independence day but start planning for Valentine's day a month ahead;
5. who forget to give is to get;
and lastly to all Indians who have forgotten the values of Humanity and Humbleness, who line up from 4AM on the stairs of the temple to worship the goddess, but treat their wives, and women folk like a piece of dirt;
Kindly make an effort today, to rejoin the lost human emotions that made us different than the animals around us, IT was god's wish that we be Humans and not the animals, he blessed us with the gift of brain to think and language to use it wisely. Cannot bear to see the Cherished heritage of Glorified India going to the dogs.
Yours Truly;
An (NRI) Non Resident or Not Required (is for you to decide)Indian
How are you all doing? It's been 10 long years that I left my homeland to pursue the dream that I along with my husband saw for a better life, enriched life and quality family time when we set up our temporary home in USA. Temporary coz we still had and have our roots strong back home in India. We came here with a plan of staying for few years, saving enough for a comfortable life back home, to pursue our passions, do what we might want to and give our kids a financial stability. Is it such a big deal/wish that you all taunted us, laughed at us, mocked us and made fun of us that each time we returned to USA our new home, with a feeling of loneliness, emptiness and a feeling of abandonment within our hearts. With each trip, our love and hope for our dream kind of died a slow death. We read about how great life was back home, how people had found new rays of financial freedom, and how return to India was fast flourishing, professionals who had returned were making a huge deal of how great their life had become, their wives were raving about how they lived king size and did no work as they had a fleet of maids and etc etc.Ideally they were living our dream. Part of us thought of dropping all we had here and going back, to our glorious careers and giving up the dogs life working for someone 9-5 Monday to Friday. The progress in the newspapers and revenue figures were doing the talk that India the new age formula for success was what all about. The issues of political instability, terror attacks and the day to day corruption to get smallest work done did not make any space in our mind, Common Man making rally's Anna Hazare's Lok Pal bill agenda were showing promises, The RTI/Right to Information started making sense to us. We kept trying to strike a balance between our Indian roots and American lifestyle, trying to make our kids more Indian than kids in India. Regular rounds of Hindi School, shloka classes, Indian dance forms were kept alive in our hearts and homes.
But then instances that happened tore our conscious and made us question , is this the India that we left behind? is this the same set of people who throw their old parents and fight with siblings over petty property maters? is it the same India where class and caste discrimination had gone leaps and bounds? where neighborhood love and watch has lost its identity in the huge high rise towers? IS this new age Indian really progressed? Has the Indian mindset really Progressed? Female Infanticide is still existent in great numbers even in Metro cities, Girls are not safe from eve-teasing, Women of all shapes and sizes are also not spared from un-needful touching, being in public places stirs a caution in the mind of a girl's father, Girls are still Girls in this progressive India....News flashes that I saw on TV last few days and then the entire weekend about the poor girl who dared t o live her dream and do what she liked, faced the consequences of dreaming the dream in Progressed India?
TO think about it, there were about 30 guys who abused her and the media and the cameraman with his crew simply took coverage and publicized the NEWS. The entire neighborhood watched and gasped, not one lady/women came to her rescue, there would have been a minimum of 100 women in that neighborhood, each having at least 2 hands and 5 sets of slippers at their disposal, but they were too lame to come ahead jointly and save the poor girl from the beasts, these citizens of progressed India have no right to be called Humans as their deeds are no less than the beasts, The Concept of "To each his own" is shining in the new progressing India, what my father goes, mere baap ka kya jaata hain, uska hain woh hi dekhe, is so prominent that it scares us to return home. The guys were no doubt at fault, but they just raped her body, the media and the people who watched the whole tamasha raped her mind and conscious as well. Who is at fault, the perpetrators who committed the crimes, the girl or the media who publicized the matter by showing the clips again and again to keep the fire burning?
Hence, I am writing to you all;
1. who mocked us and made fun of us apparently to hide your jealousy and lack of ability to have worked hard to achieve and try live your life;
2. who call themselves proud Indian, but do nothing to make India proud of you;
3. who say what can a Common Man do, after all he is too common;
4. who forget India's Independence day but start planning for Valentine's day a month ahead;
5. who forget to give is to get;
and lastly to all Indians who have forgotten the values of Humanity and Humbleness, who line up from 4AM on the stairs of the temple to worship the goddess, but treat their wives, and women folk like a piece of dirt;
Kindly make an effort today, to rejoin the lost human emotions that made us different than the animals around us, IT was god's wish that we be Humans and not the animals, he blessed us with the gift of brain to think and language to use it wisely. Cannot bear to see the Cherished heritage of Glorified India going to the dogs.
Yours Truly;
An (NRI) Non Resident or Not Required (is for you to decide)Indian
5 comments:
Very nice write-up Ash. I totally agree with your thoughts. Even though there has been considerable progress in India, there are still some aspects that are in the dark ages!!!
There is a lack of social conscience in India. It hurts, angers and shames me.
Every time i boarded a bus, I was on high alert, in trains I had to make sure the mob did not stampede with me under their feet...
Oh yes, there were conveniences, I could step down to a Dr. clinic and get treated in a jiffy, i had no insurance card! I had maids doing my chores, until one helped herself to the contents of my Mom's purse and some small stuff around the house.....
I find the good and bad are balanced, the scale tilts when people forget they are human beings and drop to the level of beasts. That may happen anywhere, I know, but I hope I never stoop so low as to become a spectator, I could not live with that on my conscience.
Every one has some good and bad memories attached with India. What are you talking? My daughter is in grade 12, she doesn't even speak a word of Punjabi, i want her to speak so that she can talk to her grandparents if she does she answers in words not in sentences. Did you see Satyamev Jayate? I am surprised to see that kind of India. I know there is caste system, chain snatching, bribery, rape and what not. But if we are aware of this problem only then we can work together to make it right.
Any ways it was a nice write up,unfortunately I did not see that news of the girl.
Hi Ash, I was in hurry at that time and went little off topic. Now, when I came home I read about the incident of rape and its really shameful. Politics is dirty in every country but especially in third world countries. The rapists who are roaming free is all due to this power in wrong hands. Its sad to read about the whole news.I don't know on which TV channel they showed but these days media exaggerates everything. Something similar incident happened here and when teenagers commented and posted photos of the incident Police took action and seized the accounts. You seem really angry after seeing that clipping, anyone can be, after all we belong to that country.
This post is heartfelt, and I feel your pain. We need to raise our voices as a unified force to put an end to social ills. It does not matter what part of the world you occupy. As citizens of the world, it is our duty to call out the atrocities occurring and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
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