Happy Independence Day....

When ignited minds work with indomitable spirit ,a prosperous ,happy and safe India is assured.-
President APJ Kalam

We dream big, hope big .... n we so often need to do big .... Specifically these typical Indian days makes us all feel so patriotic. Living abroad does fill in an extra bit of patriotism in you. You never feel like letting ur country down. You always shield your country against the person who says ill about her. No wonder this friend of mine had once wrote to me in an e-mail, "Have u as well turned into a desh-bhakt? Everybody does after you go abroad."

Keeping that aside, not that leaving India really meant that there's no love for India any more. OR that there was no love for India.
This is specially meant for someone who's almost all the time refering to India as "their" country n not "our" or even " my " country. I would like to ask them, What is it that they are doing that is different from me, which proves them to be more appropriately belonging to India than I am. Fighting corruption? Helping the poor? Helping the disabled?Working for the border issues? Working for getting the govt. of India to lower the reservation quota? Working for those people who don't have a place to sleep and are as muddy as mud? Working towards building some kind of dams to prevent the floods that occur every single year? Working for terrorist attacks? Working towards not getting Muslims blamed if there is a riot in the city, when some Hindu has done it? Working for those people who go jobless every year just because they know no big man?
What exactly are you doing there which is different from what I am doing? I would like to know.

Just living in your motherland and not living in your motherland doesn't create a borderline between my country n not my country. Every parent has a dream that their children get well educated, so well that they always have an independence at hand to choose where they want to live and get settled, and an independence at hand to decide how they want to spend their life. That's exactly what my parents have done. They've dreamed and fulfilled it for their children. They've fulfilled their child's dream to try to get into the profession of medicine, which in India was a dream unfulfilled for her. She's been a topper in India as well, but here she's been appreciated for her efforts. They know her as an "Indian" who's simply the best. They've left more doors opened for that boy, who now can see the world at a broader perspective than an electronic engineer, a computer engineer or a mechanical engineer. The boy gets to hear things like, "Canada is proud to have you here". Doesn't this portray a pride of being Indian? Wouldn't your chest swell with pride when you'd hear something like that for an Indian?
We, the Indians abroad have a broader sense of responsibility than them, in a way that "Indians" as a whole are accountable for our deeds and misdeeds.

"India is my motherland" fills me with as much pride today as it did when I left it. Things don't really change for you unless you want to change them.
Certain truths really lay sealed tight behind our lips, just because we are afraid to let them out. People say, life's busier out here. Kind of true. But I guess, we can always find time to miss our friends n to talk to them. I myself have been a student, worked part time alongside, handled the house-hold along with my mother when she was here, but even all alone when she's in India - all at the same time. But I still find time to mail or msg my friends back "Home".

And what about life in India? Huh. Possibly even busier. People forget coz we're out of sight. People don't respond to msges coz they're reallllly busy. In short, people don't care. Or they care as much as Canadians do. Canadians are atleast good with one thing. You won't ever feel that they're with you forever. That they're your lifetime friends. They never make you feel that ways. Expectations, as a matter of fact, always hurt. Be it love or friendship.
So it probably doesn't have to be with the country. It certainly has to do with people.

"Moh- maaya"??? The last issue I am going to write about today.
"Moh-maaya chhodo... " contained one of the several mails I received on the eve of Independence. Living in Canada = Moh Maaya .... ??????
Didn't you educate yourself? For what? Aren't u earning now? Wouldn't you be looking forward for promotions? Why are you away from your family?
The truth is, this world doesn't require us to live a saintly life. A life has to be good. Nothing more than that. We all are selfish human beings, all of us. And not one emotion that we have is deprived of selfishness. You name it, n i'd unhappily but truthfully attach the label of "Selfishness" with it. Except for the love of parents.

I guess that was too much like a President's speech. So for now, I'd pen off.
Happy Independence Day!!!! May India rise in glory. All prayers and wishes for my beloved motherland.....