My little sweet Innocent India

Yeah… That’s how I feel about my country..
Not that I dont find anything good with other great countries.. But your own mother is always dearer to you .. So that’s how India is kindda Dearer to me despite all its population, all its traffic problems, all its corruption and all the not-so good things..
I know we can go on listing the things which we have failed to count on, catch up.. but then the enormous amount of issues we have had and we were thrown into , are something which usually don’t get mention on the same page.
There are few things I always get my pride from..

There has to be more than in-adequacy and laziness in the fact that..in 5000 years of history India never invaded any country..I am always mesmerized by wisdom of greats. I just wonder how they could rise from average normal life and think so deep. When i was a child , I always slept less .. not even complete 6 hours in night. I had this urgency to finish all the wise books. I always felt life is too short to not know what great thinkers have already concluded. So i can’t help and borrow some of great pieces from these thinkers.

Swami Vivekananda, Indian Philosopher: “Civilizations have arisen in other parts of the world. In ancient and modern times, wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another…But mark you, my friends; it has been always with the blast of war trumpets and the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a deluge of blood….. Each word of power had to be followed by the groans of millions, by the wails of orphans, by the tears of widows. This, many other nations have taught; but India for thousands of years peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist… Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live….!”
So beautifully said. I guess I need to read more of His books. 🙂

Dr Arnold Toynbee, British Historian: “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way.”

Apollonius Tyanaeus, Ancient Greek Traveler: “In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing.”

Max Muller, German Scholar: “If I were to look over the whole world to find out a country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow – in some part a very paradise on earth – I should point to India.”

Will Durant, American Historian: “It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system.”
“India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings.”
“India is the motherland of our race and Sanskrit is the mother of Indo-European languages. She is the mother of our philosophy, of our mathematics, mother of ideals embodied in Christianity and mother of our democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all.” (‘Story of Civilization’)

Albert Einstein, American Scientist: “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!”

Mark Twain, American Author: “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!” “So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.”
“In religion, India is the only millionaire… the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.”

With above, I think I have made clear how great My poor country is . Yeah but its poor. So anybody around the world can call it “Third world country”. But I guess virtues are only carried forward by people who don’t have enough money to indulge in other things.
Here is few pleasures I treasured as Indian.
– How in trains most people would accommodate you in spite of overcrowded compartments.
– How we ‘ll go out of our way to help a foreigner
– How our waiters will ignore natives in order to serve foreign tourists faster ( I know they are eyeing fat Tips, But it gives a sense of keeping the guest above the native)
– How a stranger on road can help you out in your worst time
– How we non-stop talk about each and everything and everywhere..
– How our kids grow up to follow MTV and V-channel and finally end up watching Astha and Sanskar Channels.
– How still the most Hip guy would stop and help an old women carrying a loaded bag
– How we touch feet of elders and not feel awkward
– How our beggars still find some reason to laugh in abject poverty also.
– How still we want our spouse to respect our parents and not be completely individual.
– How we still keep our Indian gene alive and thriving in enticing west.
– How we still yearn deep inside.. some day our POOR Country will get its’ glory back without attacking others and just being spiritual.
Love India. Love Yourself. If you cannot love the country you were born in And the parents you were born to. You are actually not proud of your being. Life is just too precious to be lived in Shame.
I saw couple of websites talking about tips for tourists visting India.
I have only one point to make for all those experts Who say to tourists “expect lots of filth and lots of poverity”.. That we were not poor by Birth.. We got it as a gift from some Greedy foreign vultures, Whom we were just hospitable to. We are coming out of it.. And we will come out of it. But what remains in pages of history is.. There is one country who goes around making slaves of other countries and plunders their money, and also exists other country who has resilience and virtues to still be hospitable to outsiders and yet regain its glory not with power but with perseverence. 300 years of plundering will atleast take 100 years of effort to come out. Some innocents have to pay for some more evil greedy one’s acts. That doesnot make my Country look bad to me.. Mighty are not those who plunder and steal.. Mighty are those who stand up to their virtues and thrive back.