I AM AN INDIAN

We’ve got all the time in world… We, Indians are pretty interesting people I’d say… we have a knack for using our resource and intellect for anything and everything that’s a non-issue. Take the fuss made over the release of the movie “da Vinci code”, Christians protesting, their posters screaming out the injustice being done to them just because they are in minority (which I think is beside the point they should have been trying to make…but, what the heck, everyone has freedom of speech). Of course the Europeans and Americans could not have had any problems to it cos there Christians are in majority.

Sometimes it annoys me to see India being glorified and sold out for all the wrong reasons… Manoj Kumar type people singing out “hai preet jahan ki reet sada” have made a fool of us all over.

Why don’t we take pride in what we are rather than try to please other people (that’s like essential with humans in general at times, but that is another story) We have a great cultural heritage; our literature is as rich as any other but how would we know we are hardly bothered. We admire the research that has been done on Jesus Christ and Bible, we sit gapping at our television sets seeing the amount of effort they have ut in to found out where Moses got the 10 Commandments. But when it comes to us… we give phony theories of religion… oh no! I can’t say that… we are all quite proud of the fact that NASA has discovered the bridge under the Indian ocean that could have been made by Lord Ram… studying the bridge would be probably like questioning our faith in God, let it be where it is, had God wanted us to study it, the bridge would have been on the surface screeching out it’s presence. And besides we are way too busy fighting over the Ayodhya issue… after all Babar had no right to destroy the Ram temple and build Babari Masjid there. Proof of the existence of Ram temple there? Oops… wrong question. For Heaven’s sake… was Lord Ram born in a temple? According to the theory given shouldn’t there have been a palace there rather than a temple… but again may be it was converted to a temple… ummm…. We’ll deal with one thing at a time… first let’s kill each other over religion and not let anything remain their not a Temple and nor a Mosque and then if we have anything left we might try to find out answers to the less relevant questions.

I know I am probably one of those responsible for it… we never take the initiative. But what I am trying to plead here is something that I do and am going to abide by all my life… I am a proud to be a citizen of this country. I am proud of the fact that we knew “Anu” and “Parmanu” long before, “Atoms” and “Molecules” amazed us. I am proud of the Holy Scriptures be it Ramayan or the Vedas……… I am proud of what I know of my culture and I don’t need a certificate from anyone to realize its importance and relevance to the present day scenario.

Finished at last ;)

Fountainhead…. It took me a long time to finish this book… quite unlike me but the book is way too descriptive. Especially towards the end it seemed to stretch like a piece of gum chewed and tasteless. I somehow failed to witness the miracle was expecting to see; the end and description deceived the content. I guess I do agree to the thought that has been conveyed in the book but it’s more like a fact thrust in to the face of the common man and he has accepted it and decided to live with it consciously or unconsciously. The book itself symbolizes, the worship of mediocrity, anything that doesn’t take you a mind of your own to understand is easily accepted and praised and so is this book. I am not trying to say that it’s a piece of crap getting glorified for no reason, I feel it’s the proof what it’s trying to sell. Every character has been exaggerated to most simplified version, one man epitomizing one trait… but I guess that’s how it works. What amused me the most was the way people try to relate to it, the way they actually go out of their way to abide by the book it’s almost like Peter Keating feeding himself in the writings of Lois Cook or preaching of Ellsworth Toohey. Before I read the book I met many a Howard Roark, their conviction to be someone else itself seemed to betray them before I could understand what they had been talking about. It’s a modern classic no doubt and it deals with reality and symbolizes it, but the idea lacks originality, it’s a general and rational observation…. But then again even that is so rare that it truly deserves all the acclaim it has gathered. It’s been almost heartening to see the world being acknowledge as it is… had I not gone through the glorification of it before I had read the book, I would’ve enjoyed it more.