Turnpike Thoughts

What better day to finally break my writers block and post again than the 60^th anniversary of our independence day !

Being away from the country for almost 10 years, I guess this would be a good time as any to wonder what being abroad has meant to the Indian in me.    Many millions of Indian have over the years decided that their “tryst with destiny” was on foreign shores.  Does being away from India and perhaps even acquiring a different nationality change the relationship with India? In my own case, I would say NO!! .  I am coming to the realization that India is something that gets engraved in your soul the moment you are born in the country or, in case of many children who are born in foreign countries to Indian parents, get intimate with it.  What defines it are not the geographical boundaries of the nation, but rather the all encompassing culture, traditions, lifestyles and arts that defies limits. It is a state of mind.   I believe you come in touch with the inner Indian in you every time you hear the name India mentioned on the world media – pride when the context is positive and of course, hurt when the context is negative. The intense sense of shame and betrayal that so many of us abroad felt when news flashed of Indians being involved in terrorist activities in UK is a very recent example. You reinforce your inherent nationality every time you have heard praises of India’s economic rise or every time you see the Indian flag abroad and swelled with pride.   No, it is not easy to lose the sense of being an Indian.  My friends and I have often argued if the sense of nationalism and patriotism for India is essentially a sense of attachment to our own parents and siblings who are in India and not in fact to the country itself?   I have always maintained my view is that while the frequent visits to India might be the attachment to our family,  the sense of pride in the country, the feeling of belonging and the reactions it invokes in your inner spirit when you are no longer in India are an expression of the Indian in you.  

I recall the closing lines from one of my all time favorite movies – A Few Good Men:    “You don’t need a patch on your arm to have honor”.  Yes, that is right; you don’t need an Indian passport or live in India to be a proud Indian

Jai Hind