The truth about भारत

India.

These five letters, when someone speaks them to me, bring a plethora of thoughts in my mind. We are fortunate enough to have not lived through the toughest period of our country’s seventy year history. Yes, we may be a country plagued with problems, but hey, at least we are not the USA!

I believe that India is a state, which is a melting pot of not only different cultures and religions, but also of different ideologies and mind-sets. I believe this is what makes India such a different and unique state! But most of the times we force ourselves to see only one side of the story. Well, let me tell you about the other side.

You see, deep in its core, India is not perfect. We rank 133 in the Happiness index, out of 156 countries. Clearly, we are not happy (You can see that as I am ranting about the nation I was born and molded in). We build statues for people who do not do anything for the nation, yet when it comes to building hospitals and schools, our leaders hesitate to do so. We berate people in the name of religion, yet when it comes to people who hurt little girls and women, our law system does not do enough to provide justice. We idolize and glorify sportsmen and actors, but ignore the real heroes who work so freaking hard so that we can live peacefully and do something great for the nation. But what do we do? We sit and laugh at memes on our political parties and actors and what not. We choose to ignore our successes and instead always try to delve on the wrongs (like I am doing right now!) We are a nation which is so united, yet so divided at the same time, through religion, castes, and what not. We talk about solving the social problems in our country yet never actually do anything about it.

I am not blaming Indians for being this way. With political and religious leaders making ridiculous and outrageous statements about India, we have the right to make fun of them.

I am still figuring out what it really means to be an Indian and how it is as a whole, a state. I will laugh at the funny instances and comments our political and religious leaders will make, and how we will make fun of it. I will cry at the cruel acts of horror some people in our nation do to women. I strongly believe that the greatest obstacle for India to achieve greatness is, well, us. WE are the reason India is facing so many problems. If we become conscious and take a stand, we have a chance at glory and greatness. We may not be the greatest and the most prosperous country in the world.

But we can be.

Our forefathers laid their lives so that India can be great. So that we can live peacefully. And I think it’s time we realize that, and take up the responsibility to make our nation, and if not it, then our forefathers proud and live up to their names. I believe that this is what we Indians are capable of. We have the ability to change the world, and we are at the cusp of greatness and peace. But if we continue to stay the same way we are now, we will not be what we are truly meant to be; India, at its full glory.

I guess there’s no harm in being an Indian.

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(Ignore the title and the personal details for word count of the blog post. This blog post is a part of our creative writing subject. The image has been taken from http://readsriram.blogspot.com/2009/01/india.html)