Romanticizing India.

India turned 68 on the 3^rd Saturday of August 2015. Six decades in the life of a nation is not a very long time to pass a quick judgement over how it is growing. India has been one of the ancient civilizations on earth and has been open to various people of different religion, race, creed and class who have lived here and continue to do so. Reminds me of Mark Twain when he said “India is the cradle of human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition.” This transformation from an ancient civilization to a modern nation-state has been a tumultuous journey. But today is not the day to ponder over and analyze this ginormous voyage, today is the day to romanticize it. Days like these are about venerating our beloved country, idealizing that feeling one gets while observing the tricolor unfurl in its beautiful colors.

It’s about remembering the freedom fighters, the supremely patriotic people who gave up their lives so that after six decades one can cherish and romanticize over it.

It’s about taking oneself back to those times when our nation was divided into various regions and the mammoth task that was done to unite them all.

It’s about reminding ourselves of the challenging task which great men and women accomplished of giving us a brilliant constitution.

It’s about saluting those inspiring people who dreamt of an idea of India, of a united country, ruled by its people.

It’s about rediscovering ourselves, our identity, our roots, and our traditions and appreciating every bit of it.

It’s about singing the national anthem at the top of our voices, with our heart and soul and being mesmerized at the beauty of it.

It’s about being charmed with its humongous diversity, its huge population, its colorful culture, its beautiful people, its eco-friendly festivals and its strange ways.

It’s about being fascinated by its mighty mountains, its numerous rivers, its gigantic population of flora and fauna and the beauty that underlines them all.

It’s about enjoying its rich culture and traditions, its classical songs and dances, its poetry and drama, its authors and storytellers.

It’s about engrossing yourself in the country’s past and present, its history and geography, its length and breadth, its legends and traditions.

It’s about taking pride in its plurality, its ethos, its language and its composite culture and standing as one in times of any sort of external threat.

It’s about rejoicing the thought of belonging to this great nation with all its glories and follies, its achievements and its imperfections.

It’s about delving deeper into this ancient land and understanding how it functions and succeeds, fails and gets up, moving ahead.

It’s about understanding the idea of being an Indian and thinking of making this country proud in our own respective ways.

It’s about believing in this country and the country people.

Issues of price-rise, terrorism, women empowerment, unemployment, farmers, armed forces, clustered cities, poor villages, corruption, infrastructure, schools, colleges, factories, SEZs, government policies, corporates, PSUs etc. can wait for every day.

Whining is a routine. Let’s romanticize a bit on this one day and celebrate it.

JAI HIND.

Fall, Fall again and then Begin.

Failure is such a depressing thing. One failure in life and everything comes to a halt. The world shrinks, becoming the size of an ant. Everything around you becomes gloomy. You are in such a state of confusion about yourself that you forget every god damn thing that has ever happened in your life. Not only you but everyone around you does the same. All attention is focused on that one lonely “failure”. Suddenly it receives all the attention it never deserved. Failure can be of various categories, sizes and shapes, but one common trait that binds them all is the kind of impact it creates i.e. HUGE.

People try to console you quoting the cliché things like “Failure is the stepping stone to success” or someone would come up with “To succeed one must fall”. And you begin to momentarily think of yourself as Abraham Lincoln and start believing that this too shall pass. But all of this becomes unable to lessen the impact that lonely failure has created. All you can think of is WHY? , WHY ME? Thus begins a series of comparisons, self-doubt and a zillion questions.

In those depressing moments, all one needs is some sort of strength, strength of family and of friends on whom one can rely on. They are the ones who strengthen your backbone and rescue you back to the normal world. It is the time of discoveries, you discover the true faces of people behind their masks, and you discover yourself in the end. Only will-power and determination can liberate you from the clutches of the dreaded failure and set you on another path. The road that is less travelled and that is what makes all the difference as Robert Frost would say. And then one fine day, when success arrives, pushing failure a zillion steps away, reversing everything that failure brought that you realize that "Failure is definitely the stepping stone to success. Reminds me of Henry Ford when he said " Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.