MY PRIDE, MY INDIA
Officially, it is the second-most populous country, seventh-largest country by area, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north;and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. That is the information you will find when you look at Wikipedia. But my country is different from any other. It is the only country that has 33 million gods, the country that has so many diverse ethnicities, whose culture is so vast that you cannot study in ten lifetimes, the country that is extremely orthodox but very modern, the country who welcomes everyone with open arms, the country with a history of wars and the emerging heroes who strived for its freedom, the country of beautiful landscapes and dreams- that’s my country- INDIA.
As rightly quoted by Mark Twain, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most artistic materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!” India for me is an emotion. Born and brought up here, I feel privileged to be born in a country that gave me freedom to speech, where I have fearlessly travelled places alone discovering beautiful facets of hospitality that fill me with gratitude. From the beautiful mountains up north, to the backwaters in south, the mesmerising beaches in the west and astounding backdrops in the east, the beauty is immeasurable. I was raised believing that I can do and achieve anything and therefore never had second thoughts about being a girl child. Being brought up in a place where I had so many cultures in my neighbourhood, I remember celebrating every festival without being biased to any religion and the family
keeps increasing; your neighbours and friends become your extended family which has no bounds.
On the other hand, I agree that it is not a bed of roses. The country still boasts of inequality in many parts, the religious issues and the political façade continues its existence, the orthodox community beliefs thrive and blossom, the thugs and rogues still exist, the bribes continue to be taken, we still complain about the infrastructure all the time, we still continue to crib about how inadequate our country is while reading our morning newspapers with a cup of chai. But look at how far our country has come in the 73 years of its Independence. It may take us longer, but eventually we will reach there, because we have now realised and accepted the words of the great Dr Abdul Kalam, “India should walk on her own shadow- we must have our own development model” because, we are one of its kind – The only ONE.