Monday, May 7, 2012

Satyamev Jayate: Will it change it all? Or ‘Sab Chalta hai!’: From an Indian, Non-Indian lens


Today morning, I woke up to see my friends’ facebook update all resonating the same message, ‘Satyamev Jayate’. It’s no Independence Day, Republic Day or Gandhi Jayanti, so what makes everyone so patriotic suddenly. Curious, I searched the internet. Star Plus, it seems has come out of its ‘saas bahu’ closet and has finally realized the positive role it can play as a social media. Amir Khan’s two minute introduction with an indelible mark on the beach sands, that no wave can wash away reads, ‘Satyamev Jayate’. His words were not just his. The thoughts echo in each and every Indian mind, whether those in India & watching the show or those living seven seas away.
There is something about India that pulls me back. But there are many that pull me away. Every time I miss my parents, my home, that familiar environ in which I grew up, the smell of spices, the innocent laughters and the cute cuddling kids who come running towards you, I break down. Nostalgic, home sick, starving for the smell of spicy Indian cuisine, I want to take the first flight back home. And then flipping through the e-versions of Indian papers, I once again change my mind. Every page rotting with the smell of nepotism, bureaucracy, corruption and inefficiency is stark reminder that the dream of home lives only in forsaken hearts. And it’s not just me. Its millions of Indians scattered across the globe longing to get back home and yet, scared of the stark realities that exist. An old ageing man with no social security for the concept doesn’t exist in India; corrupt administrators who you have to bribe to construct your home or collect your own pension;  the age-old stereotypes of male-female divide and the cliché, I am so sick of fighting, ‘sab kuch chalta hai’.
As I watch in the closet of my room, embraced by the blue Alps, reflectively thinking if my home-coming will make a positive difference to my country, my family or the concept of Nation State has been broken down irreparably by the hammer of ‘corruption’, ‘sab chalta hai’ attitude;  I watch on the net ‘Satyamev Jayate’, with fingers crossed and a hope that truth indeed will triumph, ‘Satyamev Jayate’.

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