Tied to the Tricolor

There are days when my patriotism threatens to overwhelm me. I am just so proud of being an Indian that I want to scream from the rooftops. Case in point, today. When I woke up in the morning, made some coffee, sat down with a bunch of old newspapers just to sell them to the Raddiwala, I started going through an old article published an year and a half back and came across the detailed reporting in both Indian as well as international media about how the rich culture of the land has been offended by the fact that Richard Gere kissed Shilpa Shetty in an AIDS awareness function in NEW DELHI, the CAPITAL CITY of India. So much so that there had been protests from all over the country, including equally or more emancipated cities such as Mumbai. Americans were, thankfully enough and unlike most Indians, extremely demonstrative with their affection, as we learn everyday. But that was not the point. The point was that something as trivial as this made people sacrifice their time and energy over things such as burning effigies of both the people in question, of asking them to apologize, and telling the non Indian to leave India and go back to his home. Of course kissing is not part of Indian culture! It’s such a sexual activity! Any kiss any where means getting undressed and jumping into bed! And we of course don’t know anything about those things because in our country, the second most populated country in the world by the way, children are born just by men and women looking into each other’s eyes. There is really no other activity involved! And all this when the same day’s news also included the nexus between Dadua, the dreaded gangster from Uttar Pradesh, and Mulayam Singh Yadav, one of the most prominent politicians of the country. And the conversion of a thousand Hindus in Orissa to Buddhism because in spite of being Hindus they were denied access to temples in their own region owing to the fact that they were from lower castes.
Uff! My pride in my country knows no bounds today. I might as well tie the tricolor on my head and walk about anywhere.
But then again, given today's events in the US when criminals involved in the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal in the 80's were bailed out by them, there are several things to be grateful for in India.