high tea

Getting off work early is something so rare in advertising... so the day i did, i marvelled at the world outside. I have almost forgotten what the streets look like at 5 30 pm. What the colour of the sky is on working days. How many people travel homeward on park street, how the cafes welcome dusk, how lovers/college goers cozy up with cups of coffee, how the demand for puchka rises, how the hoardings light up and the city goes into a different mode altogether.

anyway, i had to do my weekly grocery so i stepped into Spencer's and couldn't for the life of me find a certain variety of 'saag' and out of sheer embarrassment couldn't ask anyone! a married woman can't identify vegetables. what could be worse. SO i bought the rest of the stuff on my list and walked home balancing two heavy bags.

But this feeling of incompetence changed once i stepped inside, i dropped my keys off where they belonged, shoved the veggies in the fridge and settle down on my favourite spot with a steaming cup of Castleton tea and a chocolate pastry from flurry's. Completely at leisure i felt good about life. I for once tasted independence and it felt great. I was sitting in my apartment, i pay for it too, enjoying things I've bought with my own money and watching the TV that i purchased with my salary. I never felt like this when i stayed with mom, there though everything was mine but i had done nothing to earn it. There was a strange sense of satisfaction here, the little i have made out of life with sheer hard work made me feel so proud. From a girl with a completely sheltered life i have come a long way. And having felt good i lapsed lazily back into my musings as the aromatic taste of the perfectly blended tea worked like an elixir on me. So raising a toast to independence and married life, i said to myself...'what a wonderful world!'

let my country awake

It doesn't take an Independence Day to remind you how much you love your country. every time i hear a patriotic tune my eyes go moist. in a multiplex when we rise for the national anthem i feel my vision blurr. when in 'Roja' the hero puts out the flaming Indian flag by rolling over it, i cried like a baby. the lilting notes of 'bande mataram' melt my heart till date. The shehnai in 'swades' makes me weep for my country deep inside.

this Independence Day as i lay in my couch wondering about life (my fave pass time) i realised i have hardly done a thing for my country except living off her everyday. i am safe today because of her. i have clothes, shelter and as a woman i enjoy every freedom. yet i curse the roads, the political situation, the corruption and say its going to the dogs.

today i feel apologetic for all that i have said because after a bit of soul searching i know for sure that i haven't meant any of it. i love my country so completely and dearly and this sense of patriotic pride is so deep seated in me that i never want to live anywhere else i guess. i too long to see the world, long to travel far and wide but my land, my country is a place so special that no job, no opportunity, no amount of greed seems bigger than my country. Her history fills me with pride, her struggles make me cry, her future is mine too.

as India evolves today our destinies remain entwined forever. like a child never finds a better place than her mother's lap, i too find peace in this land. with its congested cities, traffic jams, pollution, bribe-taking-police, forever dug-up roads, continual protests at the drop of a hat, parasitic politicians and little things made difficult, i accept her for who she is, as i too am a part of her. if we can't change, how will she? if we keep blaming one another we will never get out of our third world mode and more people will leave her and settle abroad serving other countries but not their mother-land. all of us feel what can i a significant being do? can we not plant trees? not litter the streets? follow traffic rules? don't give or take bribes? pay taxes? help one another? support a cause? these little things lead to a revolution. to bring about one you don't need to parade the roads and go on hunger strike. as actions speak better than words, if each of us contribute a wee little bit, we will make our nation a much better place. remember you can leave India but the India within you will never leave you.

i feel the tricolour smeared allover me, my soul is dipped in it. it runs in my veins and makes me want to make a difference. i want to wake up in the India of my dreams. don't you?