My daughter's friend's younger sister, about 5-6 years old, who stays close to us just returned back from Australia. She had been there with her mother for a short onsite stint for about 2-3 months.
Pat came her response: "India!"
"Why?"
"Because they use tissue paper."
"Tissue paper?!"
"In the wash room. Instead of faucet."
We burst out laughing! Such a nice honest and innocent response! An entire country's popularity dropped just because of washroom habit!
Soon after that incident I was talking to my brother-in-law who resides in Dubai. As of now (could be changed soon), there is no citizenship granted for Indians. So he was narrating how his fellow Indian friends who stay in Dubai do everything possible to immigrate to either Canada or US just so that they can get that country's citizenship. For some reason, upon hearing that, I felt a pang. Its not as if that this was the first time I was hearing this, because when I used to stay in US, this was an everyday office hallway discussion - about Indians waiting for GC and US Citizenship. But after settling down in India for the last 7 years, the very thought of losing out such a privileged citizenship - that of being "Indian" - seems so appalling to me now.
And then a few days later, a friend of mine in US called me and informed that she got Citizenship. A few years back, my response would have been "Congratulations" but this time, somehow, that never came out from me. I was more like matter-of-fact "Oh ok" while inwardly thinking "How sad."
It is hard to express the immensity of being Indian in India. Keeping apart the apathy of politicians or untidiness of places or civic sense of general public, when it comes to spirituality, there is no place like India. It might also be so that now that I am on the other side of 40 or maybe influenced by Sadhguru's talks that I am more spiritually inclined now than I was before, and being so, any other country of permanent residence just doesn't make any sense anymore.
But, to be fair, it is true that Indians are spreading spirituality across the world by settling down in various parts of the world. In fact, when we were in US, we were exposed to lot more Indian festivities' grandeur than how we used to experience when we were in India itself, thanks to the enthusiasm of few members who used to amplify the events and create an atmosphere conducive to be Indians while not being in India.
In India, I have visited so many religious places already and yet there seems to be so many more to visit. Some of them even deserves a second or even third visit, while I know that many visit places like Tirumala annually once. The spiritual cleansing that one feels upon such visits is invigorating & soulful than a beach-side vacation that one might crave for in other parts of the world.
There is always some thing or the other that is happening in India. A cousin's wedding, another cousin's son's naming ceremony, another cousin's in-law's Sahasra Chandra Darshanam homa, an aunth's death ceremony, a yagna at an uncle's house, a musical saint's commemoration ceremony, a religious saint's Pontification day ceremony, a communion of spiritual seekers to celebrate night-long festivity singing hymns of the Lord, a special day to take river bath to cleanse oneself from accumulated sins, a day for fasting to welcome the birth of the Lord, and the list goes on and on. If you notice closely, every event above is conducted spiritually and involves divinity.
To be away from India is almost akin to be away from the Divine.
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