A Broken Kaleidoscope

India is one among the largest cosmopolitan nations in the world. Exercising my right to expression, I think the word ‘cosmopolitan’ in the Indian context is originated from the two words ‘cosmos’ and ‘politician’. Now I will choose not to define the link between the two words as it is very apparent. At the very offset I would like to make a remark that every significant word that anchors my futile speech is subjectively presented. With this above statement, I just earned a potent trait of an Indian national, the one of a chronic diplomat.

Now I can safely drive my thoughts, with no fear of being superbly misunderstood by the ‘sensitive’ publics, communions and associations. I think this is something like a self-granted birthright of any Indian citizen to opine on every aspect of life and others’ lives as a personal issue and most amusingly, the same are loyalists to the most delusional concepts of the universe. Strikingly, every single opinion, in the nation’s tray of "fundamentalists" has an independent direction and screams for mass approval as the biggest, strongest, purest and absolute. Unity in diversity is often considered as an ode dedicated to the strength of India. The only thing I see that unites this unscalable difference of opinions is the ‘mental conformity’ in their shallow cranium space.

There is no denial of the fact that India, my country, can boast about virtues that not many of its counterparts can. But not-quite-proudly, it is also true that this very garden allows weeds in the form of hypocrisy and conformism to dwell and bloom. Addressing the popular fable about two Indian crabs in a bucket, it is absolutely ironical to recall that this holy land once belonged to free thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Swami Vivekananda and many such transcendentalists and non-conformists. It is appalling to see how people here have become corrupt to their very roots as an excuse to escape the bureaucracy that is given. What people don’t understand is that bureaucracy is a by-product of corruption and not vice-versa. Irrationality has always been the cornerstone for all the moles in the Indian preamble.

The birth of irrationalism can be dated way back to when a child is born. Inducting the very idea of a child in the minds of the two procreative paper dolls itself is skewed. They evaluate future security and societal status before they conceive the idea of a child. The sexual orientation for the child is almost predefined in both their minds with reasons to chart. The very fact that they seek reason in this sanctified procreation itself falsifies the nobility that it naturally holds. “A female child is at a mortgage stake of happiness and security”- all this on the convenient assumption in the sexist minds that a girl child cannot earn for her living.

Natively a country of browns, colour still is of top priority in areas like matrimony, employment, social circles and communions. Amidst such disbelief, the people seek belief and hope by investing faith in an unidentified creature with multiple hands, sitting on some wild skin, with the fiercest pose. They call it ‘God’! Wait a minute! I thought there was only one god. But guess what, India has Gods customized for every family. Fancy, isn’t it? And this God holds the verdict of justice and equality. Wonder why, India has a clear bifurcation of classes: Richest, poor and poorest. A wise man once said that it is the karma cycle that decides your prospects every birth. I found it completely useless to ask him who decides karma and if it is that mystic creature, then can I have a look at his credentials please? Nevertheless, I had no intentions of sounding like an atheist but it is just evident that my agnosticism seeks proof. Religious missionaries trying hard to draw people into believing their doctrine for some few rupees, tells the story of this great 'secular' state.

It irks me so much because this religious festivity that my country enjoys has given birth to so many redundant rituals and customs. Inter-caste marriage in India is a taboo. And what amazes me is that a divine alliance like this has to be scaled with the societal bullshit judgements. A feeling as simple as love has been complicated with societal brackets, customs, age and age-old superstition. In such environs I will not hesitate in stating that we have not grown. We still are premature animals with parasitic sensibility. A country that is illustrated for its values and mannerisms actually suffers a deathly vacuum of hypocrisy and sadistic attitude among the people. The chain and its first link beginning with a flawed constitution, runs deep down to cheap trade practises and corruption at every level in the hierarchy. One of the jobs well done by us Indians is to manage a coffee-table conversation for hours, lamenting on the Indian government and its blemishes. Being one of the largest democracies in the world, self-governance is the only way to go. How many today would clear a test of absolute corruption resistance? Nil!

An average Indian lives half his life being judged and the other half, judging people. And in a monarchy of gods, sab kuch hai ram-bharosey! Besides, expecting a welfare nation out of a coloured blob of 28 states, 7 union territories and a million self-righteous value systems is just being over-ambitious. I don’t particularly think that media, the fourth estate so to say, is credible enough to paint the true picture. Are we really a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic and republic state?

Yes, it’s that smirk that needs to spin some change and not die a mindless expression of disbelief.

A simple resolution that I could think of would be giving birth to ‘free thinkers’. The sun will shine for a minute longer, the day a child is born to a family of free-thinkers; a family that does not take refuge in any systems of conformism like religion, region, caste or gender- A family of liberated souls on a walk towards eternal freedom from polluted societies. That’s where we started from, right?

I would like to paraphrase Henry David Thoreau here,

“More than love, than money, than fame, than fairness, ... give me truth!”

The above observations suffer from the risk of being branded as one of the dead stinkers that spams your mailbox. But at the risk of becoming a cog-in-the-chakra, I urge you to wheel this movement, in making India 'Incredible' in the true sense. Jai Hind!