India --- a sort of a dream

One question that I often get asked whenever I visit home (India) is how it feels to be back. The question comes packaged in several ways. For example, "This chaos and filth on the streets must be frustrating you completely, isn't it?", or "I am sure you do not feel at home here anymore, do you?" or "Do you also have an upset stomach soon after landing like my nephew who comes back once every two years?", and so on.

So how does it feel to be back home? Well, to say the least, it feels very good and certainly, I still feel very much at home. It is true that I have lost touch with many a things. Yet, I have gained something that I much cherish. And that is a sort of perspective, a perspective that allows me to put whatever I observe at home against the backdrop of the developments happening around the world; to reflect on how the world outside might perceive things that are happening here; how other people elsewhere might respond in similar situations; how I, if asked about something by a foreigner friend, might want to respond; and most importantly, a perspective that makes me think that a number of our problems are there due to the sheer size, diversity and history of the system that we are dealing with, and not due to any particular deficiency on our part as a population. In fact, generally speaking, I have come to believe that we Indians are not that different from the other people. We share the same dreams and aspirations, hopes and fears, likes and dislikes as other people. Yet, our country is unique. Ours is a country where two citizens may not even find a common language to talk to each other; where the education and prosperity level does not seem quite right for the democracy, yet democracy seems to be the only glue that can hold this collossus together; where opinions and theories about everything abound and flourish, with or without the substantiating facts. Yet, we continue to live on and progress in one way or the other. To borrow Sulman Rushdie's words from his novel "The Midnight's Children", India is a sort of a dream. That is precisely what fascinates me about my country, and that is precisely how I feel whenever I come back home---a feeling of being part of a massive dream!