Ode to my Motherland

Serving one's Motherland is just not about going to war or making laws! There are indeed a million other ways one can prove to be worthy to a nation that gave us an identity, a sense of space and a place to belong. 

I have always believed in a borderless world, where people did not make maps and mark territories. I strongly opposed theories of nationalism and those that even remotely suggested the same. But one experience however changed the way I perceived the world, my immediate surroundings.

It was a pleasant Sunday morning. My family had planned a short excursion out of the city. It was meant to be a day affair. Though the morning was pleasant with its smell of freshness and tranquility, it was quite cold. It was one of those typical winter mornings pleading to kiss the cold a gentle goodbye and yearn for the soft caress of the spring.

I was well warmed up with the layers of my attire, quite pleased with myself for having won the morning’s battle with the cold. The morning took off as smoothly as anticipated. The genuine laughter and chirps made the heart warmer than usual.

I found myself getting lost in the family chatter and it that was very fulfilling to my being.

It was a drive of about a couple of hours from the city Gurgaon, where we resided. The journey too was filled with light-hearted revelry that added more lustre to the travel.

This trip was not entirely a leisure affair. It also contained in it religious overtones. We were travelling to this place called ‘Brijghat’ that lies on the banks of the Ganges.

Being from a family of nurtured Hinduism, visiting the Ganges was indeed a religious affair. My mother yearned to visit the river and offer her prayers to Goddess Ganga.

To be perfectly honest, I am not a religious person. I am certainly not a follower of Atheism, I do believe in a perpetual form of energy that commands the universe, yet I would not like to give this energy names and a hierarchy.

For me, this excursion purely meant some time away from the bustling city life and a mundane lifestyle that had gotten too trite to endure. This was the time that I could devote to the company of the two most important entities of my life viz. my family and Mother Nature.

We reached our destination. The sun had reluctantly begun to make his appearance and our spirits begged him to stay on. I was at the same place about 5 years ago. It seemed more ill kept after the years of gap. The place was very dirty with piles of waste gathered around as a welcome décor to the visitors. I didn’t really admit it until I saw the Ganges Herself.

Though a beauty she is, but had lost her charms. The Ganges to me resembled a ‘once beautiful woman’ exploited by the world’s evil, yet continuing to flow, fulfilling her duties due to the ‘pressures’ of the world!

There was a sense of Pity and Pride to the intense emotion I shared with Her. I almost heard her beckon to me. To talk to Her, in order to indulge in another woman’s company, that the bosom of a woman is so much in need of. But, alas! I couldn’t indulge in the amusements of lady-gossip with the Ganges, since my mother wasn’t too keen on us getting into the cold water.

We had a nice boat ride that included numerous photo-sessions and prayers. After we safely trod the banks again, did I witness something phenomenal?

I saw people fighting to come close to us, bellies filled with mal-nutrition with a hope in their burning eyes to put out some of its fire! There were so many of them, young, old, blind, crippled, beautiful, tired…..

There was one thing common to all of them. Desperation. The dynamism of their pain was exasperating. This was the moment when the seeds of nationalism were sown in me. I felt that, a part of me was suffering too. I could just not empathize with their predicament, but my heart bled. I knew now that that part of me belonged to someone, purely, unalloyed. I belonged to my Motherland, I belonged to India!

If I have been blessed with all the comfort and luxuries of life, I ought to work towards bettering the people who shared this great country with me, the least to give them a piece of my beautiful life.

I had a spark of revelation. If I couldn’t better my immediate environs, the land that fed me and spelled ‘comfort’ for me, then this existence of mine would be just like the loads of trash that welcomed me to the Ganges.

Now I belong to my country, I belong to Her, India!