Whats with the patriotism!!

So I have never been the patriotic person as such. I mean I didnt jump up to defend India, or say India is the best country in the world; neither did I say whatever the fact is I love my country and all the patriotic banter. I have always maintained India has a million flaws and there have been a zillion times when I said 'why was I born here!'. However, what I have come to realize is patriotism is merely an attachment to the land you were born in and grew up in. Yes, there are not a lot of positive things I can come up with if I have to describe India except probably jumping on the defensive about all the negative things there. However, what is shocking is the recent realization that everytime something negative comes up about India, there is something that triggers this alarm in my mind, all my senses are alert, and if the debate continues and there is some more thrashing, this vein in my forehead will be throbbing, and if the debate heats up and nobody is agreeing with me that not everything in India is neagtive, the vein right about pops, and there is smoke coming out of my ears, and this overwhelming feeling that I want to reach out and punch those people, a good solid hard punch would do! Hehe this is something new! Me jumping and defending my country! Never knew there was this sleeping patriot inside me!



Well, it's not that I am trying to be one of those closed minded people who just say mera bharat mahan for everything. It's probably because I was in India at a very good time; the years I was born and brought up in Bangalore were great times of change and progress, and I got to grow up benefitting from all that. We have a whole generation behind us who have a ton of regrets for being born in India, who left the country due to prevailing unemployment, poverty and every negative thing imaginable. Well it's not that these things have vanished from the country, there is still a great deal of poverty; but there are jobs today! There are opportunities in the country that never existed for our previous generations. Those generations which left the country for greener pastures carried with them a relentless sense of disappoinment and hatred for the corrupt governments and non existing opportunities. However, the India I grew up in was quite different. There was a gradual and progressing change taking over India(atleast urban India) through my school days, and by the time I graduated college, all the gates were wide open, there was a world of opportunities and jobs and progress. There were malls, rising sky lines, world class brands competing against eachother to get a share of the growing and curious Indian market. I graduated college with a job in my hand, went straight from student to a high earning job, and I saw only growth and growth all around me. It overwhelms me when I think about the Bangalore I grew up in my childhood days, and the Bangalore now. Its an unimaginable change, and its a change I enjoyed and I know that today I would love to go back and live my life in Bangalore because of this change and progress. I have lived the change and enjoyed every benefit of this progress and I know despite the many many downsides and negative impacts due to these changes, I am so thankful that I do not regret being born and being identified with India. I see many of our previous generations carrying a load of hatred and regret for the country and actually do not want to be identified with India. I feel very grateful that I do not carry any hatred for my country and it makes me happy that I have an option of going back to India to live my life because I know there is good life there today!