Mere Bharatiya Mahan ??

'Mera Bharat Mahan' we proudly proclaim only until we set our foot on Uncle Sam's land. The Land of Opportunities beckons us with open arms and slowly but surely our love for India melts and probably vanishes in its embrace.

Every month hundreds of Indians like myself travel to the United States to amass wealth or to pursue a career or to do both. The beautiful cars, the roads, the buildings, the way of life and the standard of living entices us and our lifestyle undergoes a sea of change. Pizzas and burgers replace chapattis and rice as the staple diet. The collection of clothing from Fashion Street or National Market makes way for a new range of branded clothes and shoes. The style of clothing now represents a way of 'revealing' or expressing our newly discovered freedom. We also start to notice the influence of the American accent in the way we speak English. The usage of words like 'kewl','yup','nope','dude' etc is more common. Not a single day goes by without a comparison between the ways of life in America and India. Everything from the quality of milk we drink, to the colour of the eggs we eat, to the cars we drive, to the roads we drive on, to the vegetables we buy and to the house we live in has to be compared with the same in India. This country has so much to offer that everything back home becomes pale and inferior in comparison. In the course of time we get so accustomed to this standard of living that the plans of returning home seem far and distant.

What disturbs me the most about many of us Indians is the way we treat our own country when we are no longer residing in it. We tend to look down upon everything our country has to offer. Resting on our laurels we pass comments on the direction in which India is heading instead of doing something about it. We ridicule our infrastructure , our governments, and our people for what they are as if we were never a part of them. Frankly our opinion is immaterial. India is a great country and it will continue to prosper regardless of our presence. Come on!! Nobody is forcing us to defend the borders and become a martyr, the least we could do as Indians is to show some respect for our motherland.