A new look at patriotism

The day finally came. India won her first gold Olympic medal in over a century. Strangely enough, the person responsible for winning it doesn't care. Abhinav Bindra doesn't give a damn. He's all calm, and quiet, and collected. In interviews, all he says is that it's just another medal, and he could have won it anytime. That's saying something, seeing as half of the world's population would have shouted themselves hoarse. I really admire his character. I mean, he's getting a hotel worth Rs. 200 crore from his father, and all of the Indian states are sponsoring huge prizes for him.

Point is, I shouldn't be happy about this. I should be cursing all Indians for eternity. Hell, I shouldn't attend my school's Independence Day ceremony. I'm an American citizen. And I was the happiest person when we got the news. My teacher got an SMS from her daughter telling her the good news, and then she told me. I spread it to the rest of the school. And guess what? When I told this to my friends, most of them just went, " Oh? How interesting, to be sure!" and that was the end of it. I mean, hello people, wake up, this is your country we're talking about here!

Funny, isn't it? I was jumping with glee. This just shows how you don't understand the value of a thing until you lose it. I never understood how much my country meant to me until I became an American citizen. It all changed then. And even though I have an OCI, it isn't the same. It's never the same after you've lived abroad. Some of my teachers (no names mentioned) do discriminate against me because I've lived in the USA. If I contradict them in any way, even make a casual remark, their first reaction is," Of course, abroad it will be different-" or," If you think so, then you'd better go back to the US-". And it hurts knowing that even if it was never your fault, you're being discriminated against for going to another country and living and learning there. Sometimes I even think that my parents might have made a mistake in going somewhere else in hope of better prospects.

Of course, there's the flip side. I'll get admission into a better college, faster. I'll be able to go to so many countries without a visa. And, I'll be able to live anywhere on earth with a guarantee that a country's lawyers will fight for me if I get arrested as a criminal (not that I will!). So if you think about it in the right way, I get the best of both worlds!

I also know that I am extremely lucky to have gotten a chance to have lived in a country like the USA. My memories of California and all of my friends there are priceless. But of course, the heart is where the home is. And even though I was very sulky at being forced to come back to India, I think that somewhere inside I am happy at being able to experience the culture and lifestyle of both the countries. And to put it truly, I do think that India is the perfect mix of heritage and modernity, and I hope that that fragile balance will be maintained in the future. And I also feel that we will be able to if we don't allow greed and corruption to pollute our country. I end on a patriotic note: Jai Hind!