My Incredible India has more feathers in the cap than any of her neighbors can possibly count or learn from and even googling ‘Facts about India’ will return interesting results with a bountiful list to the enthusiast, hence that is not, and couldn’t be, the intention of this write-up. Although it wouldn’t be imprudent to state some of the facts here to set the context, I believe.
Being one of the 3 early civilizations, Indus Valley Civilization is noted for its urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems and clusters of large non-residential buildings. Around the 17th century, India was one of the richest countries in the world. Today, India is the world’s third largest economy. Moreover, India would be the ‘Youngest’ nation on the face of earth by 2020, a report says and in spite of the fact that India is getting closer to a permanent spot in the United Nations Security Council while finding the fifth spot in a list of the top 20 strongest armed forces in the world; India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history. That makes us generous, isn’t it?
Apart from ‘Indian Railways’, one of the world’s largest network comprising 1,15,000 KM of track, India has the largest postal network in the world with over 1,55,015 post offices including the only of its kind floating post office in Dal Lake, Srinagar. In addition, India has a special polling station that is set up for a lone voter in the middle of Gir Forest since 2004 and during every election since then a special polling booth is set up exclusively for Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas who is the only voter from Banej in Gir forest. Now isn’t that facilitating transportation, empowering communication to the grassroots while strengthening process of legislation by justifying the reputation of Largest Democracy of the world?
India is second only to the USA when it comes to speaking English with around 125 million people speaking the language, which is only 10% of our population. This is expected to grow by quite a margin in the coming years. India is one of the 3 advanced technology countries that managed to develop a Supercomputer and records the highest number of increase in internet users including women in recent times. Women initiatives for entrepreneurship and social reform in various parts of the country including the most remote pockets, outshines their male counterparts in most of the departments including governance. This makes India most avant-garde, progressive and liberal nation, I believe!
Home to 17.5% of World’s population (out of which 72% is Rural Population), India has more than 8 Religions with countless cults, about 29 official languages and about 216 spoken languages with more than 10,000 native speakers, over 36 states, union territories and provinces with about 1.32 billion minds having actual freedom of expression, nobody else is qualified enough to teach India Secularism or Tolerance. It is only in India that a 12-year-old Muslim Girl wins the ‘Gita Champions League’ contest for explaining the teachings of the ‘Bhagwad Gita’, the Holy Hindu Scripture that is believed to be the divine advice for calling and inspiring selfless action; while a Hindu boy of same age wins ‘Azan’ competition held to instill awareness of religious obligations and a deep understanding of the verses of al-Quran and call to prayers. Do we need sermons for Equanimity, Equality or Humanity from traitors? I guess not!
Ayurveda, just like Yoga, is one of the absolute divine gifts of India to the world that is more of a Life-style than a pathological system of medicine. It says ‘You are what you eat.’ To illustrate this point, example of the elephant, the tiger and the jackal is given.
The elephant is a pure vegetarian. He is strong, gentle and intelligent enough to work well in a human environment. The elephant represents the Sattvic mind. The tiger represents the Rajasic nature. He kills and eats other animals, and this carnivorous nature makes him fierce and aggressive. Restless and strong, the tiger is always on the prowl. The jackal symbolizes the Tamasic mind. He is cunning, fearful and lazy, shunning daylight and surviving on food left uneaten by other animals.
Now as a matter of fact, largest number of vegetarians in the world live in India. The Elephant, apart from being worshiped as God, has immense respect and regard in Indian Culture and is the symbol of ancient India and her glory. It is only India that has a spa just for elephants! Elephants receive baths, massages and even food at the Punnathoor Cotta Elephant Yard Rejuvenation Center in Kerala. Now that's a BIG step for the country. With all the similarities and the analogies, India is the elephant that is walking its path enjoying the stroll and least bothered by the barking dogs around her. Hope you agree!
So what we have left with is a desperate, restless tiger on one side and a filthy, hideous and disgusting jackal on the other. I don’t need to explain the analogy further, I guess, as the ‘Tigers’ have revealed their identity by making all the fuss about their tiger-ness all the time and it is the entire world that is calling the dog mad who is pretending to be a jackal...!
(: By the way, this has nothing to do with the T-20 World Cup or the most nerve-racking match on Wednesday that India won by 1 run in the most nail-biting and heart-attacking situation, mind you! :) Now if I say that that’s how an Elephant keeps it cool and wins over tigers, do I even need to mention the dog… err… jackal?
(: By the way, this has nothing to do with the T-20 World Cup or the most nerve-racking match on Wednesday that India won by 1 run in the most nail-biting and heart-attacking situation, mind you! :) Now if I say that that’s how an Elephant keeps it cool and wins over tigers, do I even need to mention the dog… err… jackal?
Proud to be Indian... Bharat Mata ki Jai!
Jai Hind! Way to go…!
No comments:
Post a Comment