Yeh Jo Des hai Mera....

"If they have no bread, then let them eat cake!" - Almost everyone of us who have done little reading, must have come across this quote from the French Queen. No wonder they say French are queer. :-) No matter how much you do or want to do for your country, you got to be physically there, you got to be one of them to really make the difference.

I love the US and I am not a strong proponent of "Migration" or "Brain-Drain" et al. To be frank, India has come up graciously out of most of our recent disasters - thanks to the NRIs. From Latur earthquake to Tsunami or Bhuj quake, tons of help in the form of money and substance has reached to the affected millions from the US, UK, Australia, Dubai and African countries. (Stay chill if I missed your country, must be insignificant :-) ) This would have been impossible, had we never allowed the go-getters to leave India.

Monetary help and sentimental condolences, can only help revive from the situation, it can never change the scenario. Problems with my country are deep rooted. They are abysmal - hard to fathom. These fundamental issues need to be purged from thoughts, philosophy and religion. These can't be solved by providing money. To make this real change, one has to be Indian first, one has to be among them.

I am not a Gandhian, well I don't think Gandhian philosophy is today's cure. Like in the world of medicine and health, not all diseases could be treated by "Ayurveda", similarly you cannot apply same old philosophy to solve modern day's issues. When you have an Heart Attack - would you go to a Homeopathy doctor? Hell no! (Unless that's your landlord :-) ) This does not mean, Ayurveda or Homeopathy cannot cure the heart disease, it can, but not at that critical moment. Similarly, if the world lived Gandhian way, may be his philosophy to tackle current affairs would have worked. Fortunately or Unfortunately World chose to live the other way. Try sitting in front of the Terrorists, doing Satyagraha or letting them wipe you off this planet, or slap you on both the cheeks - some friggin day it may change their hearts. That may be after gazillion years, the solution at that moment won't even be relevant. Today we need immediate solution to spontaneous bloodshed. To check the nail growth you got to cut them, not go on fasting! Solution to Kashmir issue is not "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram...", if we would not clean our house, who will? We have been sitting like ducks, begging it in the UN to see the obvious, praying the US intervention, holding peace talks, bi-lateral cultural and business meets, playing cricket for peace and what not. What good has it done, except losing more land and our innocent people to the rogues? They have entered as inside as Mumbai, what are we waiting for? While patience is a virtue, too much of it is cowardice.

-Pankya