What "Being Patriotic" Means To Me

We have come a long way since 1947. And thank goodness for that. My father keeps reminding me every now and then, you don't know how fortunate you are to be living in this age.

While he remembers his 'good old days', where money talk included the use of the word 'paisa' and where life was simpler in general, he does remember that things were not as easy to come by as well. Everything from books, medicine, clothes to the quality of life was nothing compared to what it is nowadays.

Look at the pace at which time flies! Just 10 years ago, incoming mobile calls cost some 75 paisa per minute. Now, outgoing STD rates are cheaper.

Take a second to look at the kind of progress our country has made. It is astounding. We are en route to being one of the world's leading economies. With the outsourcing industry flourishing, the world comes to us for business. So many of our industries have gone global. We have developed into one of the world's leading tourist destinations. Our crops and merchandise are exported everywhere. Our entertainment industry has fans throughout the world.

...And yet, why are we complaining?

When I was younger, my one and only dream was to leave the country and settle abroad. I had a list of complaints longer than the record-holding railroad tracks of India. While education was one of my biggest grouses, I had a problem with everyday civic sense that seemed to be non-existent with the people.

In our very proper convent school, we were taught to throw garbage only in bins. Great words of wisdom; only:
A. Where are the road-side bins in our city?
B. What do you do when the rest of our esteemed fellow city-dwellers use the side of the road as their dustbin?

I treated my country like an adopted home; a place that I had to tolerate for a few years before I said ta ta bye bye and started my real life; anywhere abroad is better than here, I would tell myself.

The revelation (or divine intervention, I say sometimes) came to me, during my second trip to the United States, way back in the early 90s. As usual, I was very excited to be going there. Aah, the California sun, the Sierra mountain range, the long and winding freeway from San Fransisco airport to a small town called Auburn, where we were going to stay. Heck, I even loved the smell there. Everything smelled wonderful.

But during my one-month stay there, something was happening within me. And it happened through the people I met, the food and the culture I shared with the people I knew there.

I remember this youth meet I attended because that is where I got my epiphany. Young people from all over the world introduced themselves to the rest. And then, my turn came.

To my utter surprise, I walked up confidently to the dais and exclaimed, "Hello everyone, my name is Khristina and I am from India."

It was magical. I didn't know what it was. Or how it happened. I was so surprised at the way the words came out of my mouth, or the pride that it came out with. I was a changed person.

Then it hit me.

You may not get along with your family all the time, but you love them nonetheless; if they need you, you will be the first to rush to their aid. They are your blood after all. In the same way, I may not "get along" with the policies, the government, and the rules of my country all the time. But my country is in my blood; it is my identity. It is who I am and who I aspire to be.

And so, I am SO proud to be called Indian.

What does patriotism mean to you? And more importantly, how Indian are you?