We.. the nation!!

"Indians, they love most of all. They are not perfect, of course. They know how to fight and lie and cheat each other, and all the things that all of us do. But more than any other people in the world, the Indians know how to love one another. That is how they manage to live together, a billion of them, in reasonable peace."

This is a short dialogue from a book I am reading currently. And its not the first time I have read something like this about my country. There is an ABC documentary on either outsourcing or India in the new age where Thomas Friedman says, " Had a place like Iraq had so may sects and sub-sects, let alone different religions, people would have beheaded one another on the street in broad daylight." I am not trying to harp home the fact that we are tolerant, that we are no doubt. But there is this innate quality that binds a billion of us that requires terrorists from outside to come and blow us apart. Yes, riots happened in 93 and 2003 when they should not have. Whats happening in Nandigram is disturbing, but as a nation, for the past 60 years, we've shown amazing maturity in caring and living with one another. I must admit I do not socialize too much in the local circles but my vision of a nation in some ways is driven by the events that get media coverage. It is altogether a different debate on the current media situation in India and how the hindi media is looking to give sicy news to a large audience that they enjoy... but the story of Lakshmi, the 2 year old from Bihar with a parasitic conjoined twin, who was operated upon by a team of doctors in bangalore, made me stand up and take notice of the power of media in a nation like India. Maybe it is the universal appeal of kids or the sense of pride that such a delicate procedure was being performed in the country, the media coverage was quite excellent. There was good management ensuring that no one gave breaking news of a shot of the poor kid recuperating in the ICU post-surgery. The doctoral team gave the media an update every single day and the prayers and wishes of lacs and lacs of people were conveyed through the right medium.. Our ex-president Dr. Abdul Kalam had some very interesting roles for the media in the country. He said they should be the torch-bearers of the moral and social society in the country. dont make news from an economic stand point of how many newspaper will you sell that day, make it from the point of view of news reaching the right people in the right manner to ensure appropriate public response... because in a country like India, if 1 billion people wish for cheaper travel, neither the railways nor the airlines can increase the fare by too much ...

All said and done, I was personally impressed by the way this event was handled by the media and I hope we can filter this through to many more such relevant news events that will undoubtedly keep occuring in that great nation of ours.. Jai Hind.

Random thought: I think I posted this more because tonight its biting me a bit that I am not going home in December.. I don't know when next... i hope soon...

Not listening to a song currently.. going to go back to my book.. Shantaram by Gregory Roberts.