Thought for the day..

Thinking about patriotism today. Some will say its is an overrated thing and too much said about it already. I think somewhere the thought stemmed from listening to songs from 'Swades'.

I am not given to the patriotic debate about what should be and what shouldn't be. It is a very personal thing as far as I am concerned. No one but no one has the right to comment about your personal preference or choice to stay within or outside your country. Our lives take us places we probably don't even want to go and sometimes just sometimes, to places we want to. But thats a different matter altogether.

Everybody talks about how the country needs you and I sit and wonder how ? How really does the country need me? Does it really matter if one person out of x billion chooses to live outside of his/her country ? I guess not.!
I mean, with so many people, what percentage do you really contribute to? Do you personally make a difference to any socio-economic strata/factor of your country?
Nopes, I am still coming up with all negatives here.

There are also debates about working for MNC's. There are people within the country who choose to work for MNC's. In a way it works for the economy but really is that the only reason? Reasons range from better salaries, better lifestyle even better work culture. And all of that is true and you can't get away from it. When you have people making such choices within the country, can you even start about people who chose to live outside the country ?

There are people who went out for various reasons ranging from education, employment and what not. Chose to settle down there for various reasons again. Can you really question any of the those personal choices ? Read a few blogs about how much they miss their own country (when there are cricket matches and festivals going around..) and questioning themselves about whether they did a right thing.

Makes me wonder. Way back, I had made up my mind that there is no place like home. I am a very strongly rooted person and very close to my family. It is difficult for me to even imagine living in a diff city from family, forget country! Thankfully my husband shares my choice. After living in the states for 4 years, he had the option open of course, but like me he believes that home is where family is, where friends are, where people speak the same language as you, where people crowd outside even a small TV repair shop to watch a cricket match, where shopping still means going to this overcrowded and narrow street somewhere in the city, where familiarity means even your local store waala remembering that its time for your next 5 kg bag of rice, where chaos means in peak traffic your vehicle not moving an inch but that doesnt stop you from honking away to glory coz somewhere it gives u an innane sense of satisfaction, where festivals mean the whole street buzzing with activity and you don't need to got to any other place to feel the pulse-you just need to step out of your house...

I could go on and on.. maybe this is patriotism, maybe i am patriotic deep down. And its mostly because of a sense of belonging rather than all the high talk about contributing to the society.

Also having said that i revisit my earlier statement about my contribution to the socio-economic spehere. When i dig deep down, i realize that in some roundabout way I provide a portion of income to various people by just being there! You may wonder who.. well the doodh waala, paper waala, cable waala, departmental store waala, kaam waali bai, beauty parlor, tailor, auto waala and so on.... actually its a huge list and i have not even covered 1/3rd of it.
I think thats sufficient contribution to enough households.. :-)

So, am i justifying the cause? What cause? I don't think cause is what really counts here. I just chose to live where i do because plain and simple I Love it!!

ps: I understand that it is quite a sensitive topic and swear to god, not intended to spark any controversies or debate. Just some musing and of course very personal.. IMHO types :-)