Incredible-What?

I have always been intrigued by the promotion of India as Incredible India. Being a regular traveller across different places (contrary to popular belief that Travel expands your knowledge horizons, I personally think that it actually makes you realize that all people are the same-emotionally and underlying culturally. We meet about 1% bad people (on unlucky days..this concentration varies by continents), 1% extremely nice people but 98% normal people who want to be undisturbed but don't disturb others too) I dare to compare.(sorry again for making a long sentence...but this time I have the right punctuations hopefully).
Culturally diverse, plenty of languages, noisy, less concern for privacy etc make India a unique place. But they all cling to a Nationhood which is a concept than a reality. The concept will live long as it is from a free mind as regional, local aspirations are never given up when taking this concept as part of life. This makes India incredible. When I was young I was almost converted to communism by a good friend of mine. One day I saw him dejected and when probed he told me that Communism does not promote free expressions and he cannot imagine how he can cope with this. Strange but true-freedom of expression is a right which when curbed can never survive as a philosophy in India. The fact that there have been several religions, cultures imported into India but still the originality of Indian culture remains despite so much disparities of wealth is an indication that this freedom is the lifeline of Indian thinking. Bollywood will continue to the biggest Industry in world despite the best efforts as India is Incredible. I remember reading a statement by Taliban" Democracy is Anti islamic". This is a sufficient reason why a true Indian will not accept Taliban or any other extreme right parties. If freedom of expression(in its extremes sometimes) is curbed then Indianness is touched in a wrong way and people will conspire to make it fail. There can be several reasons why the seemingly lazy, socially less conscious majority citizens will take a long time to change-but it is the diversity that gives the lessons to modern democracies. Maybe it is not a necessary condition that equality should be there to having thriving democracies. There should be the mind set of society that wants to be heard with full freedom. Freedom is the foundation of democracy and we have that in India though in varying scales. Maoists and other terrorist organizations can strive hard but they cannot take this DNA out of the Indians. That is India is Incredible and no other country is. May sound bombastic but most facts sound this way initially.

Donkey and the Horse!

There lived a happy, enthusiastic donkey who enjoyed whatever he did. His enthusiasm got him a lot of friends-not just other donkeys but other animals too. He used to hum his favorite music when carrying dirty clothes-others used to smile not at the quality of his music but at his attitude. One fine day all the kings horses came to the river for having a bath. The donkey was talking non stop to his friends while one horse a rare breed was attracted to it. So it went to the donkey and proposed. The donkey was thrilled at this. He said he will think about it but was already floored. He went around to trumpet his glory and next day when the horse came again, he willingly accepted the offer. The beautiful horse had all the grace of royal but did not have friends as she thought she is much above other horses. She used to be finicky about small things and get angry with small provocations. Only when the king was around it behaved tame and ensured that it gets the royal treatment other times.
When the donkey started to live with the horse it realized it had to make compromises. First was it had restrict its laughter. The horse said "Why do you always have the toothpaste smile? Are you really genuine?" The donkey tried to look serious. Inspite when it met old friends and shared a joke it used to laugh loud on which the Horse thought "The donkey is telling something about me to his friend and laughing. Let him come back home." The horse used to push non issues on the donkey. Frustrated the donkey used to lie low and avoid friends. The horse then said " Stop carrying the dirty clothes. You smell really bad. I will look for something better after I speak to the king." It really did. Donkey was given the job of carrying army tools instead of dirty clothes. The horse used to remind the donkey that it is her power that got him a better job though donkey used to like the earlier job better. One day on old habit the donkey was humming a song..the horse said "will you please shut up. you or your family have no relation to music. Why do you create headache for me?" The donkey just shut up. The donkey used to eat anything earlier including paper. The horse asked to stop it and eat only the most healthy stuff provided by the palace. The donkey was very depressed as one by one its freedom was lost. So it decided to go alone and stand for a few hours near a low wall pushing and scratching its back. But alas the horse found him and said "Who are you waiting for? I love you so much but you are not reciprocating it". Donkey went back to the palace patiently. One day when the donkey was not really well the Horse said " I think you are becoming lazy thinking you are a horse breed like me and just because you are my husband does not deserve you a royal treatment. So better get up and wash the whole stable so that other horses know I am the boss". The donkey objected and started to fight. The horse said " Why can't you be nice to me as you have been to your friends? I know you are an egoist and I spoilt my life by marrying a donkey who knows no comfort, no character and no taste." The donkey was stunned. Afterall it did not know what ego was till it got exposed to the horse. It wanted to list the freedom it lost by agreeing to live with her but decided that it does not help anyway. So it started to clean up the stable with tears in its eyes. The Horse got a promotion when the prince chose it as his favorite and from then on the donkey lives a servant life in the stable. It tells other horses it is proud of his wife and the kids are so special. But it cries every night silently in the stable praying God to get freedom as though he wants to run off he resists the thoughts. He knows that he made the decision and he should own the consequences till the end even if it means enduring a life time of mental suffering.
There is no moral of this story but philosophically a lot can be concluded.