I thought I had finally achieved what I had set out to. I must say it had not come easy, but yet I never gave up on what I had wanted to. I faced many a trials and tribulation. I was not alone in this endeavour, there were many, some known and many unknown. They sleep with me too. They sleep in peace with the same thought as I have had. But then why is it that I have stirred in my sleep today? Why? Oh! Is it because I happened to have heard a couple of them inmates talking about me? How my efforts have been in vain, et al., is that why?
I wonder why they chose my bedside. With a reason, I guess…knowingly or unknowingly! I heard them talk of the glorious days this motherland of mine has had, and that the glory is still there but is waning. They spoke about the spirit of unity that had been strong then, but had somehow disappeared now. They were rattling off on how splendorous our motherland had been in every way but today all that splendour was in rust. There was a day when foreign nations had decided to come here to take some wealth from us, which we had aplenty, and today here we were taking loans from those very same countries….(have we gone that miserable today,I wonder?)! This has and will always be the land, they narrated, where women will be worshipped and yet be taken advantage of and tormented, so also disrespected! This had been the land which had been ruled by another country and had taken us almost a century to break the chains of enslavement, but today in these people’s words, we were again in enslavement to greater evils of corruption, religious intolerance, poverty, social issues, unethical politics et al. it saddens me that the nation that we had freed was today again shackled, and we, me and my other friends who are asleep here feel ashamed about!
We had dreamed of our motherland to be a flourishing nation, developing in every way,be it financially,culturally,scientifically or soulfully;but here I hear of the very same land developing in the graph negatively! Is this the nation we had dreamed of? So, I decided I would get up from my slumber and walk around wanting to take a glimpse of the truth and ascertain facts.
I got out of my comfort zone and started out on the stroll and that too after a long time! I walked out and what do I see, buildings stretched to touch the sky, majestically. I had seen a bit of majestic architecture but constructions such as these…never. I kept moving and lots of the things that I saw amazed me; vehicles big and small (no horse drawn buggies though), saw a couple of airplanes, trains and transports of various kinds. This made me wonder if what I had heard was all true, when suddenly I heard a scream! The scream was so shrill it could have deafened any living man’s tympanum. There was this man in an inebriated state beating this woman like she was cattle! I heard from the bystanders that he was actually the husband and…BYSTANDERS! Shaking my head, I proceeded further into this place they call the cosmopolitan city. Just then I saw a couple of slogan shouting group of people, all well built (at least they were in a good shape of health-so health was not an issue)! They carried placards that asked for freedom? Freedom? Were we not all free already (isn’t that why I was sleeping?)? I focused on what they were trying to suggest and found that they wanted a separate state (Another?), where the community that they belonged to could be together (isn’t that how India became India and Pakistan?).Ahem…ahem...is that why I had been sleeping and the others continue to do so? In utter disbelief at the scenario, I kept walking hoping that somewhere along I would find something that would belie what opinions were forming in my mind. I saw a gathering in this huge open space, where a leader seemed to be giving some speech, and all the people there were listening to with rapt attention. I was happy, and hoping that it was like one of those motivational speeches we had heard and so I went in there to get a hear of what was being said. This man was speaking in the local dialect and the audience was applauding with great enthusiasm and fervour. I was happy, very happy in fact. But my happiness was short lived for all of a sudden the gathering got up as though possessed and started raving and ranting about some person with an I****** name, and the audience from the blue turned a MOB. There was great rage which I felt and within second from nowhere I saw them armed(Miracles do happen, even now) with cudgels and I cant really tell what the others were for I had been associated with non-violent protests! This was driving the LIVING daylights out of everyone around. the sad scene is now amidst all this rampage going on, there was another thing that nobody had observed, a small child stood rooted to his ground,stunned at seeing his mother’s modesty being MANhandled! For this we had freed our nation from the clutches of those alien men?
I now began to float around not wanting to get a glimpse of any more of the country I so loved, but then I saw a group of people marching in silence with candles in their hands. They seemed to be also collecting some funds. Some gave little and some gave a lot …but nobody cribbed about the donations. There had been some kind of violent act in the city and these CITIZENS had decided to mourn those who had lost their lives and laid their lives. They had also been collecting the donation for those people who were no longer in their midst on account of this heinous act. Humanity still thrived here. A flicker of the light of hope in all this darkness of despair.
Although I was disappointed at the India I was seeing , I felt that no matter what the situation in this nation might be the ray of HOPE never failed to shine from OUR living hearts or theirs ? With this thought I decided to return to my Resting Place, to back to Sleep,to being dead, optimistic that my India may not have her name in the top list of developed countries….but she would always have her flag flying high! So whilst I sleep, my Nation shall thrive in hope of progress, unity, brotherhood and prosperity.
