I never knew I am going to be so patriotic in my twenty plus years of life that I spent in my country until lately when after trying almost every possible cuisines, my taste-buds go berserk for aloo poori, gol-gappe, chole-chawal so badly or when my heart goes gaga by seeing Indian crowds cheering up for hindi cinema, or when my lazy bum gets down to cooking feast just to get the feel of festival season or when I talk non-stop when my peers ask me about Gandhiji, Mumbai or IIT. :D
The invisible string to which I am attached always pulls me closer. My thoughts are still influenced by my friends, family and my Gurus. I still follow what my Dad tells me "Dream big to achieve big.". I still remember when I learnt the first philosophy of life "We are all selfish, even when we sacrifice ourselves for others in the pursuit of a peaceful mind." quoted by my high school Math Teacher. I learnt how to stay beautiful in and out with a style from my History Teacher. I still admire my Sanskrit Teacher for teaching us the mutual existence of we all together when we plucked flowers from the gardens and presented them to her as a token of appreciation and she insisted that she would be pleased more by seeing the flowers living little longer when rooted to the stems. I learnt from my very Indian friend on giving priorities to families because they are the only ones to love you unconditionally and doing every possible thing you wished for your loved ones because you never know that you may not get another chance.
Finally, I have realized that my love is not for India but for Indians and the Indian Culture in which I grew up. And it’s not only me, its every one of us loving the culture in which we are brought up. We are what we went through in our first 20 years of our life. The good and the bad parts of me are both attributed to my place and people around me. No matter, wherever I may go, I will always be thankful to what I learnt from them. I don’t preach "sare jahan se achha hindustaan humara" rather I believe that Indians will always be affable that wherever we will go we'll make that place beautiful by our thoughts and actions. :)
