Chak De India!
For all the times when I crib about India being dirty, chaotic and unplanned, there are times when India makes me proud, actually immensely proud.
For example, while we have goondaism and regionalism on one side taking us back to the Dark Ages, we have the folks at ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) who are taking us ahead in spite of gargantuan hurdles and resource constraints.
While we have corruption in my once beloved sport, cricket, we have redemption in the form of the Abhinav Bindras and the Vijender Singhs who are pushing the envelopes in their respective disciplines, often paying out of their own pockets for their training and nutrition.
So I was waiting anxiously to see how India would react to the Ayodhya issue. Flashbacks of 1992 and 1993 appeared in my mind. God, were we going to see another carnage, another riot, another spite attack, brother pitted against brother?
And, then like that unlikely sixer from a tailender which clinches the unexpected win, India pulled a stunning beauty! She stayed calm and mature after the Allahabad High Court’s verdict. Hindus and Muslims preferred to wage a bet on their united (and prosperous) future than to settle scores on past vendetta. India, you slow moving yet chaotic, methodically mad, magnificently pluralistic, all embracing, mystical beauty! You did us proud! Chak de India!
