Return of the Native

Is this the best we have? .....

...Is the thought that fleetingly crossed my mind every time we returned home to Gurgaon, from a trip overseas.

The chaos, filth, indiscipline, the unruly traffic and shabbiness of our “Millenium  City” hits u at first and then recedes into the background, as one gets drawn into the business of everyday life in our individual cocoons of comfort and luxury. One is happy to be home.

But this time was different... i  was “visiting”, after a gap of 6 months, and the thought stayed.

WHY is it SO?

Dubai, the city that i was coming from is virtually owned, run and managed by Indians. The Indian diaspora across the world has done itself proud and is held in high esteem....it has been proven time and again that Indians excel in conducive environments, but in our own country we disintegrate into chaos?

Or is it really that? .... is it really about the people?  The people that do so well in other countries, in corporate environments within India, in little pockets of excellence like our metros; why and what pulls them down in their own country?

With a self serving government at the helm of affairs, whose primary duty seems to be to safeguard the interests of one family, the rest of us are reduced to second class citizens in our own country. A visit to any government office will further emphasise this feeling of second class citizenry, having to plead and grovel and bribe to get the most mundane of tasks done.

My experience here in Dubai, for all governmental work has been extremely positive,  streamlined, quick;  one is treated with respect and dignity, and even a pump of the hand!....makes me wonder, why i am  treated so badly in my own country.

The police, the investigating agencies and the rule of law in India is a joke, used as a tools of intimidation, to bring (or attempt to bring) naysayers to heel.

Citizens, with impressive track records, seeking  to reform this corrupt and rotten system are harassed and harangued on frivolous and imaginery “transgressions”. The media hounds them to please the establishment.

The same media is almost “celebratory” on the bail granted to anti nationals and criminals like Balwa and Kanimozhi. They are strangely silent on the arrears of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar, to the tune of Rs 2 crores.

Harvinder Singh is thrown into jail for doing what almost every Indian endorsed. On the other hand Jitin Prasad is ‘gracing’ Parliament, after having kicked an Indian on live TV.

Sadly, we seem to be heading towards becoming and oligarchic Banana Republic.

But all of this was temporarily numbed, the warmth and love of friends and family overshadowing it all.

I will keep going back...only for that.

PS: btw the only thing i have in common with Thomas Hardy’s  Clym Yeobright is failing eyesight!!