Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Independent India Turns 65

It's August 15 again. I was looking at my phone when the clock shifted to 00:00 announcing the new day. I immediately thought about Collins and Lapierre's extraordinary book Freedom at Midnight. I also recalled the broad pages that Amritsar-born SKJ used to write on this day first in the Mauritius Times and then in Mauritius Today decades ago. He was already predicting the rise of the elephant. I could not understand then. Because I had not seen India yet.

But when I visited this great country a lot of the things he said hit me right in the face. And everything became a lot clearer. I reckon that it will take me at least 1,000 years to understand her. Because as observed by Mark Twain: So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or by nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.

Happy Birthday!

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