Mera Bharat Mahaan

Sorry for the late post.. I wrote it when I was in the airport, but due to slow internet, haven't posted it yet.. so here goes:

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I am currently sitting in Charles De Gaulle, Paris airport as I blog this. With a few hours to spare before my flight for Dubai leaves,I was just watching the news they were showing. It was in french so I had no idea what was going on but they were reporting something about L.N.Mittal of Mittal Industries fame who went abroad at a very young age and created a HUGE empire and is one of the most reputed Indians in the International Diaspora. I had no idea what the report was about but just the fact that Mittal was on the screen, it got my attention. What is it that even after leaving India for over 15 years now, the mention of an Indian name on an international medium makes me smile and glow with pride inside that Yes, finally we are being taken notice off.

As my mind sets to discover why, I see a group of travellers boarding the Air France flight to B'lore. Again, seeing them, I have a smile of knowing who they are; which is really odd considering that I have no idea who they are, what their background is, what is their purpose of going to B'lore, but what binds us brown faces is the simple fact that we are Indian by heart. It might not always be just the passport or just a POI card or an Indian Visa, its the 'Indianess' at heart, a feeling that how much one chooses to ignore, they really can't.

Yesterday, my taxi driver was an Indian who has been living in Canada for the past 15 years. Some topic about India came up and his eyes just glew and almost moistened. He was telling me that he never went back home, but he has never really felt the need for him to because his home is in his heart. His exact words were 'Jab mera watan mere dil main hain, kahin aur jaane ki zaroorat kyun hogi?'. He told me about every time he recieves something from India, the feel of that itself is so different.

All these random thoughts bring me to a question I've always wondered.. Is it just that us who live far away from India, who aren't in that culture feel the most love towards the country ?

Is that simply because grass is on the other side ?

Are we craving for our country or are we craving for a new life ?