A LETTER TO MOTHER INDIA

By Christine Jayakaran

Dear Mumma India

You celebrated your 72nd birthday just this week and it got me all nostalgic. Nostalgic why? Well it feels like it was just yesterday when I was a 7th grader participating in the 50th year celebrations of you as a free country and back then I should say I was a reluctant Indian. Reluctant because I was far from patriotic and couldn’t care less about all things Indian. I have grown up now though and my feelings for you and your people have dramatically changed. I love your incredible landscape which shifts between rugged mountain ranges, sandy beaches; luxurious backwaters and snow capped peaks. I love your mouth watering cuisine of kebabs, biriyani and curries. I have lived abroad and although I enjoyed my time away I always missed you because there’s no place like home. The bustling streets, the aroma of piping hot street food and the colourful sea of humanity all around always brought me a sense of comfort. The struggle I have been facing of late though is seeing my children wrestle with their ethnicity. They love Indian food, they love Indian clothes, they love holidaying in Indian getaway spots but.. (I mean this with the greatest respect) they don’t love you. They don’t love your streets littered with garbage and your heritage centres left unkept. They can’t understand why the air they breathe is so polluted and why there are such huge landfills overflowing with garbage stinking away to high heavens. Sadly, they are told far too many times that they are not 'fair' in complexion and they don't comprehend how that's of any relevance to the quality of their life. My ten year old reads the newspapers and asks me what rape means since it seems to be a word used all too often now. My daughter has different rules than her older brother about playing down alone just because she’s a girl and she doesn’t understand it. They love their school but are confused when elders ask them if they want to be a doctor or an engineer. (They want to be an inventor, dancer and ninja respectively so go figure). Our children watch as people around them deify politicians who are mere men and women and have begun second guessing what true leadership really is.

I have my work cut out for me as I teach my babies to respect their country’s hard earned freedom, to love your people and to serve you in some way or the other however small or big.