Mann mein Ram, bagal mein churri..

Ram. The God. The Perfect man. The warrior king.

But unfortunately, India is one country who shies away from reveling in its own culture. India, where a common man doesn't even doubt if Ram existed. Where still a large portion of the population says 'ram-ram' as a salutation. Where Ram stands not just as a God, but much more than that. He tells us how a man can live perfectly, sticking to his beliefs and following the path of righteousness. No matter how attractive the temptation in the form of Shoorpnakha in disguise, or how grave the danger in the form of Ravana- the demon king.

But we now wish to forget Him. His city, Ayodhya has been reduced to a political battleground. The soil where Ram played and grew up, has been splashed with the bloodshed. No one ever bothered to develop the city. No one thought of starting a ram-rajya there. All they wanted were a few votes. I know Ram is watching and one day He would ask a few questions. He would certainly want to know that if our belief in Him is so firm and doubtless, how can we not believe in His values? How could we kill each other in His name? He would be perhaps kinder to certain Mr. John Lennon, who once said "Imagine a world with no religion; nothing to kill or die for!"

Well, there is another side of the story as well. The story of Ram-Setu. How the politicians of post-liberalized India wish to doubt authenticity of its own literature which dates back a thousands of years. They say Ram didn't build it. I don't wish to comment upon it. But even a simple google search would tell you how beautiful the Ram-Setu looks. Why not rather build it for tourism attraction? Search a little further and you see a solid case in Environmentalist's objections to the proposal to tear it down! The Ram-Setu divides two portions of water where the sea life is different. tearing it down might be very harmful for the ecological balance in the region. The coral reefs would be in danger and so would be the mainland India. Certain reports suggest that it was this Ram-Setu that stood as a wall against the onslaught of the devilish Tsunami waves of 2004 and limited the destruction India had to face.

But a country on its path to industrialization and modernity has to make some hard decisions. Alas, the decision is not to curb inefficiency at the ports, rather than making navigation easier. The focus is not on the corruption that is eating our economy like a termite, but on providing another BIG project where the bureaucracy can mint some more money..

India sure is changing!