60 Eons

60 years of Independence. 60 years of freedom from oppression, tyranny, fear, strife, poverty, hunger, backlashes and many other epithets. 60 years of a nation that is centuries old. And what have these 60 years brought us?

It gave us democracy, another subtle metaphor for a family based autocracy. It gave us the Right to Equality and the Right to Free Speech. It gave us the nuclear bomb and nuclear power. It gave us Air India and numerous other small time operators jostling for public space. It gave us Tatas, Jindals, Mittals, Godrejs and Kelvinators. It gave us the Maruti and the Priya scooter. It gave us our own space program and the midday meal scheme. It gave us Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Prestorika and The Superfuzz. It gave us IIT's and IIM's. It gave us caste based reservation. It gave us the(and still gives us) thief/dacoit/rapist turned politician. It gave us the Indian Cricket Team down the ages and the rather unknown pugilists who won us numerous Gold medals and numerous other world meets. It gave us the most beautiful natural scenery in the world and the most violent racial/communal violence the world has ever seen in a long time. It gave us the appreciating Rupee, and cost many of us of our Saturday beer. It gave us Khajuraho, Uma Bharti and the Majlis Ittehadul Musilmeen. It gave us bigotry and the Mandal Commission. It gave us the Khalistan Movement and Operation Blue Star. It gave us ULFA, Naxals, Veerappan and the Communist Party of India. It gave us Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Jyoti Basu. It gave us Special Economic Zones and Singur. It gave us domestic violence and the most alarmingly increasing population. It gave us Delhi - the prettiest metropolis in the country, Mumbai - the richest city in the country and Dang in Gujarat, where cows have more to chew than most people there do. It gave us a plethora of medals at the SAF and Asian Games, and the absolute lack of them at the Olympics. It gave us Aryabhatta, C.V. Raman, Ramanujam, and Harshad Mehta. It gave us The Alien by Satyajit Ray which was shamelessly copied by Columbia Pictures and Spielberg to make E.T . And the list goes on, and on, and on.........

60 years is but a fleck of dust on the garment of what we cal India. Wish we could rinse this garment clean of its grease and grime, and have it glistening at sunrise.