My India

Sis never fails to surprise me. Be it a sudden phone call, be it her memory and attention to the most minute of details, she is always one step ahead of the smartest people I have met in my life. But yesterday she surprised me by sending in this picture.

They say pictures speak a thousand words. This picture perhaps sums up all that I have tried to say in my blog about the floods in Bihar all this while.

There are some people in this world who have the ability to laugh at anything life throws at them. And in these parts of India I have found such people aplenty. There are problems I admit, but then very few things in this world are perfect. We can opt to crib about what we do not have or fruitlessly blame the system or we can take a cue from people who are fighters to the very end. I have seen similar tales of grit and determination over the last few months. I have seen the same smile on the faces of people forced to abandon their homes.

At least the gentleman in the picture saved his last precious possession. I have seen Gandak destroy everything and everyone along its banks.

Mera Bharat Mahaan

Every news channel and newspaper has been carrying horror stories of the floods that we are witnessing and yet everything seems so peaceful. People have left their houses to live in the school buildings and yet everything is peaceful. At times, I silently pray for a boat service in the main roads of the city and yet everyone here is at peace. Everyone has come to expect certain things in Bihar. There will be rains, the rivers will not be de-silted and the drains will not be cleaned and of course Nepal will let go of its excess water. Everyone believes in Chalta hain. Sab kuch yahan pe chalta hain. Since our childhood we have been taught to adjust. We adjust to everything around us. And as I fret and fume I hear myself telling a newcomer, don’t worry Chalta Hain. Almost 5 lakh people displaced in Bihar alone and yet sabkuch Chalta hain. The National Highway 57 is now a refuge for people displaced from their homes and yet Sabkuch Chalta hain.

These were some of the headlines in Today’s TOI:

Bagmati shows rising trends again

District Administration orders closure of schools

Rivers flowing over danger mark

Passengers stranded at Samastipur

NH-57: The home for homeless

Kareh embankment breaches at two places

And while the world around them did not care a fig about it and I with all my high and mightiness was just a mere spectator ranting at night on my keyboard, there were people who collected funds out of their own will to send Chura and Gur to as many families as possible. Yes, it’s true that given a chance, I would not allow that anywhere near human consumption but when hunger strikes and water dances all around you in its mad ecstasy of destruction, I guess you don’t have a choice.

Sandrine had asked me while she was at IIMB on exchange, “What gives you so much confidence about your country?” The answers I had given then were somehow not satisfactory even to me. But today, seeing the sun after almost a fortnight and humming “Sunshine on my shoulders” as I watched people pack the food relief, I knew this was the answer I was looking for.