जिन्हें नाज़ है हिंद पर वो कहाँ हैं ?

यों खड़ा मौकतल में कातिल कह रहा है बार-बार,
क्या तमन्ना-ए-शहादत भी किसी के दिल में है ?

The moment I landed here in Thailand, the greenery, the cleanliness ,the beautifully decorated houses and malls and the smooth roads caught my eyes. The land of smiles, the land of elephants and of course the most amazing land is Thailand.

People of this alien land are cool, peace loving, and polite. They quite often giggle for no reason, may be to prove that they are from the land of smiles. Whenever i look at the beautifully trimmed shrubs and neatly mowed lawns with Palm trees, I always become nostalgic thinking of my beautiful Kerala.

The smooth roads reminds me our former prime minister A B Bajpai, who used to say that beautiful roads are a sign of prospering country. I found the land a perfect blend of European and Asian culture .

Gradually i started mingling with my own Indian folk residing here. I was too happy to find too many well educated women here as friends. Architects, doctors, engineers, CA, MBA s and professors friends. Unfortunately they all had to compromise with their career and opt for being here for the sake of husband's job and family. Anyways i started enjoying their company with long conversations in evenings.

The euphoria didn't last for long. It was my turn to discover the bitter realities associated with expats here. Men were busy with their jobs and minting money. Women were forced to pick up something of choice that can keep them busy and engaged. Unfortunately there were not many options to engage with , so a bigger lot of educated women got busy with kitty parties or gossiping in the beautiful parks in the evenings. What a waste of education !

Anyways, i couldn't adopt the social norm prevalent here among Indians, so i preferred to stay back at home in my solitude and with my only companion, my laptop and internet. Neighbors and acquaintances here started labeling me as unsocial and a loner, but i was comfortable with this adjustment.

On and off, sparingly first and later frequently i get to hear by my fellow Indians that India is bad. Not a place worth living, too much of population, corruption, filth, crime, lack of discipline, sense of responsibility , no respect for time and sincerity and so on.

Once ,a friend said, " See, how quick the service here is. Just in 5 minutes of phone call, they deliver a gas cylinder. I advocated- Can't you appreciate that in a poor country like India, with huge population, every person is availing the facility of having two LPG cylinders?. But they ignored my point.

When i purchase drinking water [45 baht per bottle of Neptune ] and spend roughly 3000 baht per month on water only, i think of our India where we get gallons of water free of cost.

When a Thai person talks politely with Indians here, they get mesmerized by their modest behavior. But i start missing my country people there ,who in majority are still polite, modest, humble and smiling against all odds.

To my utter surprise i found every second Indian here criticizing India and Indians. I was kind of tired and disappointed over such reactions of my own people about their own motherland. How one can stop loving one's own Mother?. And do we have the right to criticize India when we , ourselves are not giving our services to our own country ?

'You can take an Indian out of India, but you cannot take out Indian-ness out of Indians "

The spell is broken now.

Being nostalgic and sad somewhere, i am humming the following lines....

ओ देस से आने वाले बता, ओ देस से आने वाले बता
किस हाल मे है यारां-ए-वतन, वो बाग-ए-वतन, फिरदौस वतन
ओ देस से आने वाले बता, ओ देस से आने वाले बता
क्या अब भी वहाँ के बागों में मस्ताना हवाएं आती हैं
क्या अब भी वहाँ के पर्बतपर घनघोर घटाएं छाती हैं
क्या अब भी वहाँ की बरखायें वैसे ही दिलों को भाती है
ओ देस से आने वाले बता, ओ देस से आने वाले बता
क्या अब भी मेहकते मंदिर से नाकूस की आवाज आती है
क्या अब भी मुकदस मस्जिद पर मस्ताना अज़ान थर्राती है
क्या अब भी वहाँ के पनघट पर पनहारियां पानी भरती है
अंगडाई का नक्शा बन बन कर, सब माथे पे गागर धरती है
और अपने घरों को जाते हुएं हसती हुयीं चुहलें करती है
करती है?
ओ देस से आने वाले बता, ओ देस से आने वाले बता..