Today is the 26th January.

60th Republic celebration today. Schools must be having half days. Flag hosting must have already taken place. There must be people selling flags on the roads. Televisions must be playing patrotic movies. I sadly can't really take part in any of the above mentioned things. But I share a proud moment with myself. I got up and sang our national anthem in front of the flag. But thats not it. I decided that I have to write this note today!



My host mom in Germany goes to a yoga class. She is sporty by nature. I asked her why she was doing yoga. She told me that she has played so many games but not many games make her think from inside. Get her close to her own self and god. It costs her 50€ in two months. Which is a lot of money!

The other day she asked me how to make 'ghee'. I was more then surprised! How does she even know the name? Where did she read it from? She then told me her yoga teacher is doing a course about 'ayurvedic cooking'. And they generally don't use oil but use ghee instead. Which again costs the yoga teacher a lot of money!

They call eyeliner in Germany 'kaayal'. They actually written as 'kaajal' too but in German the 'j' is pronounced as 'y'. They call 'shawl' shawl.

I meet new people almost everyday. Most of the girls here find my piercings cool. " Its so awesome that you have a nose pierced. Many of the parents here don't allow." I tell them how its a tradition to have piercing. I told them my grandmom has around 6 ear piercings on each ear,and a nose piercing. They always think India is the coolest place then.
So, since I'm talking about meeting new people everyday. They hear my German. Say I'm pretty good. Then they figure that I speak English too(because my german still isn't all THAT great, I need some English words.) Then they always have big eyes and ask," So you speak 3 languages?". And I always proudly answer," No four. I speak two Indian languages- Hindi and Marathi ."

I met this man here who has been to India 8 times. He knew names of the small temples and villages way better then I knew. He told me that 'India is addictive.' I smiled.

I wouldn't ever realise how important Indian culture is till the time I wouldn't come here. Think about it wikipedia says, 'Individual mother tongues in India number several hundred'. Which country can have around 330 million(33 crores) of gods but still never really have fights about them? Mostly all my friends worship different gods, but there wasn't a single arguement about it. My best friend comes from South of India. She always speak 'Tulu' with her mom and all I do is laugh, I don't understand a thing. But she is still my best friend. Language wasn't even a problem.

We often have these discussions with people that they want to know why I came to Germany. I always first say the language, because for me I know its going to be an advantage learning German for my future. My host dad said the other day," Maybe in the future the western world has to learn Hindi ". Maybe they really have to in the future. Every 6th person in the world is Indian. I believe we do have the power. Even if now 70 Indian Rupees is 1 Euro maybe it would change.

We have poor people. Agreed. We aren't a rich country now. We are now ranked low in the list of developing countries. But we have hopes. Our culture is one of the most ancient one. The Brahmins from the old days didn't eat meat because they knew that in the future the whole world is going to,and so there has to be someone to save them. Thats what I read in a recent article. Maybe true, maybe not but it saves animals.

Imagine you are travelling alone somewhere in India. I sit here and I can predict there are going to be atleast two people who are going to come and ask you your name,and where you come from. We are known to be friendly. And that is true.

Oh! And guess what I realised some days ago? We can actually have a cultural exchange between India to India. From North to South, and Central. Each places has different food, clothes, festivals.

The only reason I'm writting this note is that I want everyone who reads it to be proud about being Indian. We want to be more western, but the western world is now paying so much to learn ancient indian things.


जय हिंद.



PS: I'm not trying to compare any countries. I do want world to be one place. I'm just showing my love for my country :).