Why?

Because ...

5 years down the line, I don't want to ask myself, "What if?"

"What if I had done it?"
"What if I had the courage to give it a shot?"
"What if I could make it to the place where I always wanted to be?"
"What if I had a chance at seeing the long lost dream materialize?"

These and many more questions will haunt me, if I don't even try.....

And that's why... I will ....

I will follow my dream.
I will give it my best shot.

(thanks to Rohini who said, "Give it a shot, instead of regretting it later")

What happened to us?

“If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India” - Max Mueller

Have we no time to find solutions for our problems today, or no will?
Is the state of India today a gift we chose for ourselves?
Yes the industries are growing, ... but with that is growing the loss of lives, the poverty, the riots, the terrorism.... Is India really developing?

“In religion, India is the only millionaire - the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined” - Mark Twain

The fights within, the undying hatred for the other religions, killings in name of religion, ..... Are those the glimpses we want to show the world?

“So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.” - Mark Twain

Was his judgment wrong? Didn't we forget something? Aren't we deliberately overlooking something? Isn't something going terribly wrong right in front of our eyes? Aren't we choosing to do NOTHING cuz it is the easier way out?!

“In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing” - Apollonius Tyanaeus

Possessed by ignorance, inactivity, these mortals are becoming numb... choosing not to try and achieve the greatness they are entitled to..

“If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.” - Romain Rolland

There was a dream, we thought we'd bring to reality... the dream of a free India, whose people were free, happy, living in harmony,......
We prayed.."Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my county awake."...
Is this that heaven?!
We dreamed of that heaven........... is that dream lost somewhere in the sands of time? Have perilous waters washed that dream away?

I was in the process of giving up on India too. I used to tell myself, "arre jaane do..chhodo..hum kya karein..desh ke netaon ne tamasha bana diya hai.. kuchh nahi ho sakta is desh ka.." ("screw it, indian politicians have ruined it all, nothing can be done about this country now")

But.. something changed in the past few months..something within me.. and I'm glad it did.. I asked myself... "Can we make a difference? Can we change India, despite the present day's chaos?" That's when I started thinking about my country... thinking about it brought pain... it saddened me... helplessness replaced immunity.. fear replaced blissful ignorance..

My friends say... things are changing slowly.. it will become better.... I tell myself the same thing... but it just doesn't seem enough to convince or console me..

Maybe I am thinking too much... but sitting here, miles away from my country.. when I think of my country...when i hear and read the news about my country.... I ask myself only one question... "What happened?"