Finally, a Free India

I'm a little scared to say that I actually landed in a finally free India on November 2017. Scared, because there are still pockets of people who are always up and against the government. Scared, because I am skeptical that this is an one-government mirage. Scared, because now I stutter when people ask me, "Why did you leave the country in the first place?"

I am also proud that I stutter when they ask me "Why did you leave India in the first place?" I'm happy that they all forgot the dense cloud smoke of pollution, corruption and muscle-power that ruled the air those days. The wreckage of health-care, the sea of bribery, the ominous cheers of those who bullied the weak that resonated in the air. I have seen that India. I had left that India.

Today's India has forgotten all that. Perhaps forgiven them too. Today's India has battery-operated cars, autos, rickshaws. Today's Indian street-lights mostly run on solar-power. Today's Indian village electricity runs on wind-power. Today's India barely has any power outage. Today's India has gone all out online: in banking systems, in housing, in traffic management, in refuse management, in law. Law is approachable and the ominous saying that, "Police-e chhule atharo gha" (Once you touch the police, the police will never leave you) doesn't ring true any more. Cops are more approachable and you can actually discuss a situation with them.

You would be amazed to see how people of India, who never blinked an eye before chucking out an empty packet from their car window, now look around for dustbins! The 'Swachh Bharat' alarm has been beeping in Indians minds so much that every street food vendor now has a trash bin where he asks his customers to throw the paper plates and cups. The other day I saw a coconut-water seller literally snatch off the finished coconut from my hands and dump it in a large basket beside him, lest I threw it on the road.

I barely saw any VIP car motorcade passing by, obstructing the four-way traffic like they used to do during peak hours. It seems all VIP beacons have been taken off (phew!). Ministers and VIPs now accost the traffic jams just like ordinary people.

Every street crossing now has cameras which take photos of cars that break the signal, and drivers are now petrified that fine notices get silently delivered to their homes. Just that these fines need to become higher, so that people begin to understand the responsibilities of breaking traffic rules.

Even though, I see an innate tandem to the traffic chaos that my motherland has boasted. It seems each driver knows the other drivers' moves, and no signalling is actually necessary. There's immense camaraderie among drivers, and each live (read, drive) in their own given space, with or without traffic lanes.

It's gotta be some task bringing this 1.324 billion people to marching to the same tune. Most importantly the citizens are from different religions, states, colors, languages and of very, very strong opinions. It required a real manipulative Pied Piper, and India has one now. What I thought would take 200 years to achieve, has been achieved in flat seven years.

Of course, a lot needs to change. Health-care needs to become more available to the poor, and both rich and poor be treated alike. Education system needs a complete overhaul, and maybe like Mr Modi's 'one-night stand' with demonetization, Indian education system may abolish exams altogether one fine 8 pm, and start project-based assignments involving questions from students and just not giving them the parrot-like answers. I hope tomorrow's generation will feel proud of staying back in their own country and building it with their exclusive vision, and not running off to enrich some other country. I hope no mother like me has to flee with an average child.

The moment I squeezed myself out of the 22-hour flight plane, landed onto Indian soil, and did not smell pollution, I realized I had just landed in a 'finally-free India'. A free-country getting Finally Free from all its demons after 70 years of its freedom. India is called a "Developing country". I think it is, and it should be. At the rate it is "Developing", give India another 10 years and this country may sweep the rest of the world off its feet.