I SEE GREATER BEAUTY IN THE VERY DIRT OF INDIA THAN IN THE CLEANEST WESTERN SHOWPIECE

I SEE GREATER BEAUTY IN THE VERY DIRT OF INDIA THAN IN THE CLEANEST WESTERN SHOWPIECE

I see greater beauty in the very dirt of India -- not just her dust, as Swamiji mentioned as being holier than the holiest -- than in the cleanest western showpiece in terms of grand cities and their supposed prettiness that has colonised blood dripping within yet. So, my 24 Parganas are prettier than your Los Angeles and London, my Vrindavan and Varanasi dearer than your Venice and Vancouver, and my motherland infinitely holier than the material West which so many of our self-deluded children crave for like their very breath. I am indebted beyond bounds to my great mother, my motherland, for having held me in her womb, for having nursed and nourished me, and for having beheld me in her vision, in her memory, in those interim years when I had left her last time for my other abode and before I had resurfaced again within her womb. I was born here, I have whole life lived here and I shall die here in your arms, so help me, mother. One last prayer, mother. Disinfatuate your children about the glitter of the West and make them true Indians.

Written by Sugata Bose