Swades Hangover

I saw Swades. It was a good movie. I've been restless since. I do not know why? I remembered something I had read in Vivekananda's works once. I found it in an essay titled "Modern India." He says:


Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an Indian, and proudly proclaim, "I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother." Say, "The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother." Thou, too, clad with but a rag round thy loins proudly proclaim at the top of thy voice: "The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, India's gods and goddesses are my God. India's society is the cradle of my infancy, the pleasure - garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi of my old age." Say, brother; "The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good," and repeat and pray day and night, "O Thou Lord of Gauri, O Thou Mother of the Universe, vouchsafe manliness unto me! O Thou Mother of Strength, take away my weakness, take away my unmanliness, and make me a Man!"^*


I do not know my land. I do not know myself.

How can I hope to know the world, and her people?

I am still restless ...


^*  If you have not read his works, I am requesting that you think before you comment on his sayings. However, no such requests before you comment on the post per se.