A Sunday to My Home India!

Not that we all don’t know about our own Mother India's north-eastern arm; but there is a lot, yet unrevealed, apart from the warm Nagaland shawls, Kaziranga rhino’s and Bamboo dance...mainly the people. The people having complete Chinese looks and complete Indian hearts as they say "Fir bhi dil hai hindustani..."

Some...rather lots of anti-Indian forces have been constantly conspiring to get this arm of mother India chopped off her. Just like many other problems introduced by the British Raj, this is yet another. Who wouldn't after all get lured by the land enchantingly beautiful and extremely enriched with key resources like uranium and oil and like? And that's exactly why the hungry western wolves have put their foot down to "convert" this innocent part of India into the official "Land of Jesus". Jesus never recommended violence. But under the cover of loving message of Jesus the native youngsters are victimized with drugs, guns and "I-am-not-an-Indian" attitude.

"My Home India" aims at getting such lost youngsters back on their track. To re-established their confused identity as Indian citizens, there can be no better tool than belongingness and brotherhood; and My Home India applies these peaceful weapons against the carnages happening in the North-East.

In the same endeavor, a picnic was organized on this lovely summer Sunday! The picnic spot was a unique Cow-shade! Surprised? Don't be! Because there isn't a better place in Asia wherein 33 different species of pure Indian breed cattle are conserved. Yes, the word used ‘conserved’ is intentional as these Indian cattle are on the verge of extinction due to the commercial hybrid of the cattle. The weather was not yet scorching hot and we all set out for a late-morning ride.
A group of about 30 people; mix of north-eastern, southern and western Indians! Mr. Sharma's GoLok is a cow-farm located at about 25 Kms in the outskirts of Bangalore and is spread over 15 acres. Lush with variety of trees, this is a huge upcoming project is inspired by H.H. Ramchandra Saraswati. The project involves cow shades, cow urine treatment centre, research centre, manure manufacturing centre etc. After the "butter milky" welcome; we took a tour of the cow shades. Cows hailing from multiple parts of India dwell under the same roof. From gigantic Mahiwal's to tiny tamilnadu breed, from Gir's of Gujrat to Amrut Mahals they all seemed in perfect harmony. I kept wondering how do they communicate? I mean did the language problem not bother them? -:)) they must have all learnt Hindi I guess...Just kidding!

Well I personally didn't know much about cattle farming. It was startling to gather that the cow milk is augmented with the best of nutrients, cow dung is the best of manure and processed cow urine the best insect repellent-cum-pesticide, that too without any harmful side effects! Thus a cow can make more than Rs. 80 per day merely with her by-products; which is much more than the cost of maintaining her! Since I am not a staunch feminist as such; I must also mention the utilities of cow's husband Mr. Bull. Apart from by-products (off course, not the milk!:) He ploughing the fields retains the most fertile layer of soil which the tractors scrape away. Plus he doenot pollute as he does not require a diesel engine! Great isn't it?

We gathered all this information in the small introductory session Mr. Sharma conducted in the courtyard of a small "kutir" made completely of soil. No cement; no bricks, still that Kutir was a centrally air-conditioned and earthquake resistant edifice. The session following introduced the back-ground, motto and methodology of My Home India. Sitting here in Bangalore, how can we help our north-eastern brothers and sisters? Nothing much. Just make them a part of us all. Due to their Mongolian features they are generally regarded as "Chinese" or "Chinkies" or "Chini Makaos". Their angry reply "I AM NOT A CHINESE! I AM AN INDIAN DAMN IT!" says it all. Many unknown facts were disclosed in the discussion. That some of the text books in china refer to the north-east as the "India-occupied-china". That there is a permit, exactly like a VISA, is needed for even Indian citizens to enter some states like Manipur(This law was made in 1853 British Raj and is still kept effective blindly). That when the north-eastern children travel to say Delhi or Bangalore they say "I am going to India".

It was shocking! How did the media miss out on so much so far? Is the government sleeping?... None of us can help change the politicians immediately. Nor can we promise that the media will publish the true story on cover. But we can call these young students from north east; scattered all over India, 3000 Kms away from their homes; for a feast or a festival. We can help them in their urgencies and emergencies. We can learn their recipes and teach them ours. We can ensure them that they belong to us and we belong to them. We can surely give them another canopy with us as this is our own home India; all over...

The discussion concluded with these action items against all of us! Apex members of My Home India Mr. Sunil Deodhar, Mr. Mohan kumar threw great light over the said details. We got up as we were famished and I couldn’t wait to have lunch with my new slit-eyed brother!!!

~ Pradnya Joshi
28 March 2006