Land of contrasts and passionate intensity

What can I say? I am riding the pendulum from frustration and despair, to moments of peace, and a sense of belonging. India does this to most people. For detached visitors from abroad, who are here to check out the spirituality, it is a profoundly disappointing experience, nine out of ten. For those who were born and raised here, but have called the West their home most of their adult lives, India lives on in their psyche. There is always that yearning and a sense of perpetual waiting for that elusive something. A vacant spot that can't be filled. Circumstances have forced me to make India my home more months than I care to live here. The apathy, inefficiency, blatant corruption and no accountability, together with shortages of basic amenities like electricity and water, and decent roads drives me up the wall. To counteract these, we have glitzy malls and supermarkets springing up at every corner, and multinationals vying with each other for a slice of the Indian pie. There has been improvement. Anyone can see that. The poor living in the slums have moved up the ladder from the desperately poor who went hungry, to those that own mobile phones, TV sets and refrigerators. There are reports of farmer suicides, but then again there are those farmers in the affluent States who use tractors, and drive expensive cars. The parliament is a circus of buffoons and hoary intellectuals. You have on one hand the Manmohan Singhs and Chidambarams educated at Oxford and Harward, and the Neanderthals on the other, represented by Lallu Yadav and his ilk who would take India back to the stone age. Then there is Mayawati with her penchant for statues most of them in her honor. Reminds one of India under the maharajas and the nawabs. The brazen disregard for public opinion by politicians and keepers of the law ,is in stark contrast to the lively debates on current issues on Television channels where the host shouts at his guests. Well, it's a beginning anyway. A lot of things look eerily familiar to what we see in America. Not all of it good. That's India. A little mirch a little masala, a little of the west and a little of the east, and you have a sumptous spread!