Bharat - 'the light of the world'

I was surprised to hear about India from westerners while I was travelling in Malaysia, Russia and in other parts of the world. Most people relate India with rape and spirituality a very strange paradox indeed. It is true that rape cases happen in India but it is definitely not true that rape happens only in India. Many people in India believe that the west doesn't miss an opportunity to throw muck at India and they also believe that the rape case was exaggerated. No doubt that the infamous Nirbhaya case shook the entire country and millions came to streets to protest against. There are apprehensions in the minds of girls if they can do a solo trip to India or not or whether they too will be raped. It is a debatable topic indeed and I leave it to the discretion of the reader to make up their mind to get the facts right. However before you make a picture of India some of the facts that are written below you make like to go through them.

 India was not a great country in its past, even today India is a great country. It is a nation that showcased to the world how a strong colonial rule can be bought to an end by non violent resistant. Genesis of reading and writing comes from India;Yoga, Ayurveda, Astrology, Numerology, Astronomy, Chess, the game of hockey, the first university of the world, cataract surgery, cure of leprosy, jute cultivation, USB, trigonometry, advanced mathematics, Pentium chip, sugar, metallurgy are some of the gifts that India gave to the world. Today, India grooms some of the best IT engineers, Doctors and Business administrators of the world. CEOs of Pepsi, Google, Microsoft, ArcelorMittal(world's largest steel making company) and many more reputed companies are of Indian origin. India has sent a satellite to the Mars and is the only country in the world to have succeeded in putting a probe into Mars orbit in the very first attempt. The cost of India's Mars mission was $74 million compared to recent Hollywood movie 'Gravity' who's cost was $100 million. India is the biggest democracy of the world where people of different faiths live together, majority of people living in India are Hindus(80%) but India never thought of becoming a Hindu nation unlike its neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh which are Muslim nations. India is a home for Tibetan refugees and Tibetan government operates from India. 

Some great thinkers thoughts about India 

Friedrich Max Müller (6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900), generally known as Max Müller, was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology.

Romain Rolland (French: 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings".

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885),the latter often called "The Great American Novel".

Did India have a rich past? Did India deteriorate? Till what extent did it deteriorate? We leave the readers to find these answers on their own. Thank you for reading this blog. We salute the greatness within you.  

Experiences in Malaysia - Celebration, interactions and building relationships

It was a heart warming experience to celebrate Eid - the most popular festival of Malaysia with some of my amazing Muslim friends. My dear friend Sherhan who is popularly known as Chehan and who is also a very popular man of Malaysia came to pick me up from my home early in the morning. Sherhan and I took a 2 hour drive from Kuala Lumpur to the sub urban area of Malaysia. The roads were very smooth and we did not face too much of traffic. The drive was splendid indeed as I saw immense green cover by the road side. The way eid is celebrated over here is very interesting and can be easily related with Deepawali celebrations in India, just that the houses weren't decorated with lights, however the light of the heart and the warmth and care were not missing.

Eid was celebrated in 7 different houses, and each house prepared a special menu for the guests, the menu was sent to me a day in advance and I was told to keep my digestive system in place as we had to go to 7 different places to enjoy the delicacies and the peppy interactions over our meals. I was a highlight of the event as I was the only person from Hindu community who was participating in the Eid celebrations. I got a very warm welcome at Sakina's house and most people greeted me very curiously. Within seconds I was made to feel as comfortable as I was at my own home, people tried to speak Hindi and tried to talk to me about our famous King Khan. But a pretty girl made my day by comparing me with Hrithik Roshan. I got this compliment within the first minute of the meeting. I had many dishes in this house but the stand out dish was the soup served with vegetables and spicy sauce. It was a delight to interact with everyone. I still remember the names that are so similar to Indian names - Rizwan, Putri(meaning princess), Sakina, Farida, Nabeela, and so on. 

Sakina's house

After visiting Sakina's home we went to different places covering different homes. The most interesting thing was to see our convoy of cars that were increasing after the visit to every house. In each house I got a very warm welcome and was made to feel comfortable as if I was in my own house. I made some young students at Farida's home there names were Hridaya, Ada and Fateha. All of them were very energetic girls and knew how to sing Hindi songs. Each house had a stand out dish. In Sakina's house it was the soup and then in another house it was the coconut tomato curry, someone made chocolate laddus, and in another house it was Macaroni, the Malaysian drinks Sasi and teao were amazing refreshing. The preparation of most foods is very similar to Indian food. We drove in Sherhan's Mercedes to different places from 9am till 8pm. Tasting almost all kinds of Malaysian and at the end of the end even Thai and Chinese food. However my day did not end even at 8 pm. After 8 pm my dear friend gave me a very beautiful surprise and took me to the most famous Batu caves - the Hindu temple. Well the day did not end even after that; thereafter Sherhan took me to the top of a hill which is also known as the look out point in Malaysia. I thought after this Sherhan will take me back to my home, however the adventure did not stop here. Sherhan took me to an Indian restaurant to have some hot tea with milk. 

In the Indian restaurant I met Sherhan's father Mr Aziz. What a gentleman he was - a soft spoken humble and kind man. We had some daal, roti and tea at the Indian restaurant along with some meaningful conversations with Mr Aziz. The day ended but the memories will last forever. At night I got a message from Sherhan saying, 'Harshit you have a family in Malaysia and you don't have to worry about anything'. What can be better than that. While I was taking to Mr Aziz we discussed about great Muslims from India such as our former president Dr Abdul Kalam Azaz, Paramveer Chakra winner(Highest Gallantry award of India) Abdul Hamid and many more. What could we expect more from life when you have loving and caring people around you. 

Ada, Fateha, Hridaya

Experiences in Malaysia - part 1

Each country like an individual is unique and a unique message for all of us. As I have travelled in different countries in the past so the initial excited of visiting Malaysia wasn't that high, however landing in Malaysia and getting the first hand experience was a treat for the eyes and heart. Beautiful and clean roads and a very efficient and effective bus service from airport gave me a warm welcome.My host Eric was waiting for me at the bus stop right on time. Eric is a 68 year old Chinese citizen of Malaysia. The energy and enthusiasm of Eric can easily leave the young people aghast, as he drove me to his beautiful home we had a very interesting and meaningful conversation. Eric is a man full of wisdom and knowledge and believes in the philosophy of 'What's mine is yours' and he walks the talk.

Eric

One of the most heart warming experience was with my dear friend Sherhan. Sherhan is working under the Prime Minister of Malaysia and is taking care of 43 villages. Sherhan took me for a drive to Putrajaya which is the Federal administrative centre of Malaysia. What a splendid drive it was; apart form the scenic Putrajaya it was heartening to know Sherhan in person, a humble man with a warm heart and a warm smile and at a same time Sherhan is a highly organised and a disciplined man. While seeing the Prime Minister's house and palace of Justice was a treat to the eyes, visiting the Putrajaya's Mosque was a food for the soul. The marvellous architecture had beautiful water pond around it and the mosque did not have walls, it had very tall and beautiful looking pillars, we could spot some hot air balloons from the space between the pillars of the mosque. Sherhan made me feel completely at home, at took me to a very beautiful place to eat. I had one of the best treats of my life over here as the treat was not just for my taste buds but also for my mind and soul. I met amazing friends of Sherhan - Amil Fatehi, Azwan, Ayin and Suhail. Suhail has been the youth icon of Malaysia in the year 2015. I asked him about how it feels to be the youth icon and he very said to me, 'Oh! it's nothing I learnt all this from Sherhan'.  A soulful conversation followed with some delicious Malaysian food. The generosity of all the people was amazing indeed. We departed on a meaningful note to conduct youth exchange program between Malaysia and India and do our part to build a beautiful world.

Prime Minister's house of Malaysia

Palace of Justice - Putrajaya

Sherhan and myself near palace of Justice - Putrajaya

Inside the office of sports ministry of Malaysia

Sherhan and myself in the office of sports ministry of Malaysia

Public gym in Putrajaya

Splendid view of Putrajaya 

Food, warm hospitality and love

The king size glass of orange juice

Sherhan, Amil and Azwan

Suhail - Malaysian youth icon for 2015

Ayin - the owner of the restaurant and also the owner of the secret recipe of Satay 

Sherhan and his mercedes

People of Malaysia are well versed in English and are very warm and helpful. So far I have met generous people who are more than willing to help. Although 80% of the Malaysian population is Muslim but they live in Harmony with the Chinese, Buddhists, Christians and Hindus. I shall write more about my experiences over here in the coming days. Thank you for reading