A Letter to Shashi Tharoor
Dear
Shashi Tharoor,
The intent of this letter is to
thank you for more reasons than one. I feel I speak for many Indians if not
most.
To
begin with, thank you for adding new words to our collective vocabulary.
Ideally, our English teachers should have done that during our school days.
Some of the teachers did and most of them didn’t. Please continue introducing
us to new words so that we all can express ourselves more eloquently.
As
a curious kid in school, I remember some of my friends wondering aloud “Thank
God! The British came to India. If not, what would have happened to our country”.
I did not know how to respond to that statement. I remember feeling slightly
ashamed. The tragedy is that for much of the later part of my growing up years,
I continued being confused with that perspective. Thank you for writing the
thoroughly researched, well detailed and supremely engaging book, ‘An Era of
Darkness’. It made me realize how rich (not only in monetary terms) my country
was. Now I can confidently say that the only party who benefited by colonising
my great country and its people was the British.
Many
a time, I have seen many highly accomplished scholars/intellectuals/influencers
from India going on to international platforms and being apologetic about
India. At times, it is the about crime rate or the situation of educational
infrastructure or rising intolerance or poverty or many such issues. Very
rarely have I seen many Indians going on an international platform or on social
media channels and owning up the spirit of India. Of course, there are issues
what we face and we must strive to improve the conditions of this country and
its citizens. But at the same time, we must also recognize the progress we have
made over the years. Thank you for being that voice on an international
platform. We appreciate the fact that you represent yourself as a proud unapologetic
Indian with a balanced and realistic perspective about the country and its
people.
Lastly,
thank you for continually setting higher benchmarks for the youth of this
country. To be excellent at academics while being a student, a widely respected
and regarded international civil servant at the UN, a successful political
leader, a prolific writer and an orator par excellence is many lives and many
goals rolled in to one which many of us would like to aspire for and emulate.
Arun
Babu
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