India is in, dear.

The diversity. The culture. The heritage. The values. The literature. The history. The geography. The intelligent minds. The arts. The festivals. The costumes. Henna. Hindi. Bollywood. Cricket. IT. Mom and Dad. Family. Friends. School. Teachers. Monsoon. The ads. The pani puri. The life. The spirit. Home.

India is in, dear, and there's nothing your cynicism can do about it.

Random thoughts on the eve of Independence Day:

• When he was here, Dad had changed my Mozilla homepage from Google to the Times of India website. I never changed it back. This morning, when I opened the browser, the first piece of news I saw was the results of a poll. 89% of Indians would like to be born as Indians again.
  *raises hand*
  Is my vote too late?
  (Anyone who pooh-poohs or mentions anything about the poll being carried out on a small sample size and generalised across India will really get a whack on the head with my rolled-up hypothetical newspaper. :/)
  

• I sent an email to my typesetter based in India wishing him a happy Independence Day. He replied saying, "Happy Independence Day to you and all other persons of Indian origin in your office." Hmmm. Person of Indian origin? Bah. I wanted to tell him I am no "person of Indian origin". I am... errm... original Indian person?
  

• I've been listening to the song 'Main jahan rahoon, main kahin bhi rahoon, teri yaad aati hai' ("Wherever I am, I think of you") on loop. Can't dismiss Himesh's talent here - not only is it a beautiful melody, the idea of using a love song for one's homeland is great.
  

• I have never worn anything Indian to my new office so far. I was waiting for Independence Day, and tomorrow I will wear my Lucknowi churidaar kameez to work, complete with kajal and bindi. Can't wait.
  

• Shub and I are meeting up for chaat and a chat tomorrow. The original plan was pasta (bah!) at Sketches, but I like plan B so much more!
  

• I broke my shoe at work today. I went and bought myself another pair during lunch because a colleague had promised to walk to Little India with me to get a blouse stitched for the sari I've promised to wear at her engagement.
  

• Little India sucks. Bigtime. Gosh I hate the place. I prefer Big India any day. And I seriously hope that people who have never been to India don't base their judgement of big India on what they see in Little India.
  

• There are no little boys running on the streets of Singapore selling the Indian flag for five rupees. Or any amount for that matter. So I decided to make my own and display it on my cubicle tomorrow. I printed two copies of the flag and stuck them back to back with a chopstick at one edge. Damn chopstick doesn't stick. :/
  

• I popped by a 7-11 to buy a drink I absolutely did not want just so I could pick up a straw and try replacing the chopstick with the straw tomorrow morning. We'll see how that turns out.
  
  Update: The chopstick worked. Pic taken with my phone camera.
  

• Viv, if you don't get back to Singapore quickly, I really will go ahead and watch Chak De India without you! :/
  

It's strange how my cynical side completely takes leave of me as far as India is concerned. And I am not alone. The world is swarming with millions of NRIs like me who feel like it's their birthright to bad-mouth India, but if anyone else does it, boy are they in BIG BIG trouble. NRIs who are not quite sure why they are living out of India since they miss it every single day. NRIs who cry when they watch Swades, but do not move back a la Mohan Bhargava. NRIs who do not know how to respond to resident Indians who think they are hypocrites. NRIs who are so seeped in their lifestyles that they know that emotions aside, it's probably not practical for them to move back to India. NRIs who can't quite explain to others who do move back why they can't. NRIs who know the benefits of taking up citizenship of the countries they live in, but they just can't get themselves to do it - at least not yet.

Sigh.

Ah well. At least we have company.