There’s a huge controversy around Vir Das’s latest performance, a monologue titled ‘I Come From 2 Indias’, which premiered on Sunday, November 15, 2021. it was performed at the John F Kennedy Centre in Washington DC and went viral immediately after the video was posted.
I’m extremely proud of my country, a country that has given the world its many firsts, no other country can boast about.
- Yoga and Ayurveda originated in India.
- India gave the world the numeral Zero.
- India gave the world its first university — Takshashila University.
- Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the Earth to orbit the Sun.
- The trigonometric functions sine and versine originated in Indian astronomy.
- Value of Pi was first identified by an Indian called Budhayana.
- Indian Scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose invented the technology of wireless communication.
- The game of Chess originated in India.
- The Snakes and Ladders game was inspired by an Indian game called Mokshapat.
- Martial Art was first practised in India.
- Shampoo originated in India.
- India gave the cure for Leprosy.
Extensive knowledge of medical branches such as anatomy, physiology, aetiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity were discovered in India; and Vedic texts have confirmed that.
These are just a few mentions and the list is nowhere exhaustive. This is the India — full of beautiful culture and civilisation, achievers and inventors, artists and performers, which I’m proud of.
Unfortunately, there is an ugly face to the country too, which, more often than not, we refuse to acknowledge. I guess it takes a lot of maturity to understand the difference between the fact when one is maligning the country or when one is stating the truth as it is, without mincing words.
Though Vir Das is facing a humungous backlash from a certain section of society, I for one, am completely on his side. I, unfortunately, also come from an India where political satire, or for that matter any kind of comedy, isn’t taken well at all. Though it’s a democratic country, yet, the freedom of expression and speech is stifled.
This is also the India where a humble tax-paying citizen is greeted with pothole-ridden roads, while corrupt politicians usurp the common person’s wealth. This is also the India where women (read Goddess Laxmi, Saraswati, Kaali) are worshipped during the day and as rightly said by Vir, raped during the night. The same women who give birth are cursed if they give birth to a girl child, patriarchy rules.
This is also the India where the naming ceremonies of roads and bridges are more important than feeding the poor who live under these bridges. This is also the India where a common person lives in peace until the political parties make every issue into a communal one.
This is also the India where film actors are treated like God while sportspersons do not even get their due (excluding cricketers).
This is also the India where scamsters are living a lavish lifestyle, while it is the poor who gets scammed and dies by suicide.
I can go on writing about many such contrasts as there is no dearth of them. While I wouldn’t comment or compare what’s going around in other countries, I can surely write about these experiences in the last four decades of my existence in this country.
Dear readers, your opinion, experiences and views might be different from mine. Each one is free to find truth in their own beliefs.