Article August 12, 2002 Issue

Going home to India

BY Annu Matthai

Where are you from ?" is a question I'm frequently asked, living as I do in a country other than my own. My reply usually gets mixed reactions. Some see my native India as a faraway exotic land. But to many, it's synonymous with abject poverty and social divisions. Still others view it as a troubled land on the brink of a nuclear war. These are some of the reasons why I find myself praying for India, wherever I may live at the moment.

For me, India is the country I "go home" to every summer. I see color, vivacity, and diversity—a unique mixture of cultures, languages, and religions. I see a land that has achieved much in science, technology, and the arts, but a land that has a long way to go in other fields. What is it that seems to hold back the progress of a nation with such great potential? It's question that I've asked myself many times over the past years. And what can I do to further my country's progress?

I find it helps to pray first about the things most visible—such as the traffic in India's large cities. Thousands of bicycles and scooters mingle with cars, buses, and trucks, their horns blaring. Each driver seems intent on reaching his or her destination in the shortest possible time. Vehicles often narrowly miss each other. The disorder and confusion trouble me. I compare it with the pattern of traffic in other parts of the world where vehicles move in orderly lanes. Yet I ask myself, Are discipline and order confined to a few privileged countries? No, I see them as universal qualities originating in God. And that becomes part of my prayer.

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