Peeping Through a Keyhole

1^st January 1900:
The Nawabs of Lucknow, their pleasure houses, courtesan and their elegant boudoirs colourful vagabonds and their hideouts and hangover of romance and music flowing from their payals.

The 20^th century saw the world through a drastic change. From Steam engines to turbojets, from cable communication to satellite links, the rise and fall of communism, the planet dumped with toxins, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki etc. India too kept up with the change. From a colony to the largest democracy, Gandhi leading the world, partition, bloodshed, unity in diversity, green revolution, Nuclear power harnessing, Liberalization, INSAT, PARAM etc. Where change is the only constant factor.

With over a billion head counts, India is still surviving. A nation with illiteracy, poverty, disease and dismissal per capita income, we are still holding our head high. It is because of our subconscious longings and mixed fillings, in every Indian, resulting from 5000 years of cultural churning

What does it mean to be an Indian? Boundaries, colour, birth or gene can never define Indian. Indian is a Feeling and an attachment. Someone who dares to dream. Someone who never turns his back in tougher times. Someone who knows to smile with hungry stomach. Where one is a leader in his own right. One who leads the way to the world.

The world calls us a developing nation. But in what way are developed nations any different from us? They too are a nation of men and women. They also have corruption, violence, disease, illiteracy and poverty. Does having an abundance of cash savings and gold reserve define development? Then we are happy being a developing nation. At least we do not bully weaker nations, dump tons of foodgrain into the sea while millions find it hard to make up for a square meal, a handful controlling the economy and market monopoly reigns. India being a welfare state with open economy will show the world the act of governance.

I dream of Indians ruling the Computer and the machine ruling the world. I dream of India acting as a crutch to the world when it turns lame with pollution, bloodshed, and radiation I dream of India as a paradise of the 21^st century where nature is as virgin as ever. India a messenger of universal peace.

31^st Dec, 1999:
The Nawabs of Lucknow is now but a dream. But the pleasure houses. striving. A young man drops in to celebrate the night in the warm air of romance of a courtesan.

Time looked behind for a moment and smiled

Trijoy Saikia, 1999

Trijoy Saikia wrote these essays in between 1997-2001, when he was undergoing his engineering studies at Jorhat Engineering College,Jorhat, Assam. The views and opinion there in are not edited during restoration from archives. The views, affiliations and influences at the time of writing these essays may have evolved and changed over the period of time.

College Building where I studied Computer Science and Engineering

Hostel No 4, Eagle's Nest, Room 404 where the author stayed from 1997-2001