The Land of Nalanda

When Nalanda was being destroyed in India, Cambridge was getting established in England. The story has unfolded on predictable lines since.

Here in Patna for Badminton National. Arre nahi babumoshaye, not me baba, for my Son.

Well, the idea of this post is not to bore you with where I am and what I am doing, it is to share the sheer darkness that still pervades this place. I have come back after 17 years. Last time I was here, it was for one of the cricket world cup matches in 1997. My recollection from that time is, sea of rickshaws every where, moving, rather crawling in all directions. The only change between then and now is the fact that rickshaws are replaced by auto rickshaws. The filth is still there, all pervading, omnipresent. Roads never existed earlier, they don't exist even today. Tons of people, just busy, doing their chore, oblivion of the dust, smoke, stench in the air. Samosas, litti with chokha, is being fried right next to open gutters, which has doubled up as garbage dump, which is there every few yards. Don't get me wrong, these garbage dumps are not by design, they just spring up impromptu, based on where ever someone, anyone, wants to throw garbage.

Chief Minister came to inaugurate the tournament, and with him came the Sports Minister of the state and couple others. They addressed the gathering. In the list of uninspiring / inaudible speeches, these, in my opinion, would top the charts. A few things that all the speakers did not forget to mention, before they started their respective speeches, was to welcome the participants to the land of Buddha. I was like, did you not drive on the roads that we took to come here? Why do you make mockery of Buddha's name by continually referring to him? If the reference is to be made, it should be like, hey we are sorry, that we have abused this land of Buddha, sorry that we have destroyed generations of people, sorry that we have taken away hope from the people, sorry that people here don't dream, they only have nightmares.

However I know, the land that once had a university like Nalanda, thinkers like Buddha, has the potential, if only the leaders stop raping it, looting it, for their personal benefits.

I look forward to my third coming, hope to share picture of a land truly becoming of where Buddha attained enlightenment.