My opinions about India in US in 2002

(Below) A letter written around May-2002 by which time I had seen only 3 or 4 cities in US including Washington DC. [I am writing this because the time this was written reminds me a trip I had made to Washington DC By the time I left US in 2008 summer I had seen of America more than most people in US .. I had visited about 14-16 states in East Coast almost all of them driving around or flying or bus. I never took a train in US, it would be one of my dream. and I am not talking about how much I have seen in Japan where I lived 3 years. I can speak or even write Japanese, I can guide you anywhere in Japan but I haven’t taken a shinkansen or seen Fuji-Yama so that would be my dream too]

Hello ***,

I’ve been staying in Blacksburg,Virginia, USA since the last 8/9 months and I am pursuing my Ph.D. in Physics after doing my MSc in Utkal University. Very soon (in 15 days) I am going to go to Japan for one year (for the time being) to do some experimental work in an international particle physics lab there. I have the same patriotic feeling as you do about our country in general and our state in particular.  Have so much thing I wish I’d tell you about how my thoughts have changed after I came here that I can not tell you right now because of the time constraint. But I’ll write you back very soon about what I feel what the problem is with India , my changed perceptions about why a country with such large potential is lagging behind.

Probably for the time-being you’d bear with me for begging some more time. My personal opinion is the name of our state should change to “kalinga”. But you know what we have ground problems. People will immediately ask what is the rationale behind such moves to rechristen the state when we are having such big problems as starvation, unemployment and lack of basic needs. So I think we should address this problem from a position of strength otherwise it will die out in the laughter of people who don’t understand the value of patriotism and follow (try to imitate) others in seeking easy publicity and cheap glamour. I hate those wayward guys who love to have the nonexistent affection of somebody else’s at the cost of hurting his/her own mother belittling the affection of his/her own mother. They wonder in a land of imagination which does not exist and thats the basic problem with part of the youth of india today who look toward the west as if its devoid of all the inconsistencies that exists in India.

“katha katha ke semane india ra dwahi dianti india ra eita kharap india ra seita kharapa”.

{in conversations they name India, this is not working thats not working}

These are basically escapists and as you call easy publicity seeker and look for external glamour but forget the high degree of dedication thats called for. But the solution (a feasible one) is quite hard to formulate. We need to discuss all these in the platform of utkalsantans so that first of all the group members are made aware of the problem so that an attitude to tackle these problems would come up in due time. We have so many concrete problems to deal with (like upliftment of the status of women in the state, basic education for all, eradication of corruption by acting from a position of strength and by spreading awareness and by augmenting the army that would fight for such a cause) but its not possible to deal with them without having the right kind of mindset soaked with a feeling of patriotism. Hope we’ll discuss these issues in detail later (once I finish this semester in a few days )

regards
Manmohan Dash

— ***<***@yahoo.com> wrote:
dear MAN MOHAN,

REGARDS AND THANKS FOR YOUR QUICK RESPONSE. MAY I ASK YOU YOUR EXACT LOCATION? ABOUT MYSELF, SOON SHIFTING TO BANGALORE, AND I AM A COSMETOLOGIST BASICALY.MSC IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY ETC KALINGA IS SUCH A NAME WHICH CREATES INSTANT PATRIOTISM IN A LAY MAN.I HOPE WHEN THE PATRIOTISM RUN INTO OUR VEIN ,WE WILL REACT TO ANY ADVERSE GROSS NEGLIGENCE.  THE WORST PART IN OUT SIDE ORIYA IS ,THEY DONT WANT TO HELP THE FELLOW ORIYA AND ALSO THEY DO FEEL ASHAMED TO SPEAK IN ORIYA.EVERY WHERE THE SAME NONSENCE ATTITUDE ,TO SEND THE CHILD TO THE ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOL SO THAT THEY WILL IMMERSE AS TOP CLASS EXEC IN FUTURE I AM NOT ATALL AGAINST THE LANGUAGE, BUT WHATS ABOUT OUR ANCIENT KSHTRIYAS, SADHAVAS, BRAHMANS AND WHAT LANGUAGE IS VEDA? WE ARE DEVOID OF BASIC KNOWLEDGE,THE PATRIOTISM. I FEEL IT SHOULD BE COMPULSORY TO LEARN YUDHA VIDYA FOR BOTH THE GENDER. PLZ DO SEND THE MASSAGE AND LETS TRY TOGETHER TO CONVERT THE NAME TO KALINGA ,WHICH ITSELF SPELLS OUT HEROISM.

REGARDS AND DO REVERT BACK
— ***