First of all visit here to know our national song fully (I have put the English Translation as the title).
Wee hours of Monday 26th December 2005. After 18 ardudous hours of cattle class travel, the 747-700 is finally gonna touch down at Chattrapati Shivaji International terminal 2A in Mumbai. At that point all I was thinking was - Vande Maataram.
So what if the clock was showing 14-50 at two fifty am outside the airport.
So what if the taxi drivers spit on the footpath (no longer sidewalks).
So what if I saw two more toppled trucks on the Expressway.
So what if I had to take my bike to office (at 10 am - though I just reached home at 8 am)
So what if I had to endure the same Nal Stop madness.
So what if I had to open the newspaper and read the news of some rich kid murdered for ransom by a son of a Bihari Judge (satra nyayadheesh).
So what if I watched on TV how the aam aadmi's government does not bother to pay the soldiers guarding the Kargil-Drass sector of LoC.
So what if another plane (this time a Jaguar and later Kiran Trainer and not a MiG 21) crashed.
So what if another senior citizen fell victim to rash driving.
So what if the baggage counters at Mumbai Airport take 1 hour to dispense luggage to passengers while every other country manages it in 20 minutes with half as many employees.
So what if the kachra petis are still overflowing.
So what if the Shiv Sena Split (again)
So what if Red Brinda is out all guns blazing with (Thanda matlab Toilet cleaner) Ramdev Maharaj (Yog va Ayurved dwaara asaadhya rog theek karne waale shraddheya swami .... )
So what if my tire got punctured again on Bhandarkar Rd while I tried to dodge Rainy Season leftover potholes.
So what if the first gift I got on my return from USA was a nice 3 hour power out by MSEB (Now the MAHA-DISCO !!!)
So what if my company makes sure I am home for 2 hours a day only.
So what I still cannot get my favorite cartoons on TV shown in English (that Hathway asked me for 4000 bucks for tht - huh I can download all that stuff in a tenth of that amount)
So what if the fruits of four years BE was conferred to me by a peon who shouted "Ikde thambaycha nahi ugach gardi karoon line lambvoo naka - he kon ahe Kulkarni Shriniwas - he ghe ani pal" !!!!!
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The bottomline is that, whatever be - its my home land - my mother land, my sweet hometown, my very own Punya nagari, Mamma I was coming home.....
To her sujalam and sufalam and malayaja sheetalam self.
