Me an Indian !!.

The other day whilst watching PM Mr. Narendra Modi addressing the American Congress in Capitol Hill, Washington, One felt a sense of pride seeing the applause and standing ovation he got to a well written and well delivered speech.

The speech reflected most things about India and what he plans to do in the coming years to serve his fellow Indians. The applause as most of us feel was for India and Indians rather than the PM alone by himself since it is us who elected him with a overwhelming majority to the lower house of parliament and in doing so gave a strong government  a mandate to rule after more than 2 decades of milli jjulli sarkar.

Outside India anywhere in the world, citizens of our country are known and recognized as Indians and Indians only and not any sub caste creed community or gothra..

Once you go out of the country , you are recognized by the color of your passport at immigration counters and every where else.

Then why is that in our own country, people will nudge you and judge you by your caste, creed, community,etc...etc.. even in today's day and time.

Indian origin Americans take pride in calling themselves Americans once the green card and citizenship is done...also similarly when a desi gets settled in England or other countries of Europe, they are known as citizens of that country.

Why  is it that in a progressive ( supposedly) city like Mumbai, people meeting you for the first time would say oh Pathak means you are a Gujarati or then a Maharashtrian  and assume the same and most funnily start speaking to you in their mother tongue...

Why can't it be only a INDIAN....

I know we are a multilingual multi cultural society but in today's age and time, it is most important that we wear our citizenship with pride on our sleeve and not push it under the sleeve only  to be known only when we cross the borders of the country.

Why my countrymen cannot be Indians in India rather than being a Punjabi, a Tamilian, a Malayalee, a Maharashtrain, etc.etc.. when in India.

Why do we need to mention these details to each other when we meet the first time, may be in our society , in our office, in our schools, in our colleges, why??.

Why can't we be just INDIANS.. by birth.....

This question intrigues me often as I see the difference when I travel abroad and when I am in Mumbai or  for that matter anywhere in India...why can't we be Indians????....

I feel our power to perform as a country and our belongingness would increase manifold when we start addressing our selves  as Indians rather than marwadis, gujhratis and our caste and creed.

I wish to hear from my  readers what they think about my views on this universal subject which must be troubling like minded individuals.