A vignette of India

In the interest of keeping the homefires burning, I spoke by phone to my daughter in India and suggested that she go see a recent U.S. block-buster movie, just for fun. Thinking I might be irreverent and manifesting horribly,since she is there studying pranic healing, I said "Go see something like Sex and the City, they must show it there." She, ever ahead of the game, said that in fact, she had seen it last month in Bombay. I, having read "How to Manifest Horribly and Enlighten Others" back in the sixties, backed off.

Although she had no intention originally of going to Bombay on her present journey, she did end up there for a few days after being waylaid by riots in Jaipur. She had been in Rajasthan, the area where Guijars were closing down railroad transportation and torching busses and so forth, and had had to sacrifice her ticket to Delhi and fly south to Bombay to circumvent the riots. She claims she never felt endangered. Sitting at home watching the news reports, I saw it differently.

While in Bombay, which was oppressively hot and congested, she and a friend decided to escape to an air-conditioned theater to see some Bollywood, but they ended up seeing "Sex and the City." Before the curtain went up, the entire theater audience stood up to sing the Indian National Anthem. Imagine! Why don't we do that in America? It reminds me of the 50's here in the USA. Whose economy is on the rise?
I don't know economy, but isn't theirs doing pretty well, all things considered? I know that people who will rise to sing their National Anthem before watching "Sex and the City" have a mighty special place in my heart and remind me of those times as an innocent child when I sang loud and clear, hand on my heart, fifty some years ago, about how much I loved my country. Maybe afterwards, on the weekend , I paid a quarter to go see "The Blob" or "Return of the Mole People", but my heart could sing out any patrotic tune with love, anytime anyone expected me to. I'll be glad to do it again. Someone make me!