All scholarly tongues are silent,
And all the well-read pass the buck
if asked to define India.
Cultures are made anew every morning
Religions redefined again in the afternoon
And spirituality altered for every new moon.
Every street has a fresh social norm
and it’s own intricacies.
Every bystander a philosopher.
And every cow is holy in some sense.
Rivers, trees, stones,
snakes, eagles, dogs,
earth, water, soil, air
all worshipped and none left
in this land.
Snowy Himalayas try to offer truth,
Monasteries, a bit of solitude
and a Gandhi statue non-violence
amidst a billion-plus population.
Modern men and women
carry ancient tags of caste
and millennial identities
in the same bodies.
The threads of
Past, present and the future
bind together
to create a land of no time.
Fate aligned to karma.
Justice tied to power.
and liberty hand in glove
with money.
Politics performing sorcery.
Economy doing yoga.
Science flirting with customs.
Technology with Jugaad.
Administration to connections.
And sports — running between the wickets.
but this is just
one India,
in so many other Indias
in India.
A forever plural nation.
The
What-ness
Why-ness
Where-ness
How-ness
of it all
is breathtakingly
unusual.
Thy Vox 
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