India- a place to live

I was born and raised in India. Now that I am in the USA since 4 years, I am seeing my nation as an outsider. whenever I read about the rapes, scams, scandals, murderers, actors involved in crimes, and other incidents, my heart sulks. One political party throwing mud on others, one religion insulting others. I wonder what happened to that secular, democratic, beautiful nation that I was born in. But, then, of all the billions of people living in the country, we read news about just 1000s of them. Statistically speaking, it's not that bad.

There are still good people out there. We, as Indians, still believe in humanity. We love and preach fellow beings. We give room to all religions. We have innovative minds and brilliant leaders who are globally recognized. Irony is, we hardly talk about them. The bad takes over the good so much that, we let those dark clouds engulf us completely. 

So, I have decided to pen down some memories from my childhood and adulthood that I cherished living in my motherland-

1) I could live all by myself for 3-5 hours, sometimes the entire day while my parents were out working. I started living like that since I was age 5. We had no nannies then, still I was safe and sound.

2) I had a perfect neighborhood where we never worried about play-dates.

3) I played on streets with other boys. I played cricket, football, seven picks, skipping, and what not. 

4) I traveled across the country as part of school and college and job and never felt insecure.

5) I took trains and buses during nights and still reached home in one piece. 

6) I rode my bike in the midnight from work to home and never felt anyone follow me.

7) I interacted with different men from all walks of life, but never was harassed by them.

8) Many strangers(men) helped me on various occasions and never took advantage of the situation.

9) Listening and seeing or witnessing rapes/murders/kidnaps was something that happened in movies or once in a year in newspapers. 

10) My neighbors and friends always helped and we pretty much relied on them during crisis and were never disappointed.

11) There are tons of such incidents and I can keep on writing.....

After all, India is not such a bad place to live or to be born, Yes, rapes,molestation, female infanticides and murders happen. But they happen to both genders (though women are more- statistically speaking). If one in ten men is a rapist, then there are still nine good people that are existing. Bad people are everywhere. They are not native to India. 

I strongly believe, stricter laws should come in to action to curb such acts from happening in the future. May our brothers and sisters don't find it hard to live. May be the present government can bring a change and show the world that after all-

India is definitely a better place to live. Vande Maataram. 

Why don't you pen down your beautiful memories? Leave yours in the comment section.