The countries of India

The phrase 'Unity in diversity' has been drummed into our skulls so much in schools, but we've rarely thought about how much it means. Think of this: out of the 204 countries of the world, 142 are smaller in area than a single state of India, TamilNadu (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=countries+with+area+less+than+130000+km^2). Many of our states are countries in their own right, with their own language, culture and history; they've been countries for most of history, and are simple states of a country now only because of some historic accidents. In fact, it's better to think of India as a continent, parallel to Europe, than as a country.

It's great that we've all managed to get together as a country, share and exchange elements of our culture, and remain united. However, it's also important to realize the things we've lost in becoming a single country: there would have been a better distributed tourism industry (now most travellers visit only north India thanks to Taj Mahal), websites would offer more language choices to us rather than thinking Hindi will suffice for everyone, we'd learn more of our own history rather than just touching the surfaces of the histories of all parts of India, and the world would in general know our individual states' achievements better.

In a spirit of blind patriotism, let's not try to cram all the different cultures of India into ourselves, and in the process lose our identities and histories.

The IBCD in me

I lay awake late night, reading through the drunken sexual adventures of female seduction experts in "The Game" by Neil Strauss; I don't exactly identify with any of those people.
I wake up, get ready, and join the dozens of Brahmins reciting holy mantras and changing our sacred threads in a temple. I feel like a hypocrite throughout, not believing in these rituals but going through it anyway. I don't identify with anyone there either.

I read through stories on reddit about "losers" who live with their parents even after college.
I come back to real life and am drawn into a discussion about how kids in India stop living with their parents after marriage, and how "the problem" is getting worse by the day.

There's a book by a girl proud of her one-night stands ("My horizontal life - a collection of one-night stands"). And here's an article criticizing any and all premarital sex as an unthinkable sin.

Which of these am I? Where do my own morals stand? My roots remain in India, but my branches are spreading out in all directions - and the things they find there challenge my unquestioned assumptions, force me to rethink my values. I'm a free spirit by conscious choice, unbound by meaningless restrictions and accepting of the sensible ones among Western values; but my subconscious remains the conservative orthodox Indian, refusing to co-operate with logic and reason.

This is the world of the latest breed of Indian youth - the Indian-Born Confused Desi. Welcome.

(Inspired by a discussion with Vineeth)