A long time back, a professor from Maha-rashtra went to Germany for higher studies. In those days the Europeans' knowledge of our country was confined to a few things like the Himalayas, the Ganga, snakes and tigers. Our professor's German friends asked him whether he had seen the Ganga and were most surprised to learn that he had not!
With uncanny foresight our forefathers sought to bring the people of this country together by persuading them to believe that they had not fulfilled their life's mission until they carried the water of the Ganga from Banares and emptied it in the sea at Rameshwar. Most Indians did this at one time and, in the process, got acquainted with this vast country with its variety of languages, costumes, manners and customs.
Then a blight fell upon the land. Religion lost its savour and the sun which normally rises in the East began, for many Indians, to rise in the West ! A trip to Europe, particularly a trip to England, became more important than a trip to Banares or Rameshwar and almost acquired the sanctity of a pilgrimage.
It is possible that by now the veil has been partially lifted and people have once again begun to look at this country as something well worth their attention.
Seeing India is like entering the Alladin's cave! The riches stored there dazzle your eyes. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, whereveryou go, the country has something new to show both in the countryside and the cultural life of the people. It's a many coloured dance of life full of God's plenty.
The most surprising thing however is not that such variety exists but that underneath this variety there emerges a common force that binds people together. While at Manali in the distant North you are surrounded by snow bound peaks, at Oty in the South which is approximately at the same height, you see no snow at all ! And yet the Dusserah festival which is celebrated with such pomp at Mysore in the South, finds its counterpart in the Kulu Valley thousands of miles away in the North.
Why should our young men and women, all of us in fact, deny these gifts which Nature has put at our doorstep in such prodigal splendour? One can spend a lifetime in seeing and absorbing the beauty that is all around us and still die with a feeling that so much remains to be seen and admired! Not for nothing is it said
Antar Bharati makes constant appeals to our young people to go round the country, see as much of it as they can, get to know its people with their variety of customs, languages, modes of dress and experience at first hand their friendliness and hospitality.
India is a vast country, almost a world in miniature and travelling round and savouring its beauty and variety is an experience no one should miss. As we go round and watch and listen and try to understand we are overpowered by something which seems to tie it all together, the sense of oneness under this bewildering variety, till at long last our hearts begin to hear the mysterious music of Hindustan.
Our forefathers had heard this music and they made every effort to make their countrymen hear it too. And so they almost put their countrymen under oath that before they died they would visit Amarnath, Badrikedar and Benares in the North and Rameshwar and Kanyakumari in the South.
Antar Bharati is engaged in the effort to bring home to our people the beauty that lies scattered all around them and once in a while allow this great country to cast its magic spell over them.