What makes a nation?

Couldn't help think about this as I watched the Twenty20 between Aussies and Zimbabwe. My heart bled for the Zimbabwe team as they sat through the final over waiting tensely about the fate of the match. But a four was hit on the last but one ball and I jumped for joy along with the Zimbabwe team. :-) It felt good to watch them run with their flag and I thought again 'Amazing isnt it what a piece of cloth does for a nation"......

So what makes a nation? What makes India?

Is it people who look similar to you in their skin color, height and facial features? In India, the people from the North East look different than the rest. There is also difference between the south and the north.

Is it the rivers and the lakes and the mountains? A common weather? In India climate changes a lot - from the deserts in Rajasthan to the fertile land of Punjab to the rain soaked forests of the North East.

Surely it is the food. In India, the North eats lot of butter, fish is the staple diet in West Bengal while the south can't do without rice.

How about traditions and culture? Punjab dances when its baisakhi time, state of Maharashtra goes festive during Ganesh chaturthi, Gujarat swings to the beat of the garba during dussehra, for the Bengalis its DurgaPuja, the south celebrates Onam and pongal......

The language then. I know which major languages are spoken in India but I confess I wont be able to name the countless dialects that are spoken.

What makes a country then? All this and much much more. And the flag of the country symbolises it.

That's because I know that when a flag containing the tricolors of saffron, white and green with a blue wheel in between flutters against the sky I miss a heart beat. As I watch it being carried all across the country in Rehman's "Maa tuze salaam" video it brings a lump to my throat. And this flag is what binds each of my countrymen to each other despite our squabbles over caste, creed and religion. I know we will rise over them one day.

I think the same is true for all nations on the face of this planet.