Sach is India

Aarique is five years old. He is an American born son of Indian born parents, both computer scientists living in Silicon Valley. His family is living the American dream but maintains a close connection to India. They make the annual trip when the grandson gets to see the grandparents, and the parents renew their core affiliations to the place they come from. Aarique loves these trips, where he is lavished with unqualified love and affection - something only a child knows instinctively. He is also bewildered by the sights, sounds and tastes during these trips, often wondering why there are so many people on the roads, and why the grandparents subscribe to two different daily newspapers (his parents dont get a printed paper anymore at home). On his trips to the local McDonald's, his sparkling eyes scans the menu in vain for his favorite cheeseburger. Although he finds the substitute, the McMaharaja - quite delectable. He often wonders why the children have to play cricket on the narrow streets instead of parks, and how their parents are OK with them on those busy streets shared with many others, rickshaws, trucks and the occasional animal. All in all, he remains fascinated. And for some reason, his eyes swell up when they say their goodbyes at the airport.

We know, and I know Aarique's parents know, to recognize and celebrate these differences in the world he will grow up to. A world which is disrupting the traditional identities western and eastern, industrialized and spiritual, democratic and autocratic at breakneck speeds. And in doing so, enabling a grand confluence of cuisine, culture, corporations and consumers. A world that appears to look much more colorful from the outside when there is diversity, but appears to move along more efficiently when there is uniformity. As large numbers of Indians in India increasingly emulate western traditional and societal moorings, one wonders what could be the essential Indian story we should have for Aarique. His parents grew up to the role models of wise kings and honorable princes immortalized in the Amar Chitra Katha comic books, complemented with a healthy dose of patriotism told through the life of those who fought to free a nation. These stories do not evoke the same wonder with Aarique, as he draws a playful trajectory of Angry Birds on his smartphone.

What is therefore the idea of India, or Indian-ness, that we should thrust forth into the new world where Aarique's generation will thrive?

Is there something at all? India is no more than a loosely defined conglomerate of princely states drawn together on a political map for matters of governance. What is the one motif for the concept of India as a people, her aspirations and thoughts, something deriving from where they come from yet not entirely defined by that alone. Something that Aarique would understand, and could proudly claim to be what his parents grew up to before his time, yet something that would stand the test of time in his new world order. In the part of the world Aarique now lives, India is imagined as the place churning out thousands of computer engineers, or hundreds of Bollywood song and dance sequences or tens of spiritual dimensions and traditions. These are the popular and often the easiest lenses to see modern India, but none of them are particularly likely to impress a five year old used to seeing the heroism of the lone warrior who has great power, and who is equally up to the great responsibility it comes with.

The task of finding a modern hero of the Indus valley civilization has its own perils, the least of which is the fact that the great river is not even in India as we know it today. Because the hero has to stand for more than the nation, at once personifying not only geography, but also the guiding philosophy of the Indus, the history of the ancient land stretching eastward to the Brahmaputra while integrating the resurgent sounds of a new flattened world unveiling in the swanky campuses of Bangalore. It could not be Vivekananda, for his oratory while powerful is too steeped in the mystic. Gandhi is more known, and although his humanity endures - the frail man's strong philosophy is better understood with age. We must look for someone with gladiatorial command to inspire a young mind, with the violence of Roman arena perhaps substituted with the might of a languid Indus.

Perhaps Sachin Tendulkar could be that icon, for modern India has produced few heroes who strode as he has . In his representations to the world, playing for India, but often representing the best in the people of Indus, he has singlehandedly changed the face of imperial sport of cricket since he was just a kid. Too many sporting icons have fallen from the high pedestal recently, for indiscretions of their personal lives or of bad choices in their professional pelotons. Tiger Woods is still a great golfer and nothing can take away what Lance has done for cancer, but Sachin's unblemished life story does offer hope of finding heroes in this noisy age. Operating under the intense glare of media, fans, statisticians, pundits - at once a gifted cricketer and a national treasure, the complex art and science of cricket has manifested in this diminutive hero. He is not revered because he is a great teacher, but because he is still a student. He is not loved because he has set very high standards, but because he exceeds them most of the time. His cherubic face has changed with the changing face of India, the exuberance of the lofted shots have been grounded as the nation has dug in to chart a future for an emerging nation.

Aarique will be visiting Mumbai this year to see the innumerable cricketing greens in Shivaji park where many his age are building a billion futures. Here is to hoping that he finds something there, something valuable that stays with him long after he has left that dusty place behind. Such is the face of the nation, Sach is India.