Last weekend I took a break from the slow-crawl feel of the move and took a trip to Washington DC. Retracing a trip I took 9 years ago, my first visit to this country, wetting my toes in the ocean of unknown, unfamiliar, the foreign. The beginning of the circle that would close in 11 days when I board that one-way flight to Delhi.
I digress. The last time I made this journey down the east-coast it was somewhat different. For one, it was winter outside, snow covered the ground. The coast was beautiful, but in a harsh wintry way. I had little money in my hands, return flight unconfirmed, under perpetual tension of being in a foreign land, far away from family, from the familiar. Now, I am a more seasoned traveler. Yes, I am still a ‘worrier’ by nature. But the terror of the unfamiliar is gone. But happy to say, not so jaded to not look forward to the Cherry Blossom festival on the Mall and the beautiful symmetry of DC.
As I stood on the Mall, crowded with families from all over the world, colourful kites soaring in the sky I looked at the Capitol where, just few days ago the legislators had celebrated the passing of the Healthcare bill. Where a year or so ago stood the first black president of this country. I reflect upon the small journey of mine through some of the greatest democracies of the world. From the most populous, to the then most powerful one that ruled us for 200 years to the most powerful one of today. So many different ways of executing this one idea: people can rule themselves. However insular, however set in their ways, however illiterate, people are smart enough to be able to run their own lives.
As we drove back in the evening I noticed the posters advertising an exhibition I had been wanting to see for a long time. The Terracotta Warriors of China were visiting! I had to see them. The first Qi emperor conquers his neighbours and consolidates the warring states to unite into a single country, stamping out dissent and diversity, imposing a single language, a single currency, a single administration and gives birth to what would become the largest group of people living under a single banner. He recreates a whole new city of clay and wood and precious materials, just to accompany him into the netherworld. A giant architectural project, a wonder of the world.
It strikes me that all those wonders that we memorialize, admire and hold in awe are for the most part products of powerful autocracies. Where the unreasonableness of pouring unlimited resources into essentially useless structures is never questioned. But then, I remember Madam Mayawati, a democratically elected autocrat, and my theory falls on its face!
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