Sign of the times

It's a move that means everything and yet nothing at all. It is after all only a symbol, an oversimplification of a very very complex reality. A symbol it will become of the irresolvable tangle of history, faith and destiny that forms the core of India, of her long promised and much expected economic boom. Rampant corruption, blood soaked bitter caste/class struggles, a burgeoning population, and simmering communalism/regionalism - hang like a shadow of doom over the symbol, forever threatening to the promise of waking up to a better nation. 

The symbol in my opinion looks very appropriate for a nation that has lumbered on slowly but surely from the start of civilization while other great kingdoms rose all around it to violent dominance and were then reduced to rubble just as quickly. Its simple yet eye catching shape carries within itself a message of deep significance, a lesson which the foolish world seems always reluctant to learn. The swooping half R of the English alphabet or the "Rah" letter of the Devnagri script (Symbolic of the Rupee), topped by two horizontal lines which according to the symbol's creator Udaya Kumar symbolizes the equality of the world economy with solo superpower world political structures very soon becoming a thing of the past. Let's hope that his words come true. An apt choice indeed it would be then for a nation whose people have always embodied the spirit of "Live and let live" and understood the wiseness and justness in walking the middle path.