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Love you all ♥

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Close to thirteen years ago when I was in school someone said something that made me ask this questions to myself.

     Why do we call Bharata 'India'?

    Why not simply call it Bharata?

   After all that's what our country's name is, isn't it?

   Then why create confusion between India and Bharata?

       These were the questions running in my twelve year old mind. And I still think about them sometime.

Now at twenty four I think I have some answers and some, I can guess but still I think there are many kids out there who has asked themselves these questions and has received the answers similar to what I got back then, let's see what were those answers.

Q. Hum Bharata ko 'India' kyu khte h?

(Why do we call Bharata "India"?)

Ans. Kyuki gaure Bharata ko "India" khte the.

(Because white people *Britishers* called Bharata "India".)

Q. Why can't we just call it Bharata, why change name of our own country?

Ans. Because that's how foreigners know us, they know us as India, not Bharata.

     I got these replies some thought it was good for me to be curious but others find my questions irritating and irrelevant.

      I guess some kids still got answers like this and of course reactions. They are not wrong you know, these answers,  may not satisfy a curious kids hunger for knowledge but these answers definitely give more questions to mull over.

     I didn't get my answer then but it gave me so much more to think. Like why some foreigners call us a different name?

why go to the trouble of naming a country which already have a name?

    You know so many questions but never a straight answer.

      Another question;

     We call India 'Bharata' or 'Hindustan' in hindi and we are told the reason behind these name since we were young but never about India. What's the reason behind the name India?

What does the word even mean?

Why are we called Indians?

     When we ask our elders about it, they simply reply

  "It's what white men had called us."

    And that's reason enough for us to call ourselves Indians?

And for them the answer is enough. They are satisfied with the thought that they tell their kids something but, is this something enough for the young generation of this age?

No, I don't think so. We, the young people of twenty first century want to know everything,  we want to know reason behind every small thing. It's the way we are taught in school, more importantly it's what science teaches us, that nothing is without a reason we just have to find it.

     And that's what I tried to do. Let's go down the road of memory lane and see what I remember of the day, not much of course,  I don't have that good of a memory after all.

     So you got to read the questions circling in the mind of twelve year old kid but don't you think something must have happened to trigger it.

     The trigger was actually a statement,  a statement of a teacher.

        In seventh grade my social studies (combined studies of history, geography and political science) teacher said something in the class,  that now I knew was wrong,  I can't call it a lie because I know that the sir really believe what he said, which doesn't mean was truth. I don't remember it word by word but I remember the meaning he tried to relay.

    Mr. S our Social studies sir was quite an orthodox type. He was a believer of Neta ji and was quite against Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru ji and was very bitter about their achievements regarding Indian freedom and the credit they got for it. He was our history teacher, so when ever there was a lesson about freedom fights or the day of some political birthday or death anniversary,  he would bitch about them. On the mind of young kids of twelve he had an impact. It was an occasion like that when he told us the meaning of India or specifically why our country was named India, I remember he said in a teasing tone that "India was named India by Britishers because of it being a colony of East India Company, who ruled on our country for almost two hundred years. More than that we who call ourselves Indians, so proudly,  should be ashamed of it because it means we are still under the rule of East India Company" at the last part his tone was condensing and degrading just like his words were.

But still he said it in the class and when your history teacher tell you a fact you're bound to believe it. I know I believed what he said, which he believed was truth but there was something, you know like a voice in the back of my mind telling me not to believe it. So a part of my mind never believe those words and never let me forget about them either. They have always stayed in the forefront of my mind. And that's why four years ago I put these words in Google

   'What does the word India means?'

The search engine shows various results. I just started using Internet so didn't know where to go exactly or what to look for.

    I clicked different links but didn't find anything satisfactory, some results were quite scary you know,  don't remember what there was exactly but they link Indian to the words like animals, savages and what not. The article was about American Indians or Native Americans who were called Indian by the European settlers who thought them to be like illiterate animals and savages.

It was quite knowledgeable but wasn't the meaning I wanted to learn. So after a few try and some useless links who tell you half ass shit which doesn't sound right,  I finally found the real meaning and which finally make sense.

      India was called India way before foreigners came to India. People of west knew India as the land on the other side of Indus River, which we known as 'Sindha' river. They called the land India,  the land on the eastern shore of Indus river.

       I don't know what else to say but I was happy to have my answer and to know that not everything that comes out of your teacher's mouth is right. Teachers too are humans and they make assumptions just like you do.

Another thing I believed falls words of my teacherfor eight years before I search for the real answer because I didn't have the resources but you guys have so if you have a question or a doubt you know Google held all your answers,  just don't hesitate and search for the things you want to learn. If you have resources use them.

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The chapter is unedited and I am sorry for the mistakes you will find in it but thank you for reading it.

I'm sorry for the long wait,  I will try to post another chapter soon till then enjoy my other work :)

Also

Marry Christmas everyone.

Hope this is present enough from me.

Enjoy the holidays

And Happy New year in advance :)

I have exams right now and I was meant to study tonight but I wanted to give you,  my lovely readers, a gift so I spent two hours on writing this chapter for you guys. I'm telling you guys this because remember if I fail this exam I will blame you all.

Ok I'm joking,  I can't blame my lovely readers for anything, especially the one who stick around with me and Memoir for this long without an update for months, I'm grateful for you all.

Again thank you ♥

Marry Christmas once again ♧☆♡