India is a woman – India is a woman but she is not a supermodel who wears the Rosso Corsa while she sits in her vineyard, enjoying the finer points in life. She does not have silver arrows or anything close to white precision engineering. She never wore the Bleu de France, either. She used to wear British Racing Green but that color has since faded to the drab color it always was before she put on her makeup. In reality, she has no racing color. Still, she has a charm about her. Although she has a sense of charm, she is no place for the weary traveler who just wants to rest and have a little peace. Even though she does not wear the Cunningham Racing Stripes like America, she is the real underdog. She is the one that nobody ever expects to win. She has features she is embarrassed of, and even the ones she isn’t are not something any other girl would be proud of. Still, there is something oddly lovable about her. Although, she comes off as rough and unmannered upon first impressions, she is warm, giving, kind and pure of heart. She does not come in the name of one god or another, giving only false hope that things will get better. She understands her flaws, openly admits them and has sworn that she will fix them even if it is not until her dying day.

India is not pretty; she stands a shelled shadow of her former self, like a hummingbird that has lost its grace. She is trying now to regain it and although she faces many obstacles, some of which are not her fault, I am confident that she will do it. I am also confident that I will not be alive to see it, but someday India will be beautiful again. She has hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, even if nothing else. She does not pretend she has anything besides hope, but her hope is more beautiful and more powerful than any tangible manifestation imaginable. Someday she will wear vibrant racing colors once again and they will not just be makeup. Someday, she will race alongside the other beautiful colors and know that she has accomplished this by herself and only by herself. When they ask her why she will tell them that she has a soul that has suffered defeat one too many times and although she has deep scars, she decided that she will never lose again.

I have grown strangely fond of India

– Christopher R. F. Lentricchia