Untitled
A Voyage to Vietnam
I happened to travel to Vietnam some months back.
As the flight descended on the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, a sense of disquiet enveloped me. Vietnam and its heroic people had challenged the might of several powerful aggressors, emerging victorious every time; it was a different matter that they suffered untold miseries in the process.
It was late evening in Hanoi and a steady drizzle cast a mournful veil over the city. As I drove out of the airport, the drizzle ceased though the mist remained. It was a long drive to the hotel, about 30 minutes; the traffic was rather thin, moving on the right side ' perhaps a legacy of the American presence.
As my car sped through the nearly empty streets ' with occasional trucks, and some scooters and mopeds crossing our path ' I noticed a remarkable similarity that made me relax. It was as if I were traveling on NH 47 back home in Kerala. The rains, the swaying coconut trees, the greenery, the humidity, the narrow roads crisscrossing the highway, everything reminded me of Kerala, thousands of miles away!
More was to come in the next few days that I spent in Vietnam. Geographically too, Vietnam is a narrow stretch like Kerala is, with a long coastline. The topography too is very similar. The slanting, tile-roofed houses resemble those back home, so also the shops on either side of the roads. Like Keralites, the Vietnamese are rice eating, with a variety of fish and meat products to add to the flavour; but they hardly use any spices or oil, preferring boiled or steamed edibles. I was settling down nicely!
In the days that followed, I traveled a bit in Vietnam, getting to know a little but more about this remarkable country and its great people. Hanoi in the North is much smaller and less developed than Saigon, now named Ho Chi Minh City in the South, which is a big city by any standards. The people are warm and friendly ' the problem is they speak only Vietnamese! There is a craze for learning English though, and the 98 per cent literacy that they boast of is aiding the process. The only problem is ' if I can call it a problem ' the younger generation is rushing madly towards Westernization: and like India, Vietnam too has a predominately young population.
And then there are mobikes! They just rush out of every street ' like a swarm of bees or more like locusts! I remembered old TV shows of China where the cycle ruled the roost on the roads. And I came to know over the week that in Vietnam too, the cycle was the king of the roads till about three years back. But a consistently growing economy ' over eight per cent at that ' paved the way for the mobikes. And I was delighted to know that in another five to seven years' time the two-wheelers will give way to the four wheelers!
The Party ' I mean the Communist Party of Vietnam ' is all pervasive, minus the rigidity, which we normally attach to the Party elsewhere. It is less text-bookish and more realistic to the evolving times and native specifications. Yet, the Party's influence on the day-to-day lives of the people is very visible. Elections are round the corner in Vietnam and the candidates all belong to one Party only ' no question, of course, about which Party that is!
Though not very religious, the Buddhist influence is quite evident in the country. Vietnam has a great cultural and literary heritage that they are very proud of. Colonialism and imperialism could not destroy that heritage. Today, the government tries to promote tourism in a big way. Its natural beauty and cultural heritage are a big bonus in luring the tourists from far and wide.
The Indian in me was extremely pleased at the tremendous affection and goodwill that the Vietnamese have for us. The elder generation fondly recalls the unstinted support that India extended to Vietnam in their years of struggle against colonialism and imperialism. They have the highest of regard for Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru who voiced India's support to Vietnam in no uncertain terms. They also recall with great warmth the fact that Atal Behari Vajpayee who was to visit China when he was India's External Affairs Minister in the Janata Government had called off the visit in protest against China's aggression on Vietnam.
And the younger generation of Vietnamese holds India in high esteem for the rapid progress in the IT sector, knowledge management, science and technology and the economic growth of recent years. They see in India a reliable partner in progress, a process that is being aided by several Indian companies, which have invested or are investing in Vietnam, including Tata Steel, Essar Steel, ONGC, Godrej and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
And then I saw Ho Chi Minh! It is a moment that will remain etched in my memory forever. I walked in with the thousands in queue to pay homage to a leader who became a legend in his own lifetime. His body lies in state at the Mausoleum flanked by ceremonial guards. People file past, silently, reverentially, stopping for a few permissible seconds in humble homage. It was an intensely emotional moment to see the remains of this great man, scraggy beard and all, who led his country against the most powerful countries in the world.
As I stood there paying tribute to a legend, many thoughts rushed through my mind. Here was a man ' a leader of women and men ' who galvanized a nation to action to successfully counter the super power that boasted of the latest in armory and armaments, the deadliest of weapons of mass destruction. Its leaders had the audacity and the temerity to proclaim to the world that they had dropped more bombs in one month on this scratch of a country than all the bombs dropped by the Allies in the entire World War II! Statistics did prove that boast in no uncertain terms. The Allies had dropped 2 million tonnes of bombs in World War II while Vietnam had to bear the brunt of 8 million tonnes!
I remembered that horrifying picture of a small girl in a group of children, screaming, with the searing napalm bomb all over her ' a photograph that captured the poignancy and the cruelty of a war, which shook the conscience of the civilized world. Between 1963 and 1971, the Americans had dropped 388,237 tonnes of napalm bombs on Vietnam. 60,000 US soldiers lost their lives, while 2 million Vietnamese perished defending their country, which was reduced to just rubbles. Thousands in the US and millions more in Vietnam were maimed. More than anything else, many were reduced to mental wrecks.
I also remembered the protests worldwide, particularly in the United States and all across Europe and Asia, against the brutality of a war that left its scar permanently on the American psyche.
And I bowed my head to the man lying in state who made it possible for his people to live in freedom, with dignity, without rancour. I chanced to talk to some Vietnamese; they hold no ill will to the Americans, though it has hurt them in many ways. Today, the US is one of Vietnam's biggest trade partners, assisting in developmental efforts, and supporting the infrastructure sector. The Vietnamese have a constant refrain if we tend to ask them about the war; their take is, the French came, we threw them out; the Chinese came, we threw them out too; and the Americans came, we threw them out as well ' as simple as that.
Yet, two things are non-negotiable with these affable people; one, a tremendous sense of nationalism, and two, the man who made it possible ' Ho Chi Minh!
As I flew out of Vietnam, I felt privileged to have been in this remarkable country. I can always tell my grandchildren: I saw the land called Vietnam whose people brought the mightiest of powers to their knees; and more importantly that I also saw Ho Chi Minh!
And then a popular slogan of yesteryears came up in my mind: "Tumhara Naam, Hamara Naam, Vietnam, Vietnam "
