I belong to a world where half my bloodline and friends are either settled outside of India or wish they were! I have seen crazy people around me who are obsessed with the thought of living outside India. And yes, Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok, New Zealand, Canada, UK, USA all qualify equally well. I guess it’s just Bhutan and Nepal that are denied the honour of being considered phoren by an average Indian. I have known a lady who would marry anything in pants if it held an American greencard! Another friend, submissive, docile, very Indian(!) in many matters, got married to an NRI. The boy knew India as much as she did Timbactu! But, she was excited; after all it was a boy from the phoren land.
Now, this was one part of the story. Switch to the next category of Indians who have finally succeeded in crossing the borders. Now these are people I find ‘confused’for the most part. You too would. Just read on… They seem not to know where they belong. They want to live outside India but in India! Didn’t get it? Let me explain… These people go abroad to study, to work. The accent and the rolling tongues come in two weeks sharp. They enjoy the initial phorenisation. When back in India during visits, these people love telling the lesser mortal Resident Indians stories of advancements in their lands. They wouldn’t tire of telling you they get twenty varieties of cheese and thirty types of breads!
They would swear by cheese, but would secretly buy Amul butter from an Indian grocery store. They would love to love ham and steak but would dine at that Indian restaurant five blocks from their apartment. Hail ‘Chaddha Aunty’s Parantha corner’! Whatever happened to the varieties of cheese and breads? They would make fun of their mums and grannies in India about how they could waste their time making sweets and stuff at home during festivals, but would themselves download recipes of malpua and gujiya from sanjeevkapoor.com and tarladalal.com!
When in India they would argue endlessly on why one cannot wear jeans or western clothes to a wedding; but once abroad they would not mind decking up in that heavily embellished saree or that chikan kurta-pajama even for a birthday party at an Indian household. They would give lectures to their mothers on how customs and traditions like karva-chauth and teej are archaic and should be done away with; but once in the phoren land, find themselves buying mp3’s of bhajans and gayatri mantras.
These are people who profess literary liking for Shakespeare but deep down enjoy reading Chetan Bhagat and Anurag Sinha. These are people who have spent hours and wads of money in salons trying to get that peaches and cream complexion, but once abroad, they go on beach vacations to get a tan.
These are people who would read about Marxism here but once on the other side of the Indian border would find a course on Buddhism or Indian History or better still Indian Politics to enroll for. These are people who preach globalization when in India and Indian-ness the moment they step out. They speak in English when in India, but when abroad, ‘the rule of the house is to converse in Hindi’ (or whatever the native language)! In India, these people enjoy arguing about embracing the foreign culture but glibly become resident authorities on the Indian culture in the phoren land. These are people who have always wanted to belong to the phoren land, but get jittery when they see their kids do the same.
When here, they swear by Tom Cruise and Pierce Brosnan, but when outside, Ranbir Kapoor suddenly becomes a hottie! It is Abba and Boyzone in India, but Kishore and Lata rule the roost in foreign lands. http://www.google.co.in/#q=kishore+kumar+lata+mangeshkar+hits&hl=en&prmd=vo&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=92lNTITvJ8S0rAf-moW5Dg&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=10&ved=0CEwQqwQwCQ&fp=b8b746ecdd338f54.
Hilarious? Weird? Worrisome? Comical? The question to ask here is… why does this happen. Is it because they want to belong to a different race all the time? It is quite frankly and oddly just the opposite. This is all because here is a breed of the Indian populace that does not know how to belong! When in India they could not belong to India. When outside, they still could not belong! The key is to learn to feel comfortable in your skin, to learn to feel secure of your identity both in India and outside of it. Realize, acknowledge that you are an Indian. Respect your roots. Only then will you be able to branch out under different skies, though still firmly held onto your soil!
(To the lesser sporting of the 50% of my friends & family, who might relate to a couple of things written here and feel offended, here's an anticipatory apology! You may reach the author at richasinha22@gmail.com).
Let us now set these people back in their phoren homes and see how things are. They want to live outside India, but there they will try and locate a South-Hall or a mini-India to live in so they could have Indian neighbours. And, I thought these were the very Indian neighbours you hated when in India! They would have never visited a temple in India, but would certainly know of all the temples and gurudwaras in London or Manhattan. And, they would insist on taking you there while you visit them!
They would want to live abroad, but would hunt for Indians on all possible networking sites for friendship. ‘Indians in London’, ‘Indians in NYC’, 'Indian Community of Singapore' are just some such thriving sites! In colleges or workplaces too trust them to find Indians or close south Asians to bond with.
They would swear by cheese, but would secretly buy Amul butter from an Indian grocery store. They would love to love ham and steak but would dine at that Indian restaurant five blocks from their apartment. Hail ‘Chaddha Aunty’s Parantha corner’! Whatever happened to the varieties of cheese and breads? They would make fun of their mums and grannies in India about how they could waste their time making sweets and stuff at home during festivals, but would themselves download recipes of malpua and gujiya from sanjeevkapoor.com and tarladalal.com!
When in India they would argue endlessly on why one cannot wear jeans or western clothes to a wedding; but once abroad they would not mind decking up in that heavily embellished saree or that chikan kurta-pajama even for a birthday party at an Indian household. They would give lectures to their mothers on how customs and traditions like karva-chauth and teej are archaic and should be done away with; but once in the phoren land, find themselves buying mp3’s of bhajans and gayatri mantras.
These are people who profess literary liking for Shakespeare but deep down enjoy reading Chetan Bhagat and Anurag Sinha. These are people who have spent hours and wads of money in salons trying to get that peaches and cream complexion, but once abroad, they go on beach vacations to get a tan.
These are people who would read about Marxism here but once on the other side of the Indian border would find a course on Buddhism or Indian History or better still Indian Politics to enroll for. These are people who preach globalization when in India and Indian-ness the moment they step out. They speak in English when in India, but when abroad, ‘the rule of the house is to converse in Hindi’ (or whatever the native language)! In India, these people enjoy arguing about embracing the foreign culture but glibly become resident authorities on the Indian culture in the phoren land. These are people who have always wanted to belong to the phoren land, but get jittery when they see their kids do the same.
When here, they swear by Tom Cruise and Pierce Brosnan, but when outside, Ranbir Kapoor suddenly becomes a hottie! It is Abba and Boyzone in India, but Kishore and Lata rule the roost in foreign lands. http://www.google.co.in/#q=kishore+kumar+lata+mangeshkar+hits&hl=en&prmd=vo&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=92lNTITvJ8S0rAf-moW5Dg&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=10&ved=0CEwQqwQwCQ&fp=b8b746ecdd338f54.
Hilarious? Weird? Worrisome? Comical? The question to ask here is… why does this happen. Is it because they want to belong to a different race all the time? It is quite frankly and oddly just the opposite. This is all because here is a breed of the Indian populace that does not know how to belong! When in India they could not belong to India. When outside, they still could not belong! The key is to learn to feel comfortable in your skin, to learn to feel secure of your identity both in India and outside of it. Realize, acknowledge that you are an Indian. Respect your roots. Only then will you be able to branch out under different skies, though still firmly held onto your soil!
(To the lesser sporting of the 50% of my friends & family, who might relate to a couple of things written here and feel offended, here's an anticipatory apology! You may reach the author at richasinha22@gmail.com).
Really good Richa, very thoughtful advances, Rightly stated and mentioned.I liked the article in full Great!!!
ReplyDeletesuperb piece of work Richa !! keep up your good work.very keen and truthful observation..
ReplyDeleteYou forgot one thing.. They even smell Indian in office :)
ReplyDelete