I dont know if i speak for the rest of the Indians settled ( and planning to settle) in India. But I want to add my piece on a topic which gets me totally riled up.
We don't mind Indians settled in U.S, studying there, working there, marrying there, starting their Gujarati/Andhra/Tamil commity, or even building their own version of a desi temple. No we don't mind that. In fact, by popular opinion, Videshi-Deshi junta are more outspoken about their patriotism than us.
But I do mind few things:
1. The comments about the Indian traffic, Indian taxi, Indian Auto (god forbid , the favorite topic for all videshi deshis), the level of Indian Noise - I don't mind the rants, I do mind the Indian sub attached to all topics, as if the speaker himself/herself was not an Indian (or once was).
2. Mails from just-going-to-study-MS-will-miss-you-all friends after landing: 'It feels as if I have come home de. This is where I belong.'
3. A recent comment by one of my relatives - ' Bed-Bugs? There are none in U.S! It is people from developing nations who bring it here. Must be the Indian students!'
4. Another gem of a comment from my recently returned-from-Pittsburgh neighbor thatha - 'ange perummal alangaram evalo pramadama nadakkum teriyuma?! Inge irrukkura koil llam unnum ille... evalo dirty!' and the add-on of course ' You should go there definitely for a darshan!'
I mean really, what does Vilayat do to some people anyway?! Note that I am not condemning everyone. My sister and jiju are in U.S hoping desperately that their daughter does not have much of an American accent. My Mama and Mami and Sai, though settled in U.S for more than ten years, are still very much rooted to India. My close friend Dasa has still stayed grounded.It is the smaller percentage of people that we despise.
Frankly, patriotic or un-, loving U.S or not, unless you are in India and get to listen to these nuggets of wisdom about our country from wanting-to-be-Non-Indian Indian, you won't get it.
You just won't get it!
PS: None of the above four points have been made up.
11 comments:
Archana,
Can't agree with you more. My post and yours totally talk about the same thing, just that we are talking from opposite shores. Loving one's country is important, not from where one does so :)
I Proud To Be Indian :)
Arun,
Very true! It is just a matter of different perspectives.
Ash,
Me too!
thats what we as 'indians' do dont we?....always rant...wherever we r, whichever part of the world. but its part of human nature... just that we r more explict than others.
and in india we tend to accept that 'we r like that only' (its a nice book btw), we dont really go all out to make a difference but ready to point our fingers at the govt. or anyone else...
being in both situations and being in a field where in 'developing' an economy is the criteria, this irritates me more than the so called foreign returns and their comments!!... (what they dont see is even the developed economies of US have their fare share of citizens who fail to make a living), but what the govt. gives is social security and infrastructure...
Thats what 'humans' do Nitin - Rant! I wouldn't like to make it an 'Indian' quality!
Blaming the government for all thats bad or wrong is something we all love to do though.. (and some others make it into a prize-winning book too)!
my heart touched! i can go on and on on this topic. thats why pittsburgh kaaka posts - i have started writing a post on a guy i have to keep meeting and working with, he can tell u why i am so irritated!
here is another real incident! Some of us were talking about when would be the right time to go back to India, now maybe tough given economic conditions etc. One Indian colleague, has been in US for 3 and half years and asked others how developed India had become in the last few years because of IT etc. His statement verbatim, "Bataa, aaj bhi India mein Nike shoes miltha hain, kya?"
The rest of us looked at him in disbelief, wanted to throw him from the thirteenth flor of our office, but ended up laughing like crazy!! and i can still understand if this chap was here since birth, but 3.5 years and this attitude!!! my god, its amazing, how westerners respect our country and want to know more about our culture etc, while desis talk like this, "Nike miltaa hain kya"? ha ha!!
haha... ROTFL! I love hating these examples Jij!
Archie,
Its a matter of perspective and what your priorities are. I think all Indians who travel & live outside India end up facing a number of internal conflicts. Leveling critisism may just be one way of coping with these conflicting feelings. Some of it is based in the perceived differences in environments. Ignore and move on. The world is made up of all sorts of people.
As far as the Autos are concerned, are you kidding. That's one of the coolest things about India (for a kid!). Where else could you ride around in an vehicle with no doors (its almost like a convertible!) and no seat-belts too! And you do know that Delhi has now passed a law & educating/encouraging people (at least they are trying to) to lower the honking (noise pollution) as its getting way too loud.
I don't know about the bed-bugs! Hmmm!
And we definitely have mosquitoes & cockroaches in the US! We even have something called "Roach Coaches" here. They are mobile food vans (apparantely in the past they had 'cockroaches' & hence the name?)
Regards
Arya
Your are right about ignoring akka, but at it felt good ventng it all out!
Funny one about Roach Coaches!
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