Reading the Newspaper in the Houston public library somebody remarked ‘these……..Indians’. He happened to be reading the ‘Richard Gere’ kiss controversy. The words hit me hard. Immediately all my senses were alert. A pang of anxiety and anger struck me and to be honest I felt hurt. But as most of the timid people like me would agree to I chose to ignore the comment and walk past. But deep down somewhere the comment kept bothering my conscience.
Mark my words its not for the first time and I am not the only one who exhibits such symptoms.Infact each and every one who hails from the subcontinent suffers from this syndrome. It’s just that some of us choose to speak about it and others except it as a repercussion of staying in a foreign land.
.
Every thing spoken, written or for that mater even mentioned about the country literally and metamorphically is our personal issue. As if somebody is talking about us. Negative or positive hardly makes the difference. The important thing is that it is about India. Be it a bollywood release, India’s devastating performance at world cup or who would be the next president. Each and every issue captivates our attention.
We love to celebrate all our festivals, eat all the fried snacks (considered unhealthy food in west), spices, pickles, papad and countless other delicacies. Believe it or not but almost all the Indians residing in US prefer home cooked Indian food to any other food .To this day an Indian woman no mater for how long she has resided in foreign land will happily say that her favorite attire is sari.
People spend almost their entire life in faraway lands but when ever one asks them about their home land there is sudden twinkle in their eyes. All their memories are fresh as if they are talking about something which happened just the day before. They meticulously mention all the details about the place so that on can have a crystal clear image of their native land. It may sound funny but all Indians can endlessly talk about India and every time they talk the excitement in their tone fills one with mixed emotions of happiness and sorrow .Its very nostalgic.
If one would summarize India is not merely a land mass; it is the legacy of rich golden heritage which flows in blood of an Indian .Truly a little India breaths in each and very Indian no matter where he stays. That I guess is the essence of being an Indian.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The consciousness of being Indian vibrates intensely when one is far away from home. Negative comments wedge like a painful thorn. The self forgets rationality even while knowing the issue commented on was blow out of proportion. Yet it hurts!!!! and the mind screams out loud "We are not like that".
Post a Comment