Thursday, June 7, 2007

EmbarrassedIndians

Hi.. Are you from India?
Yes.. And you? Which part?
I'm from Delhi? You?
Pune..

And the whole conversation can continue in a language other than ours for hours without realizing so...
Why is it so that we Indians are always embarrassed of our identity? That we are the ones to hide the fact that we are Indians as much as we can? Why is it so that so many foreign models can have interpretors on the world ramp, but an Indian model cannot reach there unless she has decent polished Western English accent? Why do we treat anything Western as "To be copied"? Why do we think that those who cannot speak in English are unpolished and unworthy? Why do we rate ourselves as Second Rate Citizens?

We are the ones who would praise anything and anybody as long as it is not ours. We follow all the rules of any country other than ours and then say Indians donot follow rules. Asked to express our views about India we say India is poor, Indians are illeterate, places are polluted and people are superstitious. As if we ain't a part of it. As if we would be judged as someone who is not related to it. We fail to mention that we are a part of the oldest culture. That when West was hunting in woods, India was teaching at Taksheela. That India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world. That India has given world basics of arithmetics and art. We casually forget Gandhi, Tagore and C V Raman.

We don't realize one thing. We are what we are "Indians" and that is what we would be judged on. There is no point in hiding yourself. Unless there is self respect, there cannot be respect from any other quarter.