From the Outside

For all the 22 years of my life that I was in India, reading about the Kargil War, the Parliament attack, the Kashmir situation, the Pokhran-II blasts and subsequent sanctions, the joint military exercises between India and other countries, international arms sales and treaties, India's position in the UN, etc. they never sunk in beyond the skin level. We are aware of the facts; we have a half-formed opinion; but we have our own lives to lead, and we don't really think in depth on these issues, even though we are Indian to the core.

Step outside India and you start seeing everything differently. Things that seemed insignificant earlier, appear more important when you look at them from the outside. As the sole Asian in my bridge club, let alone Indian, I get asked a lot of questions about India. Things that nobody have asked me before because it was either obvious or unimportant for our everyday life... but now that I'm forced to think about them and give facts as well as opinion, those same things appear far from obvious or unimportant.

For example:

- What is the attitude of the average Indian towards Islam?
I said that there are a lot of Muslims in India, and they are very much part of our culture. We don't have a positive or negative attitude towards Islam, because it is already part of us, and we cannot judge it like it is an external thing. But the Muslims in India are happy with us, and we Hindus are happy with them; except for the odd sparks.

- How do you, and Indians in general, view the US?
I thought it best to restrict myself to politics. So I said that in the past, there was some friction because the US tended to support Pakistan over India in most disputes or issues - Russia was usually our saviour. But after the events of 9/11, things are looking up, as the USA seems to understand our situation better. The average Indian most definitely holds no rancour towards the US.

- You don't drink? Is it a religious thing?
I talked about the fact that I'm from an orthodox family in an orthodox part of India; religion does not enter the picture. I don't smoke or drink because my family expects me not to, and I am perfectly happy with that. Society, as a whole, considers these as vices, though not so much in recent days.

- You want me to roll up the windows entirely before we get out? I thought it would get a little too warm.
This was when we were stopping for lunch and I reminded my friend to roll up the windows completely before we went in to eat. This brought up the issue of crime levels, as I seemed quite horrified that she would do such a thing. I said wryly that where I come from, if you left your windows half open and left for half an hour, you won't find your car when you come back. Then I corrected myself and said that it was probably only because I lived in a large city. Just like State College has very low crime levels, but surely nobody would do such a thing in a city like New York.

And so on and so forth. One might remark that such questions/incidents are common and inevitable for an Indian living in the US; but the thing is, the mere act of thinking about some things and forming an opinion, puts them in a new light and underlines their importance which I scarce realized at one point of time.

Yet another thing I observed is that none of the students have ever asked me such questions. Come to think of it, I don't ask my international friends about issues concerning their country. Why are we youngsters so self-absorbed? It isn't enough to think about and talk about the here and the now; we really should be more thoughtful, more inquisitive about things that may not concern us directly. We should be more aware of the bigger picture, and think about where we stand. It feels less human to do otherwise.

Cheers,
Prashanth.