Mind it you cannot earn it, you are born with it! I am talking about the minority tag, a priced asset in India, which entitles a person to numerous sops thrown by our vo
te-bank driven governments. Being a minority in India might mean a relatively comfortable life for one but it isn’t the same abroad. The fact is that everybody is a minority in one or the other way, a thinking that got reinforced when I traveled to Europe.
After my flight landed in my stopover at Helsinki, Finland, I started having a strange feeling. At the Airport, lot of activities were going on at the same time - people walking, kids playing, groups of friends chattering, waiters serving food and so on; but I was missing something, I was away from my fraternity. I was getting slightly uncomfortable, not because of any jetlag, but because of this odd feeling. And this feeling only got exaggerated each time I looked myself in the mirror. I was different!
The big blow – I was in the land of Caucasian (white) majority, wandering with a minority tag. No ce
rtificate or announcements required; m
y overall identity and appearance were testimony to my status. Each time I got closer to nonnative culture, language, people, traditions, and food, I felt myself much glued to this tag.
I was wondering whether I would get any special treatment or attention as these people get when they visit India. I don’t know if I was also termed something, the way they are termed ‘Goras’ in most of India, but I did observe that many times people avoided sitting next to me in buses & planes and also avoided making eye contact for longer.
Despite having the taste of minority, I realized that not everybody was same. I got opportunities to talk to people, make friends and share unique perspectives, many times because of my ‘m’ status. People were indeed interested in knowing about where I came from i.e. India and its diverse culture. I was always very excited while telling them that they would not believe that India is one, if they had seen all its parts. By the time my trip was about to finish, I was quite comfortable carrying my identity in the land of strangers. I had never felt so strongly attached to my Indian identity.
te-bank driven governments. Being a minority in India might mean a relatively comfortable life for one but it isn’t the same abroad. The fact is that everybody is a minority in one or the other way, a thinking that got reinforced when I traveled to Europe.After my flight landed in my stopover at Helsinki, Finland, I started having a strange feeling. At the Airport, lot of activities were going on at the same time - people walking, kids playing, groups of friends chattering, waiters serving food and so on; but I was missing something, I was away from my fraternity. I was getting slightly uncomfortable, not because of any jetlag, but because of this odd feeling. And this feeling only got exaggerated each time I looked myself in the mirror. I was different!
The big blow – I was in the land of Caucasian (white) majority, wandering with a minority tag. No ce
rtificate or announcements required; m
y overall identity and appearance were testimony to my status. Each time I got closer to nonnative culture, language, people, traditions, and food, I felt myself much glued to this tag.I was wondering whether I would get any special treatment or attention as these people get when they visit India. I don’t know if I was also termed something, the way they are termed ‘Goras’ in most of India, but I did observe that many times people avoided sitting next to me in buses & planes and also avoided making eye contact for longer.
Despite having the taste of minority, I realized that not everybody was same. I got opportunities to talk to people, make friends and share unique perspectives, many times because of my ‘m’ status. People were indeed interested in knowing about where I came from i.e. India and its diverse culture. I was always very excited while telling them that they would not believe that India is one, if they had seen all its parts. By the time my trip was about to finish, I was quite comfortable carrying my identity in the land of strangers. I had never felt so strongly attached to my Indian identity.
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NICE One Dude!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo in a way or other everybody is minority in this world, its just a matter of time and place. A lot of categories made by us(humans) to divide ourself.. area, race, religion, cast, appearence.. all the adjectives that could be considered have been used.
ReplyDeleteI am sure you had a good experience.
I can very well relate to you. I know of circumstances where white-skinned gives an inferior treatment to brown-skinned, and perhaps only to "people from the land of India". I believe many of them have some persistent myths about India and Indians. I'll tell you an instance:
ReplyDeleteThere's a quiz at Facebook, called "Guess the Sketch", where more than 15 players can participate at a time. Each player's system is integrated to one another. One-by-one, each player gets a word to draw by the Facebook Admin, which only appears on the active player's screen. As the active player draws the drawing, the other players guess the sketch and win points.
I remember once a female named Clara started drawing an elephant, then dense forests using green color, and started to draw children coughing and spitting, and colored their skin using a black color. While all the players made odd guesses (and few won as well), I was amazed when the result appeared on the screen. The word was "India". I was startled to see how few people perceive India and Indians to be!
Right said Vibha... however, thankfully, I didn't come across some horrible experience, which no-one knows can happen with anybody.. Overall, it was my state of mind too, which made me think myself as unique, and thus minor!
ReplyDeleteTarun
Nicely Crafted...Even I experienced at most of the public places like malls n trams in Melbourne where the Goras just make a stern face when u try to appreciate their babies or even nod as a greeting gesture!!!
ReplyDeleteEast or West... India is the best!
ReplyDeleteJai Bharat Mata Ki !