Confused Desis

Few months ago I met a young man who recently came to Toronto from India in pursuit of a new career and a new life. He had that anxiety in eyes which reminded me of my own arrival here. He'z hard working, down to earth and was clear about what to accomplish in his new phase of life.

That was his first overseas trip and soon started to feel left out or a kinda inferior to the local Caucasians and local born and brought up desi diaspora in dress, behavior, cuisine, english accent and other ways of life and started to desperately own the local attributes soon. Nothing wrong in getting used to local ways of life, but in a bid to get completely into it, started ridiculing desi attitude or as he calls it "brown attitude".

And there came a day when he loathed a very sight of "desi crowd" or "desi neighborhoods" without realizing that desi crowds are formed by people like him. He feels shy to be a part of get togethers and cultural programmes which even remotely talk about Indian-ness. He calls Toyota Camry as a desi car and associates the word "desi" to every possible caricature describing Indian. And he is not the only case.

There are many such people for whom Indian movies, Indian groceries, Indian restaurants are a big no-no. Few kids start avoiding lunch boxes from homes as they might feel inferior to their firang friends while eating "brown food".

While I'm not a jingoist who vehemently believes in chanting 'Mera Bharat Mahaan' at every given opportunity, I'm quite amused at this kind of 'disowning' behavior of certain class of NRIs. I agree India is not the greatest country in this world and neither are our accent, cuisines, movies, etiquette, tastes the best, but does that mean you start hating that ?

Its OK to avoid if one genuinely doesn't like these Indian flavors, but despising just to be a part of mainstream is a symptom of confused and sheep mentality. Changing our identity and personality to appease somebody else is pathetic and ludicrous.

Though we change everything about our lifestyle, though we forgo Diwali, Dusshera and start celebrating only Halloween and Thanksgiving; we can't change our skin, our lineage and our ancestry. Whatever we are, we have our roots and origin. Irrespective of the fact if it is great or not, we are products of that origin. And we don't need to be the best or greatest to feel proud of that or own that.

I'm brown, I look and talk like a brown guy, my tastes and attitude reflect my upbringing and the environment I'm brought up in and I never felt sorry about my background or never felt a need to justify my stance or appease anybody...and I'm successful in this alien land.

PS: Also read my other post in this blog by the subject line "Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani" where I presented my opinion on other extreme :)