Currently, I am reading this novel, Namesake. It’s about a Bengali family settled in America, the problems they face, the Bengali’s they meet etc. The novel’s good but what troubles me is that it’s a Bengali family not an Indian family and the people they meet over there are Bengalis and not Indians. Even as far as I remember, there’s no mention of India in the novel, until what I have read….
I am not pointing this out at the author or the Bengalis, but at the tragedy that our country (if it really exists) faces.
Whenever someone introduces himself to you, the state always finds its place (I am not saying that the state is given more priority than the country, coz the country is given no priority at all). This point can be defended by saying that you need not mention you are Indian, when in India. But then what abroad? Aren’t there we suppose to introduce ourselves as Indians and not as Punjabis or Bengalis or Marathis???
There are a few guys in my company who think of me as their friend, a very good friend in fact, even though I haven’t spoken much with them. And this is just because we come from the same state. Whenever we are sitting in a group, they start conversing with me in Marathi and neglect others present who don’t know Marathi. As if this is not enough, they view others who are not from our state as being someone of inferior species.
Though I hate them for this attitude, I have to accept that this is through no fault of their own. They have been taught like this right from their birth. This is no fault of their parents either, coz they too have been taught the same thing. “You r Mr. X and You are a Marathi”. (Not an Indian, but a Marathi.. Damn It…..)
This is not the case just with Marathis, but with every state, every region in India. Even the education system is filled with this stuff, maybe not intentionally.
Thus it has happened that states have become more than a region of the country that we live in, and sometimes even replace our country.
India was formed as a Union of States. 60 years have passed and it’s still a Union of States. Not a country, but a bunch of states fighting among themselves for every silly issue possible.
Hence, I think sometimes…. Where the hell is my country??? Does it exist anywhere except in the nationality column in one’s passport???
I am not pointing this out at the author or the Bengalis, but at the tragedy that our country (if it really exists) faces.
Whenever someone introduces himself to you, the state always finds its place (I am not saying that the state is given more priority than the country, coz the country is given no priority at all). This point can be defended by saying that you need not mention you are Indian, when in India. But then what abroad? Aren’t there we suppose to introduce ourselves as Indians and not as Punjabis or Bengalis or Marathis???
There are a few guys in my company who think of me as their friend, a very good friend in fact, even though I haven’t spoken much with them. And this is just because we come from the same state. Whenever we are sitting in a group, they start conversing with me in Marathi and neglect others present who don’t know Marathi. As if this is not enough, they view others who are not from our state as being someone of inferior species.
Though I hate them for this attitude, I have to accept that this is through no fault of their own. They have been taught like this right from their birth. This is no fault of their parents either, coz they too have been taught the same thing. “You r Mr. X and You are a Marathi”. (Not an Indian, but a Marathi.. Damn It…..)
This is not the case just with Marathis, but with every state, every region in India. Even the education system is filled with this stuff, maybe not intentionally.
Thus it has happened that states have become more than a region of the country that we live in, and sometimes even replace our country.
India was formed as a Union of States. 60 years have passed and it’s still a Union of States. Not a country, but a bunch of states fighting among themselves for every silly issue possible.
Hence, I think sometimes…. Where the hell is my country??? Does it exist anywhere except in the nationality column in one’s passport???
