Well I ain't gonna write a review on a the books ROOTS by Alex Haley here ;-) though its one of the BEST books I've ever read and for those who have never read it I HIGHLY recommend the same.
But I wanted to address something which has been on my mind for sometime!!! Decided that its time I pen the same. Well for all that we know, as humans we always see and feel that the other side of the pasture is GREENER!!! Well now gettin to the point, I've had quite a bit of opportunity to meet and exchange notes with the expat community and I really appreciate it when they try to get themselves localized to our surroundings, but yeah end of it they definitely still retain their identity but enjoy being part of the local surroundings.
Now, to our brothers and sisters of INDIA, I've noticed that when they leave the country, obviously for GREENER pastures in and in some cases GREENER money, I see that they too try doin the same as the expat crowd!!! But wait, you see the change they go through??? to a large extent they don't want to showcase their roots, they develop a fake accent, and definitely they end up being a sore thumb for themselves!!!! Beat this, I know this guy who actually started usin his second name as his first simply coz they couldn't get his first name right????? How low can you stoop with your dignity?????? or probably I was wrong and he was bein considerate ;-)
Now why would they do that?????? Aren't we proud of our roots?????? Agreed we are a chaotic country and we have quite a bit of lows, but I'm sure we have our highs too!!! But what troubles me is, people are ready to just disown their roots, they even find it difficult to keep in touch, don't even want to be tagged on pics of old albums, only makes me wonder, when they come back to their roots should I even bother to touch them with a barge pole, I mean, come on they aren't the only one who can disown, we can do it too!!! Sure I have planned to reciprocate and nothin would stop me from doin that!!!!
But I wanted to address something which has been on my mind for sometime!!! Decided that its time I pen the same. Well for all that we know, as humans we always see and feel that the other side of the pasture is GREENER!!! Well now gettin to the point, I've had quite a bit of opportunity to meet and exchange notes with the expat community and I really appreciate it when they try to get themselves localized to our surroundings, but yeah end of it they definitely still retain their identity but enjoy being part of the local surroundings.
Now, to our brothers and sisters of INDIA, I've noticed that when they leave the country, obviously for GREENER pastures in and in some cases GREENER money, I see that they too try doin the same as the expat crowd!!! But wait, you see the change they go through??? to a large extent they don't want to showcase their roots, they develop a fake accent, and definitely they end up being a sore thumb for themselves!!!! Beat this, I know this guy who actually started usin his second name as his first simply coz they couldn't get his first name right????? How low can you stoop with your dignity?????? or probably I was wrong and he was bein considerate ;-)
Now why would they do that?????? Aren't we proud of our roots?????? Agreed we are a chaotic country and we have quite a bit of lows, but I'm sure we have our highs too!!! But what troubles me is, people are ready to just disown their roots, they even find it difficult to keep in touch, don't even want to be tagged on pics of old albums, only makes me wonder, when they come back to their roots should I even bother to touch them with a barge pole, I mean, come on they aren't the only one who can disown, we can do it too!!! Sure I have planned to reciprocate and nothin would stop me from doin that!!!!
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While these are good thoughts to debate about, I'd just caution against judging people too quickly. There are good and bad sides to each culture, and adapting to a foreign culture is not always mutually exclusive to retaining your own roots. Plus, like an iceberg, what's visible to the outside world is merely a portion of the decisions made within.
ReplyDeleteIf we were to talk specifics, how about the people in call centers who change their names for their work? We don't judge them, do we?
Hey Madhu!!! Definitely you have a point there..what I've penned is more got to do with ppl who forget from where they hail and how they were, I know not everyone fits into that description... You never know after some time even I would move, but I was driven to pen this :-) and hell who am I to judge ppl!!! i was just ventin my frustration :D
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