As India gets increasingly globalized, the world is getting increasingly 'Indianized'.
I
have not traveled around the world. I have just visited 4 countries so far:
Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland and UK. Obviously, I have seen a lot of places in
India. What I have observed is that there is a Tamil radio channel in all of
these countries. I have also heard that there is a Tamil radio channel in most
of the countries, isn't that amazing? While people in India want to speak in
English all the time even when it isn't required, people around the world want
to listen to Indian languages.
Incident 1:
I
had gone to Malaysia for my honeymoon. We went to the KLCC twin tower as that's
the only place I found Saravana Bhavan to serve edible vegetarian Indian food. As I settled in a table in the food court, I
saw an Indian occupying the table next to mine. He was with a white lady of
different nationality. I guessed that they were colleagues and she was someone
like a client from what I could hear now and then. He asked her what she wanted
to eat suggesting that the Pizza there tasted good. She said she wanted to
taste Indian food. I was surprised.
'I have tasted such a dish
somewhere...' she paused thinking. She said 'Something fluffy, light brownish, like
a blown ball. I think they boil it.'
My
husband brought to the table a plate of Poori and another plate of Dosa.
Looking at our table, she carefully said without pointing out, not knowing that
she was heard that 'The one in the table next to us.'
The
Indian guy smiled and said that it's called 'Poori'. He then got her a plate of
Poori and got one for himself. They continued to talk about how poori was made
and how much he loved Italian food. Then, reluctantly, he started eating. He
fought with the fork and knife to tear off the poori into small pieces. She did
not think a moment further, she wiped her hand with tissue and started to eat
it with her hand. The guy asked her if she was okay eating with hands. He even
suggested that he would get her something else.
'The
best thing about Indian food is that it makes us use our fingers. I love it.'
she said and continued to gulp down.
When
the world understands the scientific reasons behind our practices, we fail to
retain it ourselves thinking that we are getting globalized.
Incident 2:
In the shopping center in the UK, an
old Brit lady waited in the queue to bill her stuffs , behind me. She casually
initiated a conversation.
'Are you Indian?' she asked.
'Yes. I am.' I gave her a oblong
smile.
'I love Indian Sarees. Do you wear
them always in India?' she asked.
'Yes.' I said not wanting to continue
the conversation with a stranger.
She had bought some bangles along
with her shopping items. She showed it to me and asked if they were Indian. I
said yes not knowing if bangles were Indian or not.
People outside India likes out Sarees,
bindhis, bangles and clothing styles. While we try to get globalized by getting
rid of them.
Incident 3:
I
had gone for a workshop arranged by my company at Bangalore. Two scientists had come from the USA to educate us about something related to work. During
lunch time, we all got noodles and burgers while they got an Indian Thali. They said it was too spicy
but loved eating every bit of it.
That
was the day of Holi. They looked at a colleague of ours who came to our table
to settle down to eat. Looking at their expression one of us said 'It's an
Indian festival. We celebrate it with colours.'
'I know. Holi, right? We celebrate it
for fun with our Indian friends in the USA.' The guy immediately took his
mobile and showed us photographs of them playing with colour powders.
Be
it festival, food or dressing style, the world loves the way India does it and
we go behind the rest of the world calling it fashion.
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