Sunday 6 December 2015

Blending IN

 Over a billion people, more than 700 different languages and cultures, hundreds of casts and sects and a very unique and illustrious history; yes I am talking about the country encompassed from three sides with water and watched over by the great Himalayas itself from the other side. This is the only place in the whole world inhabited by omnifarious “hoi polloi” and owing to all these facets, this land is referred to as the incredible India but talking about its inhabitants - Are they incredible? Well, most of us are acquainted with this fact and I am echoing it again that we are not. This wouldn’t sound musical to our ears but there is one peculiarity in our nature that might again make us alive and kicking and that is our quality of blending in or rather trying to blend in.

Most of the people of Indian origin residing in a foreign country go in for the way of living, estranged to most of us in a jiffy and adapt themselves to their lifestyle. They modulate almost every aspect of their personality but for their dialect, which undeniably is a burden. This is very typical of most of the Indian people but our neighbors residing in the same country and that too in numbers comparative to or more than ours are not appreciative of this unique attribute that directs me towards a very conspicuous question. If it is such a rare virtue, why doesn’t every immigrant hold it? Are they hesitant in adaptation or are they inept? Do they wish to preserve their own lifestyle in a foreign nation or are they frightened of an unfamiliar society? I am not in a spot to make a riposte on behalf of our neighbors but I think that they try to keep possession of their lifestyle and their culture wherever they go, which I think is admirable. So, are we Indians losing sight of this very fact that we hail from a country considered synonymous to incredible or are we right on? Now, this is a million dollar question.

It is good to blend in and to get the hang of other cultures and societies but we should at least give an iota of a thought before acting. Neither we should act like our neighbors and stay in our restricted boundaries, nor we should start singing a different tune altogether. There is a thin line between these two and we have to pick it out for our betterment. I am not expressing my anguish but trying to unravel the paramount problem of we Indians.