Thursday, September 25, 2008

What is India Abroad???

Well....... back after a break. as if someone actually missed reading my posts all the while... well, in pardes and with paredesis around me... leave aside Hindi dying to speak someone in English... well,that how life is. it always happens to the most talkative ones that they get placed in solitude with no one to blabber around with.some say silence and solitude is good for the soul but almost a month here i still havent been able to any introspection...maybe i am not one of those who find their calling in Loneliness and Beauty.
well all that i have come around to discover the new world is that either they are all dufuses and got 0 in geography or they feign to know have only limited knowledge about india...Comeon, wats the schooling here? my teachers wud have rapped my knuckles with a wooden ruler had i even said that I dunno where this country is? anyways going by my experiences this is what i found that ppl know about india..
So on one weekend,saturday nite to be precise, i got bored with the boring life i decided to take a stroll around the city...walking and strolling i came over to an art gallery...for the first time i saw soo many paintings in display..having never been able to admire art all i have come across, i thought lemme give it a shot and see wat do ppl actually see in those paintings that they stand there for hours admiring and talking abt it...was out of the gallery in 5 minutes wen i met the owner outside, the first guy i met who spoke english...Hallelujah!!! so he got talking to me abt life in georgia and asked me where i came from...his eyes shone when he heard its India.I was glad i had made a mark..
so after 5-10 minutes of talking abt his work and wat work i do, he asked me to stay back and that he would serve me Famous Georgian Wine and wanted to discuss something crucial with me...The Indian Instinct Alarm Bells started Ringing...Why stay back after midnight?i asked him wat was sooooooo important that he wanted to talk about and that too with me coz i havent ever been remotely attached to this field of art..and he proclaimed...
"Well, you see I have always been interested in India as I always wanted to know all and everything about KAMASUTRA...."
AND here goes my mind "Saale, Kamine,
#@$%^*(&&^%$#$%*^.... samja kya hai" his grandchildren were elder than me for god's sake...
"so i said, i have a plane to catch tomorrow morning, why dont i see you this weekend ?" although reluctantly, he let me go...

i dont know his intentions but with that typical indian cautiousness regarding men and strangers, i wanted to avoid that situation and runaway from there... Now thats the point...why do we indians who hold accolades for having the world's highest population consider a stigma to talk abt it? agreed the propreity says that somethings aren't worth talking about but this evasion is also incorrect...maybe those were my instincts that wanted to evade it all... maybe the guy was actually interested in the art and architectural point of view and we know how such artists are... but then what was it that I felt wrong?? Associating India with Kamasutra or his thinking that I might be the right person to enlighten him about it?lolz....
Anyways..There few ppl out here who make me happy too...happy that I belong to India...... So here at this supermarket i met this old lady who asked me where I am from. on hearing India...she Remarked...
INDIAN??? INDHIRA GANDHI??????? RAJA KOPUR???? RISHI KOPUR???
All the oldies joined in frm sides and chorused SHAMMI KOPUR??? SHASHI KOPUR ????and a middle aged with receding hairline........MEETHAN CHAKKAR BARRTHI???(uGHghhh..not that one please)
and the best one.... One of the youngsters chimed in..."A.R Rehman is cool..We all like his music here..." imagine Rehman being famous there...wow... and all that they knew abt HINDI was the Cliched NAMASTE and JAI HIND....
Well, not bad for a country where 99% ppl dont speak english.... The only strangest part was they hadnt even HEARD of Botox-King Khan, Ash or any of the Bacchans...Well, I hope now we know who our actual superstars are...
Anyways thats all about my experiences here...If anyone you who chances by to read this, would love to read your comments...

3 comments:

Rambler said...

I am surprised people didn't ask you about elephants or snakes,rickshaws or cows on the street. Or start singing Awaara hoon. Those are the most cliched things I have read/seen on TV.

Keep Guessing said...

no..thats wat i concocted for them...that the rich go to office on Elephants, the middle class on bullocks and the poor use donkeys as their means of transport...

barely managed to converse with them in english and u expect them to have dialogues with me? ;)

yeah, even i read a thing or two abt India being a land of snake charmers and men whipping themselves on their bare backs !!!

Bei-mutlab said...

Dint they ask u about the ppl spitting on roads?