We, as countrymen, have a small weakness, something that has been given to us in the bargain of our struggle of independence and atrocities faced by us over the years to emerge as one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Being shrewd isn’t exactly one of our virtues and feeling miserable comes most easily to us. Americans, on the other hand, have become synonymous with almost everything Indians should not aspire to be and for most reasons should be disliked for it. Why they’re disliked is a very delightful and comfortable conversation to have, cushioned by our undying spirit of ethics, morals and culture.
So, we reach a confusing and self-eliminating point where at one stage, Indians want to continuously aspire to be better than the best, in which case the Americans are the inspiration and on the other hand, we want to send everything that seeps in from the West into oblivion.
Judgements. They’re easy, they’re most justifiable and they’re subjective and most of the time, irrational. But we the masses love judging. Everyone does. So, we have a rather unpleasant relationship with Americans and we base all our judgements about them in the negative. Across the globe, an American sees an Indian walk out of a store and toss a waste piece of plastic on the road (like we do in India, because no one cares) and judges us. The line that separates us is almost as good as Barrack Obama, he’s black and he’s now the president of the United States of America.
I am to apply for a visa to the US, sometime next week. So, rumours, warnings and personal experiences of having been rejected pour in from well-wishers.
“Especially, if you’re young woman and not married, they won’t ever let you go,” says Amit, an Indian who shares an American citizenship as well. On being asked why, “See, most parents begin aspiring to send their girls to America and get them married and settled there.” Now that doesn’t sound unbelievable.
A lot of communities’ first and last wish for their daughters and female unmarried kin is that they get married to a good NRI husband of the same caste and get settled somewhere in the States and live your entire life out of a super market.
The Americans, seem to have read this pattern. And do you blame them, after they read of a country where, organisations like the MNS are trying to keep north Indians out of a state in their own country! Self-preservation.
All they’re trying to do is keep people like those out of their own country, which is full of burger binging, coke-guzzling but very hard-working and country-loving people. The day we stop looking to shoulders to cry upon is the day when we will stop being made to cry. It’s almost this complicated.