Part of the job description of being an Indian abroad is fielding questions on rapes, caste, spices, sarees, poverty, software outsourcing, dancing and religion with exhausting regularity.
Enjoyed this enormously, Pallavi. Brilliantly captured sentiments. India's wildlife and biodiversity often gets overlooked. My best ambassadorial efforts at dinners have been to conjure images of our winsome landscapes, snow leopards and rhinos. It makes them want to rush over.
When I lived in China family and friends in Europe would often ask "what is China like?", not necessarily with the patience to build a picture resembling some sort of truth. A contrasting approach was taken by a lovely woman I stayed with in Osaka as a young student. She exhausted my limited Japanese with detailed questions about specific countries where I had lived in Europe, and also about India where I had flown via to get to Japan. It was all about people's eating habits, clothes, transport, accommodation, pets, what you would give as a present… nothing about social issues but somehow creating quite an accurate picture of what daily life would involve in those places. Of course she always beat me in a game show we watched about true-or-false from around the world.
Enjoyed this a lot! These examples and tensions definitely resonate. Though I should add that receiving these questions makes me feel happy, privileged, responsible, and also acutely inadequate about my knowledge of India. The responsibility to summarize 1 billion and thousands of years history! Definitely, my answers and reactions to these questions the person as they should be. I think more than giving the correct answer, better to give context to the facts or stories. And make a pitch for "India", so that the person digs deeper or visits the country. Fun challenge! Really like the tip from Geetika on talking about wildlife & biodiversity. Should try that next time.
Another detail on my experience, as a Marathi, how India = North India most times (Delhi, Varanasi, Desert trips, Taj, Mughal architecture...). And how hard it is to explain how I'm from neither North nor South India.
I am so glad someone put this into words and as an Indian living in a majorly white Canadian town, I go through this almost every day. From an uncle who was surprised to see an Indian speak good English, unlike the way he saw in Slumdog Millionaire (he actually told me that), and another friend who thought all of India was a desert, I have started to find it funny. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that the culprit here could be the media and representation. I think the solution hence can also be this. For having more real representation in the media so people get a better understanding of lives in other countries.
I loved reading your article, Pallavi! Quite an entertaining read and makes us ponder over a lot of things. I think I'll enjoy reading more of your work :)
What you are describing Pallavi, is admirably stated by Chimamada Ngozi Adichie in her TED Talk, The Danger of the Single Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg). I love how you have expressed this frustration of being seen as the signal gatekeeper of all things 'Indian'. In many ways, I think this is a lazy person's defense- a great friend in graduate school constantly railed against the fact that in every seminar class, she was constantly called upon to voice 'the female point of view'!
A fine article Pallavi. The dichotomy you face isn’t new. Knowledge, in my opinion, lessens globally albeit we are in the midst of unprecedented information explosion. While I tend to agree with your views, I think some of your viewpoints are as much or as little, condescending as that of the vastly “by choice” ignorant white people. Especially where you talk about developing countries and their general lack of knowledge and education and their status, which is the reason you say you condone their non judgemental questions about you and your country. You didn’t use these words, yet that is how I read them. So long as there is a sense of perceived superiority, with increasing polarisation, poor knowledge and abundantly available false information the dilemma we all face about culturally insensitive questions or statements is here to stay. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading your article and I am sharing this within my circle as it is well articulated and is very insightful. Keep more of it coming and I hope you don’t mind my candor.
Not at all! Thank you for the comment. I was just being honest about my response - I don't actually think its a totally fair one- but it is how I react :-)
Such an awesome article Pallavi - excellent writing and spoke to me on so many levels. In fact, I just experienced this last night - my Calcutta based parents whatsapped pics of Saraswati puja on our family group and my wife (Caucasian) and kids had no idea what that was all about so it was up to me to explain in a balanced way as best as I could. Of course, I left them somewhat incredulous that some parts of Indian culture believe that worshipping an idol was a key contributor towards getting good grades in school!
I am an Indian living in Spain and I can relate with your article on every level. Everytime someone asks the now dreaded question, ‘are you from India’ I feel my jaw locking and my fists clenching as they inevitably launch into some monologue about curry or Varanasi! However, in all fairness I must add that I have met many foreigners who put me to shame with their encyclopaedic knowledge of my Bharat and their genuine love of it. Love your articles - keep them coming!
Thank you. And you are absolutely right- I have been floored many times by people of all nationalities who have spent time and effort acquiring the most nuanced understanding of India.
Enjoyed this enormously, Pallavi. Brilliantly captured sentiments. India's wildlife and biodiversity often gets overlooked. My best ambassadorial efforts at dinners have been to conjure images of our winsome landscapes, snow leopards and rhinos. It makes them want to rush over.
I can imagine few brand ambassadors more up to the task than you!
When I lived in China family and friends in Europe would often ask "what is China like?", not necessarily with the patience to build a picture resembling some sort of truth. A contrasting approach was taken by a lovely woman I stayed with in Osaka as a young student. She exhausted my limited Japanese with detailed questions about specific countries where I had lived in Europe, and also about India where I had flown via to get to Japan. It was all about people's eating habits, clothes, transport, accommodation, pets, what you would give as a present… nothing about social issues but somehow creating quite an accurate picture of what daily life would involve in those places. Of course she always beat me in a game show we watched about true-or-false from around the world.
Wonderful story.
Enjoyed this a lot! These examples and tensions definitely resonate. Though I should add that receiving these questions makes me feel happy, privileged, responsible, and also acutely inadequate about my knowledge of India. The responsibility to summarize 1 billion and thousands of years history! Definitely, my answers and reactions to these questions the person as they should be. I think more than giving the correct answer, better to give context to the facts or stories. And make a pitch for "India", so that the person digs deeper or visits the country. Fun challenge! Really like the tip from Geetika on talking about wildlife & biodiversity. Should try that next time.
Another detail on my experience, as a Marathi, how India = North India most times (Delhi, Varanasi, Desert trips, Taj, Mughal architecture...). And how hard it is to explain how I'm from neither North nor South India.
I am so glad someone put this into words and as an Indian living in a majorly white Canadian town, I go through this almost every day. From an uncle who was surprised to see an Indian speak good English, unlike the way he saw in Slumdog Millionaire (he actually told me that), and another friend who thought all of India was a desert, I have started to find it funny. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that the culprit here could be the media and representation. I think the solution hence can also be this. For having more real representation in the media so people get a better understanding of lives in other countries.
I loved reading your article, Pallavi! Quite an entertaining read and makes us ponder over a lot of things. I think I'll enjoy reading more of your work :)
Thank you!
What you are describing Pallavi, is admirably stated by Chimamada Ngozi Adichie in her TED Talk, The Danger of the Single Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg). I love how you have expressed this frustration of being seen as the signal gatekeeper of all things 'Indian'. In many ways, I think this is a lazy person's defense- a great friend in graduate school constantly railed against the fact that in every seminar class, she was constantly called upon to voice 'the female point of view'!
Agreed!
A fine article Pallavi. The dichotomy you face isn’t new. Knowledge, in my opinion, lessens globally albeit we are in the midst of unprecedented information explosion. While I tend to agree with your views, I think some of your viewpoints are as much or as little, condescending as that of the vastly “by choice” ignorant white people. Especially where you talk about developing countries and their general lack of knowledge and education and their status, which is the reason you say you condone their non judgemental questions about you and your country. You didn’t use these words, yet that is how I read them. So long as there is a sense of perceived superiority, with increasing polarisation, poor knowledge and abundantly available false information the dilemma we all face about culturally insensitive questions or statements is here to stay. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading your article and I am sharing this within my circle as it is well articulated and is very insightful. Keep more of it coming and I hope you don’t mind my candor.
Not at all! Thank you for the comment. I was just being honest about my response - I don't actually think its a totally fair one- but it is how I react :-)
And thank you for sharing !
Such an awesome article Pallavi - excellent writing and spoke to me on so many levels. In fact, I just experienced this last night - my Calcutta based parents whatsapped pics of Saraswati puja on our family group and my wife (Caucasian) and kids had no idea what that was all about so it was up to me to explain in a balanced way as best as I could. Of course, I left them somewhat incredulous that some parts of Indian culture believe that worshipping an idol was a key contributor towards getting good grades in school!
Idol worship is a bit easier to explain in Spain. They love their icons here too.
I am an Indian living in Spain and I can relate with your article on every level. Everytime someone asks the now dreaded question, ‘are you from India’ I feel my jaw locking and my fists clenching as they inevitably launch into some monologue about curry or Varanasi! However, in all fairness I must add that I have met many foreigners who put me to shame with their encyclopaedic knowledge of my Bharat and their genuine love of it. Love your articles - keep them coming!
Thank you. And you are absolutely right- I have been floored many times by people of all nationalities who have spent time and effort acquiring the most nuanced understanding of India.
Brand ambassador very true, I am also one of people to have had this experience!!! Resonate with you!!!