Quintessentially Indian

Years ago an email was doing the rounds: The email listed 100 things which were done by Indians and at that point of time I was pretty glad that I did not do most of the things which were mentioned in that list. This morning reading an email from a friend prompted me to think on the 'Indianness quotient.' Every culture has its own peculiarity which can also be a diversity. The reference in the email was about age. Many times, we are feel pretty delicate asking someone their age (I am quite brazen in asking people forthrightly buut thats another issue altogether). But Indians (when I say 'Indians' here I mean the general population who live in India) have no qualms about asking any detail to any body. It starts like this: Whats your name? Afer the name is mentioned, the region is guessed and then the second question: Where do you work? How old are you? How much do you earn? Married? Children? etc, etc. But then this tribe is slowly dimnishing atleast in the cities and 'developing' towns. A certain kind of homogenised culture is starting to form and this is largely the by product of globalisation. Its considered impolite to ask people their age, their wage, and other aspects. Probing into the details of personal lives is also considered quite rude. But then, I guess we Indians are genetically made that way. Like in Italy, the sons are pretty close to their mothers and therefore remain home not bothering even to get married. The mothers pamper the sons and feed them even upto middle age! Now thats pretty strange for us but then they are made like that.

'Colonial hangover' as it is termed by the literary circle exists to a greater extent in almost every phase of our lives. But now even the colonial is given a desi flavour and has become Indianised. We adopt and adapt. Despite the fact that globalisation is slowly seeping into the predominant areas of our life, there are some things that make us essentially Indian. Thats the peculiarity which belongs to us. I guess we should be happy with it. At least there is something diverse from the other cultures of the world. If every culture were the same, it would be pretty boring and predictable.