Wednesday, March 23, 2005

American Desi?

Today for the umpteenth time, I was reminded by Kunal T of how I am a disgrace to the country because of all my "American-isms". To give you a 'for example' - how I use 'color' instead of 'colour', how i refer to 100,000 as 'a hundred thousand' instead of 'one lakh', how I say 'elevator' not 'lift', how I do this how I do that.
I beg to differ. Do I plead guilty to doing the above things (and more)?
Yup. Guilty as charged. HOWEVER I do not believe that makes me any less "Indian". Sure I don't speak Hindi, don't give a rat's arse about the Indian cricket team and yeah you can even throw the fact that I prefer KFC to tandoori chicken in my face, but I repeat THAT DOES NOT MAKE ME LESS INDIAN!
I could actually do with a little backing up here from my cousin Lara. She's Canadian and never fails to keep commenting on just how "Indian" I am. For example, the way I said my elbow's "paining" instead of "hurting". And even the way I answer the phone, "Hallo..." (though I still in the dark on what "Indian-ness" she observes in that)!
To get back to my original point though, I was born in this country and have lived my entire life (upto this point) here. I may hate the weather, the political scenario, the general attitude towards a lot of things, blah blah..., BUT it's hard after all that time not to fall in love with the place. So even if I do leave this place in a year or so (hopefully), I'll always have a little piece of it in my heart. And I'll always be back for some more!
(About the 100,000 thing - it's just so much easier to think in terms of multiples of 3 as powers. Like thousand-million-billion... Rather than the other way. And besides, I'm a Computer Engg student!! K-M-G... what else do you expect?)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

lol...yea well thas all i had to say. you're still the most indian & non-indian person i know...i mean there's no better mix than that. india iz juss somethin thas always gonna be apart of me no matter what. n yes even when you're here, of course you're gonna have to keep goin back to india...caz ill be comin along with you!
till then...
enjoy =)
lars.