Since writing my last post, I have been thinking about this phrase Vinayak mentioned in his comments - "land of curries and snake charmers". It is true, at least partially, especially in the US. But then who is responsible?
A few years ago, just after my marriage, I was sent by TCS (where I worked at that time) to work onsite at Colorado Springs. My wife was staying alone at Delhi. The day before I was about to return, they arranged for a lunch. I was very happy then because I was about to return home. The Manager from the Client-side, Mimi, was puzzled to hear that I actually dated my wife since my college days before getting married, and she almost fell off the chair when she learnt that my wife held a post-graduate degree in Civil Engineering and used to work in a decent company!!! "Do you guys date?" "Do Indian women work?"
She knew about Roop Kanwar, but she didn't know about Capt. Durba Banerjee or Kiran Bedi or numerous other women who have formed the core of Indian society...
This is how we portrayed India infront of the world by letting a woman burn alive...
When Gujarat was burning, I was attending a conference at Edinburgh. During the conference dinner, I was sitting next to Ali from EPCC, a nice and friendly bloke, originally from Iran. The Fire Brigade Unions were on strike in the UK at that time, or some other national strike was going on, I don't exactly remember it. What I remember, and will always remember as long as I live was Ali's comment (on something I said about strikes in India) - "You guy's don't strike, you guys riot."
He knew about Gujarat - thanks to Narendra Modi. He also knew about December 6th, 1992 - thanks to LK Advani, Uma Bharti et. al.
This is how we portrayed India infront of the world by murdering thousands of innocents...
We always harp on our ancient culture - our ancient knowledge - all that knowledge and culture are drained down the gutters when a Roop Kanwar dies or a Best Bakery occurs...it's just two of the hundreds and thousands incidents happening every day...Each such incident sends down the "land of curries and snake charmers" phrase down another person's mind.
"Unity in diversity" was what we read in the history books...only if we really wanted to create a "pluralistic society" in a true sense for ourselves...we could have easily erased that phrase from the vocabulary of the world.
A few years ago, just after my marriage, I was sent by TCS (where I worked at that time) to work onsite at Colorado Springs. My wife was staying alone at Delhi. The day before I was about to return, they arranged for a lunch. I was very happy then because I was about to return home. The Manager from the Client-side, Mimi, was puzzled to hear that I actually dated my wife since my college days before getting married, and she almost fell off the chair when she learnt that my wife held a post-graduate degree in Civil Engineering and used to work in a decent company!!! "Do you guys date?" "Do Indian women work?"
She knew about Roop Kanwar, but she didn't know about Capt. Durba Banerjee or Kiran Bedi or numerous other women who have formed the core of Indian society...
This is how we portrayed India infront of the world by letting a woman burn alive...
When Gujarat was burning, I was attending a conference at Edinburgh. During the conference dinner, I was sitting next to Ali from EPCC, a nice and friendly bloke, originally from Iran. The Fire Brigade Unions were on strike in the UK at that time, or some other national strike was going on, I don't exactly remember it. What I remember, and will always remember as long as I live was Ali's comment (on something I said about strikes in India) - "You guy's don't strike, you guys riot."
He knew about Gujarat - thanks to Narendra Modi. He also knew about December 6th, 1992 - thanks to LK Advani, Uma Bharti et. al.
This is how we portrayed India infront of the world by murdering thousands of innocents...
We always harp on our ancient culture - our ancient knowledge - all that knowledge and culture are drained down the gutters when a Roop Kanwar dies or a Best Bakery occurs...it's just two of the hundreds and thousands incidents happening every day...Each such incident sends down the "land of curries and snake charmers" phrase down another person's mind.
"Unity in diversity" was what we read in the history books...only if we really wanted to create a "pluralistic society" in a true sense for ourselves...we could have easily erased that phrase from the vocabulary of the world.
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