Not long ago, someone asked me. What is India all about? What does India have that we (America) don't have?
I asked her in return. What do you THINK that you HAVE?
She replied. "We have culture, military, arts, science and technology, a great economy, money power, a strong democratic system, a peaceful life. That's some of the few things that we have. Now, tell me. What does India have?"
I know half of you would quickly flash through that memory of a movie in which the guy who plays Amitabh Bhachchan's younger bro saying "mera paas maa hai". True, it would have sufficed truly.
My reply "India has got a culture, a tradition that goes far beyond the time that mankind would remember. India invented plastic surgery, zero and taught the world how to do agriculture, trade, commerce, governance, science and economics, when the rest of the world was still just learning to pluck hair out of their heads. When you talk about culture, do you know how old America is? I don't know how old India is. India has been around since before Christ. Modern India has been around for only the last 63 years though, but imagine how close India is to becoming a world superpower. Without India and our contributions there would be no world, no new world."
She looked at me and I knew she was seriously working on her counter attack "Well. If you guys were around for as long as you say, why haven't you become the world's greatest superpower?" I knew this question was coming. I replied "If you haven't noticed, every nation has had its time. India was a world superpower, until your ancestors from England came and set foot in India. America rose to be a world superpower not more than 80 years earlier, to be exact since the first world war. India was ruled by a colonial power for over 200 years. Now we are a free country. A country which is once again on the ascendancy."
"Tell me something about your culture." I asked her. "What do you know about your culture?"
"Well, we have so many buildings, so many different writers, artists, great men and women like Martin Luther King, who have shown the world what we are all about." I decided to barge in "Looks like you don't even know what culture means. Culture refers to what a country/community has developed all over the years. India's culture also has so many art forms, artists, architectural marvels and also great men, who are revered in all parts of the world. Do you know any language that has existed for over a thousand years? Don't say English. English was spoken only after probably 1500s and 1600s, till then the official languages used in Britain was Latin. And I don't know too many Americans, who speak proper English. My mother tongue- Tamil has been around for over two thousand years. You can't find an inscription in America which dates back to Before Christ, while you can't find inscriptions in India, which don't date back that long. That itself is evidence for how long Indian culture has been around. We were born in our land. You guys came from Britain, to settle here and create a new world for yourselves."
"Why is India dependent on the U.S?" was the next question. I laughed. "Can you see one company which does not outsource at least some part of its operations to India? Now who's dependent on whom? Maybe we are just biding our time till we can show you what the true meaning of the word superpower is. I can't tell you till when we might just go on with this game, but one day it certainly will stop and that day is not too far."
"Well, I was watching this video where this guy talks about healthcare in India." said my friend. "I too saw that video. You know what. He is such an idiot. I can't believe he can say such things on air and the youtube description for that video was also inappropriate."
"Why do you say that?"
"1. Indian healthcare costs are certainly lower than in the U.S. That's because you shell out maybe 1000$ and that's about 50,000 Rs. in Indian money. Same emergency will cost you a few hundred dollars lesser. And by the way, the countries that have cheapest healthcare are Canada and France. They treat people for free.
2. The description of the video reads "...insulting an ally" India is not an ally to the U.S or to any other country in the world. "
"Pakistan?"
"There would have been no Pakistan and no place for Osama Bin Laden to hide and no terrorists, had only we been allowed to take them out completely and had only developed nations such as yourselves stopped supplying arms to a country run by terrorists. It's a well known fact and no one can refute the fact that America supplied and still does supply arms and intelligence to Pakistan, while Indian brains come here to study, settle down, pay taxes which go towards funding yet another weapons research technology which will protect American lives. Two faced."
I could see this conversation meandering to a sort of an opening gambit of a blame game, when I decided to leave before she could ask another question. I left soon after that reply. Just told her I had to go somewhere and I left. I knew that I had made her think. I knew she would get back at me sometime when she had a chance, when she had done her extensive research. I am waiting for that day, when she can ask me a question and I can answer it with disdain saying that "Guess who's the world's superpower now?"
I asked her in return. What do you THINK that you HAVE?
She replied. "We have culture, military, arts, science and technology, a great economy, money power, a strong democratic system, a peaceful life. That's some of the few things that we have. Now, tell me. What does India have?"
I know half of you would quickly flash through that memory of a movie in which the guy who plays Amitabh Bhachchan's younger bro saying "mera paas maa hai". True, it would have sufficed truly.
My reply "India has got a culture, a tradition that goes far beyond the time that mankind would remember. India invented plastic surgery, zero and taught the world how to do agriculture, trade, commerce, governance, science and economics, when the rest of the world was still just learning to pluck hair out of their heads. When you talk about culture, do you know how old America is? I don't know how old India is. India has been around since before Christ. Modern India has been around for only the last 63 years though, but imagine how close India is to becoming a world superpower. Without India and our contributions there would be no world, no new world."
She looked at me and I knew she was seriously working on her counter attack "Well. If you guys were around for as long as you say, why haven't you become the world's greatest superpower?" I knew this question was coming. I replied "If you haven't noticed, every nation has had its time. India was a world superpower, until your ancestors from England came and set foot in India. America rose to be a world superpower not more than 80 years earlier, to be exact since the first world war. India was ruled by a colonial power for over 200 years. Now we are a free country. A country which is once again on the ascendancy."
"Tell me something about your culture." I asked her. "What do you know about your culture?"
"Well, we have so many buildings, so many different writers, artists, great men and women like Martin Luther King, who have shown the world what we are all about." I decided to barge in "Looks like you don't even know what culture means. Culture refers to what a country/community has developed all over the years. India's culture also has so many art forms, artists, architectural marvels and also great men, who are revered in all parts of the world. Do you know any language that has existed for over a thousand years? Don't say English. English was spoken only after probably 1500s and 1600s, till then the official languages used in Britain was Latin. And I don't know too many Americans, who speak proper English. My mother tongue- Tamil has been around for over two thousand years. You can't find an inscription in America which dates back to Before Christ, while you can't find inscriptions in India, which don't date back that long. That itself is evidence for how long Indian culture has been around. We were born in our land. You guys came from Britain, to settle here and create a new world for yourselves."
"Why is India dependent on the U.S?" was the next question. I laughed. "Can you see one company which does not outsource at least some part of its operations to India? Now who's dependent on whom? Maybe we are just biding our time till we can show you what the true meaning of the word superpower is. I can't tell you till when we might just go on with this game, but one day it certainly will stop and that day is not too far."
"Well, I was watching this video where this guy talks about healthcare in India." said my friend. "I too saw that video. You know what. He is such an idiot. I can't believe he can say such things on air and the youtube description for that video was also inappropriate."
"Why do you say that?"
"1. Indian healthcare costs are certainly lower than in the U.S. That's because you shell out maybe 1000$ and that's about 50,000 Rs. in Indian money. Same emergency will cost you a few hundred dollars lesser. And by the way, the countries that have cheapest healthcare are Canada and France. They treat people for free.
2. The description of the video reads "...insulting an ally" India is not an ally to the U.S or to any other country in the world. "
"Pakistan?"
"There would have been no Pakistan and no place for Osama Bin Laden to hide and no terrorists, had only we been allowed to take them out completely and had only developed nations such as yourselves stopped supplying arms to a country run by terrorists. It's a well known fact and no one can refute the fact that America supplied and still does supply arms and intelligence to Pakistan, while Indian brains come here to study, settle down, pay taxes which go towards funding yet another weapons research technology which will protect American lives. Two faced."
I could see this conversation meandering to a sort of an opening gambit of a blame game, when I decided to leave before she could ask another question. I left soon after that reply. Just told her I had to go somewhere and I left. I knew that I had made her think. I knew she would get back at me sometime when she had a chance, when she had done her extensive research. I am waiting for that day, when she can ask me a question and I can answer it with disdain saying that "Guess who's the world's superpower now?"
While all of the culture etc. is true of India, the US of A developed at a faster rate than what India did. Our great years were before the British looted us, while the Americans used those years to settle in and cash in on the invention boom. We spent the best part of the past 60 years playing the catching up game. Looks like India is done catching up, to an extent.
ReplyDeleteAwwww! That was an amazing conversation you've had. When I read it, it made me feel so proud of my country, especially when you told her that Tamil (my mother tongue too) is 2000 years old!
ReplyDelete