Karan has a very interesting <strong>discussion</strong> going on Orkut and India. Here is essentially my view on the whole topic:
In my personal experience, most Indians that I have met here in USA are full of crap when it comes to India! They have viewpoint hearing that one goes “whaaaat?????” and left scratching their heads. When I dig a little more, it turns out that they have lived all their live in one small town (or a big metro) before they stepped on a plane to come here and that makes up their Indian experience and viewpoint! How pathetic can that be?
I am one of the lucky ones and have had the opportunity to explore many places in our lovely country. And come with a very different viewpoint from these people. If you stop and think about it for a minute, each state is like a mini-country with its own music, food, culture, local customs, language, etc - where else in the world can you find that?
Now, I am not saying you all in this discussion have not explored, but I am trying to make the point that most people outside of India have that mentality. Reminds one of the book - The Inscrutable Americans - check it out if you have not - a MUST read.
I think Karan is on the right track in portraying the on-line newspapers. I have relatives working for some of the leading papers in India and know their “inside story”. Not to mention my sister is a reporter.
Personally speaking for myself having been out of India for a number of years (I do go back at least once a year on an average), I have found myself become more patriotic and notice the small things - most of which are things that make me proud to be an Indian - ya ya I am a sentimental fool. But then I also very conveniently ignore some of the “real” issues dogging our country.
I don’t know if I notice the small things because I do not take it for granted any more or what. But I agree with Karan, there are so many things happening in the backyard that we don’t even get a whiff of here.
Anyways I would just like to close that most Indians I have met here who are wonderful people and very successfully professionally are the biggest jerks when it comes to knowledge about their country and I am not talking just geography. Just my $0.02.
What do you think?