Namaste!
Consequent to the previous blog post, I hope we are now familiar with each other, and you have some background knowledge on who I am. Whoosh! You didn't even see it, however, I just answered the I.B question "Who Am I?". Personally, I feel this question has two components embedded in the answer. The first would be personal choices such as Sports, Music and Hobbies; the other would be the culture you are born into and how it has shaped you. In my first blog post I articulated a lot on the first component however, in this post I would like to tend to the other one. So let's begin my story!
I was born in Mumbai, India and stayed their for the first 5 years of my life. Since then I've shifted from Dubai to Bahrain to Dubai again to Singapore and finally landed at my current stop which is Abu Dhabi. Even though, I have shifted 10 schools and relocate every 1 or 2 years, my Dad made it his mission to teach me Hindi every weekend. Thus, I am very fluent in my mother-tongue, posse sing the ability to read, write and speak. Since Mumbai, I have been overseas for 11 years and have been very fortunate to be placed in an international school at each stint. These international schools have permitted the grasp of several different cultures and invaluable experiences. Naturally, if you haven't met someone of a different culture to yours, the first meeting will have its inevitable awkward moments. Let me narrate one that Indians face a lot. This is a typical conversation that occurs when I join a new school (Pretend Mark is Romanian and has never met an Indian before)
Mark : Hey Prabhav, welcome to Raha
Prabhav: Thanks Mark, it was hard shifting from India
Mark : Ohh! Do you speak Indian?
Prabhav: Nope.
Mark : Oh sorry I meant do you speak Hindu.
Triggered.
India is home to 22 official "recognized" languages, 150 languages with a population of over 1 million speaking them and there are 1652 "unrecognized" languages. But, Mark wants to stereotype every language into one country or even a religion?
Not fair Mark.
I think that this cultural marker is very important to grasp because this what makes the people in India different and gives them an identity. For example, I am North Indian and speak Hindi, however someone in the South probably speaks Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam but I can't stereotype them or guess what they are speaking based on the majority. I would be crushing a culture in an instant. As a North Indian I shouldn't feel too bad because Hindu and Hindi are quite alike, however imagine someone mistaking your religion with a language. Long live the Millennials? I think this cultural marker is very important to all the minority Indians because they want people to recognize us for who they are, and not the majority. This, even leads to a larger problem because most people overseas don't know any other parts of India except Delhi, Mumbai or Goa. What happened to the other 29 states? I think I can sympathize with those which call it Indian or Hindu. For those which call Hindi, Indian I understand Russia speaks Russian, France speaks French and so on but languages don't work on the rule of thumb, good luck speaking American. For those which call it Hindu, I understand it sounds like Hindi but please don't confuse a religion with a language. I think by understanding this misconception and avoiding it in conversation would display respect for the vast Indian culture and a sense of pride for the Indian on the other side of the conversation that his language/culture has been recognized or questioned. Here's an example of the conversation which would have occurred if Mark acknowledged this cultural marker :
Mark : Hey Prabhav, welcome to Raha
Prabhav : Thanks Mark, it was hard shifting from India
Mark: Oh so what language do you speak, I hear India has a lot of them
Prabhav : Yes we do Mark, I speak Hindi
Mark: Great!
Be like Mark!
Until then,
Alvida ! (In Hindi)
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