Thursday, August 4, 2011

Indigenous X Intellectual : A Passage to India

Passage to India

 

browsed through the

Time ALL TIME 100 Novels

gosh

how few books on the list

I have actually read

 

therefore decided to go along the line

set a goal to read from the list

give the very old school quote

the more books you discover

the more you realize how little

you have actually read

then there’s BBC, Guardian, Telegraph

do not get intimidated okay

 

thought of reading like 5

during the break

but it failed miserably

I ceased reading on 7th July

and officially continued back

not too far away

on the 1st Aug

awfully lazy of me

 

out of the long list

why did I pick this old classic

1st of all

franking speaking

it isn’t the kind of story I expect

 

I imagine it as a journey, literally

maybe an adventure

thinking along the line of

Murder on The Oriental Express

or

Around the World in 80 Days

 

it intrigued me

and there are a few points

which I find pretty much true

and applicable up till today

 

you can build an England in India

and vice versa

people carry their root cultures

no matter how far they travel

 

today

especially given the technology

no matter where I go

I shall still carry the music

I always listen to

in my iPod, iTunes,

(not to promote iProduct)

or listen to it online

 

no matter how the environment

is being changed tremendously

I will slowly survive

and adapt to it

and still find ways to fit in

the same old things I used to do

 

the British people

in the story

are initially very much keen

to learn more about India

especially the people

 

but you think it is possible

given the variety of backgrounds

let it be religion, language, caste

 

therefore

the point brought forward is that

even though

you have travelled to a certain place

it doesn’t mean

you have known the people well

 

all you have seen

is tip of an iceberg

all you have enjoyed

is the scenery, perhaps

not the people

who you are to judge

the local people

the culture and stuff

and the country as a whole

 

coming to the issue of

discrimination and racism issues

you know

certain people claim that

they are not racist

they do not discriminate against

anyone in the whole wide world

their love towards the human race

is just so god-like

 

wait till their own benefits

have been eroded

then they will account everything

to the issue of race

“blame it on their races

they are born to be bad”

 

those derogatory comments

they used to condemn

come out from the very same mouth 

 

therefore

just enjoy your friends

while you can

because you will never know

when will thing turn ugly

 

and if it does

it will never be the same again

no matter how hard

you try to patch things back