The Chronicles of India: Multiplying by Zero - Part II

As I said before, India always had a big hunger for modernism. In the last decade of the 20^th century, we discovered that we had a rapacious hunger for ‘westernism’. Now, I do not in any way wish to give the term ‘westernism’ a bad connotation. But I certainly do wish to differentiate it from ‘modernism’.

With the former social migration of youth away from home, and the latter concept of disposable income, the one big difference I saw in today’s India, was that the young people are literally choosing to dispose off their income. Partying, clubbing and pubbing are fast becoming the activities of the youth. Discotheques, bars and lounges are now the haunts of many Indians. The young men and women have started positively disliking staying at home. Although it is amazing fun to go with your friends to the local restaurant for a filling yet simple dinner, we now see the young crowd choosing to spend two or three thousand rupees for dinner on a regular basis every alternate day of the week at some hip expensive restaurant. Many young people, who thought ten times before spending money when they were in college, now do not think even twice before blowing hundreds of thousands of rupees in a week. We are all trying to be modern but disappointingly losing sight of the goal. Yes, Americans too enjoy partying and clubbing, but the mature American youth will still today be seen saving money from the first job to buy their own car and apartment. How many from today’s Indian youth think of saving for their house or their car? There is a disconcerting lack of direction that I saw in today’s young India.

During this same time, many like me who left the shores of India after graduation seem to have gone to the other end of the spectrum. We were faced with a stark lack of money and a high constraint environment when we came to the United States. While balancing our relentless pressure of studies along with the added pressure of making ends meet by working crazy hours at 7 dollars an hour on the campus job, we have learnt the art of saving. Every month, in spite of our best efforts, we saved not more than 10 or 20 dollars. That money was saved over the semester to buy a calling card to call home or for one movie at the end of the term with roommates. So much so that, saving has become second nature to us now. Although I don’t have to think ten times before going to a restaurant now, I still make it a point to carry a lunch box and cook dinner at home, save for an occasional day. As a result, I found myself to be a misfit on certain occasions in the changing environment of India. It is like we have been in a cocoon for the past three years thus keeping ourselves intact as we were in college and then thrown back into a changed atmosphere.

Why is that we must always assimilate the easy and eventually useless aspects of the western civilization? After living for three years in the United States, I have come to understand at least a part of the real American. It is not the one they show in movies and which people all over the world are copying. If you want to be modern, why not try imbibing the strong love for rule and law which the West has? Americans will not bribe a police officer, they will not throw trash on the street, they will not break lanes while driving, they will not honk like buffoons and create a chaos on the roads with senseless driving, they will not ride their motorbikes between two car lanes and cause disorder on the streets, they will not jay walk, they will not go partying on a weekday, they will not consider any work as low, they will invest in the internet and computers to make their country a most modern nation, they will not create any caste and creed based reservation, they will ensure that their surroundings are clean with no room for mosquitoes and diseases, they will not pollute their air with such amazing disregard as Indians do. But these things, an Indian will not imbibe. What we will imbibe is the outer shell of fun and enjoyment that erodes our identity.

As I spent my days in India this time, I pondered on the question that can we not have an India, which is modern, but which has held on to those values that define its identity? The answer is yes, but the path is difficult. But it is a path I believe that we must take, for it would be a shame to lose our identity in the pursuit of modernism.

They say, each nation has this moment - the moment when a whole country feels, breathes and grows as a single entity. Our India too had this moment in the last decade of the 20^th century. Money is a powerful thing, and India has finally found the most powerful tool in the world to establish itself once and for all as a global force. But, this same powerful tool, like most others of its kind, is a double edged sword. Money is a tricky thing. It can take you up, and it can take you down as well. It would be a shame to lose ourselves in the world’s crowds. Not now, not after being the oldest developed civilization in the world, not after fighting a hundred year old war of independence – we must not lose our identity. In Nehru’s words, “the soul of a nation, long suppressed, has finally found utterance.” We must keep our tryst with destiny.