Racism

Being in a different country, an entirely different kind of people, can sometimes be a real test of your values and beliefs. Growing up in a small town can mean that sometimes you grow up with a sense of a rigid order in society that has been followed since the time of the fire. That is how god intended it you are told. You grow up knowing people as Nairs, Menons, Pattars, Chettiars, Iyengars, achayans, mapplas and what not. And once you come into the big city, you also learn to put in another level -northies, southies, gujjus, marwadis, of course - bongs, mallus, tamilians, kannadigas and again what not. This is all fine, because whenever you talk about the "others", it is always to people within your own "herd". In essence, closetting anything that is offensive and presenting a front that is perfectly agreeable. Also, there is no way of identifying who belongs where just by looking at them (we are not even talking finance here) - except for the Chinkis and the Sardarjis maybe. So as long as you are in a society where everyone accepts that no one is equal, you are safe in a bubble of beliefs - about your political correctness and moral highroad; giving you all the credibility you need to criticise the zionists and racists in far away White man's land.

But when you actually get down to the middle of the action, realisation can sometimes come with a thud. You land up in a hodge-podge of races and you do not have a significant herd to bounce your thoughts off and constantly reassure oneself. By default, the moment you set foot on the jersey shores, you become a desi. Your fellow desis tell you, that you need to be wary of the goras, scared of the kallus, indifferent to the mexicans as they are all illegal, obviously. And this is the classic "to be or not to be" as far as I am concerned. I could become a part of the herd and find my own little group somewhere in there or else I could choose to walk the talk.

Things become even more complicated when you see the stereotypes being turned on their heads - Desis can sometimes stab you in the back as well, Goras are not racist bigots - most of them are genuinely nice people, Kallus are not necessarily only - murderers, gangsters and thieves, they are a people with a zest for life that is quite unmatched. And mexicans, for all I can gather, are indistinguishable from Indians in their beliefs and family values.

Walking the talk, is not easy my friend. Not easy at all.......