….and I am! My bretehren and friends! Behold we live in one of the most exciting times known to man. The world is reinventing itself yet again. ‘Change’, that ever present and ever maligned phenomenon is set to take the world by the neck and give it a shake or two. Aaah…. how lucky I am to be a part of this history.
To all those of us who are over 10 years old, we know what the feeling was to be an Indian – both here and abroad (to only the miniscule few who could afford it – one way or the other). We fussed and gaped at anything foreign and fawned and groveled in front of anything ‘white’. The feeling / s were not reciprocated. Most ignored us, and all despised us – apparently, politely or at least secretly! I myself saw the natural derision that was reserved for Indians, primarily because I don’t look like a mainstream Indian, on a journey abroad – Italy to be precise. They were effusive in their politeness to me, because they assumed that I was a Japanese (pure 5 star stuff), or at least a Malaysian, even a Thai?? Note: no one asked if I was a Chinese, because that was then not now. Imagine their shock when I patiently explained to them that I was indeed an Indian.
Cut to the present. Japan is making frantic allies and is even risking the displeasure of its most trusted ally, the U.S of A vis a vis agreements, especially regarding port usages and the like. Their premier visited us twice in so many years and they are much more polite as far as their ‘genuine’ concerns are about our well, concerns.
So welcome all. India is rising, and China our northern and often enigmatic neighbor is roaring. Well, the tiger was never a match for a dragon was it? On hind sight someone should award Ang Lee another Oscar for his forecasting prowess – remember ‘Crouching TIGER, hidden DRAGON’ ?? The 2000 blockbuster that I watched first day first show at Regal, Bombay with Shoba De behind me? (a decent 500 people way from the riff raff like us of course). Only of course, the dragon is in no mood to be hiding. As for the poor tiger, what else do you expect it to do, when a dragon is roaring about? Come to think of it, why didn’t our leaders choose something bigger and more powerful as our national animal? not that one springs to the mind immediately. A tiger looks too tame. Perhaps we could’ve just given the whole size and Grrrr… thing a go by and thrown in our lot fully with the Gandhian ideals and chosen maybe a simple white dove or a white swan or something like that!!
Point is, now that Bush baby has done WHATEVER he wanted to do and left poor Obama to serve the ‘khichidi’ he painstakingly cooked for eight L O N G years, the US appears to be a whimpering puss. In fact it’s status as a world leader has taken such a beating that people need to be reminded every now and then that it is STILL the most powerful country on earth as of now. It is. But, no matter how powerful you claim to be, it’s difficult to make nations stand up and take you seriously when you keep begging them for money and keep blowing crap on your face – the Wikipedia episode being the latest hot stuff. Compare this to a decade back when anything American was considered precious.
This maybe just what ‘I’ am feeling. But maybe it isn’t if you notice the exodus from the USA to good old India that many many NRIs seem to be making. All of a sudden you have ABCDs (American Born Confused Desis as we lovingly call them, because I’m totally against derogatory comments about any peoples), green card holders and what not. On another level one could even find some humour in the situation – struggle to settle in a foreign land which can never be easy, and then struggle to return home just as soon as you’ve set up your tent!
I think of the world a child born today would grow up in tomorrow. To the young un, when it can make sense of what’s going on in the adult world, he would know China and India as simply superpowers. He would be innocent of the awe we had held for decades for the US, Japan made anything (never underestimate them; I seriously doubt they’ll fade away anytime soon. Remember that the US, to whom they have been a faithful ally for about 5 decades thrashed them black and blue post Pearl Harbour, and even rewrote their Constitution just in case they still had any doubts about who the boss was) and even Korean stuff. All these things to him, as a voting Indian would simply be old hat and something that old people keep talking about or even simply as ‘History’, something to be studied in school.
Well, think about it. In this subtle shift that keeps occurring every now and then, to those of us who can remember further, not so long ago, Russia and the USA were the two biggest superpowers in the world. Period. They were so huge, that they fought while we watched and sidled up to one or the other. Every time they bared their teeth, which was very often, the world would shiver, and try to lie as low as possible trying to avoid big brother’s bad mood. Today, no one remembers any of that stuff because, some old man with a funny patch on his bald head and a well decked up wife on his right did something big, following which the US became the lone super power in the world. In other words – game, set, match USA.
This then is history. The air is filled with palpable tension, excitement… will India really make it to the big-time league? Just 60 odd years back, we were begging the English to stop bossing us and to leave us alone. We started out as poor, dirt poor and sat down to write our very own Constitution, which they say is a ‘borrowed bag’! Cut to the present. Our Finance Minister, the brightest star in India today, met the IMF head to give him some relevant pointers. How wonderful life is! Why? There are even talks of our very own Monty (Montek Ahluwalia) being the next World Bank Chief.
As for Italy, air travel is no longer expensive and many Indians regularly traipse abroad; nothing like what it was just a decade ago, when travel abroad was strictly for the rich. So Auckland, Gstaad or Rio is much more happening now and people spoke with respect when I mentioned that I was an Indian some 5 years back, in Singapore - India was beginning to happen then. It remains to be seen whether India will make it to the finish line or end up as a paper tiger like Malaysia unfortunately did when it showed so much potential, which it lost somewhere along the way.
But knowing India, I doubt if that will be allowed to happen with all the official spaces that we have between our trademark prudence and frugality.(with due apologies for the TATAs and Ambanis, masters of Ms. Radia – by the way I wonder if Mr.Ambani will give me ‘chai’ anytime I want at his expensive 20 storeyed Antilla house considering that as a taxpayer whom he must have fleeced at some time or the other either directly or through some representative I elected, I must have earned my cuppas! )
I truly am thrilled at the twists and turns that will unfold before we take our rightful place at the table and do not grudge any or all the uns who will grow into this fresh new world not knowing any other, taking for granted that they come from a country that’s a superpower! Lucky brats!
