Friday, April 3, 2009

Diversity, disparity and contradictions

Well, i am finally entering the blogging space today...i have had thoughts regarding this a number of times...i always used to think that my first blog would be about a fun thing...maybe india's cricket performance, or maybe bappi lahri's music or some strange co-incidence of life.

In short, i never thought that i would begin with some serious thoughts of mine. Not that anything i write would change something but what struck me was so stark that i could not keep myself from blogging, so .....

India, a land of diversity, diversity of cultures, of traditions, religions, beliefs and what not. I was always so proud of this diversity. But diversity is associated with inevitable disparity and this disparity always presents itself in the form of contradictions between you and the others. For me, this contradiction presented itself in the most simplistic form over a routine snack of maggi. In my last 5 years of hostel life, i have started believing that maggi is the most routine thing to eat. I have become so dependent on it that its tough to imagine life without maggi. And i thought its so true for all us Indians. For everybody i know eats maggi and just loves it. With these thoughts i went to a chai-ki-dukan outside my hostel when the emptiness of my stomach disrupted my game of cards at 3 in the morning. Me and my friends gave our usual order of "char plain maggi" and continued with our chat about how my stupidity cost my partner a game of "sweep". Our maggi was still on the burner when a truck driver stopped for tea. He said to the chaiwallah "what is this thing that you are cooking ? Its something like the sewai that we make at our home." Me and my friends were shocked that there is a part of India who has never seen maggi, when we consider it to be the country's staple food. And thats when the realisation dawned. I knew only a small part of India. I believed India was shining when farmers were committing suicide. I was fascinated by Obama's rise when the dalits were fighting against the Ranbir Sena. I was pleased with the Bombay Stock Exchange's sensex's bull run when people in slums of the same Bombay itself were living like bulls. 
As it turned out, what i saw that day was just the surface. Upon exploration, I came across several facets of life of this other India, which I never knew in my 22 years of existence. 45% of Indian women get married before the age of 18, yet i had never heard of one.  India has the largest number of AIDS patients in the world and yet I thought the HIV exists only in some distant land, if it does at all. About a third of the country's populace falls in the BPL category (that too when you have to shit in the open to be categorised BPL) and yet I thought that 8% GDP growth is "real economic progress".
Yes, life is full of contradictions but nowhere are they as stark and as real as in India. 

9 comments:

  1. dude... its amazing... i say that, more so, coz i've known this guy for 4 of his 5 maggi eating years n this was totally unexpected/uncharacteristic of him...

    just loved it...

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  2. nice one dude...
    good to see some one is actually looking behind the cloud.

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  3. seriously serious rohit!!!! amazing.......
    waise i have heard of this but still its amazing n shocking at the same time....
    welcome to INDIA

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  4. well observed and well written, man!

    the first post always surprises the writer's friends...and the writer himself.

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  5. amazing blog Rohit.....u really hit the point where most of the people are trying to be ignorant....aur pehle blog ke hisaab se u were simply amazing....good yaar...thoda gyaan humein bhi de dijiyega....:)

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  6. Too good and it's your first post... that makes it awesome!!!

    keep up the good work!!!

    And don't give up on blogging!!!

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  7. that was awesome man....really well thought and well written.........

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  8. Good to know someone realises that all we 'elite' graduates and aspirational corporators know about India is 'Nothing'. :)

    Will be watchint your blog for more...

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  9. thought provoking...

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