I am on my way from Dallas to Los Angeles via Austin. I am crisscrossing the country in an illogical way because the next stop after LA is New York. Its tiring and disorienting to sleep in new places every two nights but I am also happy to have small glimpses of different places. My eye is picking up all the differences between India and America - in size, speed and scale. I am reluctant to make big judgements based on fleeting impressions and hope readers understand that these random notes are just that - random notes.
At Austin airport, I am struck with idea that America and India are maybe not so far apart in some senses. There is a big group of girls and boys and it looks like they are on a school trip. They look uncannily like the undergraduate students I interact with at the design institutes in Ahmedabad. The same jeans, the same labels, enbellished with embroidery and worn and torn patches. Streaked hair, mobile phones and ears plugged to devices playing music. Eavesdropping is the key to insights, so I move closer to the group.
It turns out that they are undergraduate students and each one has a sticker on their jacket pockets identifying them as Gates Millenium Scholars. And when I hear them talk, they even sound like my students - “And my mom said, “Why are you late and I look at her, as in, and I am like, what?”. I feel like laughing - young people in upper middle class urban (actually, metroplitan) India speak exactly like this, inventing a new English language which is close to incomprehensible to those of us brought up on Wren and Martin grammar books.
Jet lag has given me an opportunity to watch TV at all hours of the day. So many of the shows here being aired in India too, and we are behind by probably a few weeks. I also realise how much Indian presenters (even in the vernacular channels) have adopted the manner and look of shows here. Later, I enter a clothes store and hear Rihanna singing ‘Unfaithful’, a big favourite among the young in Ahmedabad too.
It sets me thinking about East and West - in many ways the twain seem to be meeting. But is this the shape of things to come?
one true but horrible fact…..east is copying west like they hav only the last day left in their lives…there is so much of aping..bollywood directors ape hollywood directors….music are being copied, actors copy their styles and dresses in reel and real life….now teenagers adopt to wearing low waist jeans….showing undies and butt lines…..showing pvt parts…..its become so very common in india tht u can very well find so many similarities……I think its time to be our own and not ape others….
Yes, Wren and Martin it is - the red coloured front. Thanks for bringing back my childhood memories!
I hope its not the shape of things to come. I hope we Indians don”t adopt the same kind of attitude that US has towards human relationships. Live in relationships and one night stands are gaining popularity in India these days.
Also one thing to note is that the fabric of rural India is much different from Urban India.
hoo I guess it sure is the shape of things to come. Nice narrative..
not a comment,just wanted to say………..you are lucky,travelling around and eavesdrapping………….he he heh………kind of saw the scene,through your eyes……….and yes!!!!!!!!it is the way the things are going to be………..it is the same everywhere……………..