An inebriated haze of Edge parties and Edge countries
Last weekend saw me at 2 parties – 2 very, very different parties.
Friday was an edge party. We tend to have “desi” (Indian) parties quite often where I live. Although my friends are most interesting and the parties are absolute blasts, one can’t help but wonder that one is not doing enough to integrate. I guess a friend of mine put it rather well when he said, “I want to be an American in America or an Indian in India.”
Saturday, I was in Pittsburgh at a grad student party where I knew almost no one. I met a Danish grad student doing his Ph.D in Computer Science. We were talking about the education systems in our two countries. I was telling him about how competitive things were in India. How everyone wanted to become an engineer or a doctor to have a chance at the good life. How all the good life meant was not worrying about how you were going to support your family. He was a little drunk and this got his mind racing.
“In Denmark, every student who applies to college is given aid. No questions asked. Can you imagine? Every student. You just apply and they go - Here is 800 Euros a month. Do what you want. So people do whatever they want. I dread the day when all you guys who really worked hard to know your stuff come and kick us out of our jobs.”
I guess in today’s global world, opportunity isn’t everything
We went on to talking politics and inevitably, war. After some Bush-bashing we got around to our own countries. I was distressed at what I saw as a capitulation of the Indian government to towing Bush’s line and was railing away at our government.
He started talking about Danish politics. When the war in Iraq broke out the Danish government proclaimed their support for the US forces. The solitary submarine of the Danish Navy was sent to the Arabian Sea to patrol the waters. Once it became obvious that the war was coming to an end, the submarine was dismantled, put on a plane, flown back to Europe, re-assembled and navigated back into the Danish port.
“All of us knew it was a farce, yet we stood on the shores and cheered madly. What else could we do?”
At least I can dream of a day when my country will be a serious global power. I wonder how it would feel to know with a certainty that your country would never matter.
Friday was an edge party. We tend to have “desi” (Indian) parties quite often where I live. Although my friends are most interesting and the parties are absolute blasts, one can’t help but wonder that one is not doing enough to integrate. I guess a friend of mine put it rather well when he said, “I want to be an American in America or an Indian in India.”
Saturday, I was in Pittsburgh at a grad student party where I knew almost no one. I met a Danish grad student doing his Ph.D in Computer Science. We were talking about the education systems in our two countries. I was telling him about how competitive things were in India. How everyone wanted to become an engineer or a doctor to have a chance at the good life. How all the good life meant was not worrying about how you were going to support your family. He was a little drunk and this got his mind racing.
“In Denmark, every student who applies to college is given aid. No questions asked. Can you imagine? Every student. You just apply and they go - Here is 800 Euros a month. Do what you want. So people do whatever they want. I dread the day when all you guys who really worked hard to know your stuff come and kick us out of our jobs.”
I guess in today’s global world, opportunity isn’t everything
We went on to talking politics and inevitably, war. After some Bush-bashing we got around to our own countries. I was distressed at what I saw as a capitulation of the Indian government to towing Bush’s line and was railing away at our government.
He started talking about Danish politics. When the war in Iraq broke out the Danish government proclaimed their support for the US forces. The solitary submarine of the Danish Navy was sent to the Arabian Sea to patrol the waters. Once it became obvious that the war was coming to an end, the submarine was dismantled, put on a plane, flown back to Europe, re-assembled and navigated back into the Danish port.
“All of us knew it was a farce, yet we stood on the shores and cheered madly. What else could we do?”
At least I can dream of a day when my country will be a serious global power. I wonder how it would feel to know with a certainty that your country would never matter.
posted by Karthik at 5:25 AM
11 Comments:
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Aswin,
If it was something small - some policy thing I could start to stomach a "If you can't beat them, join them" policy if that translated into fed stomachs.
However, without getting overtly political, I don't think that the war on Iraq is something small. This situation is not about compromising between egos and lives.
This war is about 'Ego costing lives'. One man's ego. One military establishment's pig-headed refusal to agree that they were wrong.
I am not adopting an American liberal foaming at the mouth kinda stance which just involves thinking with the heart. Saddam Hussein is a bigger villain than George Bush. But Saddam is a dictator and Bush is the President of the world's only superpower. The fact that the previous statement had to be made is preposterous.
But let us please be human here and not start believing in some vague world where agreeing to an injust war will somehow translate into things getting better in India.
The war is continuing in the face of blanket world-wide opposition. How do you think things would be if this was not the case?
Karthik
Go through the list of the members of the "Coalition of the Willing". Please scroll a little.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_the_willing#Current_Members
Please also read the section titled "Criticism of the Phrase".
If I had seen India's name on that list or anywhere on that page, I would have cried and I know you would have too.
Other than the US, these are the world's edge countries. These are the voices that will never matter. This is not high school where you can suck up to the bully so that he helps you keep your tiffin box.
I know my India. I know my Indians. We have our failings - too many to enumerate. But we are opinionated SOBs.
We are not also-rans.
Karthik
AFAIK, the only US trade sanctions that have happened to India are the ones after the nuclear bombs were tested. I strongly believe that we had to take the nuclear step and I guess you do too (correct me if I am wrong).
I would think that living in a CTBT-compliant and disarmed India, while Pakistan had nukes would be distinctly uncomfortable. Nothing poses a bigger threat to the world than nukes, but they are a reality we have to live with.
What I am getting at is that while the sanctions may make things harder for the common man, they were inevitable.
I hate the corruption in the Indian political system, but at the end of the day I believe almost maniacally in a majority of our government's decisions.
India is chaos. It is madness. But somehow, it works.
It works the way a taxi driver gets through the streets of Mumbai.
Within our lifetimes, the United States will need India and China more than we can begin to comprehend. And I will be home and a part of that.
Karthik
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We could go on like this forever - arguing in parallel. I, talking in macro terms, while you concentrate on the poor villager.
The positives of the alms we would potentially receive, for they are nothing more than that, are to me negligible compared to the loss of credibility and what that translates to in the long term.
I believe that we are too proud a people to exist like that. It is ironic that for hundreds of years India was enslaved by the British, while today the British are enslaved and India is free. I prefer it like that.
Let us agree to disagree.
Karthik
yep... lets agree to that .
btw i'm LOLing @ golu in my first comment and his comment has been taken off !
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"At least I can dream of a day when my country will be a serious global power. I wonder how it would feel to know with a certainty that your country would never matter."
Hi Karthik - Reading the news these days with the Danish Cartoons,I was reminded of this post on your blog :-). Interesting, ain't it.
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