Wrong Pic On The Right Page

The book had the right picture. The people got the wrong picture. For there are certain ill-conceived and malformed ideas and notions people have of us, as Indians. Not that I blame them, but I hope that someday, someway, this notion changes.


This realization started with the few courses I took recently. Whenever there had to be pictures of a famine, a natural disaster, or some health related issues, the text book was filled with the “bhookhe-nange log” (hungry, poor people) back from Africa and India. There was a chapter on the malaria prevalence and there were these tiny, diseased kids in the text books. And then there was this chapter on wood smoke, indoor air pollution, and related health issues, and there was this picture of this sick, old lady bent with age fanning the chulha, with subsequent statistics on how many women and children died of wood smoke alone in India.



And then we were having a class discussion on air pollution, and my friends, who seemed to have visited India for a couple of months, pointed at me- So they could give you a better idea about the traffic snarls and the associated air pollution problems in India. And do also enlighten us on the sulfur haze and acid rain too.


I wish I had been asked to tell the class about out rich cultural heritage, how Indians have bagged the Nobel prizes and the beauty contests at the international level. Sigh.

The class looked at me with anticipation.

Uncomfortably, I did start with the acid rain, the oil refinery issue and how it was corroding the marble in the Taj Mahal. I just needed to get to Taj Mahal. And then my speech went like this-

And as you must all know, Taj Mahal is considered one of the seven wonders of the world that attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world. It is a symbol of love. If you happen to be in Agra, you should also visit the capital city Delhi, the Red Fort and the Qutub Minar. And the food in India is awesome. And India is famous for its handicrafts.

Quite a far cry from the air pollution issue I was supposed to discuss.

But then, when I think of Africa, all I can think of are diseased children, fleas, mosquitoes, plague, the tsetse fly, suffering and death, while I am sure Africa is one of the most beautiful places with pristine and virgin forests, birds, and animals. I certainly do not blame these people.


People here have an idea that everyone in India cooks in the chulhas in the sweltering heat, coughing blood and dying of lung cancer. No wonder I was asked if my mom too cooks in a similar chulha, crouched amongst a pile of wood and cow dung. What more, I was asked by a friend,  how the people in India keep the doors and the windows open, since the place must be swarming with bugs and reptiles. The poor thing imagines our homes to be in the midst of some Amazon forest perhaps where we wear clothes made of palm tree leaves and live in huts built of bamboo shoots.

Like some of us were explaining the occurrence of tuberculosis-

“Hundreds of years ago, the Caucasians lived with cows and goats and cattle and thus tuberculosis became widespread. The strain became more violent and started to develop in humans too. No wonder almost every Indian harbors TB germs in their lungs- latent or virulent”

Sheesh…

This doc was working in India for some time, and of all places he could choose, he chose Bihar. No wonder he thinks that every place in India is like Bihar. Arre bhaiya, I as an Indian will hesitate thrice to go and work in Bihar (the extra hesitation because that is perhaps not what I should feel about the place). Similarly another friend here wanted to do some work on arsenic in drinking water, and of all the places and months he could choose to travel in India, he chose to go to Kolkata in the month of June. The sweltering heat and the humidity is something even we as Indians cannot tolerate. When he came back, his face was as red and brinjal-violet as a monkey’s, nicely baked and caked. No wonder when another friend's niece wanted to make a world tour on her own, she was strongly discouraged to go to India for personal safety reasons.


“India? No way. Girls get raped and molested there.”

Yes they do, I agree. But not all girls get molested, right? And this happens in the US too. Some of the US text books here claimed that Hindus in India practice sati and johar. Well, we did, a lifetime ago, but we do not anymore, right? The members of the Hindu students’ association had a tough time challenging the notion and finally establishing the fact that this is history and it no longer happens.

My department thinks that I come from a “privileged family”. By this, they mean something akin to the lifestyle any IAS officer would be accustomed to in India, with servants and drivers and cooks and all kinds of help one could imagine. I once told them that we have a maid (am sure most people do). Comparing to the way manual labor is expensive and unavailable there and contrasting to the pic they have of India, my department has inferred that I belong to one of the richest families who can afford a maid. A privileged family is what they say.




Of course there are certain things people here love about India. They love the cuisine, the biryani, the paranthas (they call it nan bread there). Every side dish is a curry for them. They love the colorfulness of our national costume- the sari, and still wonder how one piece of clothing can be wrapped round and round. They know about Diwali (Dheewyaali) and Durga Puja (Dhurgha Poojas). But in all, they have the wrong pic of India. Not all homes cook in chulhas. Not all homes are infested by snakes and venomous spiders. Not all people suffer from TB. Not all girls are molested on the streets everywhere. Not all places are polluted and sweltering hot.


They just need to have the right pic on the right page of their minds. And I have a feeling that it’s high time we did that.

How do I do it? Ask me.