Rooting for India!

Staying true to one’s roots is a phrase that has been done to death by every brand that ever was. With international brands capsizing the local markets, the tagline has assumed relevance in marketing more than ever. It got me wondering whether we, as consumers/individuals were even attracted to the actual concept rather than the mere show of words.

As a Gen Y kid I, like many others in my generation, have been witness to the Internet boom. The repercussions of the same were felt differently across the various parts of the world. America became the technical hub and the dream locale to provide just that push to any fledgling career. Every middle-class Indian, who had only heard about the country till then, started nurturing hopes of living the Great Dream abroad. The same trend continued into the new millennium and changed the dynamics of not only the market but also pseudo-westernized our country.

Don’t get me wrong here. This is not a hate rant on how Big Bad America capsized Culturally Rich India and brought us all to the wrong side of morality. I love my shows on the tube and everything else that western culture has ushered in. It would have been great if our country was truly following the new age ideals while sticking to our roots. While we busy slog away at perfecting our English grammar and the American accent, here’s a thought – How about we learn to read, write and speak in our mother tongue? I would be a hypocrite, if I’d say that we should learn all the Indian languages with their different dialects. But it is not a matter of pride that we cannot communicate in our own mother tongue, in the age of free web tutorials and Ebooks. As a matter of fact, it is pretty shameful that we’re drawn towards learning foreign languages like Chinese, French and Italian because of the sheer monetary profit associated.

The scenario gets worse when it boils down to the historical and civilian details of our country. History is taught so blandly, that it is hard to feel an inkling of liking for the subject. Pre and post-struggle details are breezed through concisely in a chapter or two. Beyond Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and a few others, we don’t even remember the names of other patriots who participated in the freedom struggle. On the other hand, civics is hardly taught. It’s more of a rushed primer for everything else we need to expect later on, as citizens of this country. In this age of technology, it is truly sad to realize that as citizens we know more about American and Egyptian history than our own. And why? Because they’re more mystical and interesting, according to our textbooks.

By all of this, I don’t mean to say that all Indians should go back to primitive living and start adhering to Panchayat rules.  Saving our culture doesn’t entail bidding goodbye to luxury or your pair of jeans. You could very well be all you want and still in tune with our heritage. It is, as simple as, getting to know your own country a little better. Because if we don’t respect and treasure our own legacy, chances are that nobody else will.

Till next time,

Divya

Woes of an internet writer

Recently, when talking to a friend I realized how easily people took content on the internet for granted. As I was describing my job profile to her, she interjected with an "Oh! So you basically write. How hard can that get? Use some flowery words, put in some posh grammar... Lo and Behold, there you have an article." I was tempted to retort back with "If it seems that easy let's see you do it, Shakespeare",but settled for, "Yeah. Pretty much", instead.


That does summarize what people, in general, think of  writers - Hobo chicks with pencils in their bun wearing flowing skirts writing flowery poetry. If it were only that simple!Even worse is when you tell people you work on Facebook or Twitter the whole day. Just the other day, my mother thought I was wasting time on Twitter on a weekend. When I told her this was a part of the job, all she replied was "What possibly could you work with on a social networking site that just allows 140 characters?" She, like many other people, is blissfully unaware of the efforts at the backend of every site- social networking or otherwise. To them, it's all just a random unknown person sitting on a computer somewhere far away posting content and images.

What many people don't understand is that words are way more powerful than swords could ever be. Especially with the Internet disseminating information so effortlessly, words are more than just the building blocks of a language. They're ticking time bombs if used wrongly. The wrong words at the right time could trend and result in something awful or moronic.Take the recent case of a teen committing suicide because #CutForBieber was trending on Twitter. Agreed that it was the most drastic case of a prank gone bad, but that's the kind of impact words have on people.


So the next time you see a writer, tip your hat off to that guy/girl. They're probably the reason why you have your Facebook, Twitter and Google timelines flooded with information. Whether the said information is relevant or irrelevant is another story altogether!