I was 26 when I left Rajapalayam to live in Chennai,desperate to go, leaving behind a socially oppressive culture,where a woman was not to be seen or heard,her respectability was an easy virtue.she did not have to accomplish much,just be dumb and remain invisible,traveling in a horse drawn cart screened from view.A forward looking education majoring in western thought and literature had made me a stranger at home.So I fled but carried with me all that I wished to leave behind!Landed in a cauldron of assorted views and ways,not quite able to acclimatize , holding on to my identity,that I suddenly found very respectable.I trudged on neither here nor there,inevitably becoming different from either,choosing my affinity as was convenient.
30 yrs later,I returned to Rajapalayam,a liberated woman of mature years and much understanding of the world,eager to pass on the benefits of my exposure and liberate the still suffering sisterhood left behind!Only I did not find them.There were no horse drawn carts,nor even auto rickshaws with the screens hiding respectable women from vulgar view!Even as I roamed looking for independence,women had found theirs,quietly,without much ado,acquiring skills necessary for financial independence.They rode cycles,scooters,drove cars,ran small enterprises,travelled,learnt languages,their exposure evinced in their carriage and cuisine,the transformation so smooth that it didn't seem noticeable,the transformation achieved without a struggle for identity,without a confusion of cultures.Well!I have been humbled,no need here to trumpet my superior ways,to spread my world view and philosophy of life.Rajapalayam had changed even as I had marching in tune with the ways of the world,facing no threat to its identity.
AND Iam not really talking about myself or about Rajapalayam.I have in mind the global Indian who thinks the Indian Indian he left behind is a barbarian,who smells of coconut oil in his hair,the stink of curry in his clothes,abhorts girl babies ,burns brides and rapes women.If the white man spread an image of snake charmers ,the global Indian does a worse disservice to India.Another face to migration!A South Indian living in the north is wiser than his brother back home,a global Indian wherever he is ,whatever he does is infinitely superior to Indians in India,who are dirty rude crude!!
And this about a culture and civilisation that thrived before its western counterparts had learnt to brush their teeth or wash their bums!
AND We can no longer blame it on population or British occupation and rest easy.Two tasks to be done on war footing.Clean our streets and make our education relevant.Surely not impossibly difficult.
