Tuesday 5 August 2014

RETURNING TO THE MOTHERLAND

~Image taken from Google~
The land of delicious curry, piping hot chai tea and an array of colours that become embedded in your visual cortex from the spices, dyes and sarees that you see.
The extremely polite children, the love of cricket and the infamous train journeys that take you on a whirlwind of an experience up and down the country.
Not to mention the mix of the old and new whereby you can still see how the land and its people lived hundreds of years ago mixed with areas with infrastructure and technology which is light years ahead of its time.

INDIA

I've never really felt close to my motherland, India.
Maybe it's because I was born and brought up in Oman for 9 years and was then whisked away to live in England for a further 10 years and counting.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who had this type of childhood and yet all the other Indian teens I knew felt a strong connection back to their native land. It was as though I was being left out of the warm embrace that India was giving everyone else. But I just couldn't bring myself to connect with the land of my forefathers.
I always used to wonder why this was the case: is it the way I was tormented for my skin colour whenever I was over there or the way some aspects of the culture went totally against what I believed in? 


Recently, I have begun to appreciate all of India's glory. I've been focusing 19 or so years of my life on the negative aspects of this beautiful country.

I forgot the smell of the damp earth that fills your nose as you step out of the plane.
I forgot the experience of playing outside in the monsoon season, getting lost in the rain.
I forgot the different cultures and traditions that follow the 29 states,
each filled with their own characteristic traits.
From Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala, I forgot the colours, the music, the different styles of dance, the history and every little thing that makes India one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world.

By reading about British imperialism and how it affected Indians, I have begun to realise the hardships and pure terror my motherland has faced. The struggle and blood that has been shed in order to give its descendants freedom will never be forgotten.

Needless to say, I'm starting to not appreciate the stereotypes that are being associated with Indians. Nor the fact that people are using Indian traditions as a fashion statement. But it goes to show that India will always influence the world in one way or another.

So what spurred me on to realise all of this? Well, it all began when I went to Morocco. Strange, I know! In Morocco, all of the cinemas play Bollywood movies. Most of the fabrics that you see in Morocco was inspired by the delicate designs that  Indian designers portray onto the fabric. As you walk through the souks, some of the stalls even play iconic Bollywood music. The hagglers on the street ask me if I'm Indian and their faces fill with joy when I say "Yes, I'm an Indian." as they frantically attempt to act out famous film scenes. Seeing the way the Moroccans admired all things Indian made me realise how wonderful my motherland is.

I am ashamed to say that it has taken me 19 years to realise this...
But I adore India.

~Image taken from Pinterest~


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