Alka recently got a VCD of old Rajesh Khanna songs and yesterday I was quickly browsing through them on my laptop when I came across a song from the film Sachcha Jhootha (the true one and the liar — or something like that). The song begins with:
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which means
Don’t go by how people look
but look into their hearts
because looks are often deceptive.It’s the heart that is true
not the face
While listening to the song I could genuinely relate to the last portion:
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?? ?? ?? ? ????????
?????? ???? ?? ??? ?? ??
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????? ???? ?? ??
???? ?? ?? ??? ???? ???? ???
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The bindu missing over Dhang is not a typo, I couldn’t make my Hindi typing software type it. Anyway, this translates to:
We have physically been emancipated,
but mentally we’re still the slaves
We still bow to the foreign manners and dressing
We forget our ways and happily adopt foreign ways
and we’ve lost the old tradition of love and nearness
This is exactly what one sees around. People are crazy about things/people from abroad. Of course a big reason is in our country quality production lacks at all level and corruption and distrust is all-pervading, but still, there is some behavioral problem with us, whether it is voluntary or orchestrated. Alka, who has been a student of history often blames it on Thomas Macaulay who once said:
We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, words and intellect.
Well, he pretty much succeeded in that. Macaulay envisaged an upbringing that would make the Indians the mental slaves of the British for ever. The British packed their bags and left but they left the psychological leashes behind and eventually we became a dog nation that could be taken for a walk by any western country. OK, a bit dramatic but you get the point.
There is an anecdote once my teacher narrated and this happened when the infrastructure in Delhi was being revved up for the Asian Games. An architect was called from the USA and with great anticipation everybody was waiting for his arrival. But alas! He turned out to be an Indian. He got such a lackluster response from the Indian officials that outraged, he went back and sent his junior here, who was, to the great delight of Indian officials, a Caucasian. It goes without saying he was received famously.
Personally I don’t resist change and I prefer the western society to our own vastly hypocritical and defeatist society. But there is a limit to copying the others. Individuality and personal taste no longer matter. People don’t do things they like, they do things that are considered hep. This not only stifles free thought and creativity, it also proves fatal for those who cannot cope with the pressure of following the herd.
