We moved to India to make our children comfortable with the Indian side of their heritage, and not view it as just a “developing country’ of their parent, but appreciate the warmth, the love, and the struggles of regular Indians. For that reason, we were very particular about NOT living in a ‘NRI’ neighborhood and NOT sending them to international schools. We truly left our American life behind. Our children went to Delhi Public School under CBSE board, played in the evenings with the neighborhood children, learnt Hindi, and ate ‘Chana-Puri’ (Rohan says that in his cute accent!) in the school canteen. Rohan has learnt Hindi so well. If, in the future, life ever brings him back to India, he will be quite comfortable with the nuances of the Indian culture.
People in India are surely crazy about two things – Music and Cricket. Even the guy who came to look at my car commented on how I do not have a fancy music system in my car. Don’t I like music? Gatherings where people sing away the nights are quite common here. The gardener has his music ON on his cellphone, while working – only thing is he takes more breaks than work, but that is another story. Music surely helps to handle the chaos all around here.
And of course, the cricketers are Gods here, or semi-Gods. So are the film stars. Maybe because the glamour and glitter of the film and cricket worlds seem awesome to the millions of have-nots in this country.
That is one thing that bothers me – the huge disparity between the middle class and the poor people here. And there are other things too – like the scarcity of clean water. Bangalore gets so much rain, if all the rain water was caught and channelised, it would have solved so much of this water problem. Waste management is also a crucial need.
I really admire people like Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan, who left a cozy life in the US to found Janagraha in Bangalore, to teach people about ‘citizen involvement’. It is a great cause, and a great job is being done.
- Swagata
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