Sequel to Curry Bashing

My Blog Post on “Curry Bashing” received a number of comments, quite interesting I should say. There are 19 entries under “Comments”, some of these are my replies to readers’ postings.

Attacks on Indian Students in Australia continue, albeit at a slower pace. The short-term effect on Australian Education revenues will be felt this year – very soon as the admissions are in progress. The TV coverage in India has subsided though. The Australian High Commissioner complained last month that the perception of Australia and its Education in India is getting to be poor due to the 24 x 7 coverage on the topic by many Indian TV Channels. Welcome Mr High Commissioner to unfettered press freedom – one of the best in the world ! Your country, Australia, did not report the attacks consistently in the local press, nor did they acknowledge that racism played a part, till last week ! How is that for press freedom in what is considered to be the most advanced country in Asia ?

Well, this post is not about Curry Bashing per se. It is more about a piece I read in Times of India today on how Indian Students should connect with the local community wherever they are studying. Couldn’t agree with that more. However, the article goes on to say that Indian Students should compromise on their culture in some manner to accommodate the local environment. I could not disagree more !

While it is critical for migrant students to learn to “integrate” with the local community, that does not mean they cannot see Bollywood movies or go to temples of their choice, or eat their curries ! The article says that Indian students are worse off than the Chinese or Japanese students in this regard – I haven’t seen that, these other folks connect with their own communities better. I would argue that Indian students are more comfortable working with other nationalities, especially students from the host country, due to their comfort level in speaking English. The others struggle.

Well, it would be better for Indian Students to have “other” friends wherever they are, and eat more Western food ! May be they should do whatever the locals do in the University and Community environments. May be they should take up residence as Paying Guests with locals, rather than staying as multiple Indians together in an apartment. May be they should date locals !

Concrete steps would be – teaching Yogo to locals, teaching Maths/Science to local kids, community service, local sports, giving lectures on Indian Culture, et al………anything to connect successfully with the local community. The Universities should support and facilitate such work.

The consistent pattern of attacks in Australia leads one to believe that there is a sustained animosity. Government and City officials everywhere in Australia should work hard to ensure that the law enforcement officals execute their duties to protect law-abiding residents. And the Australian High Commissioner in India should work harder to build Australia’s battered image in India, rather than complaining about the exercise of press freedom in the world’s biggest democracy. May be they should come around to supplying Uranium to India and make amends in other ways as well !

Have a great week ahead,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
5th July 2009
Mumbai