Sunday Posts

I discovered my identity only after I started living abroad. If I go back to India some day, which eventually I will, this will be key learning I carry with me. This reflexive construction of identity took more than one step. First, when I arrived, with all the comfort and reasonableness of modern Industrial life, I started to wonder why some of my relatives and friends did not ever think of migrating. In the cacophony of requests that I started to receive for assistance in migration, I grew a private frustration - why doesn't so and so want to come - and a feeling that the talk about ' Indianness ' is all excuses, a cover for lack of enterprise from my own folks. Then, even in the subliminal reality of the equal opportunity world, my colour of skin became more and more highlighted. Contrary to the common perception, racism, at least in Britain, is far less 'up in the face' and far more systemic. So, unless one is travelling to more 'exotic' parts of the co...

The news reads like this - Amitabh Bachchan has turned down a Ph D degree from Queensland University of Technology , Brisbane, on the wake of racist attacks on Indian students in Australia. In a statement on his blog, Mr. Bachchan said : "I have been witnessing, with great dismay and shock, the recent violent attacks on Indian students in Australia, on the electronic media the entire day. I mean no disrespect to the institution that honours me, but under the present circumstances, where citizens of my own country are subjected to such acts of inhuman horror, my conscience does not permit me to accept this decoration from a country that perpetrates such indignity to my fellow countrymen." This is indeed a grand gesture, sure to get some media attention. But in my view, a rather meaningless, and possibly a dangerous one. Obviously, the racist attacks are obnoxious , and need to be nipped in the bud by Australian authorities. However, this should not elicit, at least at this...