Whenever we are far, far from our home, our people, our history, we try to find new veils of change that will camouflage us in their lifestyle, their home. We try to fit in the spaces that are as packed as the atoms in a solid and that solid will break open in only two circumstance - first is obvious, we CHANGE our conventional or hidebound nature, if it is; second is tough and seems impossible, that is CHANGE their thinking or nature. Although the first is what I intend to discuss as it is quite perplexing yet obvious, we are able to list down more instances where other people have been successful at changing our thinking. Wait. Did i just write something that is not making sense?
Hmm..The thing is the first way to change SEEMS easy but is not and the second way is more EVIDENT and PRACTICED in the world. Well of course, we have the invasions by Mughals, Britishers, etc. etc. This is a subtly coercive way for adaption of others' culture and lifestyle. The problem starts when we voluntarily try to embrace others' culture. If not culture then maybe thinking. And if we think that we have not adapted others' culture or whatever, we surely come across instances in our daily life where we we doubt our homeland's culture and value.
Changez, in the book The Reluctant Fundamentalist, goes through this phenomenon of spending the teenage in his birthplace Pakistan and then migrating to USA for further studies and finding himself non plussed upon the happening and non- happening of certain events. I called it "phenomenon" because every second person I meet is either going to settle abroad or does not want to settle at all in abroad. Mohsin Hamid in the book beautifully contemplates the confusion of educated youth in USA at the time of 9/11. Changez who was brilliantly talented and fell for an American woman who could'nt love him, found after the 9/11 attacks that he felt triumphed when the New York Tower was bombed. A person who would wear the superior, fascinating and influencing American look whenever he went to other nations, could not believe his "triumphed" feeling. Was this a patriotic feeling even when the bombing was an act of terrorism or was it the deep hidden disgust for United States, the country which taught him. In both the cases he was to be labelled as a double - faced man.
Okay, this was a person who went to other country and felt this confusion. What about the people like you and I who still reside and breed in the chaos their own people? Do we feel disgusted by the acts of our own people? A yes or no to this question is not much of problem. The problem comes when you have to answer the question of do you feel that inferiority when an American boasts about their power and dollar and you merely have a glorious history. Is preaching your religion, your language a narrow-minded thinking? Is feeling proud about your history a fundamental mind set? And if I am a fundamentalist then how much am I reluctant? So much so that I can smile even when people of my country bombard innocent people. So much so that I can refuse many people to enter our country because they practice different faith.
I guess this is what all the people feel once in their lifetime. Especially the ordinary people who can't be the leader and don't want to be a follower. We can be the fundamentalists and reluctants or we can be fundamentalists and non-reluctancts. There is no right or wrong answer just like there is no right or wrong question.
- Sachi
Do you agree with my opinion? Feel free to express yourself in the comments section!
