Dec 13, 2006 11:38 PM
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Way back in 1958, there was a book called “The Ugly American” , primarily about how Americans were losing the battle with communism because of their arrogant behavior and disrespect of local cultures. As a Burmese journalist says in the book “They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious”.
The Americans are derided for the arrogance and unwilingness to respect local cultures and traditions. But there is a certain species who are boorish, arrogant and insensitive to their own culture and heritage. I havent interacted much with members of this species abroad, but unfortunately, I had to bump into them many times in India. These people are “The Ugly Indian”,a highly unique species. The Ugly American treats everything that is not part of his culture with contempt, the Ugly Indian treats everything that is part of his culture and heritage with contempt.
A person even from a dirt poor nation like Nigeria or Bolivia, would treat his heritage with respect. And yes they are proud of it. I remember seeing the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbulsome time back. Turkey is by no ways a rich nation, yet you would never see litter near the mosques or grafitti scrawled on the walls of their monuments. But no we Indians deem it our birthright to scribble our love on the walls of forts, monuments, caves. And then of course we would crib that the Government is not doing anything to protect our heritage. Why should the Govt do so, when we ourselves vandalize our heritage?
Go to any historical site in India, you are entranced by the sheer grandeur of the monuments, the brilliant engineering, the magnificient architecture. And yet as if to remind you of reality, the smell of the garbage littered nearby hits you. And the worst part is we don’t care about it. We toss empty cartons, cans casually all over, as if littering is a part of our genes. And yes we also use those monuments as a public toilet. From being places to admire and appreciate the architecture and heritage, these monuments are turning into public toilets, grafitti walls for lovers and litter grounds. And that brings to the basic point, whatever achievements we boast of in IT, Bollywood, cricket, fashion shows, deep down as human beings, we are just downright ugly. That’s a bitter truth, I don’t see any other explanation for this sort of sick behaviour.
And yes once you escape the litter and stench, you have to put up with the next kind of ugly behaviour, people who don’t seem to have read “Silence is Golden”. So these families generally come in flashy clothes, speak in loud voices, and want to show off every one their latest mobile or want every one to listen to their latest foreign trip. Of course there are sub species in this category, for whom anything Indian is never good. Try talking with them, about the beauty of the place, and they would say “Oh this is nothing, you know last year I had been to London and ………” . If there were ever a contest for running down your country and lack of pride in your surroundings, we Indians would win it hands down.
And now we come to the rather nightmarish experience of travelling in India. The moment you get down at the airport/ station, you are greeted by a bunch of taxi/ auto drivers who are eager to squeeze the last penny out of your pocket. The amount of money squeezed out depends on where you are from. If you are an outsider and don’t happen to know the place, you can be rest assured of finding your wallet empty at the end of the trip. The other option you have is to book your tour with a tourist operator, which is even worse. These guys only specialize in rush hour jobs. You are packed into small vans, much like the Jews in Nazi times, and rushed from place to place. Even before you are able to savor the beauty of a place, you are just whisked away, to another place. And the less said about the guides the better. Many come with half baked knowledge, most probably school dropouts, who couldn’t find a better job. And their sheer ignorance is astounding.
We wonder why tiny Thailand, Singapore attract more visitors than us? Well if you are a foreign visitor in India, it’s not a very pleasant experience. Many Indian tour operators assume that guys from Europe and US, are loaded in cash, and stay in luxury hotels. No, many of them are just backpackers, on budget tours, and what we offer as budget hotels are an apology. Even if these people overlook the conditions, the experience while touring is not very memorable. For me only word sums up our attitude towards people from other countries DISGUSTING, and I am being very polite there. I feel ashamed when I see my fellow country men behave towards foreigners. We act like slaves or some love sick puppies, and are so eager to get ourselves photographed with them. We ingratiate, bend, no in fact grovel before them. And I just want to say “Grow up guys, we belong to a mature nation, stop behaving like some infatuated school kids”. I really feel disgusted when I see Indians behave like that, and I don’t blame foreigners for not wanting to come here. And yes this sort of behaviour is exhibited by so called educated people. Like I told you, our education has made us more polished monkeys, but certainly not better human beings. And the less said about our attitude towards females from other countries, the better. Don’t we have any self respect that we behave in such a slovenly manner? Do we always have to behave like sex starved louts?
I want to conclude this by saying, whatever we achieve doesn’t have any meaning,as long as we don’t behave like decent human beings. And its not that we cannot. We can do. We need to take pride in our country and surroundings. We need to be sensitive to other people’s feelings, and for heaven’s sake lets have some self respect and a spine. Only then will the world truly respect us, and Incredible India become a reality.
