Why is it always that an inspired piece of stupidity (whether by me or in a rare instance, by someone else), gets my blogging juices flowing? Like the fact that I just spelt the word stupidity as s-t-u-p-i-y and then wondered why it looked a bit odd. This time fortunately, the stupidity isn’t mine.
I refer to a remark made by a leader of a right-wing political party where he said something along the lines of, “In light of the recent racist attacks on Indian students in Australia, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should ban all Australian nationals from the Indian Premier League (IPL).” His logic stemmed from the fact that after the November 26 attacks on Mumbai, Pakistani nationals had also been banned from the IPL, through suspensions or annulments of their contracts.
This, presumably, is meant to make the attackers rethink their strategies and mend their ways. I can think of at least three people who will not think too kindly of an Aussie extermination from the IPL, one of whom is Deccan Chargers’ owner Ram Reddy, after all Australian Adam Gilchrist led his team to the title in this year’s edition. Regardless, this is a stupid “solution”. So I’ll move on.
Over the past few days, it’s my understanding that there’s been more than 10 attacks on Indians on Australian shores. Remarks like “All Indians should be called back!” and “What do you expect? The island was a giant prison to begin with; they’re all of criminal descent!” have been doing the rounds with alarming regularity. Local ministers there are saying they’ll work towards ending it. Ministers here are asking for Australia to do something. People are telling both governments to do something... meh, I don’t know.
I was so enthused about write about this particular phenomenon that I began with full pelt and a bagful of serrated one-liners. But somewhere along the way I just stopped “feeling” the subject anymore. Indians getting beaten up abroad suddenly didn’t seem that novel anymore. South Africa, Britain, Uganda, USA, France, Vienna (although that was Indian v/s Indian violence) etc. etc.
What is it that we do to enrage people so much that they want to kick the living dogshit out of us, regardless of who we are or what we do? One could say the colour of our skin seems enough to get them salivating like sharks sensing a drop of blood. But then, skin pigmentation in Indians is about as varied as it gets from the palest of shades to some of the darkest ones around.
Is it the accent or the way we speak? Can’t be that, because Indians have all sorts of accents — some South Mumbai trollopes even have a faux American accent scene going. What’s left? The fact that we’re at times, willing to settle for lower salaries and “take away their jobs”? Well, considering it was students who got beaten up, it seems unlikely.
Well I’m out of ideas. If you get a chance to take a break from some fishing in Darwin or a round of XXXX while watching the Rugby Sevens or whatever it is you like to do, do drop me a line, mate.
1 comment:
Ever heard the joke about the Mallu guy in office? How once you hire a Mallu, your office will soon be flooded with Mallus coz he will bring his relatives and villagers along? Its something similar with most Indians abroad. We dont go to a country alone. Most of us have some family member already there and if not we take someone after we are settled there. This means that Indian population there increases. And in most cases, we are clannish, talking only to Indians in a foreign country, changing the landscape of the country by living in 'Indian' subdistricts...my gujju friends who study in australia tell me that their colleges are full of gujjus and that it hardly feels like they are in a different country...and considering that we are so loud, I guess we get noticed more compared to other migrants...aur boss jo dikhta hai wahi to pitata hai, hai na?
Post a Comment