Why it does not pay to be fixated on the achievements of Indian expats...

Perusing Yahoo News this morning I came across a particularly sexy slideshow of an Indian-Australian singer named Aisha Sagar. Ordinarily I'd just admire the pictures and move on. But her dual national identity got me thinking. Why is it that every time a person of Indian descent (expatriate) does something phenomenally superb or equally ridiculous, we folk in the motherland get either agitated, or turned on or just plain stupefied? I began sourcing definitions of the two words, and it raised more questions than it solved. So thanks to dictionary.com here are the two words, defined to a tee.

Nation: a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own.

Expatriate: to withdraw (oneself) from residence in one's native country. Or, to withdraw (oneself) from allegiance to one's country.

What this means is obviously that the person has in essence stopped belonging to a place and moved on to fresher avenues or greener pastures. If said people have thus moved on, why can't us in the motherland let them go? Is it because we are jealous that they are doing a lot better than us? Is it because they saw an opportunity and took it, while we were not so 'fortunate' or were busy twiddling our thumbs? Or is it because we are just plain frustrated about the lack of opportunities prevalent in our homeland? 

Whatever be the reason, it does not bode well for us that we as a nation are so fixated on the activities and doings of our expatriate population globally. 

When we look upon the list of achievements of the Indian expatriate community the world over, we can come up with a list that is both staggering and impressive. In every field imaginable, from Information Technology to films and from sports to pornography, individuals of Indian descent have left their mark. A list this impressive therefore begs an even more important question, why haven't Indian citizens been able to breach the glass ceiling in similar fields? Not to say that some Indians haven't, but not to the extent that expatriates have. 

Let us examine some of the names that come to mind. 

Sabeer Bhatia: Revolutionized the way the world communicates with the first free to use email service, hotmail.com. Cashed in when Microsoft acquired it in 1998. At a time was worth $400 million.     

 

Vijay Singh: A Fijian of Indian descent, an amazing 34 major golf titles, a reign at the pinnacle of Golf's rankings (32 weeks in 2004-05) and millions of dollars in cash prizes, a true champion and worthy addition to this list.

Tarsem Singh: An American filmmaker of Indian descent, his commercials for Pepsi, Levi's, Nike and Coke been in a word, epic. One of his crowning achievements has been directing REM's seminal music video, 'Losing my religion'. In 2000, he directed Jennifer Lopez in the cult film, 'The Cell' and ever since has been a much sought after cinema virtuoso.

Mira Nair: In a word, brilliant! If Peter Sellers was responsible for painting Indians in a rather derogatory light as Apu-like servile creatures in 'The Party', Mira Nair's gritty 'Salaam Bombay', brought to light the plight of Indian urchins, 'Monsoon Wedding' retold the story of the big fat Indian wedding for the 21st century and she has singlehandedly changed the perception of India in the West.  

Sunny Leone & Priya Rai: Well if 'Indian chicks' is a genre of popular pornography, it is thanks in large part to these women. While Sunny is now a popular culture icon of sorts in India, Priya continues to boldly go where a few other Indian dare to...on camera any how!

Well this list could go on forever, I mean quite literally. But for every Sabeer Bhatia in this list, there is a disgraceful A.Raja, for a Vijay Singh, a Suresh Kalmadi, a Tarsem Singh and Mira Nair, a Mahesh Bhatt, for a Sunny Leone, a Rakhi Sawant. Well maybe the last one is a bit of a stretch, but you get my point...

For a nation that at the turn of the millennium was poised to reclaim its position as the world's intellectual and human capital leader, the past decade has proven to be quite the letdown. From scams being unearthed in critical sectors to the sheer callousness with which the state is managed and from the ever growing chasm of disparity in urban/rural education and social equity to the woeful lack of infrastructure rampant in the country's financial capital of Bombay (one can only imagine the state of other cities and towns!) India has, as a nation not really been climbing up any ladders of late... At such a point in time, with the nation mired in scams, shams, flim-flams and discord of all sorts, it is but natural for people to see Indian expatriates as a beacon of inspiration...that being said however, looking outwards has never solved anything and isn't it the ancient Indian wisdom that proclaims that one must remedy one's own situation, in order to change the world?

For what it is worth, India has always and to most Indians will always rise from adversity, but that being said, the rise will have to be catalyzed by homegrown Indians, supported wholeheartedly by the government, social groups of different ethnicities and regiocentricities and media and business establishments. Follow the path of the expats, but be not fixated on them, lest you're too star struck and overwhelmed to improve the fate of your nation...

   

Please note: This post is a work of research, creative writing, speculation and interpretative writing on the part of its author. The author takes no responsibility for the veracity of the content sources from which certain sections of this post have been culled, and this post must therefore, in no way, shape or form be used as material in research of any nature.

Bibliography | Sources

1. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nation?s=t

2.  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/expatriate?s=t

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabeer_Bhatia

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Singh

5. http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Tarsem_Singh

6. http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Mira_Nair

7. http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Sunny_Leone

8. http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Priya_Rai

(All images sourced off images.google.com and corresponding wikipedia article)

Vatsyayana | Sage | Eroticist | World's first voyeur?

Wow! This is going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be! And I mean that quite literally! Now I know that puns are quite an expected occurrence, especially when one talks about humanity's oldest manual on sexuality, 'The Kama Sutra'. 

While we have often contemplated the manual itself, few of us actually know much about the auteur of this magnificent tome. While we know that Vatsyayana was a sage, few facts about him as a person survive. After all, he was but a sage, and no erections (sorry I couldn't help myself) to his name have survived the ravages of time. 

While Wikipedia, the modern equivalent of the ancient world's library of Taxila or Alexandria, has but a few measly  paragraphs to this genius, there are hundreds of websites that offer a closer look at his handiwork (I seriously need to stop this!) 

The real question still remains, Who was Vatsyayana? What prompted him to do what he did? And by the modern definition of a voyeur, was he the first ever? 

Courtesy Wikipedia. 

"Vātsyāyana is the name of a Hindu philosopher in the Vedic tradition who is believed to have lived during time of the Gupta Empire (4th to 6th centuries CE) in India. His name appears as the author of the Kama Sutra." 

While this statement remains unverified, a healthy number of people believe that Vatsyayana, hid himself in the back rooms of brothels and observed courtesans/commercial sex workers servicing their customers. It was based on these observations that he was supposed to have sketched the diagrams that his treatise ultimately became famous for. By that definition, Vatsyayana was definitely the world's first voyeur...but there are a few 'facts' here that just don't add up. 

~ Vatsyayana was a Brahman, the most pure of the 4 Aryan castes, intermingling with courtesans would have been strictly frowned upon

~ Being a sage did not mean that Vatsyayana himself wasn't married. There was no known taboo on sages being family men 

~ By definition, a voyeur observes the sexual action of others for his own vicarious pleasure. So Vatsyayana's observations were recorded in a manner that to date has been commended for its almost sterile, scientific detached-ness...  

Shall we take a closer look at the facts then...the Hindu way of life lists 4 stages, Dharma (the acquisition of religious merit, meaning, depth to one's life), Artha (the acquisition of wealth, material possessions), Kama (love, marriage, sensual gratification) and Moksha (salvation). None of these stages are complete without the other. Therefore Kama is a vital component of a well balanced human life. Fodder for thought indeed! 

While paeans have been dedicated to the other three, Kama, especially in the way of the Indian way of life today, remains a rather looked down upon aspect. Dirty, sordid, almost forbidden. The point is though that ancient Indian metaphysics looked upon Kama, as a spiritual and not a physical aspect of human life. 

Unfortunately somehow, the Kamasutra's myriad, graphical depictions of sexual positions have been reproduced (damn!) a million times over, precious little has been said about the parts that deal with the morality of sexuality, the acquisition of a partner, the ways a man should treat and respect a woman, etc. (See bibliography, #2.)

In a world that places undue importance on sex and salaciousness, the Kama Sutra and its auteur stand for a measure of temperance. Not just as a handbook for a better sexual life, but a blueprint for a more balanced life all round.    

Please note: This post is a work of research, creative writing, speculation and interpretative writing on the part of its author. The author takes no responsibility for the veracity of the content sources from which certain sections of this post have been culled, and this post must therefore, in no way, shape or form be used as material in research of any nature.

Bibliography | Sources 

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C4%81tsy%C4%81yana

2. http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kama101.htm#fn_0 : The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, tr. by Richard Burton, [1883], at sacred-texts.com

3. http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kamaint.htm : The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, tr. by Richard Burton, [1883], at sacred-texts.com