‘Roti is not for me’

Last night over dinner, a very good friend of mine said something really funny but innocently relevant. While we where ordering our respective breads for the mains, she quirkily turned around and said that I just feel ‘Roti is not for me’. Funny at that time, it made me think deep about how we - the young Indians have come along way. Metaphorically speaking purely of course, this stuck a chord with me. Over the recent years, one reads so much about the economic boom in India and how this has translated in so many different things like mass consumption, social liberation and an easy access to money in our society. But with this has also come a strong debate and self doubt about how we are losing our Gandhian values and becoming more westernised. Right from the ‘New York Times’ to the ‘Hindustan Times’, from left to the right wing have questioned and critiqued how the Indian youth are loosing perspective and becoming caricatures of the west. But this may well be a paradox of Indian society, over the years we have been conditioned that being Indian is being simple, compromising and insular. This is how we are and there is nothing wrong with that. Sure, there isn’t anything wrong with it but so is having a world view and being open to change. Young India today has more exposure, are more liberal and certainly more confident. We are no more the docile people who take the travesties of our society with a pinch of salt. Why should we? When a Harbajahan Sing is accused of being a racist by a team that is synonyms with sledging, we have the right to retaliate (which we rightfully did). When women in Mangalore/Bangalore are beaten by goons for going to pubs, we bloody well have the right to unleash (kudos to pink chaddi). Just because we go to pubs and clubbing it does not mean that we are any less of an Indian or have forgotten our Gandian values. Just because we splurge on Armani and drink chardonnay does not make us caricatures of the west. We have a right to choose what is good for us and live life the way we deem right, and we are absolutely unapologetic about that. So when my friend says that ‘roti is not for me’ she isn’t challenging the Indian stereotype but simply reserving her right to choose what she wants to have. Cheers to that!