What makes us quirky Indians?

07 March, 2013

I am a wild life photographer by profession and a writer by hobby. Well, not really but it sounds better than saying I am a marketing professional trapped behind desk full day long. My other qualities include my impressive conversation skills. In plain language - I can talk. I can really talk; I could talk non - stop from my first waking moment till the time my eyes shut. Unfortunately, I lack good listeners.

There is a serious lack of people who would listen to my incessant rambling; I mean intellectual pearls of wisdom. Hence I write. And I write about us, the people of India. We are a strange breed, a completely incomprehensible, slightly crazy and almost furiously patriotic.

We vociferously complain about our country - the poor hygiene, exploding population, corruption, crime rates but vehemently defend it if an outsider paints us in poor light (e.g. Oprah Winfrey). We hate following rules and regulations. We just can’t walk on a straight line. After all our descendants were kings and queens and we make the rules. “Hum jahaan khade hote hain, line wahi se shuru ho jaati hai” etc.

But, at the bottom of it, all we are lovable, emotional saps who work hard, toil through the day to fight rising inflation, sliding economy and depressing situations. That’s why we love our movies. We love Rajnikanth who singlehandedly floors goons and wins the girl or Salman Khan who can’t dance but manages to make an entire country imitate his own version of dance. We love Aamir Khan who comes and talks to us and cries after listening to our battles. And we love our heroines for being Chameli, Sheila, Munni or whatever Avatar they have last taken.

Most of all we love our big fat Indian wedding. There are many more pet peeves we have, romances we pursue, battles we fight and happiness we share. There is so much more that makes us the quirky Indians.

After all we have tag lines like - ‘Tedha hai par mera hai’.