Post Info TOPIC: How's life out there ?
GVK

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How's life out there ?
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How does it feel to be the sole Indian, nay the only dark-skinned couple, in a small Japan that isn't easy to locate in an atlas ?


What are the chances of meeting, in this little place, someone who has actually been to Mysore, on your very first day out on a walk in a strange place, half the globe away ?


And how thrilled does it make you feel when you hear this stranger saying, Indra Bhavan oota chennagide, in an atrocious accent ?


Vidya Nagaraj in Tsuruoka, Japan, answers these questions and more in A Mysorean's Japan Journal.


One would like to hear from other non-resident Mysoreans about what life is like for them in their corner of the world. (Are you reading me, Mr Ravi Asrani (Dhaka), Dr. Bhalachander (Marshall Islands) ?  



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Bhamy V Shenoy

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In fact we had that feeling in Athens, Greece three months back. We were staying at a hotel where we ran into an Indian . My wife and I introduced ourselves to him and we found that he has come there to promote Indian spices. He invited us to come to the inaugural party.

We went to the inuagural party where there was Indian ambassador and that too an alumnus of IIT. Being an IIT myself I thought that I will have an interesting discussion. But he was so arrogant or shy or simply indifferent, he just would not talk. Just at that time there came another person, a Konkani christain, a long time resident of Athens. We could immeditately related to each other. First he is a konkani like myself. He grew up in Mysore and that too in Yadavagiri. We had a delightful time. He wanted to show us a little bit of greece. But for our misfortune, we were getting ready to leave the next day to return to Mysore.

Such was our encounter with another Mysorean in a far off place of Greece.

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Vijendra Rao

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I can share Dr. Shenoy's sense of joy in finding a Konkani in Greece just as I can imagine Mrs. Vidya's ecstasy at a Japanese talking about what he ate at Indra Bhavan. The sheer delight of bumping in to someone who can speak our mother-tongue in an alien land, even if with an atrocious accent, is to be experienced to be understood. The first ever time I went to Madras, I was so thirsty for the sound of Kannada - I am no language fanatic - that I would hungrily look for anyone picking up Prajavani or Sudha, the only two publications that were available in scarce numbers, that too at a couple of select bookstalls, a quarter of a century ago in that city. One day, after my lunch at a restaurant (was it Adyar?), when I found a man purchasing a copy of Sudha, I nearly pounced on him. I was desperate to make friends with him (though I was disappointed that the intensity was not matched by him). He introduced himself as Puttaraju. It sounded as the sweetest name I have ever heard.


Cultural influence is so tremendous that the word "huli" (the approximate equivalent for sambar) or "saru" (the even more approximate equivalent for rasam), uttered in an entirely alien ambience, comes to us with the gentleness of the fragrance of mallige, on a cool Mysore evening.


This is but a tiny effort, Mrs. Vidya, to help you fight the anguish of alienness.



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nataraj

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I truly endorse Mr Rao's views on the anguish/ "Khaturate" to meet the fellow Kannadiga/Kannada speaking people when we are deprived of the same for a longer duration. This also stresses the need for learning more number of languages so that accilmatization to new environment is relatively easy. In Chennai, i had a hilarious and also an embarassing experience in a hotel, in the absence of Tamil knowledge. I just  wanted buttermilk to be served after meals. Needless to say, i had to start from the "cow" to make the hotel server understand my requirement.   

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Capt. Anup Murthy

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I, unfortunately (or fortunately) never had the 'khaturate" to meet another Kannadiga although I have lived the better part of the last 20 years abroad in various places. I went only once, in 13 years, to the Kannada Koota in New York and when I lived out west, never went to the one in SFO. I have had good experiences living american culture, whats that you ask, well, things like the thanksgiving turkey dinners-get together, halloween-costume wearing-going from house to house trick or treating, attending church at christmas followed by Christmas lunch together with friends' families, easter, fourth of July weekend drinking beer and watching the Blue Angels perform thrilling aerobatics off Fort Lauderdale beach, watching American football through the season (not soccer) and drinking beer, even attending games live at the stadium, yup done all that. Now, don't start with the "my culture is richer than thou" and all that.


I don't have the experience that Mrs. Vidya has in rural Japan although I have travelled widely. For example, there were'nt any Indians, at least not in noticeable numbers(forget Kannadigas) in Guatemala, Honduras, Grenada, Greenland, and other places that i used to go to (some I still do). It was never difficult to bump into Indians in all the other countries. They were everywhere and I'll bet a lot of them were Kannadigas (if not telugus) because of IT and all that. Another thing I found that I disliked is the Guarati's have their own association, the telugus have their own, tha Tamil sangham is huge and they all flock together, like birds of the same feather, in the US. I have not seen too much cross cultural (within indian I mean) events where everyone participates. The various associations do thei diwali seperately and so on. When they all get together in a bar, we are all Indians otherwise, we are kannadigas, tamilians, gujaratis, punjabis and so on, the list is endless. How many of them find alliances from outside this association and within that, how many look for non-denominational marriage alliances? We Indians are poor suckers in that we can't see beyond our own caste, language and such like, even living in America for many years.


Ms. Vidya's experiences in Japan is priceless. She has a wonderful easy style of writing down her experiences and for those who may have missed out, her writings appear on the "bookswap" forum of this website titled: "A Mysoreans japan Journal". I suggest a strong "read" recommendation.



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Bhamy V Shenoy

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Captain Anup Murthy is so right about Indians in the US forming their own groups based on caste, religion, region, langauage etc. In any given city, often it is the all India level organization is the smallest having the least number of members. It was not the case in early 60s and 70s when there were not many Indians. However with the second generation of Indians, things have started to change again.

Long yeras ago, I had written an article titled " Are there Indians in the US?" to reflect the above scenario. You ask any Indian, he is likely to identify himself as Kannadiga, or Telugu etc and not as an Indian even while he is outside India. What does this reflect? Should we identify here in Mysore as from Dakshina Kannada or Gulbarga etc?

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Vijendra Rao

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Second generation Indian Diaspora in North America may be broadening their horizon. Here, in our own backyard called Manasagangotri, however, the scene is vastly different. If only the breeze across the Kukkarahalli Kere blows a weebit harder so as to touch Yadavagiri, it may inspire Dr. Shenoy to launch a 'Karavali Kannadigas of North of Mysore Vokkuta', before he gets sizeable membership from his immediate neighbourhood, when he can make it even more exclusive 'Konkani Speakers of Vivekananda Road Mahasabha'.

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Capt. Anup Murthy

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Vijendra, by second generation, do you mean Indians who were born there? They are not Indian at all, they just look like you and me and have little else in common. We call them ABCD = American Born Confused Desis. They don't like going to india associations, they'd rather hang out with their American friends. They only go when their parents force them. it is interesting that those whom I have met, this ABCD lot, are really confused. One of the reasons NRI's who originally went there to make money and come back and settle down have not been able to do so. This is because their kids cannot relate to India. A trip out here once in a while is different, you can't get the ABCD lot to come and settle here. So, things are bound to change for them. As for the Kannada Koota, Tamil sangham, Kerala samajam, Gujarati association et al, they will continue to flourish and new immigrants will fuel their numbers.


Our newer generation immigrant who are going there, if they are the second gen you are referring to, start changing things, maybe cross culture interactions may take place. I have not seen that happen. Even the new gen immigrants still come home to india to get married to a girl/boy here of their caste that their parents would have lined up for their swayamvar. You can't get the regionalism out of Indians yet. I blame it on the old chaps who divided this country (after the British divided us) again on linguistic lines, giving place to misplaced sentiments for ones own language at the cost of shutting out other languages. They lost their Indian-ness once borders came up between states based on languages, thats why Indian states are irregular in shape on the map and look funny and till today cause tensions between peoples and states. Just look at Kasargod, Belgaum, etc etc.


I know GVK did not start this topic expecting us to divert and expand, but it has happened before. Not too many other people have written about what it feels to be living "out there". Now Mrs. Vidya's got her blog up and it is nice to read about different cultures than our own.



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Ravi Asrani

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It is really inspiring to read that a "remote" Japanese town has people who have been to Mysore and are impressed by Indra Bhavan. I am sure that Indra Bhavan will be proud when they hear of this.


I have been around a few countries during the last four-and-a-half years, including UAE, Iran, Hong Kong and Bangladesh. In UAE, I have found Mysoreans everywhere - a manager at a popular nightclub who hails from Nazarbad, at a popular restaurent called Mysore Palace, a waiter at a five-star hotel and more.


In Iran, I met two people as I was walking down to my hotel from the airport. They stopped me as I walking down the avenue, and asked if I was Indian, with hands folded in a "namaste". When I affirmed I was Indian, they asked me if I could give them some pictures of Gandhiji. Luckily I had ten-rupee notes, which I proudly handed over to them. We sat discussing, and they were fans of Pankaj Udhas ghazals, loved Amitabh's movies (they called him Vijay, because that is the name that he uses in most of the movies they have seen), and have heard of Tipu Sultan. They also remembered that Mysore was one of the four native Indian States whose monarch was entitled to a 21-gun salute during the British Raj. The people were ordinary Irani citizens and not intelligentsia.


In Hong Kong, I met many businessmen of Indian origin. Of course all of them knew Mysore. I also saw a few travel agencies offering vacations at Bangalore which included trips to the "historic princely city of Mysore"


In Dhaka, as soon as I mention that I am from Mysore, people immediately recognise Tipu Sultan and the Wodeyars. They all have a universal respect for Tipu's nationalism, though I have not met anyone who has really visited Mysore.


I am proud to be from Mysore - it is small enough to be related to RK Narayan's Malgudi, and yet "big" enough to be known all over the world.



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