Something Indian....

Every time someone at work asks me about something or anything Indian, the bottomline is always reached, you said it.....the enchanting system of Indian arranged marriages and the exciting world of vegetarianism....

My boss feels its almost like an arranged dating service or set-up blind dating service, only difference being the families involvement. I tried to talk to talk to him about the goodness in the system, but I don't think I have ever succeeded in convincing him. Nowadays, I am not even sure if I see any goodness in the system. Coming to think about it, I remember Deepa's post on such matrimonial issues. Looks like, we are the generation caught in between the arranged-marriage only system and the love-marriage only system. Wishful thinking : probably both co-exist and so give us a better flavor of the society!!

I have a colleague (almost 60 years old) who has a 'vegetarian' son who eats just fish and other seafood....(yeah..yeah...he has his own weird definitions on vegetarianism and veganism)...Coming back to subject... Considering that I am the only 'other' vegetarian known to him, the first time he met me was during the company's anniversary lunch. He said he thinks that vegetarians exist because they are scared of being born in their next life as the animal they ate the most!! I could not stop laughing. My first company lunch with partners of the company and everyone else who works with me and I had to spend a lot of time on talking about Indians and vegetarianism. It took me almost an hour to explain and convince him how wrong he was. It took me another whole evening (company Christmas Dinner) to prove to people who work with me that I do talk about stuff other than anything Indian!!

Most of the times, when I see what a wrong, clamorous or blatant opinion people have about Indianisms, I try to talk to them and make them see 'why and how' of things from an Indian point of view. But, sometimes, some people just don't want to listen to anyone!! Like my professor at school, who visited India and thinks he saw an INDIAN SAFARI. I try to tell him - 'It was just a temple town; Indian temples have elephants and cows for religious reasons; we rear cattle, goats, poultry near the temples and everywhere else..' ....No, I don't think he still believes me!!