Isotope of God

Friday, July 3, 2015

Cross Cultural Identity


It took a while for me to accept my identity. Not that I am talking like a NRI who is pulled by the native roots of India on the one hand, while on the other by the new found liberalism of the foreign country. My identity crisis can be located within India, which is a confederation of different cultures united beyond any logic, through Indian constitution! History played a major role in this confused identity under the umbrella term "India"- an idea which existed only in the administrative convenience of Britishers, and helped in a great way by that ubiquitous social immobility institutionalized by casteism. Be that may, which i will visit later, my immediate rambling is how on many occasions i had to add many  qualifications just to answer the question- Where are you from? If in Chennai, it was easy to say I am from Kerala, but if in Bangalore or in Delhi, the qualifications becomes a necessity more to do with my own non acceptance of where I belong

Not any more, I have finally reconciled to the fact that I am a Malayalee but not a Keralite or more specifically a Chennaite whose mother tongue is Malayalam. Being a Chennai vaasi for 35 years albeit interrupted for few years in between, it is but natural to accept your identity in such a way. So that makes me practically a Tamilian in every which way, except that my marriage happened to a Malayalee, as per Keralite tradition,  celebrating Malayalee festivals, apart from the Tamil festivals and the like. Otherwise, my cultural outlook and upbringing happened in a typical Tamil environment. I realised it quite recently when I could relate to songs or literature of Tamil than Malayalam. A simple act of liking a piece of art is so much conditioned by your upbringing did bring in profound realisation about myself is something that I would cherish and regret at the same time.


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