bs-ingh

If you're an Indian living in America, you are bound to hear this at least a few times. "You're Indian? Ooooh, how exxxoticccc!" I generally deflect this by nodding my head in agreement and looking mysterious. Hopefully that means I'm too exotic to indulge in this conversation.

I'm also asked - "You're from India? Do you know the Kamasutra?" To which I say, with a look of complete seriousness, "Yes, they teach us that in grade school. It's a required course."

Once, I wanted to know what the image of India was amongst Americans, so I conducted an informal poll. I asked people what they thought of when they think of India. Answers ranged from elephants and spices to cow-dung and outsourcing. I even got maharajas and poverty.

I do my part to keep up the image Americans have of India. It's just too exhausting to explain otherwise, when I can barely make sense of the contradictions that make India. For people who like things in neat little packages, India seems too messy and uncontained. How do I explain that its the vagaries of India that define it?

And for all those people, who think I'm exotic? Im really not, or at least I don't feel that way. I guess I'm about as exotic as a billion other people. Just ask my pet elephant.