Indian...and apologetic?

My friend from France was in town and much as I was busy, I agreed to meet him, more so, since we had a marathon debate on caste and religion in India and how the "White" saw it the last time he was here.

But then, he does know alot of Indian performing arts scene and his knowledge about our biting caste reality comes from his experiences of working with NGOs down south, especially the interiors of Tamil Nadu.

So, after a long time, we again caught up for a cuppa coffee and his friend too joined in. Incidentally, the couple of hours that we spent together, revolved around the same topic again! Right from the Job Quota to the situation in Temples in India in the past.

Well, French have not been doing too good on their home turf, so I too had few aces to blunt their dismal outlook about India. The bours, the controversial job law and of course, the politics of JC and the rise of Rightist Le Penn in last decade.

However, towards the end of the conversation, when we finally shifted the focus on religion, I found both the guys nodding in unison about India's religious diversity- but yes, punctuated with reminders of communal violence; On the role of Missionaries, again, it was the civilising forces versus conversions; On the polarised world straddling between Islam and Christianity- one of the them blamed Islam squarely.

Perhaps, as Indians, we cannot blame any one religion for the wrongs we have gone through; The only country, which still keeps its social and religious frabic, ever so fragile, intact, the country which had the invention of first Alphabet; the first agricultural activity and the first numeral system; From the world of divinity and "sadhus" (as one smirked), to the problems of traffic, corruption, humdity, pollution,infrastructure, and hordes of desperate Indian girls dying to get into their pants, both the guys, confessed they had to come back to the country, again and again, for it got them bread and butter.

And India still breathes, they agreed, perhaps it was exotica, perhaps, its the Sun shining intensely on their fortunes with India...I said...

When we bid farewell, I told them to get me the contacts of French writers they knew, who are doing their bit, to create a discourse of comparative culture in France. They looked confused, I smiled...