India and English

India:
Because I am married to an Indian, I often find myself learning about their culture and eating Indian food. A few nights ago, I was at a small get together with a few friends. One topic came up  that really touched me.

My new friend moved here from India a few months ago, and was astonished by the lack of knowledge people knew about her home country. She was at a doctor’s appointment, and her doctor was amazed that the report from her last doctor’s report from India. The report was in depth, technologically advanced, and in English. “I didn’t know that they had the technology to do these tests in India, her doctor told her, and it’s amazing that it is in English.” The doctor had told her.

“What other language would it be in?” My friend asked.

“How could this doctor not know that India has such medical equipment?” She asked us later. She had been shocked that her own doctor did not realize that much of India speaks English, or that people had little knowledge of modern India.

The truth is, India was once a British colony, so a high number of people speak English. Business and politics is often conducted in English. The doctor had been impressed with how well she spoke English, and she had to explain to the doctor that she had been speaking English most of her life.

I told her, she might want to get used to it. People here often do not hear what is going on halfway around the world. Due to lack of media coverage, we often don't know which countries have been advancing well and which ones have not. To many people, the only thing they know about India, comes from the movie “Slum Dog Millionaire”, which does a great job representing the millions of poor in the country, but does not show what is happening with the huge population of middle class there: their advancements, their social life, and education.

Movies:

Most movies that make it to the U.S. from India are in Hindi, the official language of India. However, occasionally I come across some very good movies in English, such as “Deli Belly” and “Everybody Says I’m Fine”. The one that I watched today, is the later. It is about a hair dresser that can read people’s minds when he cuts their hair. Often, he uses this ability to find ways to help his clients.

The movie was not great, but it was entertaining. It is not exactly a Bollywood movie, the producers were Canadian, but the movie takes place in Mumbai, and has an all Indian cast. Unlike most Bollywood movies, it skips the common dance numbers typically seen in Indian films. This shortens the movie quite a bit. The plot is easy to follow, and it gives a good perspective of what middle class people really are like in this country. If you have not seen an Indian film before, I suggest you start with a movie like this one.

There were a few scenes, that you would never see in a true Bollywood movie, such as the scene where the hero gets romantically involved with one of his clients. While it does not show anything new for an American audience, it is much more suggestive then what you will ever find in Bollywood, due to censorship issues.

Food:
I started off my day with some yoga. I followed this with a mango smoothie similar to an Indian drink called mango lassie- normally produced from a thick buttermilk and mango juice. I followed this with Indian tea, which is steeped as a loose black tea with the milk (instead of adding milk afterwards).

For dinner I am making a lentil and kidney bean curry that I will put over basmati rice, a rice that stems from the Indian subcontinent. Many people today in India are finding it harder and harder to afford to eat this highly fragrant rice. Though the rice is long grained and white, but it has a fairly low glycemic index compared to jasmine and American long grained rice.

Work Cited:

Bose, Rahul. “Everybody Says I’m Fine”. Released: 2001.

Boyle, Danny, Loveleen, Tandan. “Slumdog Millionare”. Released: 12 November 2008.

Deo, Abhinay. Verma, Akshat. “Dehli Belly”. Released: 2011.