kshatriya

I enjoy being an Indian living in Europe. It is very interesting to encounter a lot of questions from my friends and colleagues. They are all curious about India. The questions raised by them are interesting and provocative.

Is India still a land of snake charmers?

Do you all still practice black magic and believe in spirits?

In which caste do you belong?

The answer to the first question would be a yes and no. you may see a snake charmer anywhere and believe me, we have specially arranged them to continue their work for the sake of tourism. An international tourist comes in search of these and we have special centers or areas where to take them and show them all that they are searching for. Snake charmers, black magicians, cows on the road, tuk tuk, spirit worship and so on. Yes we are marketing them.

Recently in a speech by the present icon in Indian politics, Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, he said that he replied telling that Indians have gone a step back and they are now engaged with mice rather than snakes. Yes, as the highest exporter of software and computer programs, Indians are mice charmers now.

I have already written a couple of times about caste in India. But in the society where I am brought up, I never heard of caste and divisions. I don’t know my caste and even my parents don’t know that. I recently asked them about that since my European friends are curious to know that.

Later, for fun sake, I tell my colleagues whenever they raise this question that I belong to the caste of fighters (kshratriya), because I sense in me a spirit of ‘never die’ attitude. Fight against the odds till the end and one day when we look back we will see the long road of life overcoming all that prevented a forward step.