SUNAAD RAGHURAM writes: Catching up on Narayana Murthy’s ‘embarrassment’, after having been away from the Land of Churumuri for a while, I was wondering about the impossibly labyrinthine folds of the average Indian brain inside which lives, in some tiny corner, a subservient element, a type of worm that renders, at times, the whole being absolutely bereft of its own identity, in fact its very chromosomal stamp.
The mental subjugation that the average Indian inflicts upon himself when he sees white skin in his presence; the almost total surrender to the whims and fancies of the foreigner; the almost stupid grin, born of a complete lack of esteem in the self that issues forth from the face; the terrible urgency that is exhibited, to please, to impress, to cajole, to make the foreigner happy.
Traits that have perhaps got embedded in the collective psyche of the nation; a sad infusion of a variety of gene that makes us generally devoid of commanding our place under the sun for whatever we are worth.
A few hundred years of foreign rule, mainly British. A lack of cohesive thought in understanding the value of nationhood and its importance; a divided, divisive, estranged, shredded sense of personal identity which makes us all feel more parochial than Indian.
Perhaps what Narayana Murthy ended up saying the other day was a subtle manifestation of the terribly internal and severely deep waves of thought that cross the innermost crevices of the average Indian’s mind which flogs him to ‘please’ the foreigner.
A globe trotting torch bearer of all that meritocracy stands for, a die-hard votary of the free flow of talent and its worth in nation building, a creator of wealth, an advocate of the free spirit of enterprise, the iconic symbol of technocratic brilliance was seen, at least for a while, after all, as a man who was so keenly fond of making the white skin look a shade brighter!
Not for me what the venerable S. L. Bhyrappa had to say about the incident—that a mountain is being made out of a mole hill and that Murthy is no ordinary man to be ridiculed. Point noted.
Not for me what the slippery U.R. Anantha Murthy had to say about the issue; that it was simply a case of the wrong usage of the English language with the word ‘embarrassment’ coming into play. May be.
To me it is a simple question of being intensely, fundamentally, intrinsically, supremely and most vitally, inherently proud of the nation, from the very DNA of your being, to be in respectful awe of the motherland, to have the sensitivity of soul to be able to be moved and touched by the very thought of singing the national anthem, which, in my book, should be one of the most delicately orchestrated and most mellifluously crafted of them all; to be able to allow the mind to react in a manner that makes the hairs stand on end at the very first strains of the profound lyrics falling upon the ears.
Especially when you are the head honcho of an organization which is widely advertised, in the eyes of the wide world, as the nation’s greatest corporate prestige.
So what if the foreigners in the gathering that day did not know the lyrics of our anthem. They are not even expected to. Where was the question, even for a infinitesimal nano-second, that a thought should have been entertained in the mind that only the instrumental version of the anthem be played and not the great song sung full throatedly? To please the foreigners? Where was the need in the first place? Why?
Did Narayana Murthy forget for a moment, that he, and the rest of them were standing on Indian soil; in fact on the soil of good old Mysore, to which place he has more reasons to be grateful than others?
Well, as I said in the beginning, it’s all in the genes.
Perhaps.
Another article on NRN …the mythical phoneix bird had a limited life of 500 or 1461 years , but this doesnt seem to die :)
I would have gladly seconded these appeals to Churumuri to go easy on NRN. But I have been reading Kamal Sinha’s eye-opening site (http://kamalsinha.com/iit/people/narayana-murthy/) and the more I read the more I understand how we have been taken for a right royal ride by NRN’s PR machine and how our media has worn blinders and played along like tame sheep. Character assassination is not what we want, what we want really is character examination. And NRN comes through very poorly indeed at the hands of an IITian’s razorsharp analysis.
BTW, NDTV has a show on whether we are oversensitive to the national flag/anthem tonight at 10.
very nicely put sunaad. We indeed betray a sense of servility towards white skin.At the rsik of being called a racist, i will say that Sonia is congrs president for only that reason. Had Rajvi married someone from Uganda, there was no way she would have become the most powerful person in this country today
Correction, the NDTV program is at 5 pm. It’s a repeat of last night’s “We, the People”
From a few reactions to the manner in which Churumuri has relentlessly covered the Narayana Murthy controversy, it appears that for some strange, inexplicable reason, we believe that the Infosys chief is beyond criticism and beyond scrutiny simply because he is a Kannadiga, a Mysorean, and a business leader of a large company.
Some of us seem to believe that because we have been done in so badly by virtually everybody since independence—politicians, bureaucrats, police officers, judges, businessmen, etc—we should not allow this one clean jewel to be besmirched by innuendo and insinuation. But can that really be a valid reason in a democracy?
I am not talking of the national anthem row. It is now water under the bridge. But there are legitimate questions that we simply seem to be completely wary and reluctant of asking. Instead we seem only too keen to perpetrate the man and the myth. Why? Would we allow politicians to get away with such lies? Would we have allowed Dhirubhai Ambani?
For starters, did NRN really start Infosys on 10,000 rupees borrowed from Sudha who had saved it for a rainy day? Did a guy who went to IIT, IIM, worked in France and at Patni, really not have that much money? Even if they didn’t, how could they go to the USA the very next year after their marriage or buy a house the year after starting Infosys?
On Kamal Sinha’s site, I found, for example, an absolutely devastating expose of how NRN had used the Cornell connection. He pays his way through the board by selling shares in Infosys, picks up a seat for his son with a portion of that money, sets up a chair in computer science with the rest of the funds, etc. With what face can NRN now talk about meritocracy and rant against reservations?
Again on Kamal Sinha’s site, I found several troubling questions about NRN and Sudha Murthy’s “charity”. Turns out that the Infosys Foundation has given away less than 0.1 per cent of its market wealth in charity over eight years. Turns out that they are spending crores on their children’s education and accommodation. Of course, it’s their money and they are entitled to do what they want. But shouldn’t we be asking questions when they turn their so-called charity into a brand extension exercise?
It’s important to put NRN and others of his ilk through the same wringer that the media puts lesser mortals to. He must be saluted, of course, for building a fine company which the world recognises and of which we can be reasonably proud. He and his company have made many of us rich, they have provided our children jobs, they have given Bangalore an “image”. But that is no license to sweep everything under the carpet.
It must be established beyond doubt that they aren’t two-faced liars, who are running with the hounds, hunting with the hares, and refurbishing their stories with the aim of landing something bigger like the keys to Rashtrapati Bhavan. For all those who are shocked to see how NRN’s image has taken a beating the last week, I say wake up, smell the coffee, and suspend your disbelief.
Aatmasakshi, Thank you for your elegant writeup.
There is something nauseating about the constant in your face publicity given by our elitist English media to NRN and all things related to Infosys. I have come across countless blogs and TV programs ‘highlighting’ the charitable works of Infosys. You are correct in pointing out that it is their money, they have a right to do whatever they want with it. In 2005 Infosys was generous enough to announce aid for Hurricane Katrina victims in US, but it forgot about the flood victims in its own backyard. Does going global mean severing ties with all things local that don’t affect profit margins?
Nationalism: A momentary display of pride about one’s country, expressed only to prove that someone else doesn’t have it, when in fact none of us do.
(if that makes any sense!)
Actually the culture of ‘ad biddhe buddhi’, ‘jee huzur’ etc. that is embedded in us is not just towards foreigners. It is inbuilt into our society. For example many of us may criticize a politician or even an NRN, but if we came in direct contact with someone of that stature (real of perceived), I believe most of us would behave in a subservient manner.
The other way round is probably true too – if we reached a ‘high’ position, we expect others to show reverence towards us in all matters.
Bhakti – where we devote our whole self to God. Maybe we take this too far even in our everyday lives.
That said I agree with others – NRN vishaya haledhaagidhe. The issue has been discussed threadbare on this blog (which was not a bad thing, especially the reactions it provoked from his idolators). He has apologized. How many others in public life are ready to do that nowadays? Let him be – unless he or the PR machine put their mouths in their feet again. There are other things to look at… Maybe real rouges/politicians/bureaucrats who dont live by any rules?
Tragically, a nationalism debate gets converted into another bash-NRN thread.
I suppose the basic premise is true. We feel truly inferior in the presence of ‘white skin’. But at the same time, we feel superior in the presence of yellow, black, browner or even perhaps, red skin. Cue Neo Sports tasteless “Hard to be a West Indian ad..”
More than nationalism, I think it has to do with the subtle racism that we have come to internalize over 200 years of British Rule which put us below them, but a little above blacks or about the same level as East Asians.
History of the British conquest of India also has something to do with it. It never ceases to amaze us how a band of a few thousand (the civil servants came later), conquered and ruled a land as massive and diverse as us, populated, as we saw it by 200 million. Whether it was technology, perfidy or Indian weakness, infighting, the ‘defeat’ at the hands of the European invader cannot be explained away entirely by reference to any of the above factors.
This is not without parallel in history. Japan’s opening up to the West in the mid-19th century after three centuries of isolation sparked of a fear of Japanese inferiority forever and spurred a craze for all things Western, including military empire by conquest. It culminated in the Japanese defeat in World War 2.
In that way,India is less of a ‘nation’ than Japan was in the late 19th and early 20th century. We are still in the search for an ‘Indian’ identity and the only thing we can agree on is that we can agree on nothing.
Thanu uddara agolla…uddara aguvavarannu bidolla!
NRN bashing is getting a bit too much!!!
C’mon guys, this has goen too far, aren’t there any other interesting happenings in the world? we are dishing out the same stuff everyday
Oh! I never knew Sunaad can even THINK and write. It proves that there is a THINKING crevice in rambling folds of Sunaad’s brain. Keep it up man.
It is sad that an Indian’s mental attitude to please the gori chambdi, which began during the British rule, should be allowed to continue not just in free India, but also at a time when the white skinned are vying with each other to become his (N R N) employees.
NRN mele complain madavarire swalpa jasthi Hoottekicchu swamyee….ashte
I always had my own reservations on the “10,000 rupees” story all these years! But I thought it would be a taboo to even bring up the question when every media outlet was taking pleasure in reprinting and repeating it. Finally, I am seeing someone asking these tough but valid questions. Good.
NRN has to contest ( Not nominated ) the next general elections and become an MP . He can try to bring in whatever changes(he wants) into the system and improve infrastruture etc . With out trying how can he blame politicians ?
I would ask him to try speaking in kannada first and stay away from powerpoint presentations for a while.
First it was NRN with his “..We did not want to embarass foreigners…”
Now we have Shilpa Shetty airing similar inanities. The Hindustan Times dated April 17 has this report over the controversial Gere Kiss
HT report excerpts:
…. Reacting to the issue, Shetty said, “I understand this is his culture, not ours. But this was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to overreact in such manner. “I understand people’s sentiments, but I don’t want a foreigner to take bad memories from here..”
Setence to be noted: “I don’ want a foreigner to take bad memories from here”
My take on Gere: He was indeed unprofessional, rude and it was unbecoming of him to behave the way he did
But you see, we are like this only. We do not have it in our genes nor the twin spherical objects in the socket to say FO
It is easy to make comments and criticise people who build enterprises. If one were to build firms on their own then they will understand how difficult it is to build and sustain. Ofcourse every venture will have drawbacks and shortcomings. Atleast they provide employment and futher oppurtunity to many where there was none. So stop criticising NRN and look at his positive achievements.
my take on gere ::: shilpa shetty ge public nalli kissu, yen gere kanla avanige :)))
NRN should be cursing himself for having invited the president or for having played the national anthem. The media has blown this incident(a poor story)out of proportion and so have you.
Sudhira, ninige yenaaru artha aiytha?
I think we Indians have a long way to go before we lose our inherent inferiority complex. But it sure is not going to go away by loudly singing the national anthem or flying our flag. How ironical that the man who is actually doing something to move India in that direction is at the receiving end of this nonsense.
I think we need a big dose of patience. After all we have been crushed for at least about 1000 years by foreign rule. It’s just in the last 10 years that we are hearing about India becoming a super power.
Let’s first put our heads down and work our asses off to become something. Then naturally we will be a self confident nation again. To expect something different is ridiculous. I know it is painful but these things (subservience, lack of confidence) takes generations to change.
Hey Look you sissys, its like this. If we want to sing our anthem and still make foriegner embrassed of it.. then we should do it everyday .. and even whereever we are in the world..
Everyother thing we do here should make foriegners embrassed … Good luck..
Shilpa can get get kissed however and whereever it pleases her .. but that will be outside india, Anybody stepping into this country should take back what goodness we offer and not leave behind what they feel is good for themselves..
We already have enough bad western influence on our youth. Its better to keep good values alive than suffer with an unknown disease which we dont know how to cure