Resident Non Indians or modern Indians

Read a column about RNIs : Resident non Indians. That’s a term in the article coined for the youth of today that drive about blasting Bollywood Rap, not caring much about NRIs like they used to about anything ‘phoren’ and stirring their ire by scant interest in the sound tracks of the NRI’s life, aka Rafi and Lata and the songs of the 70’s. As I read this, I wonder: if blame has to be ascribed here at all, where should it go? To the new youth that’s “chasing” the west back home or the NRI that’s trying to cling on to an image of India he is familiar with, the one he left with and is unsettled by the rapidly changing scenery every time he visits? Afraid of becoming a stranger to the land of his origin. Someone who cannot fit in perfectly anywhere?
It is true that the youth are increasingly westernized for better or worse. But they are just a product of their age. And the energy that’s running through Bombay and India, whatever causes it cannot be all bad. The energy to me is intriguing, heady and intoxicating. I go from the bland ordered life in greenback country to Bombay to recharge, to feel life is refreshingly chaotic and full of possibilities again. I am trying to carve out a third category for myself. The NRI who is home with the INRs or RNIs and NRIs. I love the new rap coming out of BollyWood. I could not stand the melodrama upto almost the late 90’s. I am a willing consumer of BollyWood today.

We probably stand to lose a few things: the most harked about one is the loosening morals around relationships and the divorce rate. I read a stat that said 2 out of 5 marriages in the last few years has landed back in the divorce courts. 40%! But then, before I decide to get alarmed, I wonder: how many of those are people that 20 years back would have just slogged through a bad relationship but are now deciding to get out? I am sure part of it is the price paid for capitalism and chasing prosperity but part of it is also us calling a spade a spade and doing what needs to be done to preserve ourselves first. The women are less all-suffering and self effacing. That part cannot be all bad...

So will the predictions of the moral police come true and decadence reign? or will there just be a new order with just different morals? in becoming the fast paced achievers with instant gratification within our grasp, will we lose the knack of being happy with little that previous generations had? Will we be able to meld the new influences with the old and make something uniquely Indian again?