As usual I had no idea about the Facebook messenger room. A MBBS class mate of mine introduced it to me yesterday as he was organising a session among the 2003 pass-outs of National Medical College.
Due to some time difference I joined about 30 minutes late and was patiently listening to my old buddies speak ( old memories always feel great!!)
The discussion was going along fine till 3 people started justifying the lockdown ( their main reasoning- Modi thinks so, and he is the wisest Indian, as he orchestrated surgical attacks on Pakistan...etc.etc.)
I kept on listening very patiently and decided not to engage in a heated argument with people I still care for.
Suddenly, Santanu, the guy who planned this session and invited everyone, requested me to speak as I am the only one who was directly involved in this ( 6 guys are in UK, but they are in non related specialties)
I clearly told them that since I'm not in India physically, it's better for me to only listen. But they insisted and I explained them briefly about how little we know about the virus epidemiologically, why practically there is no chance of an effective vaccine for now ( it's very easy to explain these to doctors)
Finally when I started talking about the Indian situation and asking questions about Modi's decisions, there was a visible change in expressions in many. I kept talking, suddenly someone said " tui ar Indian nei, bideshini ke biye kore oder moto hoye gechish" ( you are not an Indian anymore, after marrying a foreigner, you have become like them)
I stopped there and disconnected.
Many of them apologized later over phone and WhatsApp and I don't carry any ill feelings towards them.
However something is continuously bothering me, these are all highly educated individuals, some of them went to US/UK/ Germany for higher studies. How did Modi/ BJP become synonymous with India even for these people?
And why this hate if you marry someone from other countries? (I felt it almost everywhere, specially in North India)
Due to some time difference I joined about 30 minutes late and was patiently listening to my old buddies speak ( old memories always feel great!!)
The discussion was going along fine till 3 people started justifying the lockdown ( their main reasoning- Modi thinks so, and he is the wisest Indian, as he orchestrated surgical attacks on Pakistan...etc.etc.)
I kept on listening very patiently and decided not to engage in a heated argument with people I still care for.
Suddenly, Santanu, the guy who planned this session and invited everyone, requested me to speak as I am the only one who was directly involved in this ( 6 guys are in UK, but they are in non related specialties)
I clearly told them that since I'm not in India physically, it's better for me to only listen. But they insisted and I explained them briefly about how little we know about the virus epidemiologically, why practically there is no chance of an effective vaccine for now ( it's very easy to explain these to doctors)
Finally when I started talking about the Indian situation and asking questions about Modi's decisions, there was a visible change in expressions in many. I kept talking, suddenly someone said " tui ar Indian nei, bideshini ke biye kore oder moto hoye gechish" ( you are not an Indian anymore, after marrying a foreigner, you have become like them)
I stopped there and disconnected.
Many of them apologized later over phone and WhatsApp and I don't carry any ill feelings towards them.
However something is continuously bothering me, these are all highly educated individuals, some of them went to US/UK/ Germany for higher studies. How did Modi/ BJP become synonymous with India even for these people?
And why this hate if you marry someone from other countries? (I felt it almost everywhere, specially in North India)