Jan 27 2013
I took one of the fastest train in India (Rajdhani, 100 km/h) from Bombay to Surat. The train ticket was about INR 850 (CAD 17). The journey was about 3 hours. The highlight of this train ride was not so much the scenery but the people in the train, especially a British-Indian Muslim couple. After three hours of chatting about Indians in general, I came to conclusion that the criteria for an Indian is quite vague. Despite the differences in our appearance, religion, culture, language and other man-made borders, there was a connection. One could give reasons for such a connection to values like tolerance but it was more of a feeling than something based on logical reasoning. Our conversation reminded me of a quote by Michael Wood in his BBC documentary on India; Identity is never formed, it is always forming.
I took one of the fastest train in India (Rajdhani, 100 km/h) from Bombay to Surat. The train ticket was about INR 850 (CAD 17). The journey was about 3 hours. The highlight of this train ride was not so much the scenery but the people in the train, especially a British-Indian Muslim couple. After three hours of chatting about Indians in general, I came to conclusion that the criteria for an Indian is quite vague. Despite the differences in our appearance, religion, culture, language and other man-made borders, there was a connection. One could give reasons for such a connection to values like tolerance but it was more of a feeling than something based on logical reasoning. Our conversation reminded me of a quote by Michael Wood in his BBC documentary on India; Identity is never formed, it is always forming.
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