[tgs]

the vast majority is still reeling under the feeling of an apologetic embarassment of being Indian. I have seen wherever Indians get together we talk only bad about indian culture. Both of these are peculiar to NRIs, as far as I can see. People in India certainly do not have a feeling of "apologetic embarassment" and we most certainly do not diss India when we get together. Sure, we rant about current problems and frustrations, but that's not the same thing as denigrating Indian culture. We certainly don't do the latter.

if nothing else, it might atleast make us feel ashamed of the state we are in today in comparison, and might prompt at least some Indians to work towards bringing that lost state back again. This is a fundamental point of difference between us. I see nothing to be ashamed about the state we're in today, and plenty to be proud of. The point I was trying to make in my previous post was that people need to overcome this irrational shame, not heighten it - and constantly running back to ancient history instead of looking to the many things in present India we can be proud of isn't helpful at all. What we end up doing is using the past to "apologise" for supposed inadequacies in present-day India, rather than standing up for the fact that present-day India is an amazing place in its own right - not because of what our ancestors did 25000 years ago, but because of what we are doing today. There is no need to feel inadequate or ashamed of being Indian, because India today is a place to be proud of.

For example, the new Airbus 380 is an amazing feat of engineering. But the next-generation backup navigation systems for this and future aircraft which Airbus will develop are being designed and developed by none other than HCL, Bangalore. This is the sort of cutting-edge work we Indians are doing today. I personally find such things infinitely more inspiring - and much more relevant in overcoming the challenges that our country still faces - than exalting the supposed achievements of our ancient ancestors.

All too often, the preoccupation with the glories of ancient India hides a sense of shame with modern India (not that I'm accusing anyone here of that). This upsets and angers me. Thevaram pugazh paduvarkal, aanaal sivan kovilai ikazhvarkal.

dont you tell your kids the greatness of your family or do you only open only your family's rotten can of worms? Actually, my parents told me very little about my family's history until I was quite old. Instead of telling me how my great-grandfather gave away all our fields to his tenants and turned the ancestral house into a free hospital (or, for that matter, how the next generation squandered all the goodwill he had created), they tried to set an example by the way they lived and treated others. In my opinion, they did the right thing, and I try to raise my children the way they raised me. Family heritage is something to be proud of all right, but it is much better transferred in adulthood than in childhood - what we do today is much more important than what we were in the past.