Before I leave the subject of India, I have one last sweeping observation worth sharing. It has to do with egocentricity. We as Americans, no matter how worldly or well-read, still have a tendency to think that the rest of humanity is not only expecting us to pay a visit, but spend their waking hours studying our culture and keeping up with our news. On our first morning in India, the waiter serving us breakfast asked where we were from. "New York," I said. Nodding his head politely while he clearly searched his storehouse of knowledge, he then said with a smile of satisfaction, "Oh yes, I've heard of New York. That's in London, right?"
The fact of the matter is, during our two weeks in India, almost no one just assumed we were American. Looking at our fair skin -- and maybe the blue eyes in our group -- they guessed our nationality in this order almost every time: German, French, English, Australian, South African. And when they discovered we were American, they seemed surprised. When people just came out and asked, "Where are you from?," we learned over time not to just blurt out, "The U.S." or "The United States," because more often than not, the look that came back was a puzzled one. So we started saying "America," which clearly was a more recognized place on the map for Indians. Looking back, I realize that saying we were Americans may not really have clarified anything at all! Who was to say that we weren't from Canada or Guatemala or Peru -- all part of the Americas? But then, as Americans we have kind of co-opted the name to mean the "United States." A little egocentric of us, don't you think? Comments are closed.
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