It is not a sensational statement if I state that we live in a globalized world. I think the term globalization has lost its charm because we just know it, we take it as a standard, there is no more academic debate whether globalization is the phenomenon of late 20th century... it is a fact almost universally accepted that we live in a globalized world...
But sometimes I still get amazed by the complex personal and national identities (and stereotypes as well) this has led to. How these identities collide in everyday life.. for example, I received an email from someone who lives in Sydney Australia, who says she is of Chinese ethnicity and she is born first generation New Zealander. She is visiting Europe in summer. What an interesting way of defining herself? and what it must be like to be her, to belong to so many identities but still feeling somewhere in between, being in a constant search for feeling comfortable in some community, some group, some country, some continent?
Another example, my train ride from Zurich to Basel this morning, I had to listen to a conversation (rather loud and public) between fellow passengers, a man and a woman. The man defined himself as an artist, he comes from Guatemala and holds Guatemalan passport. In his words, he has lived in New York and New Delhi and many places in between. He speaks English and French fluently but feels that he is loosing Spanish, his mother tongue. He was talking to a young woman sitting opposite him on the train. The conversation started with him trying to guess her nationality. He claimed he loves to play this game and is accurate 85% of times. In this case, he was wrong even after 3 guesses. She is from Poland but has lived in the UK for 10 years, has also lived in Ukraine and Russia and her family currently resides in Ukraine. She speaks fluent Polish, English, Russian and tiny bits of German. Her family has expanded into many parts of continental Europe through marriages and relationships. It was interesting to overhear the conversation between these two for 50 minutes. They talked about their lives and identities but they also shared their experiences of having lived in many countries, positive as well as negative. They had strong opinions about cultural differences and they also had strong preferences on where do they feel truly at home.
Talking to strangers in public places such as trains is quite common in India. At least that is how I have experienced it and remember it and I don't think that habit has disappeared in last 5 years. But in Switzerland, I rarely see such interactions. The fact that these two talked for the entire train ride was quite unusual and they acknowledged that this was possible because neither of them was Swiss. I am not sure about that statement. But this is what they both believed.
I want to meet someone who has never left his place of birth, nor has his family moved anywhere.. you know the true locals... I would love to listen to such a person and understand their story and experience.. does that even exist? if we look at human history, movement and more recently migration in search of food, shelter, love, growth, stability, safety is as old as story of mankind... it feels like we all have been moving all along, strange because deep down inside us, the reason to move was to find an anchor, a place to belong, a place that can be our home.. some of us found it, some others are still searching but may be there are some who never had to search for such an anchor. They just knew they were in a right place ... I am really curious to meet such a person...
But sometimes I still get amazed by the complex personal and national identities (and stereotypes as well) this has led to. How these identities collide in everyday life.. for example, I received an email from someone who lives in Sydney Australia, who says she is of Chinese ethnicity and she is born first generation New Zealander. She is visiting Europe in summer. What an interesting way of defining herself? and what it must be like to be her, to belong to so many identities but still feeling somewhere in between, being in a constant search for feeling comfortable in some community, some group, some country, some continent?
Another example, my train ride from Zurich to Basel this morning, I had to listen to a conversation (rather loud and public) between fellow passengers, a man and a woman. The man defined himself as an artist, he comes from Guatemala and holds Guatemalan passport. In his words, he has lived in New York and New Delhi and many places in between. He speaks English and French fluently but feels that he is loosing Spanish, his mother tongue. He was talking to a young woman sitting opposite him on the train. The conversation started with him trying to guess her nationality. He claimed he loves to play this game and is accurate 85% of times. In this case, he was wrong even after 3 guesses. She is from Poland but has lived in the UK for 10 years, has also lived in Ukraine and Russia and her family currently resides in Ukraine. She speaks fluent Polish, English, Russian and tiny bits of German. Her family has expanded into many parts of continental Europe through marriages and relationships. It was interesting to overhear the conversation between these two for 50 minutes. They talked about their lives and identities but they also shared their experiences of having lived in many countries, positive as well as negative. They had strong opinions about cultural differences and they also had strong preferences on where do they feel truly at home.
Talking to strangers in public places such as trains is quite common in India. At least that is how I have experienced it and remember it and I don't think that habit has disappeared in last 5 years. But in Switzerland, I rarely see such interactions. The fact that these two talked for the entire train ride was quite unusual and they acknowledged that this was possible because neither of them was Swiss. I am not sure about that statement. But this is what they both believed.
I want to meet someone who has never left his place of birth, nor has his family moved anywhere.. you know the true locals... I would love to listen to such a person and understand their story and experience.. does that even exist? if we look at human history, movement and more recently migration in search of food, shelter, love, growth, stability, safety is as old as story of mankind... it feels like we all have been moving all along, strange because deep down inside us, the reason to move was to find an anchor, a place to belong, a place that can be our home.. some of us found it, some others are still searching but may be there are some who never had to search for such an anchor. They just knew they were in a right place ... I am really curious to meet such a person...
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