I am a liberal. Deal with it: Open letter to Chetan Bhagat
Dear Mr Chetan Bhagat,
First of all, thank you very much for lightening our mood by writing this extremely funny blog about Indian liberals. We all had a good laugh. Allow me to clean your spectacles and help you see things clearly.
1. You say our "lovely liberals" have no clue on what India should be like. Let me break this to you gently, I am not lovely. And I am a liberal. Deal with it.
2. Unlike you, I did not study in a prestigious institution like the IIT. While you probably spent your summer vacations preparing to get in, I spent mine toiling in the fields of my village in the badlands of western UP. I am a liberal. Deal with it.
3. I am a member of the OBC and have spent my entire childhood in a one-room house with four other family members. My teenage years were spent at a place where an 18-hour daily power cut was the norm. There goes your privilege and class argument for a toss. I am a liberal. Deal with it.
4. I passed out of a government school and I don't speak English the way you do, let alone in a French or Italian accent. I speak English in a western UP accent. I am vernacular. I am a liberal. Deal with it.
5. I did not know what a hot dog is, even during college. You surely went to schools where kids brought hot dogs for lunch. I am a liberal. Deal with it.
6. Some of my schoolmates went on to sell boiled eggs on carts and steel utensils. I don't exactly have the privilege of an old boys' network to leverage, if you know what I mean. I am a liberal. Deal with it.
7. Forget visiting Disneyland, my family could not even afford Appu Ghar. You, it appears, did manage to take a ride. I am a liberal. Deal with it.
8. No, I was not exposed to "world culture". The only culture I had access to was patriarchal, and casteist. I am a liberal. Deal with it.
9. As a person with scientific temperament, I have contempt towards all forms of religious conservatism and the politics born out of it. I am a liberal. Deal with it.
10. Inspite of my modest background, I managed to become an IT professional and got to work in different continents. This was possible because of the liberal India I grew up in, and the one "lovely liberals" are fighting hard to preserve today.
I am not an exception, there are many like me.
You ask liberals for solutions. Understand the problem first.
Sanjay Rajoura