Expat life

As I spend more time here and get insights beyond the obvious of the different aspects of systems, processes, cultures in Germany, I realize it has its own set of prejudices, judgements, rigidities and hypocrisies.

I then realized that I really like living the life of an expat because it allows me to be away from these aspects of my own culture and I can also stay relatively away from those of the country of residence. While being neither here nor there has its negatives, this is perhaps the positive side of it.

I will always be an outsider (everywhere) to be pulled into the depths of the society. Nobody will really care to do so and this makes it easier for me to leave these complexities, move on and focus on more important things in life.

Anyway, populist societal believes are always too black and white, judgmental and templatized while the greater part of life are different shades of gray, uncertain, relative and contextual.  

Media reach

Earlier this week, I surprised myself about my ability to converse in German with a group of elderly Austrians about critical issues faced in India - the new Prime Minister, safety of women in India etc.

While it was no surprise to me that every one knew about the recent elections and the new Prime Minister - his 'hindu bias', I was extremely surprised to learn that this group even knew about the recent rape case in Badaun. While rape in India is now a global news item, I wasn't aware that every such incident was reaching a global audience. This group was aware of the details of this case...

Over the course of the discussion, it struck me that the caste issues associated to this might be the reason this news piece made it international - to reassure the world that India is still ridden with this problem.

These conversations played in my mind long after they were over. Perspectives on the way the world views India is always interesting to me.

Its ironic that given India (so far) functions largely despite the governance, Indians love talking, debating, arguing about their Political points of views. It takes almost nothing to get Indians started on this topic.

In the years I have spent in Germany, rarely have I been caught in a charged up discussion about the different parties, personal preferences, opinions...All that I know about the political parties are mainly through feeding my own curiosity and some light hearted conversations over lunch.
This could be because I am not a local, people might believe I don't know enough to include me in the conversations. But we Indians don't seem to care. We subject everyone to our individual preferences about the politicians, political parties...while the audience sits and observes a fierce debate :D

I was conversing with Austrians about Indian politics. I had absolutely NO clue about Austrian politics. So does India for its exotic and uniqueness get covered more in the International news?
Sure India is an emerging economy. But so is Brazil, South Africa, Russia...what makes media talk more about India (e.g. BBC, Al Jazeera) compared to others?

I wonder...