Indophile

The first reading this week was “Lost in Indophile Translation: A Validation of My Experience” written by Bhavana Mody. The writer writes about how she is listening to a man talk about his experience while visiting India. She writes about how she should know more about India than she does and in a way feels foolish that this man knows so much more than she does. The writer herself is Indian and knows very little about her own culture. In this moment she is worried about her pride being crushed by the other women sitting there with her listening to this man talk about her family’s homeland. She is thrown off when he asks her what her name means and when she replies that she thinks it means dream or something alike. He responds with what her name actually means making her tear up as her pride goes up in flames. She refers to her Indophile friends which she expresses are people that are obsessed with India, may have been to India and may have experienced some of the culture. She writes about how they really have only seen one side of India if they are refereeing to seeing villagers milking cows, eating mangoes and laughing all day but, in reality all Indian’s are not like this. Their country too struggles with alcoholism, domestic violence, sickness and lack of education. She closes out her passage with a conversation with her mother about what her name means. She asks her mother what her name actually means and her mother responds with the fact that it is not easily translated into English. In a way she finds comfort in that she wasn’t wrong about the meaning of her name.

#Indophile #obsessed #India