South Australia, Australia Sep 28, 2020 (Issuewire.com) - I'm Rishi Khandelwal and like every individual in foreign land struggles hard to maintain traditional values core with ones own culture. In this article, I share my life experiences, what are the factors that I pin it down to, explore the merits of my excuses before coming to any resolutions:
Access: Ask any person from the sub-continent about their ability to maintain their cultural and traditional practices and the first issue that might prop is access. Rishi Khandelwal is no different. You feel that while culture and tradition comes to you in your homeland, here in foreign land one has to go out of his way to find tradition and even after that it seems to evade you. For instance being a vegetarian due to cultural beleiefs. Obviously I have come to realise that when deployed overseas, expats must create spaces to practice their traditional values rather than look for them. A classic example that has made an everlasting impression on my mind was the Gujarati community, organized Dandiya at the Australian Parliament House a long time ago which was the first and perhaps only time such event has come up in my living memory.
Time: Time is another barrier for the average NRI to accomplish his or her cultural practices. It is the scarcest commodity and one cannot get enough of it. Many a time people like me, Rishi Khandelwal have not decided to participate in a traditional activity or event on the pretext of time. However, come to think of it and it is a relative phenomenon. How come others make it and you want to be left out. Of course it is a matter of prioritizing and everything comes at a cost. A recent example is when I was invited to Rath Yatra, where my wife chose some household shopping over it. Now I realise that household chores are never ending, for someone living abroad opportunities like these are few and far in between so you should take them when it comes.
People: Finding company of like-minded people to collaborate in cultural practices can be a difficult task from experience. People have competing priorities and different levels of commitment towards their culture. Rishi Khandelwal recollects that there have been few instances where my family has tried to organize a Diwali meet and people were not available at the time. But the only solution is many times you will have to go off on your own and sometimes perhaps solo to maintain your culture. Tradition waits for no one and either you are in or out.
Resources: For many people, maintaining traditional value is an expensive affair. They feel that it can be a financial burden especially in difficult times. One might complain that decorating the house for Ganesh Chaturthi cannot be afforded. Here’s the deal tradition sets no value threshold for anyone to partake in it. Do it according to your capacity. If you cant find flowers, find them from somewhere!
Embarrassment of standing out or being stereotypical: Believe it or not, the psychological perception of being a minority or standing out to maintain your culture plays on every person’s mind in a foreign land. Simple decisions like can Rishi Khandelwal wear a Kurta Pyjama for work creates a hesitation hard to describe. Oh my god! Will people stare at me? But remember the sub -continent Diaspora is increasing world wide at the same time many Asian and developing countries are getting westernized. If people overseas do not stand their ground our culture will fade into history books. I say just do it for your own self and do not think how others will judge you. You will realise that quite often it is only you that is judging yourself.
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