Postcard From Delhi

8/7/2019 Postcard From Delhi

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Postcard from Delhi: The American Dream from Abroad – Part 8 __________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright 2010 William Jamieson – All Rights Reserved http://PeoplesVisionUSA.com

Postcard from Delhi, India:

The American Dream from Abroad

Part 8

A Personal Perspective

By Bill Jamieson

http://peoplesvisionusa.com/





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© Copyright 2010 William Jamieson – All Rights Reserved





Postcard from Delhi, India: The American Dream fromAbroad

Click here to read more posts about Bill’s journey to India: http:/ / peoplesvisionusa.com/ my-journeys/postcard-from-india/

India has pulled me into her soul. She is truly a paradox: chaotic but with arhythm that seems to bring everything together. There is a symmetry that

integrates what on the surface seems to be mass confusion.

The day I arrived in Mumbai I went for a walk and was a bit intimidated bythe crush of people, constant noise of car horns, street vendors in a solid

row down one side of the sidewalk and small stores on the other… withpeople walking every which way in between. By day two I was in the

rhythm.

The trick for me was to stop trying to compare India to any place I haveever been and to let her be who she is.

As I prepare to leave for Kenya tomorrow I already feel drawn back to India

for a much longer stay.





I have seen some extraordinary sights and learned about a history I neverreally knew. But it is the people I met who will go with me in my heart as I

continue this journey. What follows is a sampling of my conversations.

I was deeply touched by the children in Andheri Slum, where 18,000 people

live in a 15-acre area.

They greeted me with great warmth and took me to meet their mothers,

who were gathered around the water pump with their tall cans. Water isavailable only between 1p.m. and 3p.m. every day.

Archana, a fourteen-year old girl who lives in Andheri told me she wants to

be a teacher “so I can help children learn enough to have a better life.”

A 10-year old boy whose name I didn’t catch said he wants to be the Prime

Minister so “I can give a house to everyone.”

Archana goes to school from 10a.m.-5p.m., but comes home to help her

mom get the water. She took me to her one-room home to meet her six-person family… and all of the other children in the area followed pied piper

like.

I was offered everything from tea to a meal, and presented with two baby

chicks (which, of course, I left with them).

I later met a young woman named Jess who was born in India, but reared in

England. She has returned to try life in her homeland.

I asked her if she had ever been to America, and she said no, “it is tooviolent. Most of my family has immigrated to England or Canada. We are

afraid of the crime rate in America.”

One of my more interesting visits was with Muhd Inamulla, a Mufti from a

small village on the outskirts of Mumbai. Before I was allowed to ask himquestions his aide grilled me, fearing that I might be an agent of some sort.

The Mufti started by telling me that he believed America’s motto came from

Dick Cheney: “We won’t spare a single person.”

“There is,” he said” “poison about Islam in the mind and heart of America.”

But then he said that “we must seek peaceful co-existence in the world, andthe United States must play a major role. The United States can make theworld a better place.”





He closed our conversation by telling me that Americans need to betterunderstand Islam. “We Muslims believe in Moses. We believe in Jesus. Those

who don’t are not true Muslims.”

Kiran Murthi has a graduate degree in engineering and an MBA. He works as

the general manager of radio station FM104 in Mumbai.

“There was a time” Murthi told me “ that the USA saw India suspiciously, felt

that India was not in the capitalist camp and wondered if they could trustus.”

During the cold war India did “tilt toward the USSR, but things have changed

significantly since then.

We see the United States as a friend on the cutting edge. We admire the

freedoms of America and the commitment to human rights. Indians respectAmerica’s core values.

“But we are also a bit intimidated. The forwardness in social interaction of Americans is foreign to us.

You are much more open and free in your relationships with others, and youseem to have less respect than we do for traditional family values.

In India it is not uncommon for family units (including multiple generations,

cousins, aunts and uncles) to live together with a shared kitchen.

The children grow up together. You are more dispersed, and your children

grow up and leave their home town.”

Murthi clearly values and respects the United States, but “you seem to view

the world as ‘with us or against us’. America is struggling even now todetermine which camp India is in as we build our own foreign policy.”

He said that “India wants a positive relationship with the United States, butdoesn’t have full faith and trust in what America’s foreign policy will be”,

citing specifically the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States, according to Murthi, needs “to build trust with India

instead of trying to force us into that for or against mode.

“If we can begin connecting small fibers on many levels, the relationship canbecome one of mutual trust without conditions. We should do whatever we





can do without conditions, and as trust improves the fibers will cometogether.”

Shazia Skaikh is a graduate student in political science and works at the

Center for the Study of Society and Secularism… an institute dedicated to

breaking down barriers between and among the many different religions inIndia.

She said, “My view of the USA has changed radically over the past fouryears. I used to believe that a relationship with America was good for India,

but now I see your country as a selfish country that can’t be trusted.Americans are busy in their own world and don’t know much about the

broader world.”

Skaiky is a Muslim and she believes that American foreign policy is “closedand self centered, and the American government does not follow the

democratic principles and ethics it preaches to others.

You say democracy works best, then you support dictators. What youimpose on others you ought to follow yourselves. You will gain or lose the

respect of other nations through your actions.”

She does believe that the United States has strengths, particularly aconstitution that guarantees freedom of religion, which for her means a

secular government. “Your individual freedom and human dignity are goodexamples for us to follow.”

Her passion is “cross understanding of religions… this is the number oneissue for the world. The west focuses on Muslims and enemies without

having any understanding of our religion.”

Skaikh also praised the United States for its commitment to women’s rights,

but her last question to me was “Why has America never had a womanpresident? We have, England has, Israel has, and Pakistan has. Why not

America?”

On my first evening I met a seer, a man of peace. Dr. Asghar Ali is educated

as an engineer, but serves as the chair of the Center for the Study of Societyand Secularism.

He said that three “Ds” are essential to peaceful living: democracy, diversityand dialogue. “Democracies cannot function without diversity, particularly

religious diversity. A one-faith country will become authoritarian andsectarian.”





With regard to religion, Dr. Asghar offered the following: “There are fourqualities of a faithful religious person, regardless of their religion.

The first is humility; the second is a commitment to truth seeking; the third

is having a deep compassion; and the fourth is being subversive…

challenging what exists in the religious establishment. Gandhi, MartinLuther King, Jr. and Jesus had these qualities.”

The foregoing just touches the surface of my interviews. As reflected in arecent Pew pole, a majority of Indians likes the United States, and a super

majority admire President Obama.

But I believe it is always important to listen closely to those voices thatchallenge us. I have one more interview to go with a Mumbai businessman

and I’ll share my broader findings tomorrow. Namaste, Bill

~~~~~~~~~~





From emails: “These scenes are taken from a rickshaw, walking and drivingin a car. The only exception is the two pictures of the minaret. It is five

stories and more than 72 meters high. It was built in the 12th century bythe "slave sultan" to honor his former master.

The boys in the wagon are on their way to school. Tomorrow I go to Agra,then back to Mumbai on Monday and to Kenya early Wednesday morning.

Peace and love to all, Bill”

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Postcard From Delhi