India

I've been done reading Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation for about a week now. I still haven't posted a book review on KnowProSE.com yet simply because there's a lot that I had to think through. The book itself isn't complicated, but a good book makes one look around with new eyes - and Nilekani did not disappoint. Thus, to do a circumspect and thorough review I wanted to put that into context for the review. It would be questionable in the book review itself - but it's something I'm compelled to write about.

India

I'm part East Indian by way of some adventurous ancestors on my father's side who thought coming to Trinidad and Tobago was an opportunity, if even for a while, for them to better themselves. I have no idea why they made the decision; I could romanticize it somehow but I believe that better left to Bollywood - which I avoid. That said, I got exposed to Indian culture in the Trinidad and Tobago sense; when I left Trinidad and Tobago and went to an Indian restaraunt I was disappointed with everything except Tandoori chicken and aloo rotis. Oh, and naan. Love naan.

The idea here is that as a member of the diaspora, I'm almost as far removed from India as anyone else outside of India. Generations of slow shifts in East Indian culture conspired with an European mix to make my ancestry independent of a nation. I don't identify as an Indian but I don't deny it. Even so, India is an interesting area of the world - now a country - with a lot contributed and after a hiatus, more to contribute.