I wish I could have never written this!

Call me a Regionalist if you want! But what ever I write here is what I really felt in last evening’s events in Indian Students at Rice (ISAR). A gathering is meant to bring together all of us and have a wonderful time together. But yesterday made me feel more alienated. It is not the linguistic barriers I am concerned about. Infact being a bilingual is more than sufficient for me. I have many wonderful friends who speak languages which I can’t speak. But they know my limitation and they always made me feel at home. But last night I was really caught off guard. Except for the good soul which put the slides in English I could have ended up being clueless as what is going on? The same opinion was expressed by one of our beloved chief guest in much softer tone (befitting his age). In truth this is exactly why I decided not to take any position in the executive committee. After all a leader should communicate and command. But unilingual approach is fine with planning when it gets transformed to action it rips of the opportunity of many to feel at ease. About this a Couple of questions came to my mind. Isn't this one of the very few occasions we come together? Of course it is, but that’s true for me too. Why can’t they speak on a language 95% people can understand? Perfect. But what about English where 100% can understand? Too westernized thinking? Okay here is a simple solution which was followed last year and an ideal one. How about sprinkling English here and there and make us feel more comfortable? Am I asking too much? I was never feeling any of these before the intended to be Fun “Antakshari” happened. I was cheering and booing till they announced that there will be a situation songs. Since I could see other Tamil people in other teams, I thought its time for me to enjoy something. It might be wrong. But I did not know that I am not allowed to sing (for me not allowed to sing in my language means not allowed to sing). That’s fine; after all we were in lesser number. Shouldn’t they have given my other “common” team mates another chance to do it in the “Accepted” language? But instead I was stripped of points for trying to be one among us. This is no big deal for me. And my relationship with everyone will remain the same as I am too grown up to fuss about these things and my friends are too precious to lose. But why cant we make sure that when ever we come together, actually “We” come together rather than someone feeling “they “ came together (even for a nano second).