Being Indian

I've never understood the saffron brigade's(Shiv Sena, VHP, etc.) intense insecurity about the so called invasion of the Western culture, their staunch opposition and violent opposition of Valentine's day celebrations and anything else that they deem 'western'. (Btw this curiously does not include the alleged paedophile Michael Jackson's music. Apparently Balasaheb is a fan). True, these corrupt bumbling idiots love trivialising or conveniently ignoring the bigger picture and love making mountains out of non-issues. But still, what were they thinking?
That jeans, heart-shaped cookies and English music can take the Indian out of us? Or that renaming every street and building in sight after Shivaji is suddenly going to make us feel more Indian. They've clearly misunderstood the youth of the nation.
Our Indianness is a nebulous feeling, that perhaps is the only mark of uniformity in the heterogeneous population of the country This feeling of belonging is intrinsic, it's been pre-wired into our systems and can't be influenced by any other. It flows in the blood of the stinking rich and the poverty-stricken, the NRI and the ueber-patriotic types. So why do these idiots worry so much about the erosion of our culture?
I'm kind of dissillusioned about the Indian culture, I'm not really sure what all it encompasses.( The word brings memories of Kathak recitals and classical music.) People keep telling you what it's not, so you're left to make what you want of it. Culture, just like mankind has evolved and keeps evolving. It's a process that's catalysed by change, foreign influences and choices. Although cultures have their own identities, in this shrinking world every culture inevitably borrows from others-its plain and simple evolution. Culture is being constantly remixed to suit the current generation, yet the old tune rings clear and strong. Old and forgotten traditions do have this uncanny ability to reincarnate every now and then.
We Indians are bound together as a community by a sublte, complex feeling of belonging, of being Indian. Some of us express it robustly at cricket matches, clad in blue and sporting the tricolour on our faces. Some of us acknowlegde the slumbering emotions stirring in our hearts when we watch a patriotic film. There are so many manifestations of this feeling. It's that smile(wry it may be, but it's a smile nevertheless) when you get off at the chaotic, maddening Sahar airport(oops it's Chhatrapati Shivaji airport isn't it? ) after a trip abroad. And the aroma of parched earth when the first raindrops soak it. Ghar ka khana and aam ka anchaar. Sequinned kurtis and kurtas worn over faded jeans. Annoying hip hop-Bhangra numbers in typical east-meets-west style that grow onto you.
So what if many of us are amalgams of Indo-western sensibities? Our Indianness is firmly entrenched in our body, mind and soul. It's timeless. And it's got absolutely nothing to do with the names of cities, whether Bangalore ought to be called Bangluroo or not. That's why I just don't get why Sena workers suffer mild cardiac arrests everytime we sip our Coke and bite into our pizzas. We're not forgetting anything. They should just give it a rest.