Firengis.

So I've come to realise, there are actually two kinds of foreigners.

Foreigners who are Indian, and ones who aren't.

Okay, seriously. 

Two kinds of foreigners. 

One's who are interviewed by the media, and ones that aren't.

Right about now, you're probably going "But surely that's just chance? How can you classify them this way, when it isn't upto the foreigners in the first place?"

Well... there's a reason they're interviewed by the media. 

They like India.

Or they have some nice things to say about India.

Or they pretend to have nice things to say about India, and actually just want to see their names in print (Even if it is in India).

Now the one's that are interviewed by the media, just have nice things to say about us. 

"Oh, your culture is just so rich!"

"I really wish more people would appreciate your music"

"The art is very vibrant in this city, and country, as a whole"

"India is in touch with its culture, even in this day and age. Wonderful."

"I love being here... the locals are just so helpful."

And while interviewing all these people, we believe that we're interviewing a foriegn person in our country, and what they think is representative of their country, and hence we are highly thought of all over the world. Now, while this isn't wrong, it doesn't conform to being right, either.

We're being hypocrites.

If we do interview the ones that don't like India, we'd learn a lot of ourselves, and what we do wrong. 

The knee-jerk reaction to the above statement would be to say :

"Look, its our nation. We can do as we please. They visit us, they'd better learn about us."

While this is mostly okay, i.e. if you're a guest at someone's place, try not to offend them, its also not done to treat the guest like your dog's dog, if you're the host. 

So.

In the same vein, it isn't really done to inflict all our Indian-ness on some poor soul, who has come here completely not expecting in the least to be assaulted. In more than one sense.

No, it's only after we listen to the ones that don't like India, that we can do something collectively to be a little more receptive to foreigners. (Unless they're morons, and complain about the food being too spicy. Grow a stomach, pansy).

Why would we want to be more receptive to those people, who are completely against every ideal we hold dear in our motherland?

Simply because they aren't against every ideal that we hold dear in our motherland. 

And they often learn, and study our culture far better than we can. 

They document it better, anyway.

This is a good thing.

So ending the hypocrisy would be a good idea.