East v/s West or East and West

Don’t know where to start from…like most other dilemmas in life…an experience spread over the past four years, in particular, and an ongoing search to find some sort of meeting ground on various levels of existence- from a purely practical living side to a deeper meaning and purpose of life…

why this interest in the differences…some, including my father, would coax me to think of the more positive side, to appreciate the similarities rather than ponder over the differences…Apart from living the differences (or similarities) on an ongoing basis, i was forced to delve deeper into these from an academic point of view, this being the topic of my thesis at the business school, although in a business context…While working on the subject, i had the opportunity to read some scholars who have tried to rationalize and categorize the differences that exist in the values, perceptions, attitudes, beliefs..etc, tried to search for their roots in the civilizations, in religions, in the ‘evolution’ of the modern world, the context of globalization and so on and so forth…With this in mind, the ‘differences’ are not to be viewed in a negative light, but as something which is, well, different lol, not necessarily good or bad, to each their own…for want of a better word, but i must live with the limitations of language…

I am inclined to think that everyone who has been ‘derooted’ from the proverbial ‘east’ to the ‘proverbial’ west or vice versa has posed this question, one time or the other, depending on how tough or easy the going gets…to find some coherence somewhere or try to find some sort of a middle ground which makes the living easier- on a routine basis and in a higher realm, whatever that may be, again, to each their own…Something tells me that my own quest might have come later than sooner, if it was not France, if it were some English-speaking country where i might not have had to struggle hard from day one to understand and be understood…

A few days ago, i was reading a book on Buddhism and Psychoanalysis (yeah, interesting topic that, as close as you can get to bringing the east and the west together!…Zen, a child of Buddhism and Taoism, being essentially eastern and psychoanalysis being the child of the western culture)…while both try to, in their own way, unravel the inner self, the routes are essentially different…the quest for living, to find answers to deeper questions, to getting to the purpose of existence, etc. may be the same for people, no matter what their origin, their routes are indeed different depending on their roots in a particular culture…

I have to keep falling back on my experience and upbringing to find some solace in what is essentially a practical and dogmatic way of living out here as opposed to ‘rationalizing’ the life spiritually back home… to quote W.Hauer, a German theologian, on his stay in India, “…I learned (in India) that we have only the right to state, to testify what is in us, and not expect others to be converted to our point of view, much less try to convert them”. This statement does strike a chord somewhere especially in my experience with my catholic in-laws, who seem to find it difficult to accept a daughter-in-law who is ‘different’…does not belong… does not hold dear the same values…in my social circle, there have been times, i have been asked to, sort of, justify my adherence to vegetarianism, among other ‘things’…how could i not be tempted by the ‘delicious’ spread in front of me…what would happen if i did try…is a vegetarian diet balanced enough…how could i find the ‘aroma’ of non-vegetarian cooking plain repulsive…and so on and so forth goes the volley of questions on the choices i make…In some case, i am willing to consider the reason for this cross-examination being plain curiosity or a lack of precedent rather than an attempt at a conversion…If, however, the setting for this ’situation’ was somewhere in India, one can expect the slight disappointment of in-laws on their daughter-in-law being different, but whether they would waste so much energy to convert her to their view point, of that, i am doubtful…

In India, a misfit person may be a misfit, but different choices are lived with, much less being worked on to convert to a view point which does not adhere to one’s inherent nature…I am bound to think that the tolerance levels are fairly highly in India than I’ve encountered in the West. What is this tolerance? As per Webster’s, “Sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own“…Reading an essay, i came across a question the author asked on intolerance, “Is it truth or is it taste?”…I have, more often than not, been asked to justify, that which, to me, is simply a question of taste, albeit different and loaded with vegetables

(will keep adding more to it…)