Last month I read Sanjay Dutt's interview to IBN, in which he casually mentions, 'I am an UN ambassador which is a big honour to India'. 'Slumdog Millionaire' wins Oscars, and we begin proclaiming from rooftops 'The win is an honour to India'. Resul Pookutty invokes 'Om' and India's civilization in his acceptance speech as if he is at 'Parliament of World Religions' and not 'Academy awards'. Someone gets a job at NASA, someone with Indian parents gets elected to a democratic office in the US, and the events are dubbed as 'big honour to India'.
Seemingly, whenever an Indian succeeds in anything remotely international, his/her success is considered 'honour to India', as if the whole country is under scanner. For last couple of years, the phrase 'honour to India' has been used so frequenly that soon if someone with Indian grandparents gets elected to some town hall committee in Timbuktu, I am afraid the event will be considered an 'honour to India'.
Is India so desperate for honour that it hijacks individual accomplishments of its citizens as its own ? Kudos to Rahman, kudos to Resul for whatever their achievements are in their chosen fields, but I cannot bask in their suceesses as if those are my own. I like listening to Rahman, but his getting Oscars make me only as proud as Waugh/Lara getting ICC awards (makes). Limit these achievements to what these are, individual accomplishments, and not elevate these to national honour/pride.
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