GLOBAL CITIZEN | Be Provincial

Too much is made of being cosmopolitan. Such a declaration is perhaps one of the many blasphemies of our times. I, however, am making this statement upfront, especially for the consumption of the highbrow, genteel circles of this country, with due pardon, of course. It is also addressed to swathes of urbane, educated 'city-dwellers' who expect themselves to be cosmopolitan, only to end up surprising themselves and the rest of the world.How much we love to think we belong to the world, yet how promptly we draw neat lines to make secure grids to sit in. It is time we called our bluffs so we can all relax a little. A little provincialism does us no harm.
During festivals, Indians are at their provincial best. Last year's bumper-to-bumper meeting of Ramzan, the Navratras and Durga Puja got me thinking. As the beloved Pujo approached, the routine migration of Delhi's Bengalis to Kolkata became visible. Planned months in advance, this trip is not to be meddled with or trivialised. Even those with thoroughbred cosmopolitan reputations are rumoured to whittle away their stony selves. Yet, on their return, most Bengalis are happy to have left some of Bengal behind. Close on their heels are the Gujaratis of Delhi. Despite their small numbers, the oldest official body of this community is known to organise nine-day dandiya-garba nights as an all-Gujarati affair. Such exclusivity hits at the heart of cosmopolitan values and a Gujarati with feeblest internationalist pretensions could be offended. The president of the organisation later told me that the exclusive dandiya celebration was not something he appreciated either, but was a step taken to control unruly crowds. "I'm a pucca Delhiite. I was the first-ever non-Sikh student president of Khalsa College. I can show you Chandni Chowk like no one else can," he said in his Dilliwala-Gujarati style. But what about my cosmopolitan credentials? Indeed, those values cannot be a 365x24x7 window to the self. The road from being a citizen of the world to being a member of the tribe is a short and tricky one. Perhaps the idea is to keep traffic open for a two-way journey, at the very least.