Children from the 90’s will all agree, that the term identity crisis was coined for us. We were a confused lot. On one hand, the world had opened up to India and we were introduced to things that our previous generations had never seen, and on the other hand, we struggled to maintain our ‘Indian-ness’. We drank Coca Cola, brushed our teeth with Colgate, took bath with Liril, sang along with the “Hamara Bajaj’ ad, giggled at Amul’s clever quips and cooked the 2 minute Maggi for 10 minutes, at least. We watched KJo’s NRI centric movies and planned to go to Switzerland for a Yasfh Raj ishtyle romance.
I remember how in my childhood I would wrinkle my nose and look down upon learning Marathi and Hindi in school. I wanted to be a posh world traveller and Indian languages were not for people with big dreams like me.
I stopped attending the Bharatnatyam classes that my mom had signed me up for, almost failed in my Marathi exam and attended Japanese and French language classes because that’s what globetrotting Indians should do? Right?
Then came the year 2010; the year when I got my passport and was going to Japan as a part of a student exchange program. I couldn’t wait to get to a foreign land and show off my international personality. I could walk English, talk English and even dance in English. I was truly a global citizen.
Travelling to Japan was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. It was in Japan that I learnt the two most important lessons in my life:
1) As clichéd as it sounds, everyone should take pride in their culture
2) Everybody in the world is an Indian at heart 😉
What happened was this:
After sightseeing, attending lectures and basically having a lot of fun, we were to stay in a Japanese family’s home for a few days to experience their day to day life.
At the end of it all, we had to put up an Indian cultural performance and nobody was more heartbroken than me. I mean, I had learnt all the fancy movies from pop videos for nothing! We were at a loss about what to do, when at midnight, when I am at my creative best, an idea popped into my mind!
Didn’t I learn Bharatnatayam as a child? I did remember a few mudras and knew a couple of steps. Sure, I was rusty and it would be a very basic performance but it was as Indian as it could get!
And our group had 2 extremely enthusiastic Punjabi girls who wanted to rock out their bhangra moves.
After a lot of careful practices and preparations….NOT. We had less than 24 hours you see.
So, with a lot of jugaad and juggling we proudly put together this for our audience.
I have to apologize for the video quality and my editing skills are sketchy at best but I can’t describe what a wonderful feeling it was to hear all the claps after my dance performance. It was something very simple but it did win a lot of hearts, if I may say so myself.
Next up was Bhangra by our Dilli ki ladkiyan
At this point of time our entire group was in flutters. For the first minute, there was utter silence. We were just about to stop the music, dejected that our second performance had bombed, but all out of nowhere a Sherwani wearing Sohma San jumped right in, and performed his own style of Bhangra. I mean see him; he can put any Punjabi to shame! Soon enough, the entire stage area was filled with Japanese men, women and children and all the Indian delegates dancing their heart out. Have a look!
After our energetic dance performance, we were tired and it was time for our hosts to showcase their talent! The first was a traditional Japanese dance performance by a mother daughter duo and the second one, which overwhelmed me was a Bharatnatyam dance by a Japanese girl who had been learning it for the past 8 years. Can you believe that?
Buoyed by our success, and after getting way too many compliments, we had a small dance workshop at a University. Snippets of our dance lessons in Japan 🙂
My childhood dancing lessons, in a dance form that I never appreciated and doing baarati style bhangra saved us and gave us memories of a lifetime. We made tons of friends and I even became an email pal with Sarah San for a few years.
I have come a long way from being the girl who once scorned at being an Indian and following the Indian way of life. I think even India has come a long way and has truly arrived on the global scene. Have you recently watched “More Indian than you think ads?” on their website bit.ly/2oQTj8q
Hilarious isn’t it? Yet somehow it manages to drive home a beautiful point; the world is ready for the Indian way of thinking and has started embracing it, too. After all, as I say, there is a little bit of India in everybody. Do you agree? 🙂
Please note: All the images/ videos of this video have been taken by me.
We remember the day seven years back when were travelling in a Mumbai local trying hard to come up with a name for our blog when struck us; Khushboo was always called a Jack of all Trades. The name stuck (with a slight modification, of course) and Munni was born.
Six years, over 100 collaborations, lakhs of readers and several awards later; our love for blogging continues to grow. We continue to write on an eclectic range of topics from the funniest autorickshaw signs that we have spotted in Mumbai to how to bathe an elephant. We are true blue Munni of all Trades and we hope to continue on this joyride with our fellow Munnis and Munnas.
Dancing has been something I miss in my life today. I’m loving the spirit of liveliness and happiness on everybody’s face.
Awesome post!!! You write from the heart. Ialways look forward to your posts. fantastic pics and videos.
Thanks for sharing some of your culture. As a Canadian, I have a very different cultural experience and I’m always interested to learn more about what life is like in other parts of the world.
This is so cool. I always love to see people dance. I have no rhythm, so I can’t do it, but it’s fun to see others.
This is such an awesome/inspirational post! I have always had a love for dancing! I especially love seeing/learning dances from different cultures. I live in Boston too, and I wish I could have participated in your friend’s workshop! I would love to be a part of it if she has one again! 🙂
I love how you had such a real life experience to open your eyes to the importance of appreciating and sharing your culture with others! Awesome!
That’s cool that you have been able to link back to your culture despite wanting to get away from it for a time. i do think it’s so important to connect to your roots.
I am sure Bharatnatyam does a lot of good to the mind and body. Let’s see if my 4 year daughter prefers to learn after she grows up a little more..
Great one!
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Lol, that’s a funny post! I am not sure I have any India in me but I am sure I would like to visit it someday!
Back in high school and college, dancing is part of my life and enjoying.it a lot! How I wish I could have time to do it again.
Dance is such a great healer for both mind and body, being true to your culture is good at any point of time. I have been a Kathak dancer for most of my life till I moved to another city for post grads. I think I’ll always be in love with dance
Interesting post.Yes,sometimes we do not value our own culture and things until we miss those.Indian dancing and other cultural things are popular all over the world.I like those too.
Love the post, it’s such a sweet one, I have always loved dancing and still whenever get time try and dance a bit 🙂
Thanks for sharing the post dear 🙂
Wow, India has always own a rich culture to really be proud of. I’m so happy that this generation, younger ones are still delving and embracing it. India has long been in my bucket list for so long now and I wish to visit it soon and experience the Indian culture. I’m a huge fan of Indian movies as well. Thank you so much for sharing this. I
LaiAriel R. Samangka
Interesting. Makes me want to try other’s culture too by dancing, doing a proper gesture, etc. Doing so makes you know how to respect each other’s culture and prevent the unintended not-to-dos.
This was such a beautiful post. Embrace our culture is so rewarding and little do we know that it makes us who we are. It shapes how we behave and treat others. Thank you for the inspiration and what a great dance :).
Bharatnatyam looks so fun! I loved this post. As a foreigner living in Japan, I can imagine that your audience genuinely appreciated getting to experience a bit of your culture that you shared with them. They are very lucky!
I am so happy for your success. This post is very inspiring especially to those who are going through tough times. Keep up the good work!
This is a great post, embracing your culture is so important and now I have my own child I want to be sure she receives an education into Irish culture also. The dancing looked great and the Japanese man really embraced it 🙂
I agree! India truly is on the global stage and for a good reason! So much rich culture! 😀
I really enjoyed reading this post. I find your words so easy to read. I’d love to visit India some day too, it looks and sounds amazing!
Chelsea | http://www.chelsea-Elizabeth.co.uk
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. It’s inspiring to see your journey from childhood to now and to see your pride for your culture. xo
Everyone I know from India are all super cool people. Our next door neighbor who cooks amazing Indian food .. but does it in her garage because she doesn’t want to smell up her house. The team of people I manage has three members in India. They’re smart .. funny .. and such a delight to work with.
Dancing is so liberating and fun. It’s also nice to keep in touch with the part of India in you.
I haven’t been much exposed to Indian dances and culture. These stories are incredible. I think the little performer dancing with the grandmother is so cute!
Wow , really nice
Even I dance ……lovely to see this post
We really need to appreciate our culture and heritage. We must be able to appreciate our roots first so we can fully appreciate others’.
❀ Grace ❀
I love Indian culture, especially the food, the music and the dancing it is a lot of fun! Well done for performing the dance looked lovely x
1st para <3 🙂
Loved the post
Japanese girl dancing to our classical dance form – wow !
lovely video too
I envy you so much. First of all for travelling to Japan and being a proud Indian. I remember being little and watching Indian movies with my grandma and because of the movies I started to love dancing. Great post ♥
How I miss skipping my classical dance lessons in school. I can totally feel you there. I never ignored or ran away from Idianness in me but after moving to United states I came a appreciate it a little more esp the familt ties and bondings we have which we label as nagging at times looks so much better now , hehe! All the danncing vidoes are great. Visitn Japan is my dream. I love how rich they are in culture like India
That’s such a heartfelt post! Good to know you got to travel internationally at your teenage itself!
True. My usual dialogue to many is that if you don’t know your roots, you can’t survive similar to how you can’t read Shakespeare without knowing ABCD!!!
Loved it! ?
This reminds me of the Singaporean cultural performance I had to do when I was doing an exchange in China. In the end, we created a spin-off from China’s most famous matchmaking show back then!
Indeed, wherever we go, there will be an Indian in me! Proud of our rich culture, traditions, music and dance. Lovely to see japanese girl dancing on Indian dance form.
Lesson learned right? Pride in our cultural background is imperative for its survival. I’m glad you shared your experience as we all need to be reminded of this fact.
What a lovely post about heriatge and culture and embracing it. I love the dance pics of the mother and daughter duo.