The Mistaken Identity

Look around you. There is nothing without some Chinese stuff. Chinese is everywhere; They have reached every nook and cranny of the world. The Chinese food, the Chinese cuisine, the Chinese gadgets, the Chinese blankets, the commodities, the goods, everything. It has reached the place where Chinese people have not reached. It has dominated the market and the packet of the world.

Here in Bangalore, and particularly where I am living, Chinese people are rare despite the world’s largest population. There may be some political reasons--China and India. They are not seen like their goods, and they are so rare that many people ask me, many a time, “Are you from China?” I wanted to answer them by saying, “Only Chinese can be everywhere.” But I blurted out in quiet and unheard to them, “Do you think am I a dominator?” because the Chinese have dominated the world. I have Chinese like phallus but ways and manners are somewhat diverse. As I don jeans and shirts, maybe they think me a little un-Bhutanese.

Only yesterday, a group of my new friends asked me the same question. I laughed at them, not to know about our countries and it even reached to my Adam’s apple, but it melted there with this, “Are you from Mars?” At times, people behave as if they are completely alien.

The name they write makes me weird, ‘Butan,’ very shortcut indeed. Our Dolly-jolly madam, Chitra Das Gupta also calls me that I am from Butanic, a very unusual name madam! Anyway, I always have a good time explaining about my country, Bhutan. Its history, cultures, traditions, attitudes, manners, thinking, etc, and how it differs especially from China and others blah…blah…

For many strangers who have little or no knowledge of my country, I have become a real representative of my country. Ah…ha representative of the country! I describe the country like the next to heaven and everything perfect. Sometimes, I sound too chauvinist and patriotic when they see some Bhutanese hanging around with wines in Bangalore.  “This is your country?” they say. I have no choice but to counteract Indians. “They have been influenced by where they are living.” Not a good excuse I guess. And this answer would really make them crazy.

 I usually conclude by saying that we are in the same boat (to balance the weight of nationalism (of course)).