It's been a fortnight of mixed events. While Prime Minister Tony Blair made an election pitch to woo the Indian diaspora and praised India, an Indian media figure was grouped with other British prominent personalities into the never-ending David Blunkett and Kimberley Quinn saga. Then there was Mughal-e-Azam, which crossed all barriers of time and age to come to London and charm all age groups.
As an Indian it was a moment of pride, when Blair extolled about India, calling it a country with a "sense of adventure". True, I noticed the vibrant pulse that throbs through the heart of India, when I was visiting recently. India is definitely happening, and most of my friends who have lived here for long are increasingly getting tempted to return. London seems boring and quiet in comparison to Mumbai or Delhi. Even Blair pointed out India's "dynamism" and its "culture" and it is a relief that India is no longer seen through the prism of Pakistan, which was the case a few years ago.
But that's India, and it is so easy to get nostalgic about home, but here we have other issues to deal with. As a minority community, we have to stand up against racism, though I have to admit, in all my years in this country, I have not once faced any kind of racist abuse, but that obviously is not true for most, if one sees the latest figures on racist crimes.
In the last year there has been an average of 52 such crimes each day in London and 30 per cent of them have been against Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Indians. It is not encouraging, given the fact that Britain is portrayed as a multi-cultural society. It makes me wonder how, we in India, live together in diversity. And that was another point Blair stressed on when he was speaking at the Labour Friends of India annual lunch at Café Royale. He said that in a large country like India, where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jews etc all live together shows that "India can teach the world a lot and provide lessons we can learn about instruments of compassion and cohesion."
Yet, in Britain, we have the head of CRE suggesting black schoolboys should be taught separately from whites to improve their performance. That as bizarre a solution, as ever I have heard. And I am happy that most have criticised the suggestion of stoking an "educational apartheid". Segregation has never helped a society grow. If Britain, indeed, has to remain a multi-cultural society then it will have to learn to live cohesively. As Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East said, "Segregation of the kind proposed will have disastrous consequences for the education system ... It will create educational apartheid."
Wish Trevor Phillips would make a trip to India and take a few lessons from the problems of our reservation policy. I understand there are many arguments for and against the policy, but the truth is it has segregated and created divisions in society, which after all these years, should have disappeared. No kind of segregation, be it based on colour, race or caste can ever help a society.
On a lighter, yet encouraging note, I was surprised to see the large number of youngsters enjoying the newly released digital version of the all-time great film Mughal-e-Azam. It was an Indian afternoon at London's Bafta, when a selected audience enjoyed the film. K Asif's son Asif Akbar, who was also present at the preview, must be a delighted man seeing a packed audience.
It was not only the likes of the older age group of Lord Swraj Paul and Sir Ghulam K Noon, who said it was one of his all-time favourite films, but there were enough white people and youngsters, who appeared to have enjoyed the film. I was not too sure I would like to see the film in colour, and wondered if Madhubala would look as gorgeous in colour, because I could only remember her in black-and-white. But obviously, like the film, Madhubala's beauty is timeless, be it black-and-white or in colour!
Basere se dur, India is obviously vibrant and adventurous!