No "Indian culture" at Embassy.

By Deepak M. Rao

Think of India, and what is the first, top-of-the-mind recall you have? Culture, culture, culture. We are big on this stuff, real big, almost like, shake an Indian and you will find culture oozing out of his ears! Yeah, it's true, we have king-sized hearts. And an open mind. Otherwise how else can we explain a Catholic ruling our destiny (by default), a woman president, a Moslem vice resident, a devout Hindu leader of the Opposition (I'm of course referring to LKA; spare the puppets). For some, all this is a kind of culture-shock. But I got a taste of the real culture shock, when I paid a visit to the Indian Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic. I was in the Czech Republic to represent India in a week-long international youth conference. Representing India is a matter of pride to any Indian. But at Prague, I felt anything but pride, or rather, I was made to feel anything but that. Not, by the organizers, or the foreign participants from one hundred countries, but by our own Indian embassy!

When I went visiting to the Indian embassy and explained the purpose of my visit, a lowly official told me curtly in Hindi, "Garden ki photo leke chale jana." Another haughty official shooed me off, saying, "Andar nahi janedenge" This man, had apparently bigger things to do, like picking his nose. Whatever happened to 'Athithi devo bhava' or at least, a basic sense of diplomacy?

I then sheepishly told the official that I had NOT come all the way from India to Prague to take photos of the garden at our embassy. I then produced documents to show that I had represented Indian at an international conference. In response to this, he straightened a little, chitchatted about the weather for a few minutes in Hindi, and waved me a goodbye.

If this is the treatment the embassy metes out to a guy who's representing the country, you can imagine the fate of Indian tourists who want to have a look at their country's embassy.

I returned shame-faced, only to hear my colleagues, good friends, really - including from Pakistan - give glowing accounts of their visit to their embassy and the royal treatment they received there. They got formal invites from their embassy, while our own embassy was blissfully ignorant or thought it was not worth sending an invite. Not only that, the foreign embassies also hosted a reception for their visiting citizens. Many of my colleagues from over 50 countries, took the last day off to attend a reception in their honour.