In December my wife and I attended a Indian wedding hosted in Phuket ,
Thailand. The Indian bride groom attended a Hong Kong International
school. and then went to a Ivy League college. He works for a top
private equity firm. The bride is an American who works as a analyst for
a large American bank. While the wedding was lavishly hosted, with
every thing being well thought and taken care of, what fascinated me
most was the mix of young people and their ability/willingness to
participate and enjoy the functions without any hesitation or
awkwardness. What particularly brought them together was the music.
Every evening there was a party which lasted till the early hours of
the morning.
The young guests were a mixture of
Indian,Pakistanis, Americans,Chinese,Koreans, Japanese and numerous
other nationalities. Most of the girls were dressed in saris and many
of the boys in kurta pyjamas. They all appeared well at ease with
their attire. The evenings started off with top
well known singers from Bollywood which were then followed by djs.The
singers all sang Bollywood numbers and Punjabi bhangra - all of them
with a pounding beat. The dance floor was packed solid with people
dancing Bhangra. Surprisingly the Asians , who normally tend to be more self conscious, had no problem at all adapting to the "
Bhale Bhale " of the bhangra with the shrugging shoulder movements and
the adaptation of both fore fingers in the air ala John Travolata in
Saturday Night Fever ,with legs kicking and pounding Cossack style and
circles being formed in the manner of the Jewish " Hava Nagela " . Of
course no party these days would be complete with a Gangam style,
including a version of Gangam " Punjabi " style - the Punjabi's should certainly teach the Gangam residents a thing or two about extravagance ! The stars of the show
one evening were two Korean pre-teen brothers who outdid the bhangra
boys with their vigorous version of Gangam style horse riding
performance.
The djs played a mix of Bollywood item
numbers and rave and other club music about which I know very little,
but people on the floor were doing the combination of bhangra, gangam
style or whatever went with the beat. It was incredible seeing the mixed
group and the fusion of music and dance with
a common objective of having a good time. It was a pleasure to see the intermingling of the young ( and older people like me) and their willingness to adapt and adopt the different cultures.
They all attended the Sikh wedding ceremony sitting cross legged on the floor and the vegetarian food afterwards, as if they did this every day.
I
have thought about it further to understand what was it which pulled
this diverse group together and come to the conclusion that it was
America. Yes of course an international city such as Hong Kong played a
role , but it was the American thread which pulled it all together. The
people all were from America, or had studied in America or worked for
American firms.While this might be stretching it and sound like the words of an
Americanophile ( which to some extent I am ), I cannot think of any
country including the United Kingdom which impacts the people and
universalizes them as America does. Being a nation of immigrants it
absorbs all cultures and " Americanizes " them, to
the extent there is something common to which they can all relate to ,
while still retaining their own culture.
I have
worked for a large American international banking institution and a
large British international banking institution ( for a much shorter
time). I left the American institution almost twelve years ago , but
there is a common bond among the the former employees which enables you to link up and you get talking about individuals or events which might
have happened decades ago. This is certainly not the case with the
British institution. I have friends who have worked with European ,or
Asian institutions,companies where the camaraderie is even less or
non-existent. As a non-French or non-German, or a non-Japanese , you are
in different category. There are institutions which are changing -
Standard Chartered is probably one of the most prominent and was one of
the first to have Indian Chief Executive, but then Standard Chartered is
now more of a international institution which just happens to have
its head office in London.
If only the
world could always come together and work towards a common goal of
living happily, and not worry about race or religion, it would truly be a wonderful place.
