False Pride

Ever wonder why Online Indian tabloids like Rediff and Indiatimes go nuts if some Indian American achieves anything remotely worthy? I don't get it. Take the instances of Kamala Harris, Bobby Jindal, the many spelling bee winners or the appointees in Bush's government, these magazines go nuts singing hosannas.

I initially attributed this to a new found confidence of being Indian and an attempt to lose the fatalistic attitude that is an Indian hallmark. But closer examination of such articles reveal a blatant insinuation that these achievements were due to these people's Indian origin. These magazines seem to conclude that being an Indian is a sine-qua-non to striking it rich or making it big in the USA. I disagree.

The successes of these people have less to do with being Indians and more with their individual traits, the opportunities they had and the Parent's socio economic status. The fact that Indian parents are more demanding than the average American parent might be a factor but not the only one.

It is cheesy to read such articles and conversely such articles do more to undermine the achievements than to augment them. It also makes for bad journalism.