Indian self-esteem

I am upset. To put it mildly. I am also sad. Partly because I wasted 10 min of my life taking part in a useless quiz to determine how Indian I am. I know I am to be blamed. I succumbed to the the temptation of trying one of the quizzes in Facebook. By the time I started reading the first question, I was sorry for trying it. I only hope that who ever came up with those questions was stoned out his/her mind at that time. But it is even more discouraging to note that there are 620 fans of this application and a few 5 stars in the reviews. Sad is what I can say.

I mean I cant even understand how this is supposed to be funny! For example. What the hell does anything have to do with being an Indian about how you pronounce the word Carton... why carton? Next, what if I don't drink any tea at all.. black, with milk, sugar, lots of sugar, little sugar, less sugar.. wtf!!! I don't drink any tea, nor do I drink with sugar! Or define perfect citizen, what in world does it mean to be a perfect citizen. Not one question was well framed, or the answers even remotely related to being anything that characterises Indians. Atleast a bit of effort should have been made to sort out the grammatical errors.

The saddest of all this, is that a simple search in facebook, for the term Indian, brings this application as the first hit in the applications tab. So every person in facebook anywhere in the world, who would be interested in India, can have a go at it, and what a reality check this must be for them, which is totally not true. Talking loud on the phone is looked down in India as well, and you def have this behaviour everywhere else as well.

There are so many questions that are so characteristic to being an Indian, starting from the questions about the oldest civilisation, to our unique political and judicial systems, the unique heterogeneous cultural mix, the mingling of languages, and races, the birthplace of religions, the non-violent movement, Grandmasters of chess, famous cricketers, poets, writers, artists, such people whose name would be a common household name only in India. But none of this is found in this quiz. This is so biased against Indians, I would be ashamed to be associated with this application, if it remains in this current format.

When the whole world is keeping a close eye on the developments in India, with the BBC following the Indian elections with more coverage than the elections in the European Parliament, such an application should be developed with a bit of prudence. And if it has to be, then at-least keep it private, so that only those you know will have to deal with it.

I rest my case.