A shift in perspective.

The other day, I was talking with my friend Maria who is a designer here in Bangalore. She is currently working on designing outdoor spaces and a spa for a fancy-shmancy hotel in Mumbai. (Dream job?! Yes!!) Of course, I had to ask her scads of questions as I was immediately in awe of her profession and how she came to live in India.

I first said: Wow. You must be so inspired here. You are so lucky to be working in a country with such rich textiles and color and culture…

She cut me off there.

Now, it is important to know something about Maria. She is very direct, and doesn’t hide her emotions one bit. She is a tiny Spanish woman with the voice of an opera singer (and by that, I mean she is very loud to the point where you are surprised that such noise can come out of such a tiny little thing). She has opinions, and is more than willing to share them.

And so, to my excitement and awe, she responded with a guffaw. According to Maria, India has no culture.

At first, I thought this lady was absolutely nuts. What did she mean, there was no culture?? Was she blind?? How could she be a designer and not see the culture??

So, I begged her to explain her reasoning (knowing full well that she had plenty of reasoning).

Her reply was something like this:

Everything in India is the same. People dress the same, the buildings look the same. No one steps out of the box. In New York, Paris, Barcelona, people dare to be different. They wear crazy things, design wild architecture, and that is inspiring. Here, there are three different variations on the same thing: Poor, Middle-class, and Rich. And the only difference between them is that the Rich try to out-do the Poor by throwing all of their money into gaudy displays of wealth to prove that they do, in fact, have money. They don’t appreciate the beauty in simplicity. People see India as having “so much culture” because the cars move fast, and because of the slums and the color. But all that is, is a distinction of classes and signs of a truly developing country-not at all what culture is.

In other words, she is completely uninspired and dreams of going back to Spain.

Okay. Now THAT got me thinking. Because since the day that I stepped foot into this country (years ago), I have been under this impression that India was so rich in culture, and that is what I loved about it. I don’t know that I agree with Maria that India has NO culture, but the more that I’ve started looking around, I have begun to understand her point. True, people fit into a mold here, and they never dare to escape it. That is why people gawk at you when you aren’t wearing a traditional sari or kurta. That is why all Indian movies are similarly and distinctly “Indian.” However, I still can’t help but be inspired by certain things that I see on a daily basis. When I walk into some of my favorite stores here, looking at the fabrics and prints make me want to decorate and develop my creativity. But, it certainly is interesting to see things in such a different way now.

(all photos taken in goodearth at the UBCity Mall)

peace. love. inspiration.