Hi Chandan-da: I agree with what you and Rajib have written.
I am not comfortable with the concept of total assimilation. What does it mean? More concretely, what is an example of a group of immigrants that is totally assimilated - in any country, at any time? I like the concept of being home. At the risk of being flippant, may I suggest that home is not a place, its a point in time - more correctly, a set of moments in our life. For almost all of us, childhood is home - we were really home when we were young. For many of us, youth is home. Then, there are phases, moments of life when we felt utterly comfortable, in sync with our environment, innerly satisfied, the warmth of loved ones around us, closed our eyes and said this is good - if you asked me at one of those moments, yes I am home. And there are moments in life when even the man living in his ancestral habitat for a lifetime feels totally alienated, uncomfortable, out of sync, desolate - he is no longer home. He dreams of other existences, other lives, other places - home is elsewhere for him. Migrants like us keep moving from moments of being more or less home to states of desolation in our heart. We attribute it to the fact that we are no longer in our geographical place of origin. But thats not necessarily why we get these feelings, these pangs. Being home, imho, doesn't have much to do with assimilation. It has a lot to do with the passing of time. And those of us who often wish we were "home" and talk of some homeland, well, we better think again - for its really a yearning for lost time, for moments in the past - that guides us. And nothing short of time travel will ever bring us home. Santanu. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Chan Mahanta Sent: Sun 2/22/2004 9:55 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Subject: Re: [Assam] Are we really home? Hi Kamal: I think it would be a futile effort to pursue the idea of 'total assimilation' as you describe it, as a measure of finding oneself "completely at home". Rajib touched on that point already. Take MY case for example: ** I grew up in an island in my village environment. Why island? That is because our father was extremely fearful of us growing up in the environment surrounding us. The attitudes, the severley constrained outlooks, the superstitions, the prejudices - all. He took enormous pains to make sure we steered clear of them. And to accomplish it we were restricted from participating in almost all of the neighborhood's social life. We were, for all practical purporses, "eghoria". In the beginning it was imposed on our parents, when they returned to the village after years at Jorhat town, due to THEIR attitudes and outlooks that were in conflict with the local establishment's. Later it became our family's CHOICE. A drastic and strident measure, that DID deprive us of certain aspects of life. But they did what they thought would be in their children's best interests. And life has proven, they were correct to a large extent, even though in hindsight, I might have done it somewhat differently. In fact, we partcipate in local social life in St. Louis far more than we ever did at my village. But my village still holds a lot of goodwill towards me and I to it. It WAS HOME. And St. Louis IS HOME now. Am I at ease here? Yes I am. Do I long to return to Namti? Yes--for visiting. I cannot go back there and be "completely at home" any more, in a way that I could COMPLETELY BELONG. We have been remolded. My three or four years at Guwahati, first as a hostel kid, later as a transient, never allowed me to cultivate a sense of HOME there. Five and a half years of hostel life at Kharagpur and a couple of years at Kolkata was no different. If I were to be at Chennai today, it will be far more of an alien environment to me than USA was when I first arrived here in 1970. Similarly for Mumbai or Delhi. We have a good friend/relation originally from Guwahati, senior to us, who have lived in Delhi for over 30 years. They are cosmopolitan in attitude and liberal of outlook. They tell us they are complete aliens in their upscale Gurgaon environment, like they always were elsewhere in Delhi. Oh sure they have friends and get along with neighbors and all. But they feel they are fish out of water. Funny thing is that they will be so at Guwahati too, if they return there tomorrow. ** My point? In today's world, with the kind of background we have and the attitude of world citizenship we like to aspire to, home is where we wish to make it. It is upto us to make it a "complete home" or one that is torn between two or more cultures, separated by geography, isolated from an environment of close extended families. The dichotomies, the alienations, the conflicts of identities and the forces that assault one's sense of belonging will be there no matter WHERE we are. How we deal or cope with them, therefore would decide HOW much we are at HOME, where we are. c-da At 10:59 AM -0500 2/22/04, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >In a message dated 2/22/04 8:00:56 AM Central Standard Time, >[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > > > Before we can delve into the subject, we must define HOME.<< > > > > Permit me to use "assamese ex-patriates" as a metaphor to define >"Home"---in a sense of total assimilation,integration or >adaptation.Abroad,they have to forge a new identity for >themselves,individually and as a community.It seems to me that their >identity is tied to their culture,but it is not the same as it was at >"home" ( Assam )--it has to address the new community directly and situate >itself within that milieu.The scenario of assamese,living elsewhere in >India, is somewhat different--a home within a bigger home.But here in the >US or UK,we,the immigrants, tend to mix old ones to create complex new >unities.I really wonder if this is the semiotic of total assimilation--a >sense of feeling "completely at home". > KJD > > > > _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
