Sense And Sensibilities

so why should I title my blog with Jane Austen's signature line.. I have no intention of writing about romance and happiness..and I dont intend to write an ending that would convey a choice between "sense" or "sensibility"..But I opened the blog and this was the title that struck me....So I will go with it..

Yes...Its about sense and sensibilities though...and I have been thinking about it the past couple of days....It all started when I asked one of my colleagues whether she was a Obama or a Hillary supporter...Evidently thats taboo in the States...Political affilitations cannot be discussed so openly.....

I think that is pretty interesting ..And inspite of working in a global economy and taking a couple of mandatory courses on "respecting diversity", this one really intrigues me..Not the "respect" bit..But the "diversity" bit....

So i thought I understood "diversity"....That I had made sense out of it....That I was sensible enough to recognize, acknowledge and adjust acccording to it....Evidently I had not...

This is definitely one of the more subtle socio-cultural difference that I have been exposed to till date (3 years) in the US....To me this is a difference in the thought process...A full stop where you would expect a comma or a semi colon.........A deviation from what I thought was a "culturally & socially accepted behavior" and a chasm where I had expected a praire grassland (do these exist???)....

Of course, my assumptions about "expected behavior" are not right....But where did I go wrong???...The answer that I was given to the "taboo" question was, in many ways, very simple..People take political affilitations seriously in the US....People get personal with issues and those discussions can become ugly...So best avoid them..Makes perfect sense to me....But why did I not see it??..Why could not I put sense and sensibility together in the first place??..Especially since the reasoning is so universal and should apply across societies...Yeah, I know I am not a socio-politial expert, but as Descartes said - "I think"..(How do you know he did not say that??)...


So I continue my thinking...How would people in India react to the same question? Not "Obama" versus "Hillary"..but maybe "Vajpayee versus Advani" or "Sonia versus Manmohan" (this one has other connotations)..So i wil replace it with "Maya versus Mamta"...Or to make it simpler "Congress versus BJP"...

Yes, the discussions might still go personal...People might still be uncomfortable answering it...But I think it wont be tabboo..Or may be it is..May be I have met/worked with poeple who are not afraid to voice their opinions..I dont know...

But to hazard a guess... The approach to politics and the public reaction to the political system is probably different in the US and India..I think, being a two party system and with the process of primaries, poeple in the US are more likely to be more vocal and sensitive about individuals (maybe this year is an exception and this hypothesis is wrong)...On the other hand, as an Indian, I am more sensitive (in a manner of speaking) to which party I would support rather than individuals within the party.....

Probably because there are so many colorful characters in Indian politics that we can do nothing better than ignore them...But the lesson, I think, for me is simple...It is still about "sense and sensibilities"...And what is sensible and what makes sense is not dictated by reason or logic alone.....It is about the collective thought process and the conformance to that collective thought process......

Amen...!!!

and Cheers!!

:))