India should develop the ability to laugh at herself

Racism, they say, doesn't reside in the skin, but deeper down, in the bones. But then, how does one adequately lampoon it without appearing to be a reverse racist of some sort? Such a debate was recently sparked off in response to a cartoon run by The New York Times on the success of India's Mars Orbiter Mission. This offensive thingummy depicted a couple of old angrez burra sahibs reading a newspaper report on the Indian mission, with the caption 'Elite Space Club' defining who they were. Meanwhile, they are rattled by a knock on the door, which happens to be by a turban-and-dhoti wearing desi with a bull in tow. A backlash followed with many Indians screaming this was in poor taste and showed their country as backward. Such was the anger that the NYThad to issue, via its Facebook page, an apology of sorts.

But the question to be pondered is whether there should any longer be any deep-bone angst amongst Indians on something that could easily have been laughed off. Why not, for example, show off precisely the sort of oppositional contrasts we delight in, in our country. Why not counter-lampoon all this by saying we could very well have a space vehicle delivered by a bullock-cart to the launching pad, and from there we do our tech progress do the real talking? What's wrong, after all, with some bull…?