M F Hussain dies and other observations

The Indian media and a lot of the general public often remind me of Gus Portokalos, the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding who always found a way of attributing everything to having been invented , discovered or originated from the Greeks.  The desire to associate an Indian connection with everything is almost as strong if not stronger.

We have been quick to claim the Nobel Prizes of  Hargobind Khorana and S Chandrasekhar though they did their lives work in the USA. But these are at least direct connections. Sunita Williams  is claimed as one of our own- through a more indirect connection ( her Slovenian roots are not mentioned much). The president of Mauritius  is a local boy from Bihar. Every child of Indian descent winning the US Spelling Bee a national achievement. Neil Kashkari also has an Indian connection and of course Vikram Pandit and Indra Nooyi are our own. 

So one would think that actual Indian-grown-Internationally-renowned talent would be lionized a great deal more. After all one does not have to look for some tenuous connection to go into the throes of Indian- connection induced ecstasy, like with Obama's pocket Hanuman charm. So Salman Rushdie should have statues made in his honor as should M F Hussain.
But the former's book was banned in our land, the second country to do so. While India's Picasso  has died in exile. Both exiled for "offending" the sensibilities of people too ignorant to understand their work. Now, while Rushdie may yet earn his way back into being another Indian-doing-great-things maybe by winning the Nobel- the Booker of Bookers is obviously not enough, Hussain unfortunately has passed on.