When a country is secure with who she is!

In 2012, by virtue of my work with Youth and civic education, the US State Department had invited me for their International Visitor Leadership Program, a program that has had earlier alumni such as Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi, Tony Blair, Ahmadinejad and so on. A group of four others and I were taken to four locations across the length and breadth of the United States on a trip paid for and planned by the US State Department. We were at the UN, at the State Department office, met the NY City Mayor, met ex-Senators from the Kennedy Administration, met NGOs like Greenpeace, Oxfam and so on.

But what struck me the most is that we were also taken to New Orleans, Louisiana to meet Hurricane Katrina survivors. We spoke to them, heard what they'd gone through, served food to homeless survivors at a community kitchen. And so many of them abused the government. We were also taken to Rapid City and Sioux Falls in South Dakota where we were taken to meet Native Americans (patronizingly known as 'Red Indians') who with their trademark grace and calm were extremely critical of the the murderous history of the initial White Americans who slaughtered them and the Government's treatment of them still. We were taken to meet an African-American lawyer who was fighting for those African Americans who were racially discriminated against in the US. We were taken to meet a Media NGO named Breakthrough that was creating media content to raise awareness against gender violence in the US and outside. We were taken to a school in one of the poorest counties of the country where we got introduced to kids whose parents were drug addicts hence rendering the kids homeless.

A State Department representative, who was earlier posted in Vietnam accompanied us on this entire trip. Remember that this trip was planned and paid for by the US State Department. This trip was in 2012, which was 2 years after the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. An event for which I saw homeless people living under Delhi flyovers put in trucks and moved away to portray a 'clean' image to the massive hordes of international visitors about to descend. An event where a separate lane was created on all major roads leading to stadiums for a quick ride only for the sportspeople where we ordinary citizens weren't supposed to enter. The trip was also 4 years after Slumdog Millionaire came out and in the same India where until 2009, 1/2 of the world's hungry and 1/3rd of the World's poor resided, so many of us Indians first rushed to slam the movie for its "negative" depiction of India but lapped it up when it swept the Oscars.

On that trip, we weren't treated with extra privilege and neither were we treated with any discrimination. They didn't hide anything or favour us in any way. They were just normal and felt it was important to give us an accurate understanding and integration with their reality. Knowing that they didn't hide anything and connecting with them at a human level made me respect them even more!