I met them at Yoezerling Primary school, in Paro, Bhutan. October, 2012
Bhutan has a significant number of people of Nepalese origin. Their population is usually concentrated in southern Bhutan. Beacuase, as is the case in any 'multiethnic/multiracial' nation people who do not fit the description of a 'native' have had to struggle for equal status. Today if you ask someone, they will identify themselves as "Bhutanese' or at the most southern Bhutanese rather than Nepalese. Same as Indo-Fijians often preferred to be called Fijians, rather than Indo-Fijian. And to a great extent there is truth in that. They are Indian, they are also Fijian. But they are Fijian to the extent that their emotion and political loyalty remains with the land they know as home.
For example, African americans usually complain about being labelled so. They are Americans. Bara (Just) American!!
Once when my nephews were barely 6 years old (they are twins), I overheard them to talk to each other.
‘Brother, are you a white or a black american?*
My sister was really upset at this. ‘Who teaches them this?’ she had asked in frustration.
But I guess, living in Tennessee had made the boys consider the question as ordinary as, ‘What is your name?’
And. I was amazed at the smart answer my other nephew had given.
‘I am neither, I am a tanned American’, he had shrugged.
I have told that story several times.
This past weekend on a train to stockholm, I sat across two ‘oriental’ siblings, chatting in Swedish.
‘Katrinaholm’ they said, when I asked them where they were from.
And I remember the two Ethiopian girls who though dressed in Ethiopian outfits, as the UN tour guides, were chatting to each other in Swedish.
The above picture made me think of all those ideas of ‘hybridity’.
If you notice the boys on the right, are of Nepalese, origin. The cutie on the left is of mongoloid origin, or some mix. So, are the boys on the right, but they are considered southern Bhutanese, or those of Nepali origin.
Why did I think that far, instead of just looking at their adorable faces?
Well, because the middle one, who had a very hindu name, was running after the one on the right, yelling at him in English.
‘Wait, wait, silly, wait’
And then when I talked to him in hindi, he responded. He spoke to me for about 15 seconds in hindi, when his attention turned to the adorable round face on the left, who was yelling at him in Dzongha....pointing at something at the bottom of his shoes. So in the matter of a few minutes, this five year old had communicated in three different languages without realizing what he was doing.
I had to take their picture. Partly to remember their adorable faces. Partly to acknowledge the richness they live in, with this very obvious hybrid identity. Which adds to the richness of a nation, that houses only 700,000 thousand people, but can boast about 3 main languages and several (upto 30) dialects of Dzongha.
