To ape the wild wild west!

One of my regular late night coffee meets with a close friend got me thinking... He was just telling me how shocked he had been when he heard someone say 'XOXO' without even knowing what it's true meaning was. I reminded him that the person probably didn't know of it's origins since the olden times as an official (X) or an affectionate (O) signature written at the end of a letter and they could have picked it up from the television series 'Gossip Girl'. This got me thinking of India as an eastern country and how badly we were aping the west.

The 'west' as we call the developed countries like USA, canada and the european countries have had a strong influence on the mild and the shy east. There have been many areas like the culture and lifesyle of the western countries through which developing countries of the eastern hemisphere have been strongly influenced by the west. Though it has played an instrumental role in our development, on many occasions it also made me feel like we were acting like copy cats.

This is when I realised that I probably wasn't thinking this through. We as the fascinating east have had many intriguing things to teach the west and our cultural and industrial developments too were things that were worth boasting of. Thanks to our interesting way of life, the west was able to find something to add a little spice in their comparatively 'Vanila' existence, be it Indian festivals or Chinese food!

The tug of war between the east and the west and the question as to who has been able to influence the other in a more meaningful and a revolutionary way is always going to be there. Both have a unique and a strong quality about the way in which they have evolved and their importance just cannot be undermined if one tries to ape the other from time to time. Lets face it, the world has become a whole lot more fascinating with this fusion and this crossover of east meets west is going to occur. So, the next time you hear a clueless teenage girl say 'XOXO', share a little secret about this code. Finally.. XOXO! ;)