CONFIDENCE VS INDIANS

I have been fed with enough values to understand that i stand above no one and nobody stands above me. I do not undermine my presence for anybody else nor do i undermine another person's presence for me. Apparently this is not the case with a huge number of demographics in my beloved Malaysian Indian community. Now, the cliche statement here would be to complain about how some people are arrogant beyond their snobbish head can handle and how they think they are better then everybody else. This is definitely not the case with the younger demography of our Indian community here in Malaysia as a vast number of them actually lack conviction and have a sense of low self esteem and they feel like they do not belong in certain places in the midst of certain people. This whole statement can be a little vague and can seem pointless without a few given scenarios to really explain what i mean. I will be dividing people into demographics and that does not mean i view the world in categories, that only means i am trying to convey my point in a very organised method.

So imagine a high tea session at a 5 star hotel filled with educated rich locals and a few Caucasians thrown into the scenario. Place a few middle class local Indian guys and girls in the midst of them for say a university event and picture the outcome. I am pretty sure probably one or two out of ten of the young Indians would have the confidence or conviction to walk up and and actually speak their minds out like they mean it to these people even tough the receiving end can be very welcoming. Now place the same people in a normal practical setting. Say they all have presentations to conduct and they are placed in a room full of profesors and students which also consist of foreign exchange students. How many of them can actually present a topic like they know what they are talking about and how many of them can answer a question like a boss from anyone in the room including the professors and foreign exchange students without stuttering? A question for you to ponder upon. Now i do not speak based on a single life experience rather i speak from a viewpoint of mass observation and i believe my theory can challenge formal researches as i have been able to capture a lot of data and they all say one thing, young Indians in our country lack confidence and self belief and i have been trying to identify the root cause. 

Let me just share one incident that can actually sum up the whole point. I have a friend who i do not wish to name and we walked into a western restaurant which is usually populated with executives and educated people who are in most cases rich. We walked into the restaurant not because we were rich or we are executives, we just loved the food and it so happened to be a restaurant with that kind of people. Apparently, as we were walking in and waiting to be seated, my friend who i would say isn't the most confident person was disturbed by his very own personal third planet observation, he felt like the people around us were looking at him weird and he said, " i think these people feel like i do not belong here in this restaurant and what? People like me are not allowed in these kid of restaurants? ". So very naturally i looked around and all i saw was a bunch of people minding their own business enjoying their meals. The first question that popped out of my head was what do u mean by " People like me? ". I think this story can relate  with how young Indians feel about themselves these days and how it is affecting their confidence and self belief. When placed in an environment which is conducive for them to speak in without hurting their confidence, young Indians really voice out and some of them are very intelligent. The question here is why is this not happening under all circumstances? One very strong reason i have found is language. When allowed to speak in a language which they are comfortable with, all the confidence in the world just pours out but this is not the case when English is used. Now you may wonder why i use the term "they" when i myself am a young Indian? Well, i do not have this problem and mind you, I am damn proud to be an Indian! 

I do not know what the root cause is but i know i am doing everything in my will to change this. I decided to start with my circle of friends. I make sure they speak up no matter where i bring them, i make sure they ask if they do not understand something no matter where we are and most importantly, i make sure they do not have one ounce of self doubt no matter where they stand and who they talk to despite the language barriers. Time to think guy. Do you belong to this group of people? if you do, what are you gona do about it? Do you know anybody like this? Time for a change perhaps? 

Cheers.

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