Today I got to hear a strange comment about Globalization, which scared me.

A bunch of us were having dinner at a nearby restaurant, and a friend who recently returned from Germany joined us. He brought along another friend who used to be a vegetarian, hailing from a Udupi Brahmin family, but took to eating meat once he shifted to Bangalore.

While we were ordering, the former veggie friend, asked for a particular chicken dish. The friend from Germany remarked, “I am impressed. All you vegetarian people should learn something from him. He is the true example of Globalization. He is preparing himself to survive anywhere.”

I was really amused. What he really meant was “Westernisation” which he confused with globalization. Seriously, if there was true “globalization”, shouldn’t I be able to find decent vegetarian food, in lets say Germany or Amsterdam ? After all globalization only refers to making geographical boundaries irrelevant so that there can be a flow of cultures, whereby one can appreciate the other culture without physically being in that place…  But one particular culture swamping out another one, really, is that what globalization is all about??

Some food for thought I guess…