Al Akhbar, p.14, (27/1/2007)

Are you Indian?

By: Rihab Abdel Wahab

"Are you Indian?" This sentence is frequently repeated when we want to ridicule someone or belittle his intelligence. It derived its meaning from the Indian movies that filled the Egyptian movie houses during the seventies and eighties. In those movies, the hero used to stop an airplane with his bare hands and defeat 15 men alone or receive 6 bullets in his chest then start to sing and dance. However, in the third millennium, this sentence has acquired a new meaning with the reforms introduced by the successive Indian governments since 1991 and which turned India into one of the fastest growing countries in the world.

The Indian economy ranks 10^th worldwide in terms of foreign exchange reserves; India has also become an unofficial member in the nuclear club after conducing its first nuclear test in 1974; India is the largest democracy in the world and its ruling regime is based on three powers : the judiciary, executive and legislative powers. The President's post is supervisory while the Prime Minister has all the executive powers.

On the artistic level, India possesses the second largest cinema industry after Hollywood. It is needless to mention that India has achieved a lot of progress in the field of information technology and software production. After all this, there is no doubt that India has the right to change the meaning of this sentence. It won't be surprising if our slogan which says, "If I am not an Egyptian I would have hoped I am Egyptian" would change to be if "I am not Egyptian I would have hoped that I am Indian"

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