He again shouted an applause when the Indian batsman hit a four.

I looked at him. He was an Indian. I was sitting next to him at the Lords.

On the next ball, the batsman was clean bowled. He hurled an abuse at the bowler, the English bowler.

‘You are from India, I guess. When did you come here?’ I asked.

I had come to England a few days back, on a visit to my daughter.

‘When?’ he felt lost. ‘Long back. About fifteen years.’

‘Fifteen years!’

‘Yes’.

‘You must have come initially for two years…’

‘Yes, yes. But how do you know?’

‘That is what most of the people from India do’.

‘Yes, yes, you are right. I came on an assignment. Then I tried and got a very good job. And then I never turned back’.

‘You must have children too’.

‘Why? Yes. I married an Indian girl. We have two children.’

‘They must be British citizens.’

‘Yes, certainly. All of us have British passports.’

‘Your children must be studying in some good school, getting education from the English teachers.’

‘Yes. Very good teachers. We will send them to Oxford for their university education, I have decided. They must be at the top of the world. ‘

By now, you must be having your own house.’

‘Oh yes. In fact earlier we had a small flat. But now we have a big independent house. Please visit us. Here is my card. We can fix up time right now.’

‘Thanks for being so kind. But, my dear, I don’t know your name, I shall like to ask you one simple thing: Who are you? An Indian or a British? You are clapping for the Indian team and abusing the English players. You have been here fifteen years, earning here, enjoying all the benefits, settled here, and yet you are abusing them when you should share their happy moments.’

He looked aghast. ‘Why? My team, Indian team, desi team.’

‘But what are you? An Indian or a British?’

He laughed. ‘What a question! This is no question. I am an Indian. I’ll be an Indian. No doubt about it’, he said confidently.

‘OK. But then why don’t you live in India? Why don’t you share the poverty of India then?’

‘How can I go back now? My children, their future…In India they won’t adjust. We go for a few days there, once in two years, and they feel out of place…They don’t like it there. They would rather like to be in Switzerland.’

‘And they claim they are British, not Indians.’

‘But how do you know it sir?’

‘My dear, that is the fate of most of the people who come here and never return. You are neither here nor there. You are neither Indian nor British. You don’t belong’.

He turned sad and gloomy.

But he shrugged his shoulders, and clapped once more, this time for a sixer. He didn’t know it had been hit by an English batsman.

I was happy. If he does that knowingly, it would further the concept of globalization.

~*~

‘Where are you from?’ he asked sharply while I was coming back from the Town Centre. I had liked it there sitting on that bench, sipping my tea.

The question baffled me. ‘India’, I said humbly.

‘Why are you here? Why have you come here?’ he said furiously. ‘This is not your country.’

‘Very strange. Why do you ask such an absurd question? I have come to visit your country. I am a guest here. You should welcome me. Instead, you are insulting me.’

‘Welcome, my foot! Guest! First, you come as a guest, and the never go back. That is what you people have done. Look around. You see only Indians. Seems, you have occupied this country. You too will never go back.’

‘But why should I stay here, in your country? I am only a visitor here. Just like other ordinary visitors. Can’t I go wherever I wish to? They all move around the world. Don’t Britishers visit other countries? Don’t you go around the world? Have you never gone to India? Well, if not, do come to India, and stay with us. We shall be delighted.’

‘No, never. I know what you people are. You have polluted our country. All our jobs go to you. Our people are suffering because of you. You come and crowd every place, all shit.’

‘Excuse me. I am a writer. Today, the whole world is one. It is good that people from different countries come together, understand each other, help each other. Globalization. It reduces ill-will, and also wars. Friendly relations are better than isolation or enmity.’

‘We are fed up with enmity. Talk of globalization. People from the underdeveloped, poor countries flock to our country and seek asylum. They are an economic burden on our social structure and eat away our bread.’

I thought he was a fanatic like you find in every country who, in the name of religion, caste, language or nationalism, divides humanity. Racialism might be dead theoretically, but in practice it feeds the raw instincts of such fanatics. Maybe, it will take some more time to accept the idea of oneness, one human race. I smiled and said, ‘I didn’t know my visit to your country would infuriate you. I am spending my money here, not taking away anything from you. Still , if it harms you in any way, I shall go back in a week’s time. Rest assured, I won’t add to the numbers here.’

‘ You seem to be a nice person, a genuine visitor. Come on, we can have a coffee together’, he said and shook hands with me. 

I smiled and said, ‘No, thanks. I have to reach somewhere. They are waiting.’

~*~

‘That is disgusting. In fact, it is we , the immigrants, who run this country, that they call ‘their country’, my daughter got furious and said when she heard what had happened with me. ‘Only we work here, they don’t. We run this country. Bloody hell.’

I smiled.

Papa, you are smiling. This should be so frustrating for you’.

I smiled again. 

She lost her cool. ‘Why are you smiling? What is this?’

‘I am smiling’, I said calmly, because you too are being as arrogant and fanatic as that Englishman in the street was. Your ego is spoiling the whole atmosphere. This statement reflects an attitude which perhaps has brought about this situation. As if they couldn’t run this country, their country. They have ruled over the entire world, even your own big country. They are adventurous and hardworking people. Also, intellectual giants. They brought about the Renaissance, Galileo and Darwin, they changed the entire outlook of man.’

‘Forget about it Papa. That was a different era. Now they don’t work. Don’t want to work. Get free benefits, everything free on their plate. Social Security system, that has rendered them lazy and imbecile.’

‘That might be true. I agree. But that too was because of a reason. After the Second World War,  they wanted to ward off communism that had taken root in the Soviet Union because of Carl Marx who had become the moving spirit of the age and the icon of the poor and the deprived. They, therefore, brought in a very liberal Social Security System. It was an age of liberalism.’

‘Liberalism! It is pamperism. Students don’t care about the tough subjects like Science and Math. Where are the skilled workers required for this technological age? So, they import people from outside. It is their need. It is their compulsion.’

‘Maybe. It’s true too. But don’t underrate their strength, their resilience, their self-respect and their love for their culture and country. They can never forget that they were the greatest power on the earth. They will rebound any day. Remember my words.’

‘Nothing will ever happen here. They are drugged with lethargy and easy-going life.’

I laughed and said, ‘Look at America. Trump has already blown the  trumpet.’

~*~

Next day, more than a million people demonstrated in London against immigrants with placards and banners telling them:

• Go back to your own country
• Give our country back to us
• We don’t want you here

In the following week, other European countries too, France, Germany, Denmark and Ireland followed suit with much bigger and fiercer demonstrations.

Even Australia and New Zealand, with sparce populations, joined the chorus.

~*~

I was bewildered.

I grew sad, looking far into the horizon, the deceiving spectacle.

I had lovingly nurtured those dreams of a global world, a world without borders, a world of humans.

I saw them shattered, evaporating into the spatial vacuum…

That world seemed to be irretrievably lost, dumped into the dustbin of history.

Once again man had lost an opportunity to evolve.