A Portrait Of My Self Identity

According to me Identity is referred as a multifaceted concept, which plays a various several aspects in human life and also in the cultures, which varies from person to person. Identity of a human fluctuates from person, religion, place and country. Self-reflection helps you to develop your skills and review their effectiveness, rather than just carry on doing things as you have always done them, it’s about questioning yourself and deciding whether there is a better, or more efficient, way of doing better in future. Some cultures may have influenced more on life or may have less impact. A motivating quote by Aloe Blacc “I think a lot of self-identity and inner-personal development is hampered by consumerism and capitalism because we see ourselves as a reflection of the TV, rather than as a reflection of the people who are around us, truly.”

A small image about myself, I was born in a small town named as Malur in the district of Kolar and brought up in one of the famous metropolitan city named as Bengaluru, which is the capital city of Karnataka, India. I was lucky to grow in such cities, which changed my lifestyle, way of thinking and my knowledge was intensified. Bengaluru is known for its multilingual society which has members of all religions and language speaking members like Kannada 45.47%, Tamil 14.2%, Telugu 13.99%, Urdu 12.11%, Hindi 5.51%, Malayalam 2.94%, Marathi 1.92%, Konkani 0.67%, Bengali 0.64%, Oriya 0.52%, Tulu 0.49%, Gujarati 0.47% and Bengaluru is one of the famously recognized as Hub for the IT companies. I was fluky enough to be raised up in such an exploited city. Out of the many dissimilar religions in India I belonged to the Hindu religion. Although, I was a Hindu but it some sub-category in that I belong to cast called Balija. Racially we were did not stand out in the society as our personalities looked normal to that of an common Indian, hence there was no particular racial identity as such among my cast people. We are normal people leading an average life. All my family members are well educated and well settled in life, and I am also one of them trying to create a pathway to success in my life. 

In my childhood, my parents afforded quality education to me, they sent me to Anglo English School called as Ryan International School, and this is a Christian management school, where I was influenced by first religious change in their culture and practices. I started comparing this with my culture where it seemed to be odd and was difficult to get used to it, but that was pre-matured stage where I was not aware of these, but I used to enjoy it a lot. Then my parents sent me to another school, which was a typical Hindu cultured and management school, and it was a very famous institution in India named J.S.S Group of institution. This school changed my thoughts and the way of living and routine practices. It was rich in ethnic values and beliefs, I learnt values of Hindu religion and the different types of practices followed and started to meet new friends from different religion and cast and started to learn their identity and I have also tried to role play as them but that was not so fruitful but I managed. There was no racial identity because I spent most of the time with my other religious friends and they treated me good as well. 

During my school days I used to have cultural events in which students could participate in the event and show case their talent in the respective fields. This was an opportunity for me to play a part and learn about different and my own cultural values and identities. During this time I had put on Indian mythological character in a school cultural drama and I was appreciated and recognized for my performance in the skit. Also, in another instance I was in a village excursion where my team and me had to tidy the nearby place on the account of environmental day and looking my pro-active participation in the event. The village elders and the school management recognized and appreciated me and my team. This was an example of my first personal identity in which the school people identified me. 

Coming from a region which is famous for its mango production and adventures trekking spots, I was also known for this regional identity. Kolar has APMC market which is 2nd largest in Asia, Largest is south India. Kolar is leading in India production of Mango, which is exported, to various other nations like UK, USA, and UAE. Due to this reason Kolar is famous for mangoes and I distributed my native mangoes among my friends. Also I went trekking with my parents and friends during summer holidays and these were a few factors for which I was known and identified for the region I had come from. This was an example for the regional identity and how I was known for it. 

In my college time I had friends from different nationality and cultures. This was the platform for me to learn and experience the culture of other nationality students. When the students from other nationalities first started to communicate with me they addressed the Indians for our rich culture and spicy Indian delicacy. For instance there was a time when after a few days later once we got to know each other well all of us decided to go for lunch on the occasion of Diwali festival and this was when they were surprised by the Indian traditional delicacies and were astound by the variety and spicy food, so this was how they recognized us Indians based on the food we eat and the rich traditional customs which were followed during festivals. So this was an example of how we Indians were identified later on for our national identity and this made me more inquisitive to learn about other culture, as I understood the importance of intercultural communication. I explored my friends and started to compare my identities with them in various aspects like culture, communication style, attire, traditional customs and many more from the foreign students. 

My family owns educational institutions and this was our family business. These institutions were situated in my native town and city. As these institutions were famous among regional level with substantial recognition in the district my family was pretty recognized and famous in the town. There was one opportunity for me to project myself and showcase my talent to the outside society and this was the school day function, which takes place once for every two year in the month of January. I took up the duty to organize and plan the entire function that fortuitously became a huge success and people then started identifying me from the organization. Due to this reason the people of the district also recognized me for my organization identity. People with different culture and religion would stop randomly and start a conversation with me asking my well-being etc. this was one identity where affected my communication with other people as I got to learn about different people and their identities. One time I had been to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and during this trip I learnt a lot about other nationalities and their respective ethos. This trip was more of a business trip with my father and during this tour I had the chance to communicate with many different nationality people. At first the local people would recognize me for my racial features that a typical Indian had and then while they approached me and started communicating with me they always talked about the Indian culture, deities, large population, and spicy food. This was when I understood the importance of my national identity and learned the reasons for which the Indians were recognized. 

This was my life changing opportunity where I got a chance to pursue my higher education in European countries, this was the first time to visit this country, I was shocked by seeing the city and the culture followed by them, this was a new feel and a new platform where I can expand my knowledge and improve my skills. In my home country the education system and environment of the college was poles apart. I felt the same think when I landed here but I went crazy by seeing the college environs, the very interesting thing was college having a pub, where in India smoking was not allowed within 150 meter of the college surrounding and the drinks was not supposed sound nearby college or in any public place. While I say about the lecturing and the class hours is far better than Indian way of teaching and I was introduced to Germany culture and food, where I had hard times to adjust for Bavarian cuisine, but later days I was in the swing of things and started to love and learn I’m changing myself to be an typical European gent, I think I’ll be successful in future trying to be Bavarian guy. The German peoples are very polite and gentle and they are very friendly and they like have a very good relationship with others, where, India is also an emotion country but with little Ego inside us, but I did not see that type of behavioral in German people, this influenced me to change my identity and the way of living. This was another sample of discovering national identities. 

In conclusion after all my experience and learning’s throughout my 23 years of life I present myself to others through everyday interactions, through the way I dress, speak, behave etc. and marking myself as the same as those with whom I share my identities. I tried to acquire and explored many different identities such as racial, regional, national, ethnic and personal identity. Having these identities I look forward to develop and posses many other identities, which would make me a better person in this culturally diverse society. 

References

• Aloe Blacc Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved October 17, 2018, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/aloe_blacc_498775
• Wikipedia contributors. (2018, October 16). Bangalore. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:56, October 17, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bangalore&oldid=864273804
• Wikipedia contributors. (2018, October 13). Kolar. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:58, October 17, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kolar&oldid=863840379
• Samovar, L. A., & Porter, R. E. (2001). Communication between cultures. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kolar&oldid=863840379