The Celebrity of Appreciation

Aug 22

I had a sneaking suspicion that an unexpected experience was coming when, after landing at the Agartala airport (portal to my new ‘home’), a couple of people seemed to be taking selfies near me and I realized they were including me in the pictures!  The very next day, as I was being given an introductory tour to the surrounding area, we stopped at the local zoo and almost immediately one of the security guards asked if he could pose for a picture with me.  This happened again with one of the other visitors to the zoo.  And then, soon after arriving at a tourist destination, a group of young men gathered near me, chatting quickly and glancing my way frequently. Finally, they asked to pose with me and there was a rapid number of pictures taken of me and each one of the them individually.  This scenario repeated itself inside the tourist destination, as people glanced often in my direction as I wondered about the location.  In fact, that Sunday was a day full of photo ops with many, many people I will probably never meet again.

Although over the years of my travel many acquaintances, friends, students and collaborators have posed with me for photos, never have I had such a string of strangers be so enthused about taking selfies with me.  Very probably the closest I will come to true ‘celebrity’ status.  Although, in truth, there is a sense of celebrity that accompanies living here in India.  It is very easy to feel as a celebrity since people treat you, and as I see it, each other in very respectful ways.  I certainly recognize that, as a foreigner, I am treated differently. People go out of their way to make sure I eat, feel comfortable, don’t have to carry too many things, needn’t open or close doors or simply have my questions answered.  It actually becomes a bit of a challenge sometimes. If I mention there is something I would like to get, at least half of the time people purchase it for me!  I have to be careful about not taking it for granted or not offending anyone when I reimburse them.

Having now taught for a few days here in Agartala, I have met with the sense of celebrity in the workshop setting. Each day, someone wants a selfie.  And as we ended one workshop series, of course the class scrambled to get everyone into a group selfie.

The quality of this celebrity, however, consists more of appreciation and fascination as opposed to fanatic worship.  It’s fun and touching.  It makes you feel good about yourself, as the appreciation is so very genuine.  That kind of comfortable ‘celebrity’ is fun to experience and truly opens a conversation that is relaxed and mutually supportive.  I think this is one of the major reasons I like returning to India.  Despite being a highly diverse, populous country, it so feels like a small town most of the time.  Now, I am not a fool. I realize the issues that exist here.  But issues exist everywhere.  But the sense of comfortable celebrity helps undermine such issues, rather than become defensive and aggressive because of the issues. I’ll embrace the onslaught of selfies any day if it means we can share an easygoing appreciation of each other.