Another word of globalisation

I always wondered what true globalization would mean in the years to come. Will it mean talking to your uncle in San Francisco while checking your shares on a Spanish bourse, messaging your Swiss bank account manager and watching a video of your nephew in London in any given hour with ease? How much ever Friedman will draw his points about free flow of information, and Europeans rave about a central economy, the point remains. I think globalisation exists in an individual experience. While traveling on an airplane more than 10000 miles to another continent, it hit me.

The French gentlemen, Olivier, sitting next to me and I had one big barrier – language.

Side note: While Indians pride themselves in speaking English, I realized that is not the case for so many cultures. A large portion of the population in India is detested since their English is not up to the standards and we find the same population fetching ranks in all our state exams. No, English is not globalisation.

Anyway, I realized I should exhibit my sense of European culture by throwing in things I know. Things like French wine, independent movies, soccer memories, music and travel. My presumption was clear, if not anything I can extract some valuable input from him about economy, politics and things he would find important. 'Cultural exchange', I thought should be another word for globalization.

We talked at length about Le Bordeaux, Fleurie Villiers morgon, Chateau De Raousset, and some small wineries in west France. Pouilly-Fuisse Vielles Cringes, Jean-Paul Paquiet, and what not. He gave my some websites to check for these indepent wine salesmen. "Zha best in sale of wine" he said and I figured this is truly valuable, since where else will you get location of small village independent vineyards. While alcohol is not my interest in the least, its great to see how much passion the French have for their wines. “Aa, zha warm-cool wind mix, in ze temperate giveen it za colour la exquisite,”, he points out gives the appeal to certain wines.

After listing some scenic places to travel in Central France, we landed with the topic of my country. Travel, it seems he had heard of just Agra, Mumbai and few places of interest. It was also great to know his interest in Indian culture, which is something Indians constantly come across. Indian Movies, music by Talvin Singh, and his interest in Tabla and the group Tabla Beat Science. I pointed him to listen to Zakir Hussain, quite obviously and Karunesh which he quickly jotted down, along with musicindiaonline.com, where he would find all the Indian classical.

Ségolène Royal, we concluded would be another Tony Blair of the continent, and I remembered reading about her exploits in education, environment and other ministries on some websites before. Bush, as the world would admit is a Chimp and it was surprisingly discomforting to see his animosity against the American politics. "How did it end becoming my country of residence", I wondered.

Within a few minutes I realized what we were doing. Exchanging websites, online information, emails, google tricks was the basis of so much of information exchange.

French movies and art depict the parallel of French thinking, we argued. I pointed out how Audrey Tatou performed the character of de-employed French smalltowners so well in Amelie and Olivier was quick to point out another good French movie - Waking Life (2001).

We alluded to Indian films and mentioned Le Salon De Muszique which I thought sounded like Sound of Music. Turned out it’s a movie by Satyajit Ray or something in 1950s.

I was amazed. Truly Amazed. All this information available in a conversation, facilitated with a click of a button.

There is no doubt about it. Nothing is better than increasing one’s knowledge about the world. Within reach of a few clicks, the world awaits us. Yes, Internet is truly globalization.