When I was a kid, if one acted too fancy or wrinkled one’s nose at desi things, like, for instance, saying, "I don’t want parathas for tiffin! I want sandwiches!" (or called tiffin, the lunchbox), one of your formidable maasis or buas would snort, "angrez chale gaye, aulad chhod gaye."

These aunts have been sniffing similarly about the new obsession with sedition, last noticed among British colonial rulers. I tried to explain to them that it’s about being Indian, but aunts are not the listening types.