New Delhi: The External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, currently on a trip on Sweden, had the audience burst into laughter after he invoked a popular Hindi idiom while addressing the members of Indian diaspora.
While speaking to the Indian diaspora in Sweden’s capital Stockholm on Sunday, EAM Jaishankar made a reference to ‘ghee-sarkar’ and this prompted bouts of laughter & clapping from the audience.
“(I) don’t know how many of you follow Hindi…but you know, there is a term, which says aapke muhn mein ghee-shakkar (what you are saying, hope it comes true),” Jaishankar said.
Following this, the audience started laughing & clapping while the External Affairs ministers elaborated on the idiom.
What prompted EAM Jaishankar to comment upon this was unclear but some reports suggested that he was replying to comments by someone from the Indian community who said that India’s global stature was on the rise under current leadership.
The minister, elucidating the term, further said that it was important to see & find more ways of globalizing Indian culture and making it more universal.
“…but I actually can see this globalisation of Indian culture, happening. And it is happening for a variety of factors. One, of course, is because of the spread of the (Indian) diaspora. The second is, we ourselves, I think, are much more confidently expressing it,” EAM said.
A very good example of this globalization is the celebration of International Yoga Day, he said.
“There is not a country in the world where that enthusiasm of yoga is not there. Perhaps it was there, it may have been dormant…we may have done something to awaken it and take it to another level,” said Jaishankar.
EAM Jaishankar is on a 3-day visit to attend the EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum (EIPMF). On Sunday, he met Sweden’s defence minister Pal Johnson & Foreign minister Tobias BIlllstomr.
