"WHAAAT? No . We DONT do that in India.." Sigh, here come the stereotypes.

Stereotypes can be a funny thing. It gives you a wholly misjudged ideas about a thing, a person or a destination. Stereotypes make you want befriend a certain kind, or ostracize another. It will have you book your tickets instantly, or shake your head and vehemently deny. 

SO WHAT IS A STEREOTYPE? 

¹ste·reo·type transitive verb \ˈster-ē-ə-ˌtīp, ˈstir-\   : to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.

Inspiration for this post, are my students. The first question i asked them was, 'So, what do you know about India? What comes to your mind when i say INDIA? ' And ohhh, the answers i got! 

'Do you really keep snakes as your pets?'      ' Uhh, do you like, always eat curry?'' 

So here are some common misconceptions that a foreigner has about India ( source for this, a lot of russians that i spoke to, the students, and of course the internet!) 

1. 'India is a land of snake-charmers..' 

The biggest stereotype that I know of is that Indians are snake charmers! This is so not true. First of all, its illegal in india to even use captive snakes for entertainment. And we, the regular folks are as scared of a snake like any person on this planet. Its not like, being an Indian will get the snake not to bite us. 

Taking this notion a step forward, in the famous sitcom "Big Bang Theory" , Sheldon tries to scare Raj (who is an Indian)  by hiding a snake in his drawer, and but then Raj starts playing with the snake instead, and Sheldon says that it was stupid of him to try to scare an Indian with a snake. WTF!  I mean, we ARE scared of snakes ! Who isn't?

Here's the scene :

http://youtu.be/0IZnRYj0JRs

2. ' Don't you have elephants as pets?' 

Sigh, no we don't. The closest most Indians have come to seeing an elephant is either in a circus, or maybe a temple. And this made me laugh the most, when a girl asks me .. "doesn't Hindu marriages last for several weeks, the bride rides an elephant?" Oh boy, you've been watching a lot of KJO movies there, lady! 

         3.'Are ALL of indians vegetarians?'

-  Sorry, but no. In fact i know so many people, who'd die without meat. Literally, die. >insert names of people<   . Meat consumption in India is quite high. By meat, I mean.. Chicken, pork, seafood, mutton and yess, even beef. 

This is almost always followed by,

4. ' But don't you pray to COWS?' 

- Cows are sacred to us, yeah. But put in that way .. I don't know what to say. Cow is an embodiment of 33 Crore Demi-Gods, we consider cows holy and the importance of the cow goes back all the way into our cultural lineage. Beef isn't as popular here in India as in other countries . 

5. 'It’s basically just like Slumdog Millionaire, right?'

- This again is quite oftenly asked. Sorry to disappoint, mate. It isn't! Though some parts of that movie is authentic, rest of it is just made to look so in order to make it cinematic worthy of the whole ," rags to riches" theme. India is also the country where you have high-fashion labels like, Louis vuitton, chanel and et el. Lets not forget that, shall we?

6. Indian society is very conservative. 

 -  umm, This is a yes and no question. Yes, we are conservative! Definitely more conservative than west. At the same time, Am I not in Russia traveling alone? And didn't I do the same, last year in SriLanka? Its different for every family, but  it cannot be generalized. Times have changed. 

7. ' Curry everyday?"

- Indians dont eat rich, spicy, masala curry everyday. The staple diet of most Indians consist of dal , rice, rotis with cooked vegetables. And there are other food too, you know? Idlis-dosas, rasam rice , chole kulche with dal makhani  . . . 

To know an Indian you got to be an Indian. I absolutely disagree with most of these stereotypes. I would not go by Russel Peters all the time. He is a comedian.. But let us get down to facts now.

Some stereotypes, unfortunately or fortunately still are true.

Yes, cows roam our streets. 

-   Yes, cows are allowed to walk around towns. Often you'll see the pedestrians and other people on the roads making way for this gentle creature. Its not uncommon to have a traffic jam because of a cow here.

 “Do people in India really sing and dance all the time like in Bollywood movies?”

- YES!  Out of the blue and for no justified reason, all Indian movies suddenly break into a dance and singing scene. Indian movies are pretty long (more than 3 hours) and usually half of these 3 hours are all about singing and dancing.

"Indian head wobble?" 

- Yes, Its second nature to us! We wobble our heads a lot while talking. Here's what i mean :  http://www.storypick.com/curious-case-great-indian-headshake-yes-dont-know/

Before we make a hue and cry about this is so wrong, lets take a look at ourselves. Knowingly, or unknowingly we partake in stereotyping too. Don't believe me? Let's see... 

Most common ones, 

 She is a Punjabi – She will be loud, and a confirm yoyo honey singh fan.

She is a Goan – She has to be really cool and will be a beer lover

He is a Haryanvi – Goon, run for your life. ' Issko sirf gaali dena aata hain '

She is from Chandigarh – Her ultimate aim in life is becoming a roadie.

She is from Meghalaya/Tripura/Arunachal – Momos, Momos these guys only eat moms

Its time to change, guys! Here, i'd like to give a shootout to the  trulymadly.com initiative that talks about breaking stereotypes. 

Kudos! 

Here's a funny song, basically listing all stereotypes from different countries :

The stereotype song : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCgx8zM3woQ

DO YOU AGREE? OR DISAGREE? LET ME KNOWWW! TILL THEN, KEEP GALAVANTING! :D 

P.S I AM GOING TO BE UPDATING A LOT OF POSTS IN A QUICK ROW, KEEP TUNED.