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