The time has come my little friends…
To talk about cabbages and kings
Or about being south-asian
Looks like the world of Indians is celebrating being under one banner, a world of south-asians is doing that. Shilpa Shetty is the entity who arranged for the unison in voice, thankfully. A chance for the diaspora of a region to suddenly yell out what was stuck at its throat, “Respect Brown”.
But wait just a minute sir, Indian that I am, living in India, it’s a unique bubble of an issue. First of, it involves an India-based-Indian (nationality), so yes this is my war She is not the ideal representative of the ethnic (south-asian) minority in a foreign country, having never lived outside India for a period of time. However, the issue itself seems to have poured on to and scalded the feet of south-asian communities abroad, what with this becoming reason enough for “them” to unite and utilize the argument to rabble rouse. Excuse me, but does not the so-called south-asian community living abroad suffer from the ‘Goody Syndrome’? How come it finds offensive, India-the-nation-based comments and an Indian national’s degradation?
Having lived in the United States for a few modest years of my life, I came in close encounter with the south-asian. Granted that Britian and the US are miles away and the south-asian in the regions is bound to be different, so I will stick only to the ones existing in the US to draw out my observations. The average south-asian is a cause for concern, trapped in many layers, “lived out there for years” or “born and hold a red passport” assortment. And then you have me, the ones who probably came hiding in a boat- an illegal entry, one who has not figured out a role in the hierarchy yet. Only sirs, I came in a plane with legitimate documents, with legitimate plans of study and return to the home country.
“ How is it that you can speak English?”
“ You seem light skinned, not typically like one from the south, but you say you are south-Indian, are you sure?”
“ Once when I was in Tamil Nadu, those madrasis ate with their whole forehand, licking away at the dribbling sambar like barbarians”
“This is a pizza, its Italian, then there’s Chinese food, and Mexican and Greek”
“ These are shorts, they are good to be worn in summer, try them”
“ Indian boys in NY, don’t we know what they will want to be up to?”
“ You speak good English, and the accent is also not that bad, but the ones who come from India usually can’t even spit out alphabets”
And then of course, one had the crowning glory of a term “desi” with the “fresh-off-the-boat-desi” himself making an appearance in many a south-asian flick. Oiled hair, bad table and bathroom manners, and drooling over the slightest skin show.
Yes indeed my mum didn’t really take much to cooking, and she did take an awful lot to eating out. So did I. I could be one of the few rare, most tolerant and experimental vegetarians (yes please, vegetarian only) from the sub-continent. Granted.
I could have been one of the few Indians from the sub-continent…went to a “convent”, an English medium school where English language skills were emphasized on. Granted.
But hello, who were you Mr. South-Asian, when you made a landing on the foreign land? And who are you now? And are you trying to tell me that most of the western world can read and write? Speaking English is not a sign of literacy or sophistication. Half of the Americans (maybe more) don’t know to read and write. As for the lesson “rethinking the concept of culture as a synonym for west”, please take a trip into redneck lands and good luck with that. When you expect to see a villager stereotype from your homeland, look closer at the trash around you in the garb of metal sheen, thank you.
So much for that, now lets look at home. India, the land of spirituality, healing…come visit, is that what our Indian ministry had to say?
Isn’t it a matter of great pride to be so patriotic when “they” disparage against us? But it isn’t really such a big deal when citizen disrespect takes place within our holy motherland. No patriotism there. A bunch of Hindutva sloganists plaster my city orange and aggravate drivers by forcefully pasting on the car windscreen stickers reading “One Hindu one Nation”. Yet another bunch, led by a local Ex-MP of the state takes the liberty to put up a hoarding in praise of Saddam Hussain proclaiming him to be an ally and a friend of India. Then the ultimate orgasm to both the events happens, the “communal conflict”. The government of India and those of its states seem to have enough spare time commenting on the Shilpa conflict and feeling blue bellied about a woman (who we’ll talk about it a while) who got paid to be abused. No one has the time to truly examine why we called ourselves secular, not one soul raised a cry against the ones who call themselves hindu or muslim or whatever and abuse my State with slogans of imposition and in-correct politicy. What does it matter how the white world views us, down here in India? Why do we get pulled across either of our cheeks for the fight for approval?
“What” are we and what is the Identity?
“What” am I and what is my identity?
In the land of browns there is more important matter to ponder over. So lets quit the party of south-asians raising a cry elsewhere. We have an identity to build. Let’s fight our wars here for god’s sakes.
Only YES, I did forget, the woman in question is Indian… not exactly belonging to the larger south-asian connotation, but of Indian nationality. Cosmic representation of the true nature of the Indian, be it through roots or nationality, thank “Shilpa episode” for that. What’s the wake-up call- a lack of identity, a lack of self-respect, a sick need for our existence to be validated from exterior sources, masks to hide our internal shame of being a product of Indian that we are…
All these, our little cultural dowries handed down through families and psyches with dutiful promptness wherever in the world. Yes, and so in that sense, we do all “one-umbrella” it out under the banner which of course should read “ethnic south-asians and Indian nationals” (the rest of south-asian peoples living in geographic spaces of origin, the choice is yours to count yourself in or out). And who better than our warrior prototype, Ms Shetty to exhibit that? On the one hand an image of a weeping lass, distressed and worn-out, all-ready to fight for a legitimate identity of brown. Give it two days and what have you? (Bollywood emerges out of) a ravishing lass who says there was nothing racist about it. Yes, she now solely represents Bollywood and her paltry few thousand pounds at stake and she withdraws from war. Being brown is ok just the way it is. It does not get bigger than what is at stake. The big white bullies have won and are having the last laugh at the brown. I have on the other hand, voted you out already Dahling. Who am I you ask? Yours truly, Brown Brother.
Deepak Srinivasan
To talk about cabbages and kings
Or about being south-asian
Looks like the world of Indians is celebrating being under one banner, a world of south-asians is doing that. Shilpa Shetty is the entity who arranged for the unison in voice, thankfully. A chance for the diaspora of a region to suddenly yell out what was stuck at its throat, “Respect Brown”.
But wait just a minute sir, Indian that I am, living in India, it’s a unique bubble of an issue. First of, it involves an India-based-Indian (nationality), so yes this is my war She is not the ideal representative of the ethnic (south-asian) minority in a foreign country, having never lived outside India for a period of time. However, the issue itself seems to have poured on to and scalded the feet of south-asian communities abroad, what with this becoming reason enough for “them” to unite and utilize the argument to rabble rouse. Excuse me, but does not the so-called south-asian community living abroad suffer from the ‘Goody Syndrome’? How come it finds offensive, India-the-nation-based comments and an Indian national’s degradation?
Having lived in the United States for a few modest years of my life, I came in close encounter with the south-asian. Granted that Britian and the US are miles away and the south-asian in the regions is bound to be different, so I will stick only to the ones existing in the US to draw out my observations. The average south-asian is a cause for concern, trapped in many layers, “lived out there for years” or “born and hold a red passport” assortment. And then you have me, the ones who probably came hiding in a boat- an illegal entry, one who has not figured out a role in the hierarchy yet. Only sirs, I came in a plane with legitimate documents, with legitimate plans of study and return to the home country.
“ How is it that you can speak English?”
“ You seem light skinned, not typically like one from the south, but you say you are south-Indian, are you sure?”
“ Once when I was in Tamil Nadu, those madrasis ate with their whole forehand, licking away at the dribbling sambar like barbarians”
“This is a pizza, its Italian, then there’s Chinese food, and Mexican and Greek”
“ These are shorts, they are good to be worn in summer, try them”
“ Indian boys in NY, don’t we know what they will want to be up to?”
“ You speak good English, and the accent is also not that bad, but the ones who come from India usually can’t even spit out alphabets”
And then of course, one had the crowning glory of a term “desi” with the “fresh-off-the-boat-desi” himself making an appearance in many a south-asian flick. Oiled hair, bad table and bathroom manners, and drooling over the slightest skin show.
Yes indeed my mum didn’t really take much to cooking, and she did take an awful lot to eating out. So did I. I could be one of the few rare, most tolerant and experimental vegetarians (yes please, vegetarian only) from the sub-continent. Granted.
I could have been one of the few Indians from the sub-continent…went to a “convent”, an English medium school where English language skills were emphasized on. Granted.
But hello, who were you Mr. South-Asian, when you made a landing on the foreign land? And who are you now? And are you trying to tell me that most of the western world can read and write? Speaking English is not a sign of literacy or sophistication. Half of the Americans (maybe more) don’t know to read and write. As for the lesson “rethinking the concept of culture as a synonym for west”, please take a trip into redneck lands and good luck with that. When you expect to see a villager stereotype from your homeland, look closer at the trash around you in the garb of metal sheen, thank you.
So much for that, now lets look at home. India, the land of spirituality, healing…come visit, is that what our Indian ministry had to say?
Isn’t it a matter of great pride to be so patriotic when “they” disparage against us? But it isn’t really such a big deal when citizen disrespect takes place within our holy motherland. No patriotism there. A bunch of Hindutva sloganists plaster my city orange and aggravate drivers by forcefully pasting on the car windscreen stickers reading “One Hindu one Nation”. Yet another bunch, led by a local Ex-MP of the state takes the liberty to put up a hoarding in praise of Saddam Hussain proclaiming him to be an ally and a friend of India. Then the ultimate orgasm to both the events happens, the “communal conflict”. The government of India and those of its states seem to have enough spare time commenting on the Shilpa conflict and feeling blue bellied about a woman (who we’ll talk about it a while) who got paid to be abused. No one has the time to truly examine why we called ourselves secular, not one soul raised a cry against the ones who call themselves hindu or muslim or whatever and abuse my State with slogans of imposition and in-correct politicy. What does it matter how the white world views us, down here in India? Why do we get pulled across either of our cheeks for the fight for approval?
“What” are we and what is the Identity?
“What” am I and what is my identity?
In the land of browns there is more important matter to ponder over. So lets quit the party of south-asians raising a cry elsewhere. We have an identity to build. Let’s fight our wars here for god’s sakes.
Only YES, I did forget, the woman in question is Indian… not exactly belonging to the larger south-asian connotation, but of Indian nationality. Cosmic representation of the true nature of the Indian, be it through roots or nationality, thank “Shilpa episode” for that. What’s the wake-up call- a lack of identity, a lack of self-respect, a sick need for our existence to be validated from exterior sources, masks to hide our internal shame of being a product of Indian that we are…
All these, our little cultural dowries handed down through families and psyches with dutiful promptness wherever in the world. Yes, and so in that sense, we do all “one-umbrella” it out under the banner which of course should read “ethnic south-asians and Indian nationals” (the rest of south-asian peoples living in geographic spaces of origin, the choice is yours to count yourself in or out). And who better than our warrior prototype, Ms Shetty to exhibit that? On the one hand an image of a weeping lass, distressed and worn-out, all-ready to fight for a legitimate identity of brown. Give it two days and what have you? (Bollywood emerges out of) a ravishing lass who says there was nothing racist about it. Yes, she now solely represents Bollywood and her paltry few thousand pounds at stake and she withdraws from war. Being brown is ok just the way it is. It does not get bigger than what is at stake. The big white bullies have won and are having the last laugh at the brown. I have on the other hand, voted you out already Dahling. Who am I you ask? Yours truly, Brown Brother.
Deepak Srinivasan
