How the world feels about "us"...
This blog is my outburst on several articles, books and movie reviews I have read in past few months. I am upset with only a few people and realize that there are many others who do not belong to the group of people I am going to talk about. I always think about: "What does the rest of the world feel about India?", and realized that its not about what they feel but what they read and want to read. First, I will tell you my review of the book 'White Tiger' written by 'an Indian brought up in Indonesia and studied in the UK'. The book is half rubbish. It talks about life of a "lower-caste" person from some village near Dhanbad, when is in the village, New Delhi and Bangalore. The book draws examples of about half of the things that according to me have been almost eradicated in India. Has the author actually gone to these under-developed areas and seen the reality? I am sure he has not. Now lets analyze why writers like him write these books, which btw win the Booker prize. I think many people in the developed countries want to read about poverty, casteism, life in slum, religious divide, untouchability, sati etc. in a book about India. This is how they have always thought about the country and they feel right if a book describes the things exactly as they have imagined before. They are not ready to believe that things change in developing countries!
My second comment is on a blog written by Matthew Harding (famous for 'Where is the hell is Matt?') on India. Man, can you believe this person's blog! I don't understand that if he hated India so much then why did he spend so much money on the airline tickets! People like this guy, who is BTW famous for his stupid dance, can only see poverty, slums and cheating in India. To them, outer beauty is everything and they live for that! They can't see how people are happy and how they draw happiness from small instances in life. And BTW, if you want to see beauty, please for god's sake don't go to a metropolitan city. I think there are many people who agree with me that there are better places to visit in the US than New York. Lets talk about cheating. They cry that people in India sell everything for 10 times more money to a Caucasian than to an Indian. You know what dude, you are happy to spend $100 in Europe/USA but spending $1 for the same thing in India makes you bankrupt?? I think there should officially be more tax for tourists in India. This is followed in many countries, for example according to my Bulgarian officemate, tourists are taxed more in Bulgaria.
My next target is the book 'Holy Cow', written by an Australian journalist, who lived in India for a few years. Well, you can see what the book is about from its front page. It has picture of the Hindu god 'Shiva' wearing goggles. I am sort of an atheist but this picture outraged me thinking how people can be so insensitive. Lets see if someone in US/Europe buys a book that has picture of Christ wearing goggles on the cover page. I am not delving into religion but the sole purpose of this Australian journalist seems to sell the book in developed countries and show this grim, religious and poor view of India.
Now, lets talk about the newly released movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', directed by an American director. Following is excerpt of a comment published on IMDB about the movie:
But the next hour and twenty minutes of the film were a disaster. Every clichéd and stereotype imaginable about India, Indian class struggle, Indian religious struggle was reinforced in the film in an even more exaggerated form. Every character in the film was either good or evil, black or white. Every system was either fair or unfair. There was no room for nuances and subtleties. The story telling was too much on the surface. For e.g. a scene from '92 riots, where a bunch of Hindu fanatics were attacking Muslims in their slums. That scene was a biggest turn off for me. I was in fact offended by the insensitivity and insensibility of the filmmaker who presented such a big historical tragedy in simplistic and stereotypical way. I have lived through those riots and I know exactly how it feels. It for sure wasn't as simplistic.
And the scene where the two brothers were pushed out of the train because they were stealing bread. Common! Give me a break! I have never seen such things happen in India in my entire lifetime. And I've lived in India for most of my life.
Also the kind Caucasian couple who graciously gives $100 to Jamal. I've never seen such kind tourists in India ever. I've seen Western tourists sometimes haggle for 10 cents. Forget India I've never seen such a gracious Caucasian exhibiting such kindness even in New York City.
And besides that Caucasian couple nobody from the higher economic strata of the society was kind and generous. Everyone was brutal, cruel, conniving...as if there were only two types of people in Mumbai.
This was yet another stereotypical Western view of a "third world country" gone wrong. I think this film is made purely for the Western audience, so that they feel good about themselves. The film does nothing else but reinforces the stereotypes. And after looking at all these favorable reviews I feel that there is a great divide between the way the West sees the world (or wants to see the world) and the way the world really is. One of the roles of media, in my opinion, is to challenge these stereotypes, whereas this film, to become popular, simply reinforces them. The film in my opinion is shallow, lame and absolutely insensible.
I haven't seen the movie but I can relate to what this person is talking about, though I don't totally agree with him. This comment has been labeled as "*** This comment may contain spoilers ***" on the website!!
Here is one more comment:
It has so many things going against it here in the States, the usage of south Asian characters, and... well I'll stop there.
Well, to be true, there are other comments, which say that this movie truly deserves Oscar. As already said, I haven't seen the movie but I hope I don't get disappointed watching only some "aspects" of Mumbai/India shown in the movie.
While writing this blog, I was afraid that my non-Indian friends might misunderstand me. I am not against or for any particular country. I just feel that people should shed the stereotypical views they have about India and treat things with broad mind. Majority of the blame goes to writers and directors who only show biased view of India.. why do they have to write about only slums in Mumbai/Delhi and not about the beautiful Himalayas!
This blog is my outburst on several articles, books and movie reviews I have read in past few months. I am upset with only a few people and realize that there are many others who do not belong to the group of people I am going to talk about. I always think about: "What does the rest of the world feel about India?", and realized that its not about what they feel but what they read and want to read. First, I will tell you my review of the book 'White Tiger' written by 'an Indian brought up in Indonesia and studied in the UK'. The book is half rubbish. It talks about life of a "lower-caste" person from some village near Dhanbad, when is in the village, New Delhi and Bangalore. The book draws examples of about half of the things that according to me have been almost eradicated in India. Has the author actually gone to these under-developed areas and seen the reality? I am sure he has not. Now lets analyze why writers like him write these books, which btw win the Booker prize. I think many people in the developed countries want to read about poverty, casteism, life in slum, religious divide, untouchability, sati etc. in a book about India. This is how they have always thought about the country and they feel right if a book describes the things exactly as they have imagined before. They are not ready to believe that things change in developing countries!
My second comment is on a blog written by Matthew Harding (famous for 'Where is the hell is Matt?') on India. Man, can you believe this person's blog! I don't understand that if he hated India so much then why did he spend so much money on the airline tickets! People like this guy, who is BTW famous for his stupid dance, can only see poverty, slums and cheating in India. To them, outer beauty is everything and they live for that! They can't see how people are happy and how they draw happiness from small instances in life. And BTW, if you want to see beauty, please for god's sake don't go to a metropolitan city. I think there are many people who agree with me that there are better places to visit in the US than New York. Lets talk about cheating. They cry that people in India sell everything for 10 times more money to a Caucasian than to an Indian. You know what dude, you are happy to spend $100 in Europe/USA but spending $1 for the same thing in India makes you bankrupt?? I think there should officially be more tax for tourists in India. This is followed in many countries, for example according to my Bulgarian officemate, tourists are taxed more in Bulgaria.
My next target is the book 'Holy Cow', written by an Australian journalist, who lived in India for a few years. Well, you can see what the book is about from its front page. It has picture of the Hindu god 'Shiva' wearing goggles. I am sort of an atheist but this picture outraged me thinking how people can be so insensitive. Lets see if someone in US/Europe buys a book that has picture of Christ wearing goggles on the cover page. I am not delving into religion but the sole purpose of this Australian journalist seems to sell the book in developed countries and show this grim, religious and poor view of India.
Now, lets talk about the newly released movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', directed by an American director. Following is excerpt of a comment published on IMDB about the movie:
But the next hour and twenty minutes of the film were a disaster. Every clichéd and stereotype imaginable about India, Indian class struggle, Indian religious struggle was reinforced in the film in an even more exaggerated form. Every character in the film was either good or evil, black or white. Every system was either fair or unfair. There was no room for nuances and subtleties. The story telling was too much on the surface. For e.g. a scene from '92 riots, where a bunch of Hindu fanatics were attacking Muslims in their slums. That scene was a biggest turn off for me. I was in fact offended by the insensitivity and insensibility of the filmmaker who presented such a big historical tragedy in simplistic and stereotypical way. I have lived through those riots and I know exactly how it feels. It for sure wasn't as simplistic.
And the scene where the two brothers were pushed out of the train because they were stealing bread. Common! Give me a break! I have never seen such things happen in India in my entire lifetime. And I've lived in India for most of my life.
Also the kind Caucasian couple who graciously gives $100 to Jamal. I've never seen such kind tourists in India ever. I've seen Western tourists sometimes haggle for 10 cents. Forget India I've never seen such a gracious Caucasian exhibiting such kindness even in New York City.
And besides that Caucasian couple nobody from the higher economic strata of the society was kind and generous. Everyone was brutal, cruel, conniving...as if there were only two types of people in Mumbai.
This was yet another stereotypical Western view of a "third world country" gone wrong. I think this film is made purely for the Western audience, so that they feel good about themselves. The film does nothing else but reinforces the stereotypes. And after looking at all these favorable reviews I feel that there is a great divide between the way the West sees the world (or wants to see the world) and the way the world really is. One of the roles of media, in my opinion, is to challenge these stereotypes, whereas this film, to become popular, simply reinforces them. The film in my opinion is shallow, lame and absolutely insensible.
I haven't seen the movie but I can relate to what this person is talking about, though I don't totally agree with him. This comment has been labeled as "*** This comment may contain spoilers ***" on the website!!
Here is one more comment:
It has so many things going against it here in the States, the usage of south Asian characters, and... well I'll stop there.
Well, to be true, there are other comments, which say that this movie truly deserves Oscar. As already said, I haven't seen the movie but I hope I don't get disappointed watching only some "aspects" of Mumbai/India shown in the movie.
While writing this blog, I was afraid that my non-Indian friends might misunderstand me. I am not against or for any particular country. I just feel that people should shed the stereotypical views they have about India and treat things with broad mind. Majority of the blame goes to writers and directors who only show biased view of India.. why do they have to write about only slums in Mumbai/Delhi and not about the beautiful Himalayas!
