I’ve never quite understood why we Indians feel so ashamed of speaking our mother tongues, or dressing up traditional at fancy restaurants, hotels or places like Bengali market and South Ex; how many parents are bent upon teaching their children, sports like golf, dressing up like blonde Barbie dolls and speaking in accented English. Admit it or not we Indians suffer from a critical case of ‘Colonial Hangover’.
Walk down the corridors of any elitist school, be it Vasant Valley, Goenka or Modern, without exception, the language of choice of students is ‘American English’. Its not that I have a problem with the Queen’s language, because I feel that it essays the role of a great unifier, in a ‘world of many worlds’. But, what I dislike is the fact, that Hindi is not a source of pride for us as, French and Japanese are for their countrymen. I’ve never been able to understand how people imbibe the Yankee accent, without having spent a day in the U.S. of A. Star World/ Movies and HBO, it seems have proved to be great ‘accent tutors’.
If the love of language for their language wasn’t enough, it’s excruciating to see people buying Fair and Lovely Cream at the chemists’ shop. Even our skin color isn’t good enough, irrespective of the numerous beauty pageant crowns we have won over the years. Nothing beats a ‘beautiful blonde Gori Mame’!!!
The Brits left 60 years ago, but that still hasn’t stopped us from trying to be like them. No Indian professional, has truly made it, unless he has proved his mettle and gained acceptance from our Beloved Goras. Be it our Bollywood divas, like Aishwarya Rai and Mallika Sherawat, or be it authors like Arunadhiti Roy and Vikram Seth, they need an Oscar and a Booker respectively, to be taken seriously.
Post-Munnabhai 2 it might be cool to practice Gandhigiri, but deep down inside we want nothing to do with a man who went about semi-naked, clothed only in a loin-cloth, trying to gain Independence for us to be accepted and respected as Indians. Next time you feel that we have won our Independence, look down on your Reebok sneakers, Levi jeans and NY Yankee T-shirt and the Mc D burger you are gorging down, and ask yourself, whether you are really free. The time has come to apologize and welcome back the Goras, who our foolish forefathers threw out of the country. SIMON COME BACK!!!
Walk down the corridors of any elitist school, be it Vasant Valley, Goenka or Modern, without exception, the language of choice of students is ‘American English’. Its not that I have a problem with the Queen’s language, because I feel that it essays the role of a great unifier, in a ‘world of many worlds’. But, what I dislike is the fact, that Hindi is not a source of pride for us as, French and Japanese are for their countrymen. I’ve never been able to understand how people imbibe the Yankee accent, without having spent a day in the U.S. of A. Star World/ Movies and HBO, it seems have proved to be great ‘accent tutors’.
If the love of language for their language wasn’t enough, it’s excruciating to see people buying Fair and Lovely Cream at the chemists’ shop. Even our skin color isn’t good enough, irrespective of the numerous beauty pageant crowns we have won over the years. Nothing beats a ‘beautiful blonde Gori Mame’!!!
The Brits left 60 years ago, but that still hasn’t stopped us from trying to be like them. No Indian professional, has truly made it, unless he has proved his mettle and gained acceptance from our Beloved Goras. Be it our Bollywood divas, like Aishwarya Rai and Mallika Sherawat, or be it authors like Arunadhiti Roy and Vikram Seth, they need an Oscar and a Booker respectively, to be taken seriously.
Post-Munnabhai 2 it might be cool to practice Gandhigiri, but deep down inside we want nothing to do with a man who went about semi-naked, clothed only in a loin-cloth, trying to gain Independence for us to be accepted and respected as Indians. Next time you feel that we have won our Independence, look down on your Reebok sneakers, Levi jeans and NY Yankee T-shirt and the Mc D burger you are gorging down, and ask yourself, whether you are really free. The time has come to apologize and welcome back the Goras, who our foolish forefathers threw out of the country. SIMON COME BACK!!!
5 comments:
nice... really intresting perspective...
nice... really intresting perspective...
agreed agreed agreed...applause,,,!!!
You write very well.
keep writing such things which ppl generally overlook...
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