Hi there.., we are super-duper sensitive Indians.! Don’t make fun of us – we do not tolerate any racist acts! BTW we will brand any comments on our accent and on the way we look as stereotypical or racist. Please note these down in bold letters, if you forget it even for a minute – we gonna come so hard on you.., that you may have to run with tail between your legs!
While we are here, let us also make clear that above commandment works one way. Above stated can not take away our birth right of ridicule other who don’t look walk talk like us! for e.g. Gora, Kallu and Chinki are not racist names!
To summarise: non-Indian imitating Indian – Racist !. Other way round – comedy!
Having made this clear, lets go to a case study. Popchip’s ad below by Ashton Kutcher – Racist or Not ?
I have a question for my readers and friends, on fundamentals of Feminism. While I am not sure how to put in a politically correct way, I am worried that I will end up offending a whole lot of them, especially women including my better half. (Update: Oh… No! She is already offended by the idea of this post).
It’s related to latest incident in Egypt, where a CBS correspondent Lara Logan was roughed up (to be specific, sexually molested) by celebrating Egyptian crowd (obviously men!). There is a whole lot of discussion happening in blogosphere. Was that right for an attractive white (read clearly distinguishable in Egyptian crowd) woman to report amidst frustrated (later celebrating) mostly men crowd of a male centred society (with less respect for women, officially!) without anyone to protect her. What happened was obviously wrong, but could that be avoided in the first place? She is Lara Logan not Lara Croft!
Now my question: Is “Asking for it” still considered as a factor, even a remote or tiny one?
I may look naive questioning like this, but please educate me. I guess, this must have been discussed over and over again in all forms of media, but there are still questions.
Here, let me provide an analogy, feel free to dispute it.
There is a high possibility that money left around will be stolen or robbed (depends where you leave it), even in an established social, political and religious (starting from 10 commandments) understanding that stealing is wrong, someone with a need of it will simply take it, like it or not! You would need a protection against it, that’s why we have a massive industry created just to protect your money! To this day we agree stealing is wrong, while we still protect our money from being stolen.
Well… this may not be a right analogy, but an attempt. Anyway, let me know your thoughts.
Update: I would like you to read one such post on the same topic “Is …” where he reasons out:
Women are the weaker, frailer sex. The average man is physically stronger than the average woman, and absent physical protection (in the form of other men, be they police, military or family) women are COMPLETELY at the mercy of men.
Egypt is a nation resistant to feminism. Egyptian men do not “ respect ” women, unlike the pale, porn-addicted, gelded fembois of America and Europe.
A riot, by definition, is an event defined by its lack of law and order – meaning that the structures that protect women from the predations of men do NOT exist.
Logan is a white foreigner, and is thus despised by the violent hordes who believe their government to be in thrall to hers.
I recall our geography text books were bragging about Indian ecosystems, probably they still are. There were pages of description on how western ghats and north eastern forests are bringing balance to environment. May be it was true a century back, not now. This one is straight from NASA, you can see blisters there right on India’s face.
The map shows the pressure on local ecosystems, but not per capita use. For example, in the United States, each person uses 5.94 metric tons of carbon (vegetation) per year, while in South-central Asia, people use 1.23 metric tons per year. However, the United States produces more than it requires, so the ratio between usage and vegetation is low. South-central Asia, on the other hand, uses less per person, but it has a high population that collectively require more carbon than the land produces, and so must import products from other regions.
Outsourced – a sitcom in the sets of an American Novelties Company which gets bangalored (to India) for cost cutting purposes, as its name suggests. Episodes of this revolve around its Mumbai office where an American works with Indian customer support employees and an Indian Asst. Manager. All five major roles of Indian employees are played by Canadian, British and American actors, but not Indian.
Now read bolded ones in above paragraph again. That’s right!. For some reason TV industry thinks it would be great to hire non-Indian nationals (ABD, BBD etc) and ask them to fake Indian accent rather than hiring local talents to act naturally (unlike Outsourced – the movie). I feel they should have given chance to locals, when the role is local. In another way it would have worked out cheaper since Indians are paid in Rupees – Outsourced! That’s the name of the series.
Only relief is, all these five actors have Indian origins (actually their parents), they probably have some clue on how Indians pronounce. Now take this: Recent facebook movie, in “the social network” Divya Narendra’s role is played by Max Minghella!! Couldn’t they manage to find a single ABCD for playing this role?
Perhaps it’s been happening for all non-American roles in American movies and TVs. Makes me wonder – Did Austrian Bruno or Kazak in Borat have their accents right?
Slumdog was almost certainly speaking British, so will Mumbai born Freddie Mercury!
The Bach 
