Fairness Cream and its Implications

I saw a TV ad for a men's fairness cream. In the beginning of the ad a swarthy man offers a rose to a pretty stranger. She rejects his advances. In the next scene, he walks down a road full of pretty women after applying the cream, and the one who rejected his advances earlier now offers him a rose. He rejects her offer this time. What's interesting is that in the first scene, the man had put on make-up to look dark-skinned. It's obvious because he looks artifically tanned. So he moves from a fake dark tone to a fair one, which is close to his natural skin tone, instead of moving from his natural color to a fairer colour. Is this an indication of how ineffective the cream really is?!

The model's face in the first scene, reminds me of a movie Soul Man in which the main character takes pills to look 'African-American' and thus make use of affirmative action to get into grad school. The ad avoids the issue of race, but is subtly implying that fairer people are better-looking, and therefore more desirable by women (and therefore debatably superior?).

What makes modern Indians less conservative about sex but yet vulnerable about their skin colour? This vulnerability links us to our ancestors whose caste system was based partially on skin colour and to the racism our ancestors faced under later colonialism. Many people have commented on India's own brand of reverse racism called, "colourism."

Modern Indians' approach to race has been controversial. Recently, during the Australian tour to India, the local crowds made racist comments and gestures at Andrew Symonds who is of mixed parentage. A number of ads have a racist slant against the Chinese and Japanese (and other Asian people with Asiatic features). You may remember the ones for Bigen Haircolor, or the ones with Sumo wrestlers. The stereotyping of Africans in India as drug dealers etc. and calling them insulting names, is also testament to Indian people's racist attitudes.

At it's core, India is a racist country.

Urbanized Folk Theater

Last night, Mansi and I were driving by Chopatty beach when we noticed a huge seated crowd and a glowing stage. We parked and went to investigate. It was a free performance of the Ram Lila.

We entered when Hanuman was talking to Ravan. The audience seemed mostly north-Indian: from Bihar, UP and Rajasthan. It was great to see such an old folk art-form alive and well in a rapidly changing megapolis such as Bombay.

However, clearly the attention given to the sets was anything but folk. They seemed to be influenced by B-Grade serials such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata that were aired in the 90s. The voices of the actors resounded violently through the massive speaker systems, but unfortunately, I couldn't understand what they were saying. They were speaking in Hindi with rigid body movements and heavy facial expressions.

When we left, we noticed a street-seller selling Ram Lila "merchandise:" cellophane rapped "gaddhas," swords, and bows and arrows. In India, toy tie-ins are passe!

An SUV Out-of-Character

Here's an image I worked on with Photoshop. I took the photograph on Colaba Causeway a few months ago. I like the way the SUV becomes a "display device" rather than a "display object." It's as if it has uncomfortably taken on a new role. The reflection of the dainty lights seem to be too sophisticated for the SUV.

Spaghetti Shiva: The Indian Character

I'm the last person to make generalizations; however, there's one question that intrigues me: can we define some Indian character traits? I'd like to draw a parallel to fuel some debate. Let' s compare the performance of the Indian cricket team and that of the Indian rebels during the British siege of Delhi during the Mutiny of 1857 (as described by Willam Dalrymple in The Last Mughal which I am reading).

The Indian cricket team has a number of successful players, but it lacks consistency, grit and patience in difficult circumstances. The team tends to fall apart, once a major Indian batsmen fails. Our bowlers tend to wilt under pressure while protecting a small total. We've had some wonderful victories no doubt (like yesterday's win over Australia in Mumbai), but in general we've lost a number of matches to poor teamwork/leadership and mental strength.

In Dalrymple's book, the British forces, very few in number and with poor supplies of food and ammunition, lay siege to the city of Delhi, whose inhabitants are protected by the magnificent Red Fort. With the fort, there number of bands of rebels from all parts of north India, eager to defeat the British. Fresh Indian troop reinforcements keep coming, and they continue attacking the British. However, just when the British forces could have been routed, a lack of leadership, infighting, and religious tensions cause the rebels to lose their focus and grip on the war. So from a position of strength, they descend into a precariously weak position.

Is there some connection between the two examples that may lead us to a vague generalization about "The Indian Character"?

Spaghetti Shiva: "Wasting" on the Internet

The concept of "wasting" changes on the internet. Unlike in the traditional paper world, you have technically unlimited space to write and store data. Using sites like Yahoo mail etc. you don't need to delete any message you have sent/received. In this case, ethics doesn't figure at all. When you waste paper or food, one is culturally made to think that "wasting is wrong." In the case of the internet you don't have anyone saying, that there are people who are less fortunate than you, or that using too much of Yahoo's server space is selfish and wrong.

Banganga at Night

I went to Banganga on Saturday night with Mansi. The water levels had risen significantly due to the rains. It was quiet, peaceful, and filthy. The openness of the the tank, the crumbling buildings and temples around bathed in yellow light, all make you feel the past and present simultaneously. I remember a few years ago, while I was here in the day with a few friends, I saw a guru teaching a young student to chant verses from religious texts. Each visit also seems to have an eerie quality of being an accumulation of past trips along with their thoughts and memories.

This night, there were families of ducks moon-bathing towards the south side of the tank. I sat near a couple of them (they were quite used to human company), while they were trying to sleep. But another group of rambunctious ducks came by and woke them up. The one I photographed was desperately trying to get some good sleep. Then a frog came up the steps from the water (each step was more than four times his height), and began his hoarse chanting. A man took of his clothes, jumped into the pool, swam for a few minutes, and was out again. I doubt he was cleaner than when he entered.

I took some photographs, and reminded myself that I need a tripod pronto.