A sizzling performance by dance group during the Pond’s Femina Miss India 2005 in Mumbai on Sunday ( TOI Photo/ Uma Kadam. )
I’m so confused. And yes, I’m American-born. I’ve gone to several brown cultural shows at major Amreekan universities, and the filmi/”fusion” dancers don’t look like this. Metallic hot pants and Come-prance-with-me-in-Switzerland-in-the-rain boots? What the-?
It is slightly confusing even more embarassing for a me Indian-born in India. You should have watched the whole show, with crowns falling of the heads Sigh. It is not Vestern influnce to blame, just bad Indian taste!
Is it just me, or do hitler boots seem lonely without a swastika armband? “They’re clockwise! They’re clockwise! It’s alright!” At least it would be the only Indian portion of the attire.
I’m sure Harry, prince of ales, would be in support.
Yeah, modern Indian TV is a sad state of affairs in this respect. The outfits in movies and music videos are even cheaper. I think these women are trying so hard to appear “western” that they don’t realize that they actually look ridiculous to most westerners and that no self-respecting western woman would dress like that- besides stippers/prostitutes.
Canary, These women may not be trying to appear ‘Western’ to people in the West. They are appearing to be western to people in India. So they need to dress up in a way in which they will appear to be ‘Western’ to people in India.
Al- good point. But I still think it’s sad that while these Indian women are liberating themselves from conservative dress, they are enslaving themselves as sex objects. Also, comsumption patterns for middle class Indians are becoming increasingly western (i.e. buying on credit, ending up in debt). I wish they would stop blindly imitating the West and instead learn from its progress and mistakes- doing this would put Indian society at a huge advantage.
Let them do what they want. I don’t like it I won’t watch it. If you see a lot of ‘these’ on TV it could be because people like it. 🙂
It’s springtime for Manmohan Singh and India! Hindustan is happy and gay! We’re marching to a lamé pace Look out, here comes the maami race!
The outfits may be garish but damn it, we fought a 90-year independence struggle to have the right to wear garish outfits. And you or I might find them distasteful, but the fact that we have the right to wear distateful outfits is a wonderful things.
Anna, I don’t know if you were being but I would hardly consider college desi cultural shows were benchmarks of taste and style.
hari, please note the categories under the post. one of them is…”humor”. 😉
i hardly think college ISA shows are the pinnacle of fashion trends. 😀
i just saw this picture and did a triple-take before it assaulted my pop-up blocker. thought i’d inflict the image on y’all as well.
Maitri
Lord have mercy on our souls.
Springtime for Hitler indeed. The Far Pavillions, a novel written by MM Kaye, and a book famously demolished by Salman Rushdie as an example of orientalist fantasising and a Barbara Cartland view of the British Raj, a silly little romanticised colonial fantasy of British India, is about to open as a musical in the London West End.
Oh, I remember The Far Pavilions. Even laughed when it was the name of a restaurant in that awful Saeed Jaffrey comedy Tandoori Nights, which I watched because it was the only somewhat desi fare on BBC at the time.
Hey, if Ethan Allen can romanticize British colonialism, why can’t modern theatre?
Maitri
Tandoori Nights was a comedy??
Do you remember Channel 4’s squirm-worthy attempt to make an ‘Asian soap opera’ called Family Affairs? LoL
Who is Ethan Allen?
BBC seems to think it is was.
Ethan Allen – furniture store – they had/have a line called the British Colonial collection, their TV ad replete with the aura of the sahib soundly asleep in his plantation (as the serfs enjoy floorspace in their quarters).
Maitri
Ah yes, those were the days when every desi thing on TV featured either Rita Wolf, Saeed Jaffrey or Zohra Sahgal. Now desis are the sexiest and coolest people about and everyone wants to have sex with us but back then all they wanted to do was eat our curry and smash our faces in. And we had to put up with such grim programmes on Television (like the Asian programmes on Sunday morning BBC2, all the Asians in the country would get up early just to watch that hahaha)
Is it me or does it seem like most third world cultures are chasing the American idea of what culture is? It saddens me to see people disregard their own culture and adopt another rather then evolve their own. Sure their may be influences, but indian culture would have such a great boost if they simply got past things like repressed sexuality and embraced more open ideas and incorporated them into the culture rather than outrite try to badly imitate what they think is the hip culture.
Look at the french, they have their own distinct culture (to the point of almost fanatic protection). They may eschew things american but there clearly is an influence, and yet they still are their own. Anyhow, everytime I see how western India is getting I feel sad. Bleh…
Give it a break guys…like Anna said it was just humor – dont over-analyze.
Havent you guys ever seen funnily dressed backup dancers for Britney Spears ever?
Theres an equal amount of Western influence on Indians living back home or in the west. And it just depends on how each individual takes it. So if you see Indian dancers in shows or on TV scantily dressed that does not mean that an entire generation has been “westernized”
It’s like porn in design and intent. Seasonless and questionably sexy.
The uneducated horny truck drivers who watch these randis are just going to be encouraged to have more sex & exacerbate the excess population/STD problem.
I disagree with Rishi Sharma’s comments. I really think the influence of the western culture comes together with the package of ‘globalisation’. In order for India to develop, it must atract foreign investment to increase National INcome. I feel the American influence, or so called “Western influence” comes together with the workers, their services and products.
Please email me if you have point disagreing or agreeing with my view.
Thanks, Punit
disagree with Rishi Sharma’s comments. I really think the influence of the western culture comes together with the package of ‘globalisation’. In order for India to develop, it must atract foreign investment to increase National INcome. I feel the American influence, or so called “Western influence” comes together with the workers, their services and products
i think that western culture has changed the scenario of indian culture. all which is included in western culture now is in indian culture and due to which both the cultures look similiar no one can make the difference between the two.i think that if this practise will go on one day will come when indian would have lost its individuality and would be named as the THE COUNTRY OF WESTERN CULTURES. BY ADITI