This week’s edition of Time Magazine includes a cover story about the world’s next great economic superpower: India (via the News Tab). The cover features a worker from the industry that Americans are most familiar with. She is a representative from the ranks of those much abused call center workers. Similar to Manish’s fine entry, The Anatomy of a genre, I thought I’d take a shot at examing the nuances of this cover picture.
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The next time a call center worker calls me about signing up with the Dish Network, I am going to pay a lot more attention…and flirt a little.
some past less threatening, less demeaning images of india inc:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_41/b3853009_mz046.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/03_49/B3861magazine.htm (check out IIT student Tyagi. Dressed traditionally but not overtly so, no glaring big red bindi to scare americans, only a small pale one barely visible one :))
and, it looks as if it’s not only evil western magazines who exotify the working indian woman. check out this cover of india’s businessworld magazine that goes along with the cover story “women on the job.” : http://www.businessworldindia.com/apr0405/index.asp#
The worst part is they show her smiling. Most of these people are ready to shoot themselves in the foot. Thats when they’re not getting harassed/raped by their drivers who take them home at 3 am
The problem is not that the image is different than what people see on a day to day basis, I feel the problem is how people perceive people from a certain race to be. I think images like these reinforce these perceptions. I canÂ’t even begin to understand what other ABDÂ’s have to go through growing up in the US with all the nonsensical questions asked about where they are from and how they speak good English.
I can?t even begin to understandmeant to say I can’t even begin to imagine what other ABD?s have to go through growing up in the US with all the nonsensical questions asked about where they are from and how they speak good English.Communis Rixatrix:
No, this comment is more condescending.
Not for me! A hot, sexy Desi MALE programmer should grace the cover….
Anyway, everbody keeps forgetting that the Time’s readership is Amreekan (white, middle class) and it is pandering to their conceptions of India and Indians. Plus, India Shining is being bandied as something worth investing in and deflecting criticism of outsourcing. This TIME cover is an advertisement. TIME, being infotainment, as someone else has pointed out, is not that different from other mainstream media outlets. I agree that we should expect our mass media to be accurate, informative, and realistic. But given the track record, I’m not suprised that this would happen.
CAD: agreed.
Exactly FOB perspective. We’re foreigners whereever we go.
That’s easy: all SM‘ers here know what image I would have used on the TIME cover:
A tall, dark, handsome Desi named Hardeep aka “Harry”, wearing nothing but skin tight Speedos with the Indian flag printed on it and a call center headset, similar to the lady on this cover.
If he’s hairy, they shouldn’t airbrush this. Actually, the hairier, the better. Come to think of it, TIME should computeristically generate even MORE hair, in the same manner that National Geographic consistently darkens imgages of the natives so as to assure their white middle class readers that the primitive native peoples are really very dark. Cushioned on Hardeep/Harry’s carpet of chest hair will be a thick gold chain, with a large and conspicuous pendent of the Indian subcontinent that one can easily find at Laxmi Jeweler’s.
Nubamountain — Time’s actually done a fairly good job of looking at the other side of the story, and they do go into that in the main piece here. The Ratan Tata piece also talks about how the middle class is far smaller than the myth of 200 million. I remember a cover from a few years back called “The Two Indias”, about the divide, the super-rich and the dirt-poor who were missing out, and the farmer suicides. Time is actually reasonably obsessed by the Maoists. They’ve done a lot on them in Nepal, and bring them up in almost every story they writes on India’s economy. This is a more positive story, true — but then this does seem to be India’s year. It’s tough to have a downer on a growth rate of 8.4%.
I really think this debate is a little blown out of proportion. I see magazine covers in the same light as political cartoons, they exaggerate or go extremely literal in order to bang their point of view into your brain. They probably wouldn’t do that if every single reader put as much thought into the possible subcontext of the illustration as some people choose to do. But the average reader is going to have a snap judgement based on a 2-second glance and a brief skimming of the headlines.
Maybe I’m taking an overly moderate view on it, but I don’t think Time is trying to pass this cover off as a realistic photograph of what a call center worker in India looks like. Sometimes the media as a whole is blatantly prejudiced in their reporting (i.e. looting vs. finding food for survival), but I don’t think this is as clear-cut a case.
On a related note, for those of you out there filled with so much rage that can only be satisfied with hand-delivered hate mail to the art editors at the magazine, I’ve got a contractor badge that lets me into any floor in the Time & Life building in Rock Center. Feel free to forward me your scathing email and I’ll personally hand deliver it myself free of charge. Flaming bags of dog poo can also be arranged for at a reasonable cost of $5.
Has anyone heard about KAL PENN’s first audition in which he was asked to wear a turban to look Indian. We should dispell stereotyping from the western mind as soon as possible and it is time we are properly represented. No more exotification, mythification please.
oh, and btw, I think if the indifference of the FOBs or IBDs vs. the outrage of ABDs held true as a generalizations, I would be really interested to heard some valids theories as to why that was so. Unfortunately, I’m ABD, so I guess I just busted that theory.
And slightly off-topic, but I specifically chose IBD vs. FOB since FOB is really only used to belittle the IBDs and I lowe all the IBDs out there. But that’s a topic that I’d really like to see debated instead of this Time cover… Some points of discussion: 1) what qualifies a person as an FOB? In other words, how long does the “freshness” last? 2) who really comes over on boats these days? Given the modern advances in aeronautical engineering, shouldn’t we update this archaic term to reflect that?
Talk amongst yourselves, in the meantime I’m eagerly awaiting the launch of this site. Now THAT guy is definitely still fresh. I’m not sure, but I think he even has his Indian passport in his shirt pocket. But this actually would qualify for talking point #3: 3) Is facial hair a good qualifier for the FOB? You really don’t see moustaches among the american-born and assimilated desis. Is the morphosis of the of the moustache into the goatee a good indicator of transition from FOB to IBD?
Hey Anna and other ABD women – a shout-out that ABD women are getting trashed by Wheatish on the Poor Ghauri family thread.
Letter to the editor, I am writing to you to express my dissatisfaction with the recent cover on Time magazine. I feel the picture of a pretty Indian Girl accessorized to the hilt, wearing a headset is not appropriate. I feel that due to the large population of people who are unfamiliar with India, view India as a foreign land, and may have ideas about race and people from other countries that are not up to speed, may make some association between “cost effective” outsourcing and Indian women. I have relatives that I love dearly in India, and I would not ever want someone, with ideas of race that are not up to speed, making the association between my cousin and “cost effectiveness”. Rather , as a symbol for the “new Indian” why not regale the recent Time cover with the gateway to an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), or if that does not work – put a headset on the taj mahal. But please do not let people who may be lacking in worldliness to make any inappropriate assocaiations. Would a time cover ever picture an Iraeli woman in an army uniform, if Time did a piece on Israel? I for some reason do not ever see that happening.
Sincerely, Pankaj Davessar
“Has anyone heard about KAL PENN’s first audition in which he was asked to wear a turban to look Indian. We should dispell stereotyping from the western mind as soon as possible and it is time we are properly represented. No more exotification, mythification please.”
Just because some people are so dumb that they don’t know about the differences between Indians living in America doesn’t mean Indians in India or art directors have to always give in to such ignorance and prejudice and cater to it and acquiesce to it and pretend there are no differences and make every cover as bland and as “inoffensive” or “unthreatening” to the american as possible and that one should feel ashamed of looking different. People in America and India do wear turbans, and the burden is on these dumb people to become more wordly and figure out that some do and some don’t, not for others to dumb down to their level of conformity and homogeneity and make it easier for them to understand this oh-so-complex and diverse world. more people probably watch the simpsons than read Time magazine, yet that episode where Homer goes to India – replete with practically all the stereotypes and “exotification” – was seen by many Indians as funny and cool, yet this cover evokes such ire. the idea of being properly represented is also dicey since each indian/indian origin person will have their own idea as to what proper representation means.
“The American ideal, after all, is that everyone should be as much alike as possible.” — James Baldwin
“The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity.” — Dr. Robert Anthony
Wu Banga, Agreed. I don’t know which is worse, getting reduced to one’s race here, or having one’s obvious Westernness treated as a peculiar disease over there. For example: I walk into a small bank, open my mouth, and the entire place shuts up and watches me. Even my relatives think my Westernness is weird. Just the need for space and freedom and occasional solitude is overwhelming to a Westerner – if you demand it over there, they think you’re selfish or a nutcase. It’s terribly alienating.
That was outrage??
I REALLY don’t think so…
You have every right to be pissed. I’ve no issue with that. I just took issue with you saying the cover is inaccurate reporting, when the cover isn’t reporting at all, and it’s not meant to be. It’s self-promotion, and it’s the norm for all sorts of news magazine covers. Criticize the actual REPORTING as reporting, if criticism is warranted. Criticize the cover as fabricated image-making. But the two really are distinct from each other. I’ll guarantee that the staff who worked on the article had nothing to do with the cover.
What I’m saying is, you can’t judge an article by its cover. 🙂
wow… long debate… therefore i am going to add one more to it.
time magazine: “we need a cover that will grab attention and attract reader to the key article feat. indian women at call centres.” answer: lets put all unique stereotypes of indian women in one snazzy picture and then every average american fella will get the idea!
was it the smartest cover? no! is it a blatant misrepresentation? yes!
do they care? no!
did they get their point across to white america and sell copies? yes!
it’s marketing!
i would be far more concerned about the blatant misrepresentations or ommissions of global news in american broadcasting and the ‘marketing’ of political views, which have become so routine and normal now that they slip from notice. time mag was just jumping on the bandwagon…
i think a bigger and sadder problem is why Kalpen Modi felt he had to change his name to Kal Penn just to get more calls for auditions. i mean ben kingsley was forced to do that decades ago. apparently nothing much has changed no matter how much we go out of our way to assimilate and look like everyone else. so should we all change our “exotified” names as well to avoid being stereotyped? some people will never accept you no matter how much you try to be accepted.
Re: Kal Penn’s audition story
The problem is not about an Indian sounding name or western one, the problem is the lack of awareness among the west about India in general. They are happy looking at us as people with turban and a saree. But as we know there is much more to us than that. Unless the other layers that form our identity dont feature on media, we are bound to be represented as above.
Not to threadjack, but I just had something funny happen with a call center employee. I know that for a long time they’ve been prohibited from giving their real names and had to give US names instead. As a matter of fact, they used to have fictional US addresses and know all about the weather there. But that changed a year or so ago, people started saying that they were in Bangalore, and giving their names, especially after they heard mine.
But this woman insisted her name was “Karen Smith”. Very clearly desi voice, not a faux-American accent. Still, Karen Smith …
Maybe some out-out-source has been trained to talk like a desi? 🙂
Y’all are kidding right? Every FOB and every desi I know would die laughing at this cover. If they seem indifferent it’s because it’s beyond belief ridiculous to show a Bharatanatyam dancer wearing an earpiece. I am quite sure even in Idaho people are ready for a little more reality, people. I live in cowland, I know. If you did want to ‘sell the magazine’, there are a hundred other ways to show a pretty call centre worker (and they don’t all involve Ash Rai). And where are the hot geeks anyway? More mythmaking?
One of my experiences with a call center ladkha, on a day when I was feeling punchy and frisky:
CAD: Hello? Richard* : Hello, may I please speak to….(realizing it is a Guju name…)Ms. Cheap Ass Desi (name perfectly pronounced, unlike Amreekan callers who massacre my name to the point of no longer being sensical)? CAD: Yeees….? (upon hearing an Indian accented voice saying my name perfectly, racking mind to figure out who the hell it could be) Richard: My name is Richard, and I am calling on behalf of Citibank. CAD: (realization finally dawning on her) Richard, eh? What’s your real name? Richard: CAD M’am, I am sorry, but I cannot disclose that information. I am Richard. CAD: Sure, and I’m Pamela Anderson. Is it something like Rithik? Rishi? Richard: (uncomfortable silence) No…it’s Richard (unconvincingly) CAD: Where are you located? Richard: I cannot disclose that information due to security purposes. CAD: Wait a minute: you can know information about my address, phone number, where I live, what kind of accounts I have with Citibank, all sorts of secured information, but you can’t tell me where you’re calling from? Richard: Uh– no, Ms. CAD, it’s not like that…. CAD: Give me a ballpark range: New Delhi? Bombay? Banglore? Richard: I don’t know (sounding very insecure)… CAD: Look, “Richard”: I’m not trying to put you on the spot, pick on you or mess with you. I am very pissed off at Citibank and this call center tamaasha. I am going to write a piece on them and denounce them for exploiting people like you, including making you change your name to something Anglo. Globalization of capital apparently entails globalization of exploitation. Tell me, are they treating you well? How much do you get paid? Richard: I am not able to talk about these things….um…Would you like me to remove your name from the list? CAD: Yes, thank you. Have an nice day, Richard.
*Probably something like Rishi, Rajesh, Rashid
“Re: Kal Penn’s audition story The problem is not about an Indian sounding name or western one, the problem is the lack of awareness among the west about India in general. They are happy looking at us as people with turban and a saree. But as we know there is much more to us than that. Unless the other layers that form our identity dont feature on media, we are bound to be represented as above.”
i understand what you’re saying, but i think having to change your name in this day and age to something more “acceptable sounding” is pretty sad. names are considered just as “exotic” as clothing. if it’s important for us to be represented as accurately and authentically as possible in america, isn’t it also important that those of us with “exotic” sounding names be represented as such without having to change it? besides, other magazines, tv news shows have already done plenty of photos, covers and news pieces with more western-looking, fast-food eating, american-style consumerist indians. so i don’t think that side of india has not been represented. like it or not, india is still by and large a turban-wearing, sari-wearing country, even in urban areas. if some americans can’t distinguish between the geographical country of india and indians in america, that’s their problem.
as for turban and sari, go to any mall in the u.s. and you will see some indian families shopping, some wearing turbans and others sarees or salwars. i also see african women in traditional wear and women in burkhas. to the ignorant, it doesn’t matter whether the above woman on the magazine cover is wearing more elaborate bharatanatyam-style or just a simpler salwar or sari with smaller bindi or nose-ring. turban, sari, salwar, nose ring, bharatnatyam-style – it’s pretty much all the same to them. does this mean that those indians who choose to wear turbans or saris/bindis in america are doing their fellow abcds, fobs a huge disservice by perpetutating stereotypes? should they remove these visual differences to cater to the lowest common denominator? if the image above had been a Sikh wearing a turban, would it have been exotification just because some dumb casting directors wanted Kal Penn to wear one because that was what they thought all indians wore? one could argue that that image might have further reinforced their stereotype about turban-wearing indians and made it harder for future Kal Penns in america. should muslim women in america stop wearing the hijab (after all, some Muslims say it’s not necessary) to stop people staring at them and making bigoted and stereotypical comments they probably wouldnt’ make if they weren’t wearing such an “exotic” headgear? or mabye they still would, no matter how they were dressed, just because of their skin color.
i asked my sister to show this cover to her american co-workers at the office, and not one of them thought indian women in call centers actually dress like this. they found it interesting and wanted to know the significance of the jewellery etc. a couple of guys said the woman was beautiful, but they would have said that even if she was wearing a simple salwar or sari or jeans and a t-shirt. i doubt any of their already formed opinions/no opinions on india were drastically changed because of the cover itself. the articles themselves will probably have a greater chance of doing that.
speaking of football fans, in addition to the featured brazilian fan on this site, i saw several brazilians dressed like native indians from the rainforest, feathers and loincloths and all, several korean women in hanboks, some africans in tribal dress etc. that’s probably not how the average “modern” soccer fan dresses in their respective countries when going to matches, but obviously there’s something about the world cup that brings out this need for symbolism. are these fans doing their national origin counterparts in america a huge disservice by perpetuating “exotic” stereotypes to the ‘ignorant” americans watching the world cup?
“But this woman insisted her name was “Karen Smith”. Very clearly desi voice, not a faux-American accent. Still, Karen Smith …”
that happened to me with a guy. his accent kept slipping and he pretended he couldn’t pronounce my name which really annoyed me. i was tempted to challenge him and say “cut it out” but then i thought that would compromise his job. it was very sad and i felt sorry for him being forced to “put on whiteface” in order to have to do his job. that, to me, is the worst form of reverse exotification and a form of slavery or colonial-like servitude.
I don’t like the very idea of changing ones name while working at a call center. I’ve herad a lot of IBDs and ABDs criticize this practice…but at the same time, they too are “guiltly” of the same “offence”. They know the correct pronunciation of their names..but instead use the “Americanized pronunciation” for everyday conversation.
@cad, #174
come on cad, not a nice thing to do to “out” him forcibly. obviously the guy wants to keep his job, no matter how exploited you think he is. and mentioning him to citibank counts as a failure on his behalf, whatever your intentions are.
he has for sure encountered americans who have bad mouthed him, and he probably has the impression (maybe wrongly) that half of the US congress is out to get him. you are hurt on his behalf that he is forced to put up an artificial persona—but the reason he is doing it is because you are outnumbered by people who would not want to deal with a rashid or rishi. that unfortunately is reality.
now i know why a few obvious desi callers refuse to pronounce my name. 🙂 thankfully a majority do pronounce it properly—saves me so much hassle. to spell out my name, i have over the years made up a “city” expansion for the letters, an “animal expansion”, the navy expansion, a “states of US” expansion… thanks to the conflict between indian language pronounciations of p,b,t,d and the anglo-pronounciation of those letters.
brown_fob:
Look- when I’ve pronounced my name– a very Desi-esque name– the correct way, I get Amreekans looking at me with “Come again?” or “Excuse me?” If I pronounce it the Amreekan way, they get it in a couple of tries. Same thing for my pops and moms.
bytewords:
I know, it occured to me about a day later when I was reflecting on this phone call, and I felt very bad. So I am guilty as charged.
CAD:
That’s true. But at the same time, don’t you think its important to let them know your “real name” (as it was supposed to be) ? Why do you want to mess with something that’s an essential part of your identity…just because someone can’t roll his/her tongue to pronounce it correctly.
The main reason why call-center workers use pseudonym is to make it easier for their customers. You’re doing the same thing..but in a different context.
Since many of us take the trouble to pronounce English and French and whatnot words correctly (or so we hope), I don’t see why other people can’t at least try to extend the courtesy to us. Try, is all I ask, and sure, if you still end up saying my name with a slightly (but only slightly) American accent, I’m okay with that. My southindian/bengali name gets butchered in other parts of India too, after all :).
What I will not do is change how I pronounce my beautiful Indian names just to make it easier for other people. I’m uncomfortable with the hierarchy of languages and cultures something like this sets up — why all the effort to say French words correctly…are Indian words not even worth a tiny try? Granted English has more European origins, but still…
Besides Sanskrit belongs to the Indo Aryan group of languages, doesn’t it.
My pronounciation pet peeve: Boo-dist and Boo-dists. Yech.
Not to forget that other spine crawley favourite :): Gandi
Not trying to set off a ‘how stupid Amreekans mispronounce things’ bash…
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blockquote>That’s true. But at the same time, don’t you think its important to let them know your “real name” (as it was supposed to be) ? Why do you want to mess with something that’s an essential part of your identity…just because someone can’t roll his/her tongue to pronounce it correctly. The main reason why call-center workers use pseudonym is to make it easier for their customers. You’re doing the same thing..but in a different context.blockquote>
Oh please, give me a break. You’re making too much of this. It’s not like I replace my name with “Sally”, “LaVerne”, or “Shirley”. I keep my name, just that I pronounce it with an Amreekan accent because people really don’t get it when I pronounce it the Desi way. They have a hard time remembering it the “Amreekan” way, let alone the Desi way. Trust me on this, ok? I’ve tried this many times.
As far as my “essential identity” goes, I grew up around a majority of non-Desi folks all my life and I’m used to having my name butchered from day one. My “essential identity” hasn’t been affected by this, however. Just because people of certain linguistic backgrounds cannot pronounce my name the Desi way and I make it easier for them by pronoucing it in the given accent doesn’t mean it somehow destroys my “essential identity”. My “essential identity” has been strongly in tact, thank you very much.
Like what French words? There are plenty of foreign words in the English language that we butcher all the time.
To not veer off the thread anymore, back to the original topic: that girl on the cover reminds me of a peacock. I don’t think it’s entirely accidental…
Meghna- Myagna Santosh- Syantush Mohammad- Mohyam-mad Anil- Anal (Sorry about this one but its true)
Sorry for above post, didn’t hit preview. My bad. Fink:
Not to sound mean, but it does sound like you are bashing “stupid Amreekans”. How can you denounce and criticize people of certain linguistic backgrounds who cannot pronounce certain words and sounds in other languages? I speak 3 different languages, and if everytime someone put me down because I was unable to pronounce sounds and letters that did not exist in any of my mother tongues, that would be very mean.
There are sounds in both the Hindi and Gujarati alphabets that do not exist in English. How can you expect that someone would be able to pronounce the way a native speaker can?
Ok, I am closing this topic. No more comments on this subject from me.
CAD,
I would hardly call what I wrote denouncing and criticizing :)! I specified that it was enough for me if someone tried to pronounce a word of another language ‘properly.’ Of course I’m aware that (a) speakers of one language often simply cannot either distinguish between sounds of another OR pronouce them (I’ve had East Asian friends giggle at my attempts to say words in Japanese/Chinese) and (b) how something is pronounced is often debatable.
.
Come on. In educated ‘chic’ circles there is at least an ATTEMPT to pronounce French words and expressions properly — fois gras, fleur de lis …you name it! It is seen as uneducated and crude to misprounce these and I see people take a lot of trouble over saying them right. I would love to see that courtesy extended to desi words too. Its not that difficult to say “Gandhi” or at least TRY the “dh” sound.
Oh no.
LET us twain walk aside from the rest;
Come! vouchsafe to me what has yet been vouchsafed to none?Tell me the whole story.
CAD:
Cheapo – Now don’t get all riled up. I used the term “essential PART of you identity” and not “essential identity”. There are a lot more important things that make up someone’s identity.
Fink – I am with you on the french thing. You’ll never find French people mispronouncing their names..just to make it easy for someone else. They will never call “Jacques Chirac” a “Jackes Chiraak”. Infact this is considered a No-No in the elite society….a faux-pas (fox-pas!).
CAD:
Yup..plenty. But this does not mean that foreigners should resort to our way of pronouncing those words.
174 – Cheap Ass Desi:
Call centre calls are monitored and some are probably checked by the chap’s superiors. It is likely that the call centre employees are not allowed to divulge their real names. Anyway, why harrass the poor guy?
My first name is ‘Aparna’. If I start pronouncing my name the way it should be pronounced (which I can do, but with an ABD accent), I’ll be stuck with being called ‘Awporna’ by my well-meaning compatriots. Which sounds rotten. I’d rather my name be rendered as ‘Aparna’ than have it be torturously drawled and twanged into something as hideous as ‘Awporna’.
Vikatakavi:
I know, I know!! I admitted in post #178 that
I feel bad enough already; but since I committed an error, I can’t complain or try to defend myself. I must pay the price. Having sinned, I must repent.
Just to clarify, I didn’t do it so as to “harass” “Richard”, though: I really was in a pissed off and incensed mood to write a piece on Citibank and call centers. Of course I wasn’t going to use his real name had he given it to me–I just wanted to know out of curiosity. But yeah– I must have put him in an awkward position. Wish he would call me now, though. That way I can apologize to him. But it won’t happen; he took me off the list and so I won’t ever hear from him again….
Aparna (aka DQ) – How do you pronounce your name when you meet a person for the first time ? I can very well understand that it is difficult for people to pronounce your name…but my point is that one should at least make an attempt to tell his/her “real name”.
I’ll be a bit angry if I learn 2 years down the line that I was using an incorrect pronunciation of a friend’s name…and he/she made no attempt to tell me the real pronunciation.
Newsflash my ABCD friends…there are plenty of Indians with western sounding names …. Goans/Mangalorean Catholics, kerala christians ,anglo indians ,and other Christian communities like Nagas, Khasis commonly use Biblical or just generic western names….its not a big deal..
Some Indian americans (mainly ABCDs..not so much FOBS) have asked me…what’s your REAL name ..my name is really (insert name of Saint here) (portuguese surname)..and YES I am Indian..Russel peters had a joke about this..that many Indians would not believe that his name really was Russel peters !
so those call center brothers/sisters may have been telling the truth! he really may have been richard and i know plenty of karens too back in my hood… 🙂
and dearest cheapa, you will never know what might have been..
If you’re really irritated, here’s who’s responsible for the cover: “PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY ARTHUR HOCHSTEIN. WOMAN BY HILL STREET STUDIOS-GETTY IMAGES BLEND COLLECTION. BACKGROUND: SUNBURST FROM PIXTAL; TAPESTRY FROM ISTOCKPHOTO”
Here’s an excerpt from an article about Hochstein (art director for Time) about designing the covers:
And here’s our princess at Hill Street Studios from a different angle (click on the bindhi at the bottom right). It’s a stock photo, which is probably why it looks like a stock photo.
And finally, here’s a selection of hundreds of photographs from Getty Images on the search “India” that Time could have used instead. Personally, I think they should have used this one.
since we are on mispronounciations, did iraq’s pronounciation as eye-raq happen because imac, ibook and ipod came first?
maybe if the iraq war started earlier, it would be iraq still.
when the US fights iran, every newsreader will be running for no apparent reason. maybe they wont say eye-ran but mess it up in a new way.
maybe if the iraq war started earlier, it would be iraq still.
all through vietnam war, pentagon generals and wonks never pronounced vietnam correctly in their press briefings. that was 1st sign that they knew nothing about the country.
I’d feel really odd if I started pronouncing my name in the true Bengali way now – it would be affected. This is simply because I have pronounced, and heard my name pronounced, in the North American way for decades, and only rarely in the Bengali way. I love my name and have been told, over and over, by people here, how beautiful it is – so this isn’t an issue of trying to conform to the dominant culture. My name is its North American version now. Why? Because I’m North American. This is a beautiful thing, not a sad one.
The fact is that ABDs are in the process of creating new cultural norms, customs, habits, pronunciations, just like any migrant ethnic group. FOBs/Indians may not understand this, and tend to pull in one direction while the dominant culture pulls in another. ABDs are caught in between. You see this tension over and over on this site, with FOBs accusing ABDs of various things and vice versa. But the tensions are fruitless. Culture in a human being is organic, changeful, limitless. I have started answering those in India who are upset that my Bengali is not great with the following response: ‘I might not speak good Bengali, but my French is excellent’. What does it matter, whether a human being drinks at this well or at that one? Those kinds of differentiations are petty, self-serving, and ultimately jingoistic.
Let us go our own way. If we are not exactly the way you are, it isn’t because we don’t love our Indian roots. It is because those roots are mingling and fusing with our North American ones. And one day a drawled out, twangy ‘Aparna’ or ‘Maya’ or ‘Seema’ will be as common here, perhaps, as a drawled out, twangy ‘Julio’ or ‘Enrique’ are now.
Great post Aparna. You’ve put it beautifully.
I second that DQ. Thanks.