Branded

I‘ve been thinking about lots of things to tell you guys this week. I have been thinking about the presence of LGBT in this country. I have been thinking about race- concepts of race, politics of race, hate-crimes….I have also been thinking about gelato.

Tonight I went to the only gelateria I know of in Mumbai and chatted with the owners of it. They were interviewed by TimeOut Mumbai. The guy and his co-owners are fairly young. When I went in I asked to sample certain flavors. The first one I chose was the chocolate chip cookie surprise. When I picked it, I thought, “I must be missing home” because I was hoping it tasted like chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. When he handed me the taster he said, “Are you American?” And I said, “Mm, yeah.” He said, “I knew because you chose a very American flavor.” Then I heard the woman standing next to him ask some customer if he needed help and she had an American accent. But He sounded like he had lived between the two countries or more for most of his life. His accent sounded ‘global’, neither here nor there, so I didn’t know from where he originated. Turns out they are both from Los Angeles and she’s his cousin who flew in from Hyderabad to help him out. He asked where I was from and he knew the ‘burgh! His bro had attended high school in the city of bridges (no longer ‘the steel city’ people). I was happy to chat with them. I wanted to stay for some time. I decided to leave as they seemed busy but maybe I‘ll go back and ask if they want to hangout sometime. They’re the first ‘normal’ expats I’ve met here.

Most are these new age hippies that are thrilled to be invited to all these society parties but don’t really know that they are part of the ambience and décor. They tend to be people who have come to India to find themselves but more likely to reinvent themselves. Or I meet some corporate types who are stationed here for work and happy for the affordable shopping but can’t wait to run into their promotion back in “the first world”. A conversation I overheard at FabIndia, a store which sells handwoven cotton clothes for dailywear from all over India illustrates the mentality I often run into:

Woman 1: Is this ‘too india’?
Woman 2: It’s a little ‘too india’, but it’s ‘pretty india’
Woman1: What about this, is this ‘too india’? I can’t buy anything ‘too india’ because then I can’t wear it, you know?
Woman 2: Oh, I know the stuff here is ‘so india’, not like the tunics (aka kurtis) we normally buy.
Woman1: Yeah, how can you wear ‘india’ everyday?
This went on for another ten minutes, then looking up from her book keeping
Store manager (quietly): Please leave the store.
Woman 1: Really? Oh…okay.
Woman 2: There’s nothing here anyway.

I feel pummeled with this idea of ‘india’ as brand because much of the news I read coming across the wires is about how India is marketing itself to move into the center position of the global market. News about ISB grads making 1 crore (approx. 233,000 usd) out of b-school, news of the nuclear deal and its parameters, 50% reservations for India ‘Centres of excellence’ II schools, OICs getting their right to vote…I’m getting the sense that the government and their partners are changing the course of things, like turning around a massive Viking ship.

Lately I have been keenly aware of ads for whitening creams. Fair and handsome, fair and lovely is an old favorite and now Garnier is marketing a cream that is supposed to lighten you skin color with 94% efficacy. This vulnerability, the desire to be fair, is older than British colonialism. I also thought about how racism is so insidious, it exists here where seemingly the society is homogenous. Also Crash made its debut here and people are talking about it.

Someone told me he felt it was contrived and too dramatic. I told him maybe in terms of the linkages between the stories, but those kinds of race-related violences do happen like faith-based violence happens here. I wasted my breath though because he chose to employ ‘straw person fallacy’ tactic.

Odd that he couldn’t understand what I was saying because just before we had this conversation he gasped when he saw that I left a line in an article that I edited about a certain Prophet’s personal life. He and another spun around and asked me if I was trying to incite a riot, especially in light of the cartoon riots. Even though the article was a reference to what someone other than the reporter had written about the Prophet’s life, these guys still had visions of angry rioters outside of our office.

The article was about this Bengali writer who chooses to write about and say scandalous things by denouncing religious figures/icons by linking them to sexuality/sensuality. He received an award named for a deity that he had claimed to have feelings of lust for when he admired a statue of her at the age of 12. He said he kissed the statue and experienced pleasure from the kiss. The way he actually relayed the information was poetic- he linked the fact that she was the goddess of learning to his awakening sense of adolescence. When I tried to discuss this with a friend, his face clouded over and he said, “Kav, in this society, saying something like that is equivalent to someone publicly saying he performed fellatio on a Jesus-statue.” Whoa, point taken.

As race is in the American context, religion is in the Indian context. You have to be careful about what you say, be aware of your audience, and try not to step on too many landmines about the issue unless you have good reason too.

LGBT for another time….