The average Indians gets introduced to the western world mostly by Hollywood movies and RAP song videos. They like the stuff shown, think it is “Cool” to be wearing hooded tee-shirts, ripped and faded jeans, to get drunk, party hard late in the night, and all the stuff they see in those movies. Being western is the all-time favorite flavor here.
From the time of adolescence when we came to know about the world of “birds and bees”, we have been watching western models in porno stuff, most of us have seen American Pie, all 7 parts. Even premarital sex is catching fast and so on. Simply put, we do a lot of things that our parents don’t approve of and think it is okay in the West, which is not true. Seriously, this generation harbors some myths about the west and I would like to point out a couple of them.
We think
- It is in their culture to dress baring and suggestively, and their parents are absolutely “cool” and never have any problem with it.
- “Respect for women” ,“Respect for elders” and “Modesty” exist only in old Indian philosophy, Westerners never heard of that.
And much more of such crap..
I am not gonna lie, but I myself had such ideas, till I started blogging. I have been blogging seriously for around 6 months and the blogs I visited, I read them all very carefully. Some of which have corrected these beliefs of mine. I can’t recall all of them, but I am giving here the link to latest one I have read.
Bird’s Thoughts on Nipple Shirts and Lust (If you don’t have enough time to read the whole post, just go through the 5th para and the comments. You will know what I am talking about)
Conclusion:
Westerners may not be dressed in saris and dhotis, but they do have the same ideals as we have. They aren’t any different, neither they support all that bad stuff that our parents don’t approve of.
Santu Online! 
Wow! I’m honored! Thank you so much!
You are welcome! 🙂 🙂 U know, I read ur post just this morning and posted this one.
I’m always amazed when someone finds enough in one of my posts to write something of their own about it. It is just the highest honor!!
😀 😀
hey bro, you know i dont write or read much on wordpress lately, but this one totally caught my eye.
I have to admit, since 2004 i left India, never stayed there since then. but I had been trying to convince everyone there, that outside world is not as you think it is.
This is very good what you wrote.
I had been growing this idea for a month, but I needed a proof, a testimonial of sorts to make this into a blog post. Just this morning, read this post on Bird’s blog and I knew I had got what I needed.
Yeah, I have been missing your inspirational posts. U know, just the other day I was talking to my friend Indrajit (he is one of ur followers), about ur absence from WordPress.
Lastly, Thanx for the review! 🙂 U know, I cant hold myself together when I have such a GREAAAT feedback!! I m going nuts! 😀
If I have learned anything from cultural Anthropology, it is that strong bias exist when one studies their own culture – so I really find your perspective very interesting. I really live your conclusion that we are essentially the same, nevertheless, the challenging of putistic moral values is still a product of ‘western’ culture as evidenced by the movies you cited. Or perhaps I’m wrong here; does Indian culture also challenge the social norms found there independently of western influence. I suppose, since we all are just people, it probably does.
I am sorry to admit, but I could not make out the whole sense of this comment. You have put in a thoughtful comment no doubt. I appreciate that, but I don’t know what is “plutistic”.
Still, I guess u wanna know what are the social norms here. Traditional Indian culture commands respect for parents and teachers alike. Parents are regarded as the living avatars of the Almighty. All sorts of intoxicates are frowned upon, and greater emphasis is laid on achieving eternal peace. Now, the situation is that the youth(the non-traditional ones) don’t follow these and parents(the traditional ones) don’t like that. Here’s the conflict, and so comes the generation gap. The younger generation here thinks that parents in the West are absolute “OKAY” to all activities which are frowned upon by parents here.
Great post as you can tell because people are leaving comments. It is easy to have misconceptions about other countries and people. I am sure that I have no real understanding of life in India although I imagine it depends where you live. I had read that an actor from North America was very strongly criticized because he hugged an Indian actress at an award show. Hugging contact is very acceptable in North america, I found the kissing greeting in Europe new but like it. Mostly we are the same and one thing that i dislike a lot which you may post about sometime and that is swearing. Have a great day. I appreciate your sincere post.
Yes, you are right. Hugging and lip contact between two members of opposite sex in public, is not approved here. But no one cares now.. Everybody is on the bandwagon. If u rebuke them, they term you “Enemy of love”. I am not against love, but that does not mean that one has to show-off like that in public. People never try to understand the story behind any custom, its place or application. Someone just copies off something from somewhere and others follow on. If u aren’t on the bandwagon, then u r termed as old-minded and thrown away like trash..
Thanx for the compliment! I had never guessed this would be such a great post. 🙂
I am happy to know that you have discovered a universal sameness in humanity. We as a people will gradually, with the help of the Internet succeed in squashing stero-typing and replace it with good old common sense. People are the same everywhere and always have been – it is only times and circumstances that differ. Lesley 🙂
Exactly! That is what I am talking about! We may be dressed in different attires, but we think in the same way. At the end of the day, we all want a peaceful sleep 🙂
Peace be with you – good night 😉
Goodnight! 😀
very correctly put, somesh. there are lot of misconceptions because we perceive western culture and traditions based on what we see in the media, television, films, and fashion. we do not get to see a lot of other stuff too – poverty, religious fundamentalism, racism, criminal perversions. the fun thing here is that the same principle applies to our own culture too. we stay insulated from that which we do not want to see. our traditions are quite radical too in many areas. many of our rishis were born out of premarital, extramarital or even supernatural sex, many of our rishis remained rishis but fathered children, etc. i agree with you that cultures are similar at their roots across the globe. the differences that get highlighted are often either temporary trends or minority behaviour. enjoyed your observations, sir. do keep sharing your thoughts like this. and, yes, the link was useful.
Right you are! You have pointed out a very important thing I missed out. We too have radicals in our culture and philosophy, but we choose to ignore them as unseen.
Bdw, dont call me ‘sir’, I am not comfortable with that. I like to think, here all of us are friends! 😀
Frankly speaking i do have a quite different view from your conclusion.. for when i went to Thailand i went to a lot of places but didn’t found anything nice in many respects bt ya I do agree that parents there do have the same values and principles but a Complete Independence to 1 who has just crossed 18 yrs is not a grt thing as we in mere 18 yrs of age don’t become completely matured and if by any means we come across some wrong which in these immature eyes look to be good takes us into a trap and after that getting out of is very difficult.. pl do mark my words i don’t want to offend to any1 of you here or i do not intend to show any disrespect to any culture..
Sorry, I might have put it in a wrong way in the conclusion. I just wanted to point out that, the belief that we normally have that “wearing Western makes us more modern”, is not true. Here, by “wearing western” I mean the dirt and vulgarity that guys/girls supposedly think as normal.
Being modern comes from being true to ones own common sense, and not following blindly.
I am specifically talking about modesty, respect for elders etc +ve things that we are losing in our hot pursuit of being “Modern”.