White Man's Burden


Angelina and Brad are hot property; they fetch much better rates than prime South Mumbai real estate. Greg Chappell gets mentioned in the papers if India loses, wins or the match gets rained off. John Wright, moderate opener, ordinary Kiwi, writes a book about Indian Cricket and sells like hot cakes. Fair and Lovely of course is the largest selling cosmetic in the country, if you discount some of Baba Ramdev’s remedies….

I watch 15 mins of news and that just about sums up my average TV viewing even on days when I have exclusive rights on the couch and feel like a potato. In those 15 mins I see Brad, Angelina and their Chinky and Negroid adopt-springs being flashed. They make a nice ad for probably Benetton or maybe racial unity. There is such a lot of ‘you know what’ reporting. E.g. “You know what Angelina boarded a local today…”You know what she also got off it”. There are journo sleuths following their motorcades, being thrown off like bad trash copy by their bodyguards, only to resiliently dust themselves and wag the tail on the trail, once again. Its not just the media, our minister of state of external affairs stood in front of cameras for so long holding Ms Jolie’s hand as if they had just agreed on a most strategic piece of the Indo US nuclear deal. No comments on what else he felt during the act.

Greg Chappell had journalists sneaking up behind his back during a practice session and listening to words of wisdom as they fell from his mouth, pitched on good length and beat every Indian player. He was widely reported to have scolded the Indian team and taken them to task. For all you know they might have discussed the ugly pajamas that Lalit Modi wears.


The fair skin still makes us Indians sit up and take notice. The White man’s burden is something that we carry with us, whether we admit to it or not. It’s probably not easy to shake off genetic conditioning that lasted a good 347 years when Paleface ruled us. Here’s to more brown and black days.

Comments

Chandru said…
The sensationalism isn't restricted to the white skin anymore!...and if its Anglina Jolie, then i'm sure she would have got a similar reaction anywhere is the word..but i do buy the point that when it comes to foreign celebs, we do behave like we are a third world country!
November 17, 2006 10:51 pm
Sharan Sharma said…
fundu post...how true...no bloody self-respect...of course, how can anyone have self-respect...the dirt, the filth, the corruption, the mess, the chaos, the.............
November 19, 2006 10:42 am
Ajith said…
thanks chandru....you're right.
Its not restricted to celebs though, its with the white skin per se and if you think abt it it applies to how there are stereotypes around how the lower castes in our country is portrayed, dark skinned, or even demons for that
True Sharan...even with security at airports, premium hotels....the bias is ingrained!thanks
November 19, 2006 11:04 am
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