Big Bother and an unlikely winner…
Last week was really weird with the mind-boggling media coverage and the scrutiny around the happenings in the UK Reality TV Show “Big Brother “. While Shilpa Shetty in a bid to boost her sagging career definitely did herself a lot of good by accepting 3 Crores to be a part of a show, even she would have been pleasantly surprised at the publicity that last week’s events have generated.
There is no denying the fact that the comments made against Shilpa were in bad taste and smacks of big-headedness. But some issues are being missed.
The point is, when you have a show that’s primarily trying to capitalise on selling private moments and reactions in a bunch of people’s lives you are asking for or rather fervently hoping for nasty things to be said and done. Now is that a justification for racist comments to be made, guess not but there’s only that much importance that one should attach to it. What if one of the participants had commented about the accent of a Spanish woman? (one of the remarks made about Shilpa was about her accent). Would we have considered it racist ? Maybe not. The problem is that of we being self-apologetic about what we are. I think Indians who raise a hue and cry about this issue are burdened with embarrassments about the way we look, speak and react in day to day lives. That to me is unwarranted. All sensible souls around the world irrespective of race are sane enough to admit the existence of various diversities. So when some Jade from the corner of the street who is probably not even capable of spelling India right at the first go, passes idiotic comments, the maximum that we might want to waste as a reaction should be “oh-really…God save you”. And what did we find ? Every media house worth its name (and even those who aren't worth their name) devoted a sizable % of their air time covering this episode. The Indian government opened diplomatic channels to condemn the actions. I am certain that there were much more important issues that warrant utilisation of resources. Jade and her gang in Big Brother …Don’t even bother. Stooping so low to react to an insult is worse than the insult itself.
Also, as a nation we should get rid of our hypocritic double standards and wake upto realities in our back yard. If any experience of watching Big Boss (the Indian Cousin of Big Brother) is enough qualification(I watched exactly 3 episodes), I can say that our version is more racist. We had a couple of struggling TV “stars” commenting about a South Indian participant that “she is apparently an actress, obviously you cant expect better looking things among Madraasis (the all encompassing category that south Indians are clubbed under by some people from the north)”. Another set of participants in one of their late night gossip sessons said something like “Anu and Carol are ‘models”, you expect them to encourage men to be all over them” and so on…….. lets leave the show behind for a moment
Lets pose a questions to ourselves – the common folk. We would have all come across or even contributed to comments traded by North & South Indians about traits such as accent, intelligence, behaviour and colour. So were those instances of racism? If so, then where did this anti-racist streak in us suddenly crop up from? Or are saying that its ok if we don’t appreciate our diversity but its not ok if foreigners fail to appreciate it. Now at the Government – There are still real issues of racism in India with Dalits not let into temples, not allowed to contest panchayat elections, people from the North East being discriminated against when it comes to jobs and a whole lot of things (now don’t tell me that all this is regionalism or casteism and not racism- its all garbage from the same dump). Affirmative and punitive actions aimed at correcting such practices have long been on paper with no real momentum. So lets not waste our time raising a diplomatic row about a wannabe celebrities ramblings. Far more important things should occupy a developing nation’s government’s “to-do” list.
Alas, who’s benefited from all this? Jade I guess – there was news that she got ￡30,000 to do it a bare-it-all interview about what actually transpired in those few days. Huh....So much for all the wasted effort
There is no denying the fact that the comments made against Shilpa were in bad taste and smacks of big-headedness. But some issues are being missed.
The point is, when you have a show that’s primarily trying to capitalise on selling private moments and reactions in a bunch of people’s lives you are asking for or rather fervently hoping for nasty things to be said and done. Now is that a justification for racist comments to be made, guess not but there’s only that much importance that one should attach to it. What if one of the participants had commented about the accent of a Spanish woman? (one of the remarks made about Shilpa was about her accent). Would we have considered it racist ? Maybe not. The problem is that of we being self-apologetic about what we are. I think Indians who raise a hue and cry about this issue are burdened with embarrassments about the way we look, speak and react in day to day lives. That to me is unwarranted. All sensible souls around the world irrespective of race are sane enough to admit the existence of various diversities. So when some Jade from the corner of the street who is probably not even capable of spelling India right at the first go, passes idiotic comments, the maximum that we might want to waste as a reaction should be “oh-really…God save you”. And what did we find ? Every media house worth its name (and even those who aren't worth their name) devoted a sizable % of their air time covering this episode. The Indian government opened diplomatic channels to condemn the actions. I am certain that there were much more important issues that warrant utilisation of resources. Jade and her gang in Big Brother …Don’t even bother. Stooping so low to react to an insult is worse than the insult itself.
Also, as a nation we should get rid of our hypocritic double standards and wake upto realities in our back yard. If any experience of watching Big Boss (the Indian Cousin of Big Brother) is enough qualification(I watched exactly 3 episodes), I can say that our version is more racist. We had a couple of struggling TV “stars” commenting about a South Indian participant that “she is apparently an actress, obviously you cant expect better looking things among Madraasis (the all encompassing category that south Indians are clubbed under by some people from the north)”. Another set of participants in one of their late night gossip sessons said something like “Anu and Carol are ‘models”, you expect them to encourage men to be all over them” and so on…….. lets leave the show behind for a moment
Lets pose a questions to ourselves – the common folk. We would have all come across or even contributed to comments traded by North & South Indians about traits such as accent, intelligence, behaviour and colour. So were those instances of racism? If so, then where did this anti-racist streak in us suddenly crop up from? Or are saying that its ok if we don’t appreciate our diversity but its not ok if foreigners fail to appreciate it. Now at the Government – There are still real issues of racism in India with Dalits not let into temples, not allowed to contest panchayat elections, people from the North East being discriminated against when it comes to jobs and a whole lot of things (now don’t tell me that all this is regionalism or casteism and not racism- its all garbage from the same dump). Affirmative and punitive actions aimed at correcting such practices have long been on paper with no real momentum. So lets not waste our time raising a diplomatic row about a wannabe celebrities ramblings. Far more important things should occupy a developing nation’s government’s “to-do” list.
Alas, who’s benefited from all this? Jade I guess – there was news that she got ￡30,000 to do it a bare-it-all interview about what actually transpired in those few days. Huh....So much for all the wasted effort
posted by SS at
6:39 PM
3 Comments:
shilpa, jade, channel 4 , all of em wud have laughed to the bank man.
hey,gr8 to c u blogging again :)
dude.. why no posts for long time ? moved again to elsewhere ?
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