The latest oxymoron to hit India
Reality Show
It’s either reality or it’s a show – it can’t be both! Whatever these American or Australian channels call their TV shows becomes a mantra for us! Suddenly, we have launched into all kinds of those shows (I refuse to use oxymorons as long as I am not aware of them!). But Indian television screen is a kind of used-scripts market. Any successful foreign show is just copied and pasted onto the Indian screen with even the same sets. The only Indian shows (reality or otherwise, but involving real audience) that did really take off were “Antakshari” and “Sa re ga ma”. Apart from that, every other show was a straight adaptation of the foreign original.
Anyway, I am not here to talk about the Indian shows that are doing the rounds and which ones are copied from where kind of an investigative study here. I was just wondering what’s happening on this ‘Big Brother’ show? Why is there so much of coverage on Shilpa Shetty being called all four-lettered words?! What is the whole issue? And is it an issue at all? These news channels seem to be relaying it on their main news headlines so much that you would begin to wonder if Shilpa Shetty is some official diplomat of the country?!
To begin with, these 24/7 news channels have not much to cover till a ”Saddam is hanged” or “Abhishek gets engaged to Aishwarya” or “Why Afzal should be hanged?” or some such thing. So, when Shilpa is being called names on live TV it needs to be shown, right?!
Racist slur – they (the news channels) call it. Clash of cultures and class – the programme owners call it. Quite obviously, both trying to increase their respective viewership base. To damn with Shilpa Shetty.
Coming back to the real world (not the reality show real!) racism exists. Look at this post, now that’s real life. People want to be racist only to ‘certain ears’ and not to everybody. Sadly, on ‘Big Brother’ I guess the contestants forgot that they were being caught on camera like Gibbs was caught by the stump microphone.
Further, when you talk to people who return from UK and USA you get to hear so many stories of direct racism, but they bear with it and come back because they went there for a purpose and always want to come back to their own country.
One of the CEOs of a top organization in India who has worked for 30 plus years in the US and came back once told me that it is impossible to grow beyond a certain level in an American company. They always prefer the American over you in case both of you are tied on performance for the next promotion. Now, that’s racism. And for real that too! So, the CEO came back to India and decided to settle down here for good.
A horde of my friends staying in the US and UK are constantly telling me about the racist attitude they need to put up with. That is reality. Nobody shows that. Because they say their society is tolerant and they will not tolerate such racism. If they pinch themselves they will also know that’s not the truth!
Unwittingly, ’Big Brother’ has brought to the surface what was always below the table. Raising a storm in Indian media, Governments are discussing what to do next (maybe a nuclear attack would have happened if we were US and the show was Iraqi!), Shilpa Shetty’s family doesn’t want ’unnecessary politicisation‘ - maybe their payment terms with Big Brother are 80% post-completion of the show, the sponsors are busy protecting their brands and the police has just arrived on the scene. In the meanwhile, Channel4 continues making money, Indian media piggybacks on this trend as usual. This is the reality and I am showing it to you!
Adi: Couldn’t agree more… heres my take on this “episode” http://bangaloreblues.wordpress.com/2007/01/18/shilpa-shetty-boo-hoo/
“One of the CEOs of a top organization in India who has worked for 30 plus years in the US and came back once told me that it is impossible to grow beyond a certain level in an American company.”
“A horde of my friends staying in the US and UK are constantly telling me about the racist attitude they need to put up with.”
Ah yes, two popular stereotypes! I can’t speak for the UK but I can say that the US is as close to a merit-based system as you can get. No system is perfect but there are too many people who use the racism card as a crutch and as a way to explain away their own shortcomings. Are there isolated incidents? Certainly there are but it is unfair to extrapolate from these and call an entire society racist.
Aditya:
Vijay’s brother?! Welcome! Welcome! :)
Yes, I see your point. And agree that we cannot extrapolate from these stray incidents that an entire society is racist. But racism is purely an array of stray incidents. Racism cannot be something like regular crimes, hence we can only get to racism through stray incidents. And that is one of the pitfalls of trying to identify whether racism is rampant or not.
Just a question, what do you say about the Gibbs incident?
Hi Adi, Thanks for the welcome. :-)
My reaction to the Gibbs episode is: Who cares what some idiot cricketer thinks? Do his comments suggest a racist attitude? Possibly, but may be that’s what he calls Australians and English fans too. What bothers me is our reaction to such incidents. Is it because we suffer from low self esteem that we’re extremely sensitive to perceived racist attitudes? To the point that we care about what some nobody who swings a cricket bat for a living thinks? I’m just curious: Would we make the same noise if a West Indian cricketer were to make that comment?
I’m not suggesting, btw, that we ignore racism. When racism is institutionalized, like it was in South Africa during apartheid it must be fought and that is why Mandela is a hero. It is nothing like that in the US and the UK and in most of the world.
When it comes down to it, Adi, what bothers me is the “I’m a helpless victim” attitude that people take. Be it people who complain about glass ceilings, or about feeling like a second-class citizen in the US/UK or moaning that international cricket is racist. Strong, independent and fearless people do something about it. For example, India can stamp out racism in international cricket because we control the money and that’s where power is derived from. We just have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves first.
Aditya:
You are right about Gibbs! But I doubt if he would have called any other fans the same things that he said. And I am sure more noise would have been made if it was a West Indian cricketer.
In case some country institutionalizes racism in today’s age, he will be wiped out. It will be the perfect reason for a war to break out which the world seems to be waiting for!
Yes, we need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves first. But I am wondering who did that?! Nobody ever did that anywhere. Having a point of view that “Indians have a low self-esteem”. Like you said, there is no point extrapolating a few stray incidents to the entire society’s attitude.