Commercially Culturally Competent

Wednesday, September 22
7:30 pm

    I turn on the TV to the Disney channel to find a very interesting show.  There are several women praying to a Hindu god and one woman appears to have magic powers (some green light comes out of her hand and another woman starts talking like a raspy dude bahahah)--everyone appears to be extremely over-enthusiastic in their acting, and it reminds me of an Indian Hannah Montana or Wizards of Waverly Place or something (haha clearly I babysit). It looks extremely cheesy and very much like the slapstick humor shows I've seen in Latin America…anyone seen El Chavo?…just found the parallel interesting.  It was also interesting to me how this is a disney channel show for kids and all the women are in saris and Indian attire (duh, I know); anyways, clearly TV shows are made in context of the country in which they are made, but it was just weird seeing that little Mickey Mouse outline in the bottom left of the screen with all these indian women running around accompanied by the periodic knob-adjusted audience laugh.
    This reminds me of some commercials I've seen on the tube that help me realize how much culture influences the media.  I've never noticed this at home because America is the culture I am used to.  For example, there is one car commercial with a guy driving, and his wife is in the passenger seat with her hands raised daintily so as to not mess up her recently applied henna.  The dude looks very concerned that she's going to get it on the car and she winks and says that she won't.  They pull up to a friends house and the woman forgets or something and puts her hand on the dashboard, smearing her henna all over it in the process…the guy looks almost upset but she just shrugs and smiles and goes "same color?" (the dashboard and the henna are both a darker brown)….they both laugh and then 3 other girls come out of the house with recently applied henna and they all laugh and they drive away with all hands raised, embellished with henna swirls.  That car interior matches wet henna so Im getting it!   Hehe not really, but you get my point?  If not, I have another commercial for ya,
    So there is a girl on a date of sorts with a guy (appears a bit geeky) and then you see her dad pop up behind the guy and stealthily hold the traditional wedding headdress for a male over the guys head…he's pointing and smiling at the girl while doing this.  She scrunches her nose and shakes her head and leaves.  This repeats two more times with two more guys on different dates, each time the girl throwing her hands up and leaving the date all frazzled and frustrated.  Now all this is in Hindi so I can only speculate what is being said while these scenes are happening, but I imagine its something like "are you tired of your father pressuring you to marry losers?!"…something like that….then after, the screen pops up with a website that looks like the equivalent of Match.com or Eharmony… shows a computer screen with a cursor running over some attractive dude faces/profiles and then it flips to the girl on the computer looking at the different guys…and her dad is behind her pointing and helping her pick and they both laugh and look happy doing so together.  This commercial caught me very off guard the first time I saw it and I still find it fascinating to watch.  I'm picturing JIm Dunham and I doing this…. hehe so awkward!  Sorry dad but you know that'd be uber strange if we did that.  Arranged marriages are still very much a norm here in India, and subject or act of having a girlfriend/boyfriend is taboo.  This commercial's website boasts the perfect solution for you and your father to pick a husband together!  In Calcutta, specifically, it is more accepted by my generation to have boyfriends and girlfriends.  Calcutta is much more westernized than the rest of India so I am very interested to see the cultural norms in southern India (as I am told by every single Indian that it is a different world compared to here.) 
   
    Yesterday, after our second teaching lesson, one of our observers/evaluators invited Phil Collins and I over to her home for tea…So sweet!!!  Her home is absolutely GORGEOUS and eclectically decorated with paintings, photography, Hindu god sculptures, tapestries, etc.  She has two sons, so in her home it is her, her husband, two sons, two wives, granddaughter, and then two more people that I don't know who they are--she said there were 9 people living there total.  It was so interesting to me because she exclaimed several times "I'm so lucky because my children and their wives still live with me!"  I'm thinking 'any American parent would be like GET THE HECK OUT ALREADY!'  Actually I did say this out loud and she laughed and reiterated that she loves it and would be devastated if they left.  A girl who works for ATI and sat in on our class a few times had a conversation with Colleen and was simply amazed at the fact that Colleen didn't live with her parents and that Colleen cooked for herself!?!? what!?!?  It is much more family-oriented here… huge families living together under one roof…close quartered offering love and support for one another.  I am reading a book called The Namesake (mom you need to start reading this asap….megan, you too) and its extremely poignant in describing cultural differences between America and India.  One part depicts this woman, Ashima, and her giving birth in America.  She thought it was weird to have a baby in a hospital--a place where mostly sick and dying go.  She describes feeling so isolated and alone and wishes she was back home having her child with her sisters, mother, aunts, and grandmothers surrounding her.  In America it felt very alone, too much space, no social support <---social work term!… I felt so horrible reading this!  Anyways, Im not that far into the book but love it so far and I think it will help me learn a lot about the cultural aspects happening all around me.  Its also really cool because Ashima is from Calcutta and the book has made references to many places I've been to!….it even talked about Tollygunge road which is the street I live on!  Exciting times.