Indian Mentality

Now is the time! Finally, after 2 years of hiding under the “I’m Busy” excuse, I finally pushed myself out of my laziness to blog again. I thought about what to write but couldn’t really zero in on something that was relevant and interested me until I read a news (Actually it was a gossip! But today both can easily substitute for each other, isn’t it?? )

Sherlyn Chopra. She forced me to write something. She has forced a lot of men to do a lot of things! Pretty harmless hot babe. She never does anything wrong. Things just happen to her. Like every other girl. Anyways, before most of my friends start their crappy criticism for my choice of topic I just have one thing to say, “Read it fellas!!”

She supposedly got an offer from the prestigious PLAYBOY magazine to pose for a cover and the media went bizarre! An Indian chick on playboy, wow! Websites posted this news with perfect and alluring headlines to get more hits and I guess it worked pretty well for them. But what disturbed me was the headline next day. Actually the article. A headline can never be bad when it has the word ‘playboy’ in it!

The article said that Sherlyn had refused to pose for the magazine. Fair enough. It’s her choice. She already has done a lot in this field! But it was followed by: “the Indian mentality came in the way.” The first thing I thing I did after this was to read the name of the reporter. He was an Indian. This is what disturbed me. What was this guy’s perception about the so- called “the Indian mentality”. Is a girl refusing to shed clothes wrong? The way it was mentioned evidently suggested how horrible and substandard a thing it was. A lot of people, Indian people, seem to use these two words a lot nowadays, to judge people, situations with parameters only known to them.

Can you please enlighten me what exactly INDIAN MENTALITY is? Give me a perfect, objective answer. I know you can’t. It’s not possible. From my point of view, it’s only a phrase used by some hollow people to highlight their presence in a discussion in which they don’t really have anything to say. A model refuses to pose for PLAYBOY? Indian mentality. Aishwarya Rai refused to be a bond girl as she declined to kiss. Indian mentality. Are these actions, in any way, derogatory to India or Indians? Or referring to mere personal choices as results of Indian mentality is? I am a free man. I live in a free country. And I believe everyone has the right to do what they want. But, it’s disgusting when literate people use such terminology. Being Indian, or thinking Indian, is often referred to as inferior, by none other than Indians themselves. In between a conversation once, a friend said, “Yaar, yahan ke logon ki toh thinking hi aisi hai?” “Tum kahan ke ho…?” – is all I said. For certain spoon-fed kids who grew up in air-conditioned rooms and got a car by the time they finished school, normal people, travelling in trains or those who prefer to live modestly to save money, are inferior. Indians! Empty heads, ask your father how you great-grandfather or grandfather went to school, if at all, or how he sacrificed and saved for the family. Perhaps then you’d realize what truly an Indian mentality is.

For those who live in the illusionary world, Believing in the concept of oneness, even after innumerable clashes, that’s Indian mentality. Loving our cricket team, even after it loses time and again, that’s Indian mentality. Loving and living with your parents, even when you can have a hassle free luxurious existence, that’s Indian mentality. Welcoming troubling guest with a smile, that’s Indian mentality.

I don’t know why I wrote this down. This might be insanely unimpressive. But this was something that I thought I should talk about, with you, my so-called literate and educated friends (with all due respect!). Opinions welcomed. If I don’t like them, I might delete them. Indian mentality, you know!