Alchemy of Waves

The water lapped against my feet. It was a beautiful day with cool breeze lightly blowing, the kind that lifted the tips of your hair, but not the kind that gave you goose bumps. The high tide causing the waves to crash against the shore was a sign of danger for some but to me they looked like they were inviting me to come and play. It was early morning and though the sun hadn't shown its glowing face yet, the sky was still light and colored with a host of different shades, as though painted freely with hands of an imaginative five year old. The shouts and shrieks of children as they dived into the waves and let them envelop their gigantic arms around them broke the silence that was otherwise only broken by the sound of the gentle movement of the sea…

Smiling quietly and basking in the beauty of my surroundings, I then realized how odd I must look just standing there, staring into space. Quickly tying my hair up into a tight pony tail, I ran into the water just as the mother of all waves came crashing onto me resulting in my losing my footing and being thrown onto the beach like a helpless starfish. Disoriented for a second but recovering quickly, I laughed, probably out of relief and invigoration, watching as the people around me squirmed in the mud, trying to get up before the next wave came. Squeals of excitement filled the now warm air as wave after wave drenched us, doing nothing but just building up our adrenaline levels. Spluttering and coughing as a wave took us by surprise we would struggle a little to get on our feet but always managed.

I hadn't been on the beach in years, but I had always reminisced about it and sometimes I wondered why that happened. As I lay on my pillow that night, devoid of all energy and excitement, I smiled when I realized why. 

Dismal Delusions of Directors

The standard norm for the portrayal of Indians on American sitcoms is that they’re skin color is dark, they have an uncanny accent which sounds suspiciously like a badly disfigured South Indian and are always subject to making fun of Indian culture. Factually speaking, Indians are known as proud, self-respecting and yes, brown people all over the world. American sitcoms however, delineate them in a completely different light.

The most common example one can take is from the Big Bang Theory where Raj (an Indian) is one of the five main protagonists of the show. Raj had a psychological fear of speaking to women and has an accent which you wouldn't a single Indian speaking in anywhere in the world.  He is often shown talking to his parents through a webcam where they keep him updated on their sadly misinterpreted-by-the-American-director’s, ‘Indian’ lives and who he should marry, in the same outlandish accent. If you look at today’s generation of Indian parents and their twenty- something children, especially those who are living in the US, you will hardly find any or maybe no parents who pressure their kids into marriage. Raj is also known not to like Indian food, refusing to eat it when the group buys it for dinner. This brings to light Raj’s dislike for his Indian heritage as he claims he is sick of curry and rice something that he has apparently had every day of his life while he was in India.

Another example can be taken in the form Principle Figgins from Glee, where he is seen to be talking in the same ridiculous accent, the same stereotypical appearance and the same misconceived behavior and gestures.

These are just two of the many Indian characters who are portrayed in the same norm. In reality, these conceptions of Indians are really not true. It’s undeniable that Indian’s can be loud and unruly sometimes but judging them by that and not looking at their sophisticated and well behaved population, isn't fair. Also, Indians can be white. So to the directors, “Go get a reality check.”