DC spoke to a few Chennaiites who have been at the receiving end of unapologetic typecasting
A doctor has bad handwriting, art can never pay the bills, a south Indian can't be fair-skinned. Can we truly be free of prejudices that dog our thinking? DC spoke to a few Chennaiites who have been at the receiving end of unapologetic typecasting.
Chennai: They are annoying, laughable, and sometimes, even offensive — those stereotypes and prejudices. Living in a diverse culture can sometimes be so difficult; and India is the epitome of unity in diversity.
However, the question here is how well can you tame your mind when it comes to stopping it from stereotyping? A doctor definitely has bad handwriting; a musician's is certainly not always a full time profession; and oh! this one is simple, a south Indian has to be a 'Madrasi' (no matter if they come from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh or Kerala).
No, we are not being sarcastic, but only curious about how many times we have ever stopped to think whether these 'obvious, definite, certain and simple' prejudices stand true?
To prove that every human being is an individual, a match-making website truelymadly.com recently went around asking people how exactly we can defy our stereotypes.
Founding members Rahul and Hitesh share, “We would like to call ourselves a match-making website, not a matrimonial one. At this age and time, most people are not really looking into things like Manglik, caste, etc. Instead, they are on a lookout for compatibility. And the basic idea behind the whole campaign was just the same. Looking beyond the prejudices. So, we searched about 50 real people and ran this social experiment.”
Their campaign talks about 53 stereotypes and it reached out to more than 4.5 lakh people through social media: 29,000 people on Facebook, 7,400 unique visitors on their blog and over 3,000 interactions on Twitter.
With their campaign to debunk generalisations gone viral on social media, we spoke to a few Chennaiites about the various stereotypes they face and if there was a way to break them.
“I think the biggest stereotype people have about Chennaiites is that all South Indians have dark complexion and all women from Chennai put malli poo,” says Rishita Sawlali, a city based model. “Being a model from Chennai people expect me to have a dusky skin tone. Some have even been vocal about it by asking me — ‘you are look so fair, are you really from Chennai?” puts an exasperated Rishita. “Likewise,” adds Rishita, “all Chennaiites are expected to be highly educated, especially in technical fields. I have also heard other ridiculous misnomers like Chennaiites don’t wear branded clothes.”
Grey Shack lead vocalist and ex RJ Rohan Sen says the need to stereotype people comes from a conscious choice to ignore someone’s individuality. Rohan is part Bengali, who has been living in Chennai for many years now, therefore, while certain stereotypes typical of South Indians don’t apply to him, he feels he has been misunderstood many times by virtue of being an artiste. “I was often asked if Rjing was my full time job, or if making music pays my bills,” he says with a chuckle.
Actress Priya Mani, who featured in a scintillating item number in Chennai Express feels that stereotyping all South Indians as Madrasis is an age-old practice, and is the result of limited communication between the north and south. Commenting on the Hindi accent actress Deepika Padukone had for the film, Priya agrees that there is widespread misnomer that people from down south have a forced Hindi accent.
“While stereotypes about south Indians continue to exist, thanks to the development and expansion of the IT corridor in the city more and more people from different parts of India are coming and experiencing Chennai. Thanks to Chennai becoming more of a cosmopolitan, some of these stereotypes are becoming obsolete, as the people here become individuals rather than being clubbed as ‘south Indians.”
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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