Recently, I saw that some of the kids channels have come up with Hindi shows which mostly aim at the teenage audience. I remember that when I was very little and my sister was as old as I am now, shows like ‘School Days’ and ‘Hip-Hip Hurray’ appealed a lot to the teens. But now, that is not the case. In recent year, teenage fiction shows have on channels like Disney have failed to be as popular as they once used to be.
It is because these shows have nothing to like in them.
Firstly, these shows are very unrealistic. For example, practically all schools in India have uniforms. We hate them, but we have to wear them. But in these shows, the students never have to wear uniforms. If they did have to wear uniforms, maybe then the writers could come up with some relevant storylines, like students campaigning against having to wear the same thing everyday or teachers punishing students because the hemline of their school is an inch too high. Here is a second example, students never have to go to Science Labs or P.T. Class, they are always in the Drama room or in the Hindi class. Another example: these shows have fifteen-year-old kids forming their own musical bands and struggling to make it big in the music world. This idea has been incorporated in the last three marginally high-budget teen shows I can think of and now it is getting a little stale.Besides, it’s not like all students have an interested in music; some are into art, some are into dance and some may even be really into academics! Lastly, in my life I have never come across an Indian band comprising of a bunch of fifteen-year olds who get paid to perform at gigs. In fact, I can’t really remember any mainstream Indian band at all. If only the producers could just let the characters have expectations which are more realistic and common than becoming a successful band, like getting into IIT or maybe even challenging the upper-middle class society and deciding not to get into IIT. But alas, these shows look like they are set in a parallel universe, where India is like America as it is portrayed by the media and teenagers worry about petty friendship-problems and never about board exams and home-work.
The second problem is that the producers seem to be hell-bent upon adopting the American concept of stereotypes and cliques. There is always the ‘Mean Girl’, the ‘Crybaby’, the ‘Tomboy’, the ‘Rock Star’, the ‘Nerd’, the ‘Sweet Little Girl’ and the ‘Rebel’. You can only describe these characters in a maximum of one word, like ‘sweet’ or ‘tomboyish’ or ‘stupid’. You can never use a little more mature adjectives for them, like ‘angry’ or ‘naïve’ or ‘egotistic’ or ‘confused’. The worst part is that when teenagers watch these shows, they feel that they too need to be of a certain ‘type’ and thus start conforming their behaviour to match that of their favourite TV character.
Last but not the least, these shows are not very original. They seem like the producers took some story ideas from ‘Hannah Montana’ and some ideas from ‘The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody’, mixed them together and translated them in Hindi. Sometimes, these shows become too wholesome. All the characters have perfect morals. They never get jealous and they never get too angry. That is why they can’t send out the good message they want to send to the teens, because all the characters are morally perfect, something we can never be.
I know that English shows are better than Hindi shows in lots of ways. I’ll end this with a comparison between my favourite American teen drama, Dawson’s Creek, and the Indian shows we get on TV these days. Dawson’s Creek ran from 1998-2003. It was about the life of Dawson and his friends Joey, Jack, Jen and Pacey. Joey is the one with a dead mother and a criminal father and Jen is a troubled teen. But if the show were Indian, Joey would have had no troubled past, she would simply be the ‘tomboy’ and Jen would not even be on the show. They talk openly about every subject we might call indecent, but at the same time they all (except Pacey, perhaps) are very principled. But if the show were Indian, there would never be an episode about how many kids are taking to smoking and alcohol these days. When Dawson’s Creek first started, critics blasted it saying that it had a bunch of teenagers who live in a world where conversations include constant analysis and small-talk seems to be a crime. Even this was incorporated into the storyline when Dawson makes an autobiographical movie and his film teacher says that “it is just about some teenagers who talk too much”. But can an Indian show develop its own identity instead of just walking the path which has already treaded by many short-running teen fiction shows and maintain its identity even if some critic points out a flaw? I don’t think so.
What producers should understand is that we need shows which are as good as Western shows, not exactly like the Western Shows. Maybe if we get a show which is relevant to our life and has to do with our day-to-day problems, we might as well watch it. Until then, I am going to stick to the original ‘Hannah Montana’.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Are we really fair?
I am a teenager and already aware that if you are dark, you are in for a tough life, especially with so many advertisements on TV which show how an Indian girl gets rejected by prospective suitors and at job interviews because she is dark and then she pick up a fairness cream and voila, in just seven days, she is a star. Well, just like those ad girls, in the past, I have had to suffer a lot for my skin colour.
For first 13 years, I was living in Delhi, where fair complexion seemed to be highly desirable feature. And, unfortunately, there were quite a few very fair girls in my locality and in school, and they made sure that I feel inferior because of my skin colour. Every now and then, one of my friends would say, “You’re dark but your sister is fair”, in such pitiful tones that it seemed like they were sympathizing with me for being the ugly duckling who has to live under the swan’s shadow. All these to an otherwise very active and popular girl.
When I was younger, I joined the Dance Club of my school. There were two dance groups. The first group was for the good dancers. Surprisingly, I turned out to be a pretty good dancer. Everybody said that. Then why was I in the second group. It was because there was no first group and second group. There was the ‘pretty’ group and ‘ugly’ group.
The first group got the better song, the better costume, more complements and the right to whine and sulk if the second group took a minute of extra practice time. I was in the second group. The first group was full of fair-y queens, we were the ladies-in-waiting. India is a place, where in a school function, even audience are not expected to appreciate really good dancing, but to exclaim “so cute” while watching the dancers in the front row.
I looked generally like any normal healthy girl. But, alas, my problem was that I was dark, and in India, and most part of the world adorable young princesses are always fair. Since childhood, all our English story books have been telling that all good fairy tale characters are fair complexioned. Think of the irony when in European background – Snow White’s stepmother say ‘who is the fairest of all’? But not ‘who is the prettiest of them all’? Imperialists have wired the fair-ness idea in our brain so strongly that there seems to be no escape. We even forget that many of our pretty princes in Indian mythology and history were actually dark and were considered beautiful.
In those days, everyday my friends would suggest use of sunscreens and bleaches for me. Those ads on TV irritated me so much that I could kill myself. As if that was not enough, soon the companies came up with fairness creams for men and TV soap operas about the ‘struggles’ of a dark-skinned girl.
Now here is the truth about our obsession with fairness creams. Businessmen selling cosmetics renamed bleaching products as fairness products and now happily minting money. Ads get us to believe that we are ugly, just to sell their products. Plus, there is a lot of clever marketing involved. And, they do not tell what else ‘fairness cream’ does. Well they corrode our skin. And, nobody is sure what its long term side effects are.
These days nobody says anything about my skin colour. Somehow, my skin seems to be a shade or two lighter (without those bloody creams), but I am not fair even today. I go to my new school in Mumbai now. Here boys and girls are much nicer and nature’s law of average is actually towards average complexion, so none of them are zombie white. In fact, people here are prettier than in my old school. Sure, here too people are complemented for being fair, but nobody is openly taunted for being dark. All of a sudden, I think Tyra Banks; a black model is really smart and beautiful. I don’t want to look like those fair girls on TV add and sit-coms now. I know that pretty people look pretty because they are pretty, not because they are fair. Now I know that I am not as ugly as I was once made to feel.
-----------------------------------
(In Cuba – “white” Hispanic Cubans so pleasantly coexist with their “black” African counterparts. Well, that is the utopia, brought in by a proactive Government and positively activist citizens. There all dolls are to be made in two shades - fair and dark. Cuba has one of the highest literacy and educational standard in the world. Indeed, they used education to build a healthy nation and remove adverse prejudices.
So, education is the solution, not the fairness creams. In fact right education to give right attitude and a bit of social awareness and activism are all it takes to make the change. We did the same successfully against smoking and reckless smokers are no longer considered heroes.
We must think and act. After all it is one of the silliest (and mentally cruelest) prejudices which remain to be eradicated for a really enlightened India that threw out the Gore Log a long time back.)
For first 13 years, I was living in Delhi, where fair complexion seemed to be highly desirable feature. And, unfortunately, there were quite a few very fair girls in my locality and in school, and they made sure that I feel inferior because of my skin colour. Every now and then, one of my friends would say, “You’re dark but your sister is fair”, in such pitiful tones that it seemed like they were sympathizing with me for being the ugly duckling who has to live under the swan’s shadow. All these to an otherwise very active and popular girl.
When I was younger, I joined the Dance Club of my school. There were two dance groups. The first group was for the good dancers. Surprisingly, I turned out to be a pretty good dancer. Everybody said that. Then why was I in the second group. It was because there was no first group and second group. There was the ‘pretty’ group and ‘ugly’ group.
The first group got the better song, the better costume, more complements and the right to whine and sulk if the second group took a minute of extra practice time. I was in the second group. The first group was full of fair-y queens, we were the ladies-in-waiting. India is a place, where in a school function, even audience are not expected to appreciate really good dancing, but to exclaim “so cute” while watching the dancers in the front row.
I looked generally like any normal healthy girl. But, alas, my problem was that I was dark, and in India, and most part of the world adorable young princesses are always fair. Since childhood, all our English story books have been telling that all good fairy tale characters are fair complexioned. Think of the irony when in European background – Snow White’s stepmother say ‘who is the fairest of all’? But not ‘who is the prettiest of them all’? Imperialists have wired the fair-ness idea in our brain so strongly that there seems to be no escape. We even forget that many of our pretty princes in Indian mythology and history were actually dark and were considered beautiful.
In those days, everyday my friends would suggest use of sunscreens and bleaches for me. Those ads on TV irritated me so much that I could kill myself. As if that was not enough, soon the companies came up with fairness creams for men and TV soap operas about the ‘struggles’ of a dark-skinned girl.
Now here is the truth about our obsession with fairness creams. Businessmen selling cosmetics renamed bleaching products as fairness products and now happily minting money. Ads get us to believe that we are ugly, just to sell their products. Plus, there is a lot of clever marketing involved. And, they do not tell what else ‘fairness cream’ does. Well they corrode our skin. And, nobody is sure what its long term side effects are.
These days nobody says anything about my skin colour. Somehow, my skin seems to be a shade or two lighter (without those bloody creams), but I am not fair even today. I go to my new school in Mumbai now. Here boys and girls are much nicer and nature’s law of average is actually towards average complexion, so none of them are zombie white. In fact, people here are prettier than in my old school. Sure, here too people are complemented for being fair, but nobody is openly taunted for being dark. All of a sudden, I think Tyra Banks; a black model is really smart and beautiful. I don’t want to look like those fair girls on TV add and sit-coms now. I know that pretty people look pretty because they are pretty, not because they are fair. Now I know that I am not as ugly as I was once made to feel.
-----------------------------------
(In Cuba – “white” Hispanic Cubans so pleasantly coexist with their “black” African counterparts. Well, that is the utopia, brought in by a proactive Government and positively activist citizens. There all dolls are to be made in two shades - fair and dark. Cuba has one of the highest literacy and educational standard in the world. Indeed, they used education to build a healthy nation and remove adverse prejudices.
So, education is the solution, not the fairness creams. In fact right education to give right attitude and a bit of social awareness and activism are all it takes to make the change. We did the same successfully against smoking and reckless smokers are no longer considered heroes.
We must think and act. After all it is one of the silliest (and mentally cruelest) prejudices which remain to be eradicated for a really enlightened India that threw out the Gore Log a long time back.)
Let's talk Board Exams!
You must be wondering why I have named my blog 'Fifteenth Year'. Well, it is because I am fifteen years old and I intend to write about my life henceforward.
Since I am a student of Class X and will be giving my board exam this year, I wanted the first post to be about the cancellation of Xth Board Exams. A lot has been said in favour and against this decision. There is one group of people who say that Board Exams should not have been canceled because it served as a practice round for the Class XIIth Board Exams. They also say that the Board Exams made students serious about their education from Class X onwards. Some people believe that our score in the Class X Board Exam helps us understand our aptitude, and so, it helps us choose our stream (Science, Arts or Commerce).
There is this second group of people who say that it is good that there won't be any Board Exams from now on. Their arguments are quite simple. They feel that Board Exams cause unnecessary stress and unhealthy competition among students and their parents. There are some teachers who are of the opinion that Board Exams do not determine the aptitude of a person, because many students surprisingly end up scoring well in subjects they have never been good at. And of course, most students support this decision because no kid wants to slog five hours a day for a Board Exam.
There is this third group of people who think that they are just plain lucky. This group of people consists of all the students who are currently studying in Class X and will be the last batch to give the Board Exam. Had they been a year younger, they would not have had to give this monstrous Exam which claims thousands of pages in thousand of newspapers every year.
I must say that I belong to the second group. In fact, I support this new system of giving grades to the students. Many people are against the 'grading system' because they feel that giving the same grade to a person who scores 95% and a person who scores 99% is unfair. However, I am of the opinion that it is good that the same grade will be given to any student who scores within a certain range of marks. This is because I feel that Board Exams have never been fair in the first place.
Board Exams are conducted so that students know where they stand at a national level. But how is this fair when not all students appearing for the Exam do not have the same resources. It is obvious that a person who has spends tens of thousands of rupees on coaching classes so that they can study the same thing a million times and has well-educated parents and a good atmosphere for studying at home will score more than others. Not all students in India are so lucky. There are many students who are part of the first generation of their family to make it to Class X. They are just as bright and intelligent as their luckier counterparts, but they don't have the resources to score 99%. They cannot afford to go to expensive Coaching Classes and nobody in their family can help them with their studies.
So, is it fair to test the two types of students I have mentioned above on the same level? Clearly, intellect and hard-work are not the only deciders as far as scores are concerned. Resources matter just as much, especially since these coaching classes have a big hand in making their students memorize every page of the textbook so there are no room for mistakes, even if you write the exam with closed eyes.
Therefore, it is safe to say that a person who scores 95% with ample resources is on the same level as somebody who scores 85% without ample resources. So, why should they not be given the same grade.
Now, our score in the Board Exam determines what subjects we will study after Class X. But how is that fair, considering our papers our checked by exhausted teachers who have to check 35 papers per day? Can you imagine how these teachers must feel when they have to read the same thing five-hundred times? No wonder they mechanically give marks. Since these teachers are strangers to the students whose papers they are checking, they cannot take into account the caliber of the student, and for all these reasons, students sometimes do not get the marks they deserve.
Last but not the least, why should an Exam which we write at fifteen years of age have the power to determine our destiny? In fact, don't you think that it is wrong for fifteen year old children to be choosing what subject they want to study and in a way narrow down their career options at such a young age? There are just so many things that fifteen-year-olds are not allowed to do because they are considered too young, but how come they are allowed to choose what subject they want? In fact, I think it is much better if students get to choose out of a wide range of subjects and not just pick from the combinations of subjects offered to them by their school. For example, I think a student must be allowed to study History and Physics at the same time.
For all the above mentioned reasons, I am in favour of the cancellation of Board Exams. But this is just my opinion......
Since I am a student of Class X and will be giving my board exam this year, I wanted the first post to be about the cancellation of Xth Board Exams. A lot has been said in favour and against this decision. There is one group of people who say that Board Exams should not have been canceled because it served as a practice round for the Class XIIth Board Exams. They also say that the Board Exams made students serious about their education from Class X onwards. Some people believe that our score in the Class X Board Exam helps us understand our aptitude, and so, it helps us choose our stream (Science, Arts or Commerce).
There is this second group of people who say that it is good that there won't be any Board Exams from now on. Their arguments are quite simple. They feel that Board Exams cause unnecessary stress and unhealthy competition among students and their parents. There are some teachers who are of the opinion that Board Exams do not determine the aptitude of a person, because many students surprisingly end up scoring well in subjects they have never been good at. And of course, most students support this decision because no kid wants to slog five hours a day for a Board Exam.
There is this third group of people who think that they are just plain lucky. This group of people consists of all the students who are currently studying in Class X and will be the last batch to give the Board Exam. Had they been a year younger, they would not have had to give this monstrous Exam which claims thousands of pages in thousand of newspapers every year.
I must say that I belong to the second group. In fact, I support this new system of giving grades to the students. Many people are against the 'grading system' because they feel that giving the same grade to a person who scores 95% and a person who scores 99% is unfair. However, I am of the opinion that it is good that the same grade will be given to any student who scores within a certain range of marks. This is because I feel that Board Exams have never been fair in the first place.
Board Exams are conducted so that students know where they stand at a national level. But how is this fair when not all students appearing for the Exam do not have the same resources. It is obvious that a person who has spends tens of thousands of rupees on coaching classes so that they can study the same thing a million times and has well-educated parents and a good atmosphere for studying at home will score more than others. Not all students in India are so lucky. There are many students who are part of the first generation of their family to make it to Class X. They are just as bright and intelligent as their luckier counterparts, but they don't have the resources to score 99%. They cannot afford to go to expensive Coaching Classes and nobody in their family can help them with their studies.
So, is it fair to test the two types of students I have mentioned above on the same level? Clearly, intellect and hard-work are not the only deciders as far as scores are concerned. Resources matter just as much, especially since these coaching classes have a big hand in making their students memorize every page of the textbook so there are no room for mistakes, even if you write the exam with closed eyes.
Therefore, it is safe to say that a person who scores 95% with ample resources is on the same level as somebody who scores 85% without ample resources. So, why should they not be given the same grade.
Now, our score in the Board Exam determines what subjects we will study after Class X. But how is that fair, considering our papers our checked by exhausted teachers who have to check 35 papers per day? Can you imagine how these teachers must feel when they have to read the same thing five-hundred times? No wonder they mechanically give marks. Since these teachers are strangers to the students whose papers they are checking, they cannot take into account the caliber of the student, and for all these reasons, students sometimes do not get the marks they deserve.
Last but not the least, why should an Exam which we write at fifteen years of age have the power to determine our destiny? In fact, don't you think that it is wrong for fifteen year old children to be choosing what subject they want to study and in a way narrow down their career options at such a young age? There are just so many things that fifteen-year-olds are not allowed to do because they are considered too young, but how come they are allowed to choose what subject they want? In fact, I think it is much better if students get to choose out of a wide range of subjects and not just pick from the combinations of subjects offered to them by their school. For example, I think a student must be allowed to study History and Physics at the same time.
For all the above mentioned reasons, I am in favour of the cancellation of Board Exams. But this is just my opinion......
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