Why do you put a dot on your face?

by **indian girl** » Sat Jan 04, 2003 7:28 am

(1) why do you put dot(bindi) on your face # (2) why don\'t you eat pork/beef, but you eat chicken ? # (3) why do you apply oil to your hair # (4) why do you say you want to return to India after a couple of years, why can\'t you just settle here, life is good here ? ### These are the most common questions I face in America. Sometimes I feel these white people are ridiculing our culture posing as if they are interested to know more about our society. What do you say? Add more innocent/ridiculous questions you came across###

by **Gulmohar Hyderabadi** » Sat Jan 04, 2003 10:50 am

...even I faced such questions, but another question which cracks me up was, why are you vegetarian? is it religious or are you allergic to animal products etc.. Why you Indians prefer arranged marriages, I can\'t even think of sleeping with a man whom I don\'t know well, etc.
I think these questions are being asked out of curiosity (in most cases).

by **neeraj** » Sat Jan 04, 2003 12:03 pm

There are few people ask such questions not out of curiosity , but to mock, we lived in Australia/NZ for 15 years, we had encountered so many questions like this..

They even have a specific status called Defacto, meaning you can live with your boy/girl friend like married people as long as you like and can choose another if not mutually likeing..

Many white who come to india as tourist, wear our Indian Dress, have a Bindi(dot) on the forehead, even wear golusu.and eat with their hand pure veg food... why do they do that then??? pls tell them in future, each one our dress attire, etc has a relevance,value,signifance. that is why even westerners are trying to follow our Indian Heritage...

Pork is not even touched by many religions cause, that is only the animal which eats human/animal waste, plus they have intercouse with various even while they are concived..

nex time tell your white friends this reason....as why Indians do not eat pork ok

Kamadhanu(cow) is the most sacred animals of India, that is why most indians do not eat beef, pls tell them this reason also... ok

by **Khatta** » Sat Jan 04, 2003 3:35 pm

hi, indian girl, me too I stay abroad and guess what the same type of questions people ask here main and one stupid question asked by various people here is \"Why do indians nod thier head when they answer a question or talk\", by now i have got practiced not to NOD my head and just look straight and have a conversations. The other questions is pronouncing the letter \"V\" or \"W\" like \"WHEN\" / \"VEN\". These were some of them when I remember more I\'ll keep adding them. (insh)

by **durga** » Sun Jan 05, 2003 4:40 pm

just as we have several different methods of living, these other cultures also have several methods of living and most of them are curious and often respect what we belive and do.. even if they do not understand it.. just as we do not understand theirs\'. I guess, we can maintain similar respect for theirs\' as we expect from them and get the best from both since we chose to be away from our culture.. and secondly, the world has become too small a place now with so much of technical development that we all get to know about each other a lot more.. lets be open and appreciate each other, as long as we understand it, if not let us leave it to them, since its afterall ones own business !!

by **Neeraj** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 11:04 am

Hi khatta.

English is a Foreign Language for us, we Indians having mastered (spoke written) in English is something very great,,,, there is nothing great for an Westener to speak English and to claim his expertise, cause it his mother tongue..

Pls ask that White person some mental additons or simple our provision stores calculations!! he just can't do without a calculator. even for 2 + 2= he needs to use a calculator, while even our petty shop boy can do the mental calculations for adding withing few seconds...

Now who is superior, why do we still get the mocking from people who use paper instead of water and being clean like we Indians????

I had Australinas working under me, and believe me, i can extract a Job from an Egyptian or a Somalian more efficiently, but Muff Australians it is impossible to make them work..... Yet whites think they are great, and we keep nodding our heads for that..... Indian pls wake up,, work for your India, you will be respected - please wake up>>>>>

by **sri Raghavendran** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 4:45 pm

But neeraj all inventions and great discoveries started from their(whites land) only. why???

by **Boilermaker** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 6:56 pm

I notice two kinds of people in this particular message board. Ones that thrive on narrow mindedness and arrogance and others that are more open. What makes us believe that we are the best people on earth? There\'s more than a 150 countries, and people belonging to thousands of cultures, races, and languages. What makes India so great? The simple answer? - because it is where you\'re from! Every person, no matter where they come from, has an inherent need to feel good about his / her origins. There are some unfortunate others that even try to belittle everyone else around to feel better. Open up to the world. This planet is getting smaller and smaller by the day and change is inevitable. The more you want cultural segregation, the more painful it will be to change. Further, stop generalizing (white) people. How many of you know anything about the other cultures, apart from the movies you watch and the news you hear? People ask questions about us because of curiosity. Explain it to them, and listen to their view points just as they would to yours and create a healthy conversation. And lastly, do not mock western countries - they have done much better than us culturally and economically. They have taken in immigrants and thrived on cultural amalgamations.

by **ruhi** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 11:58 pm

i faced such weird Q\'s myself! n the 1 tht stands out is...
\"how do you know english? did they teach you english at school?\"

by **critic** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 1:38 am

to boilemaker----COOL one..i appreciate your views..

by **critic** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 1:41 am

Neeraj, ur thinking is too narrow....

by **vivek of themavericks** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 3:58 pm

Its interesting to think in these lines, but try thinking this way. Many a times we would have noticed that whenever we drive our bikes the dogs on the road start to chase us ( well, the Indian dogs do !). Why do you think they do so?, is it because they wanna grab you down and start driving your bike?!!. No, similarly there are things in life for which there need not be any reason. I am sure many of your observations although interesting does not warrant any reason. Not convinced eh ??!! .

by **Smocking Rock** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 7:10 pm

we indians keep bindhi bcos - to my knowledge, for every thing we do there is a particular reason said by our forefathers - by keeping bindhi \"all the beauty is centralised to a particular area\" by this an average looking girl will be seen as a good looking girl.....All we r doing is just following the formalities (traditions) kept by our forefathers.

by **indian girl** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 1:28 am

mr.V of t\'ricks ! what were you thinking while writing your message? it makes no sense at all

by **vivek of themavericks** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 11:21 am

What i meant was clear, dogs chase for no definite reason. Likewise there need not be a valid reason for everything that we do or happens in our lives. There is certainly a reason, but it need not be valid or suit the situation. Got it?!!

by **vivek of themavericks** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 11:22 am

because, when white had the time and resouces to invent stuff, others were struggling to make two ends meet.

by **vivek of themavericks** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 11:26 am

ask this, how did you know to cry when your are hungry while u were an infant?, how did you know that this is way a human walks when u took the first step. Who taught you these? your mom?. This is where my \" dogs chase\" example comes to play!

by **Neeraj** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 2:01 pm

Hi vivek, thanks buddy, someone to side my views and reality happend to us while we were abroad...

the facts are always bitter, when i narrated those things, I am called as narrow minded by some critics !!!!!!!

well...

by **vivek of themavericks** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 2:17 pm

anyday pal!

by **Shahed** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 5:26 pm

to the point , its there in human nature whenever any new thing come they will be curious to know about it. Now it is the duty of the others to explain them in a nice way instead of feeling shame or insult. There is no need to compare whites and etc etc....In india itself you will find lot of such examples..particularly when you compare North and South India..

by N » Thu Jan 09, 2003 9:48 am

to the question \"how can u marry a person whom u donot know\". i answered, \"thats better than knowing each other for several years and being ditched in few years\". that was...u can call ....arrogant...

by **Boilermaker** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 6:15 pm

I am trying to understand the point in your message. Your statement depends on where we were in our thousands of years of history. Every nation has gone through phases in her life, some tough and some relatively easy. Some succumbed through the changes, where as some moved on. For us as a country, we did not hold on as one group except during the struggle for independence. Deep within, we have always felt and still feel we are all different and unique people - racially, linguistically, and religiously. The positive there is that we are holding on to our individual cultures, but the big negative is that we are not moving forward together, like the rest of the west has.

by **raghu** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 9:51 pm

who r u shahed? be frank. are u on the side of north or south? dont give heroic or more practical statements. give statements from your deep heart.

by **Santosh MY** » Sun Apr 20, 2003 5:26 am

(1) Why do you put dot (bindi) on your face? Because it\'s the tradition of Indian Culture. 
(2) Why don\'t you eat pork/beef, but eat chicken? It depends on one\'s interest & belief. 
(3) Why do you apply oil to your hair? It\'s clearly visible between a person who applies oil for his hair & one who doesn\'t (just by seeing his face). 
(4) Why do you say you want to return to India after a couple of years, why can\'t you just settle here, life is good here? Even when having everything with you? You feel the loneliness, as if nobody is there around you. (even if you are surrounded by huge buildings... these won\'t help you)... 
- santoo_143@indiatimes.com

by **Anil** » Sun Apr 20, 2003 8:07 am

All these questions arise because of stereotyping. Whether it is Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity or Judaism. Even we nurture the western stereotypes. For instance, when we think of women in the \"wild west,\" unfortunately we see them either as a cowgirl - smart-talking, gun-slinging dynamos or someone who has no qualms sleeping around with anyone and everyone. At the same time, when it comes to Indian women, they are serene, noble, etc., etc. These stereotypes are so deeply ingrained in our popular culture that we scarcely give them a second thought. In the struggle for national identity, the West, especially the United States began constructing its own creation myths and fanciful stories. For it creating a national identity involved an aggressive, if not genocidal, form of cultural appropriation of other nations\' people and their culture.
Another example is the arranged marriage. This custom has been misunderstood and misinterpreted by many people in the West. Both the bride and the groom have the right to refuse the proposal, and are allowed to meet and get to know their fiancé before marriage.

Most of the time it is media which is the biggest culprit. For the last six months, most of the channels here in USA have been showing movies which have the Islamic terrorists as the villainous characters. So, the people are passively conditioned that every Muslim is either a terrorist or has soft corner for terrorism. So, even when innocent Muslims are killed, none of them show any remorse. They even go to the extent of justifying them. Similarly take for instance the recent “Hinglish” movie, Monsoon Wedding, what was Madam Mira Nair trying to convey? She takes a very serious issue of child-abuse and makes a miserable hash of it – and ends up feeding the enthusiastic western crowd all the stereotypical images. Or we have those stupid Devdas type of movies which show that if Indians love someone they cannot marry and have to commit suicide (in fact that was the story in brief I heard from one of my American friends).

Another sad thing (it’s sometime amusing also) I have observed here is most of the Indians when they talk; they behave as though they are the cultural ambassadors of everything Indian. We should stop explaining our culture and customs. Why do we have to justify what we think is right to eat, right to wear or right to follow. Did anyone ever ask a westerner, why do they eat beef? When someone here asks me why I don’t eat beef, I tell them I don’t like it. There ends the matter. There won’t be any further questions. When someone asks me about what type of marriage would I go through, I just smile away. Most of them, they are sensible enough and realize that I don’t wish to talk about it. And believe me, they never bring up the issue again.

Here’s a good site about Hindu Stereotyping:
http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/s_es/s_es_malho_stereo.htm

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