April 2, 2011 was a high point in India’s life. The cricket World Cup returned to the country after 28 years on the back of wins against Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in consecutive matches. There was much to be proud of. Captain M S Dhoni was dubbed India’s “best captain ever”.
However, it’s worthwhile to pause and go back to the articles written before and after India’s tie with England and defeat against South Africa. Sports commentators were questioning Mr Dhoni’s strategic thinking, his risk-taking ability and his supposed unimaginative captaincy. Mr Dhoni himself, quite “light-heartedly”, said at the finals presentation ceremony that a number of questions would have been raised if the result had gone the other way — from team selection to batting order to bowling changes.
Indians are over the top. There are no half measures for us. One is either a hero or zero; a demigod today and a man with feet of clay tomorrow. Remember that in the 2007 cricket World Cup in England, India couldn’t make it past the qualifier stage. The families of Indian cricketers faced the brunt back home — their homes stoned, cars blackened and posters burnt. Both adulation and castigation are extreme. There doesn’t seem to be a sense of proportion in either case.
This reflects our approach to life. Everything we do has an element of exaggeration. When we talk, we gesticulate dramatically — the Indian head wobble is famous the world over; it could mean a yes or a no depending on how we do it.
Take movies. Look at any Bollywood blockbuster that is a Hollywood film adaptation. Apart from the nuances that are necessary to adapt a story to India – societal issues over personal ambition, importance of family, no kids before marriage and so on – the fundamental tone of execution tells a story. The Indian version is always much louder — in the way the characters talk and express their emotions; the good guys and the bad guys are clearly delineated, the good is all good, the bad is all bad; and the visuals are “loud and almost garish” to a westerner.
Take celebrations. India is a country of festivals thanks to our secular leanings, our acceptance of multiple religions and their auspicious dates. But every festival is accompanied by song and dance performances and people join in with gay abandon — often unconscious of civic sense and inconvenience to others. Festivals are an excuse to raise decibel levels. We often pray to god assuming he is deaf or maybe given as many as 1.2 billion people in the country, that’s the only way we can be heard over others! This gets accentuated at weddings, which are an occasion for ostentatious display of both wealth and familial love.
Take our television anchors and reality shows. There are many western shows that we have adapted to our culture, language and issues. The anchor invariably comes across as more “aggressive” and “interrupting”. Also, it is a deeper reflection of our inherent need to “show” ourselves as intellectually superior to others – the anchor’s guests in this case – without necessarily appearing to be wiser, smarter or more knowledgeable. The reality shows include oodles of family melodrama, almost making it seem incredulous to a “sceptical” westernised viewer brought up on a staple of more understated reactions and emotional expressions.
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Or take clothes and homes. The Indian inclination towards “being expressive” is clearly reflected in the excessive use of bold and contrasting colours. It could be a byproduct of our geography — the desert in Rajasthan stimulates the need for colour for relief and identification. Or it could have something do with pronouncing distinctiveness, as exterior colour is used in south India to make the house stand out. For Indians, that’s a way of life.
We would like to believe that the world is getting flat and people are coming closer to each other. Thus, they are becoming like each other. With access to similar products and services and growing affluence, one may like to believe we are becoming like people in the West. There is this constant fear, especially among cultural activists, that consumerism from the West is threatening the Indian culture. However, some of these behaviour patterns reflect that “East is East and West is West and never the twain will meet”. So this must reassure culture guards!
Being expressive is what makes some of our best advertising works engaging and charming. It clearly shows the importance of “heart” for Indians. Two recent campaigns are worth mentioning. In a Cadbury Dairy Milk shubh arambh commercial, a girl is “eloping” with her boyfriend. She leaves home all distressed only to find her parents and brother sitting in the rear seat of her boyfriend’s car. They offer her a chocolate as a symbol of good luck for her new life. In a Samsung commercial, Aamir Khan – the protagonist – leaves his home in a small town and the family sees him off. It shows the father is worried that the son is going away. The father is then given a “Guru” instrument so that he can stay connected. Such campaigns touch the heart and reflect the melodrama of life that we appreciate and enjoy. These two executions in audio were quite understated. However, watch a commercial break on television and much of the work that you view is “loud” even by average Indian decibel levels. It is hard to see western sensibilities enjoying this in any measure — but “we Indians are like this only”.
There are no half measures so our reaction to India’s win last month is not surprising — the typical Indian excess! This is not to take away from either Dhoni’s captaincy or his team’s performance, but it would be an exaggeration to suddenly rate him the “best captain ever” and declare him a “corporate leadership icon”. At the same time, it is perhaps this spirit of expressing emotions unabashedly that makes the culture warm and welcoming. It gives us a big heart. And this way we are able to welcome diversity, assimilate emotions and live harmoniously with them.
Something worth thinking about.
The views expressed are personal
madhukar.sabnavis@ogilvy.com