Homogeneity

A friend spoke at length about how he hates the way this city (infact most cities i guess) are all beginning to look the same. there is the intrinsic sameness amongst the people. How all the malls infact represent this exact sameness... He was extremely perturbed by this bland homogeneous culture which he cannot seem to accept and thus ends up feeling like an alien in the exact world that he belonged to since birth.

And this is coming from a guy who works in the "glamorous" space of entertainment, which I am sure is populated with a multitude of this homogenous mass. He travels using his own car, shops in malls, watches the latest movies in the multiplexes, dines at various restaurants (some hip some not so hip) around town.. so why is he feeling alien??

But firstly what is this big issue about homogeneity?? Just because people living in Andheri or Colaba or Gurgaon or Lajpat Nagar or TN Nagar all seem to be dressing in similar fashion, shopping and perusing entertainment with similar zeal (or lack of it), eating the same cuisine!!! But then what else do you expect. All these people are exposed to the same cues through media. End of the day we are what we are because of what we consume!!

Why crib about Andheri vs Colaba when on most music channels you see international artists prancing around with bindis on their foreheads.. sporting henna tatoos.. what about the curry culture which has overtaken every possible cusine in London or even the US? The bright gujarati colours and other Indian motifs are seen on international ramps if one were to have a closer look..

Isn't that an extension of the sameness!!

A research done by VH1 amongst the youth showed Hip-Hop as a major influencer.. and I'm not talking music.. the low waisted jeans sweeping the floor, the oversize shirts, the accessories.. the youth has adopted it all with zeal. And they flaunt it as the badge of their oneness with their global peers.

And from some few thousand miles away, comes music which is interspersed with bhangra beats, and here i'm not talking about our brethren from southhall..

So who decides that this amalgamation is bad? An extremist view on similar lines is what takes amongst our cultural police who shout from roof tops about our youngsters being corrupted by western influences..

I agree we all feel alienated with certain aspects of the society. Some more so than others. A joint family culture might be alien to me, living with an extremely conservative tamil iyengar family would be a difficult idea to digest. But why despair because things change?

What I do agree with and also find a little disconcerting is the random adoption of any culture without it having any kind of relevance to a person's upbringing their current stage in life or society..