Indian TV
Granted, since I don't have a tv at home, my basis for comparison is nil. Nevertheless, when I've caught some screen time in various hotel rooms, I've been fascinated.
There are many ads for fast cars. Given the state of the roads, this is puzzling: where could real speed be possible, without destroying the suspension (if not a cow or pedestrian)?
Ads for skin-whitening products attest to the preference for fairness that's still a feature of life (friends tell me to look at the matrimonial ads, where a similar prejudice is displayed). I just viewed an ad for a deodorant that promises also to whiten underarms . . . really. And a prejudice against body hair--under arms, or chest hair on men--has also been imported from the West.
Ads for slimming products (usually a tea): diabetes is a serious problem in India. I've seen many very skinny people here, but also many overweight ones (if not up to the worst of American excess in that department).
Other Western imports: movie channels, Bloomberg, Discovery, BBC Entertainment, Nat Geo, TLC. The hybrid CNN/INS channel just scooped up a mass of awards, and they were deserved, from what I can see by comparison with the other news channels (some in Kannada, Telegu, Hindi, or another language). Several all-sports channels, offering a lot of cricket, but occasionally boxing or even baseball.
Home-produced channels appear to be mainly either soap operas or spiritual guidance (again, I'm judging by body language and costume, since I can't understand a word). The gurus are often notably "saffron" (the color of Hindu nationalism)--in orange robes (or, at least, below the waist: above, their hairy chests may be on display), with orange-smeared foreheads, caste marks, scarves--or sometimes all in white. In the soap operas, women are bedecked with jewels and wearing the glitziest saris imaginable, edged with sparkling crystals, or covered in sequinned patterns. Modesty prevails, however: little skin is on view.
Despite the wealth of native IT engineering talent, synchronizing voice and image is a perennial problem.
Granted, since I don't have a tv at home, my basis for comparison is nil. Nevertheless, when I've caught some screen time in various hotel rooms, I've been fascinated.
There are many ads for fast cars. Given the state of the roads, this is puzzling: where could real speed be possible, without destroying the suspension (if not a cow or pedestrian)?
Ads for skin-whitening products attest to the preference for fairness that's still a feature of life (friends tell me to look at the matrimonial ads, where a similar prejudice is displayed). I just viewed an ad for a deodorant that promises also to whiten underarms . . . really. And a prejudice against body hair--under arms, or chest hair on men--has also been imported from the West.
Ads for slimming products (usually a tea): diabetes is a serious problem in India. I've seen many very skinny people here, but also many overweight ones (if not up to the worst of American excess in that department).
Other Western imports: movie channels, Bloomberg, Discovery, BBC Entertainment, Nat Geo, TLC. The hybrid CNN/INS channel just scooped up a mass of awards, and they were deserved, from what I can see by comparison with the other news channels (some in Kannada, Telegu, Hindi, or another language). Several all-sports channels, offering a lot of cricket, but occasionally boxing or even baseball.
Home-produced channels appear to be mainly either soap operas or spiritual guidance (again, I'm judging by body language and costume, since I can't understand a word). The gurus are often notably "saffron" (the color of Hindu nationalism)--in orange robes (or, at least, below the waist: above, their hairy chests may be on display), with orange-smeared foreheads, caste marks, scarves--or sometimes all in white. In the soap operas, women are bedecked with jewels and wearing the glitziest saris imaginable, edged with sparkling crystals, or covered in sequinned patterns. Modesty prevails, however: little skin is on view.
Despite the wealth of native IT engineering talent, synchronizing voice and image is a perennial problem.
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