The Indian Dilemma: When Indians mistreat Indians
iView Author : Take2 (Hollywood, USA)
Email : Withheld
I met a guy on this film I’m working on who was an American tech on “Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic” when it was shot in California. He told me that the production (of TPTM) treated the American crew with respect and dignity while the Indian crew were treated like shit.
They (the Indian crew) were stuffed up 10 in a room and the kind of safety standards and protocols they had while shooting had the Americans shocked. They were yelled and screamed at for stuff they had no control over. You can’t scream at Union crew (the American crew) so you fucking scream at your own people to let off steam ? How fucked up is that ?
My new friend is of Puerto Rican descent and looks it, so I can’t even assign this to white slave mentality. We must be the only race in the world who practices discrimination against our own kind and treats others with respect. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around ?
Merko seriously samajh nahin aata that when I go for interviews or forward my resumes for any film related gig which has any desis involved why the fuck am I expected to work for free when everybody else is getting paid. I am supposed to “understand and compromise” because I’m one of us. Bhenchod don’t I have to eat and put gas in my car. Does your fucking camera rental come for free?
If it’s a friend then I won’t take money even if I’m offered and I don’t have a problem working for free in everyone is doing pro bono but fuck this mentality that I have to take one for the team just because I’m desi.
And whats the most hilarious thing is that they pitch their low budget Bollywood derivative confused ABCD films starring themselves or their lovers as the next blockbuster which will be the next crossover sensation.
I remember once my Dad got into this argument at a party with this punjabi property dealer who was bitching bout how doctors shouldn’t take any money for the work they do and should just treat everyone for free. My Dad just asked him one question which shut him up for the rest of the night.
“How many houses have you donated for free for the poor ?”
I don’t think I ever wanna work in a Bollywood film shooting in the states unless a friend of mine is above the line.
Tags: Crew, Indian, Labor Rights, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
And thats a Yashraj Film. Which is known to treat its crew well. Imagine if they are doing this, then what the others must be doing to their crew?
Its not that they are being racist against their own people. They cant do stuff like that to white people.
Its the same thing in Indian restaurants in US(90% of which are Punjabi). If you see Indian waiters then it means they don’t get their tips.
But the example you gave is very similar to IT workers. Isn’t it?
I thought this suppression of Indian workers was limited to the new software engineers coming to the US from India. It seems to be everywhere seeing your post and Mainak’s comments.
But this is not limited to Indians treating Indians badly in the US. I’ve heard that Tarsem Singh (though not an Indian national but of Indian origin) treated his Indian crew very badly while shooting his movie THE FALL in India and kept apologising to his American lot saying, “Bloody Indians, you show them dollars and they will w***e out their mothers” – Damn!!!!
this seems to be an epidemic!!!!!!!
The concept of Slavery was never abolished…it is still alive and well in the twisted psyches of most colored people who live and work in the West…When you’re a ‘minority’….you really are a fuckin minority ! You only have to look at the ongoing shenanigans in the U.S elections where every crooked device is being used to make Obama out to be an exotic foreign freak, out of touch with ‘mainstream’ America….whatever the fuck that means…
forget the US man…
u go to leopold’s at colaba and u always get to skip queues if u are white………
…
Nice Article Take2 , Well said byManink, Oz , Zoomin and Ashwin.
Its basically taking Indians for granted.
Desi dikha toh Chooslo Bhenchod.
I belive the only sector this discrimination you wont see in US or Canada is the Medical sector.
Once again Take2 , a nice article
part of this is colonial hangover…….we get super exited when we see gora log and gora memsahib ,also explains the large sales figures for “fair and lovely” in India.
or maybe it is because of the fact that Indians are extremely racist ,and we do not acknowledge it.
Observer is right about medical sector. But even in other sectors like IT entertaintment & hospitality its not the goras who treat us badly. Its our own people.
BTW Indian doctors are very bad tippers. What makes it worse is unlike the IT people where 95% of the people do not interect with others at all, doctors assimilate into the culture a lot. They have to. Inspite of that they cannot shed their cheapness.
Let me give you an example of a restaurant owner in LA. He owns a restaurant in Hollywood where I worked – ELECTRIC LOTUS. This place hires mostly americans. Its the busiest Indian restaurant in LA. And everbody takes tips home(200$ a night). The same owner owns a restaurant in Beverly Hills called INDIAS GRILL where he hires Indians/Nepalis. And that restaurant does not allow the waiters to keep the tips.
How sick is that!
Vineet unfortunately you are bang on.
What will you call this…reverse racism?
Disgusting to see Indians discriminate among themselves.
This is nothing new. I’ve never got it completely but I’ve always seen whites / firangs getting treated with respect here in India while localites get a raw deal. We still, very very unfortunately, have a thing for the white skin – subconciously I feel Indians still regard them as superior. Hence the treatment meted out to them while we Indians are treated as – well – dirt.
The case of the Yashraj team’s treatment is not surprising at all..its only us who treat our own race poorly..
Its very very sic, but true…
I have this question……What is the universal concept of beauty ? or is there any ? (don’t give me the beauty is in the beholders eyes and all that stuff for a response).
suppose we take gisele bundchen and angelina jolie or maybe sushmita sen and madhubala and show em to the some tribesmen in amazon who have never had any contact with outside world ,would they consider them to be more beautiful than one of their own ,is there any study on this ?
I know am diverging from the topic but just curious ….
vineet…
u question reminds me of the old hackneyed but brutally true saying that ” the grass is always greener on the other side”
@vineet
since aesthetics is of intrest to you i highly recomend forums.philosophyforums.com
Mainak..It is not only about Indians but all South Asia where goras had their run for some 300 years..they have shed their superiority complexes..in turn gave it to our Brown sahibs..and well these brown sahibs are all over the place..if Indians are doing it in measly manners, then you should see Bangladesh..Boss, that is another planet altogether in exploitation of fellow countrymen..whole industries are flourishing by robbing their employees, vendors and suppliers all day every day!!
Then, you should visit our Tea estates in the East of our India. Poof…the way they exploit! Gore bhi sharma jaayenge
@vivek and ashwin
It’s not about the philosophy boss……everyone who is attached to movies is in some way attached to philosophy as well.
I remember seeing an episode in discovery channel in which they showed a human infant faces of supermodels and then faces of common people ,and recorded baby’s expressions.
It was interesting.
keeping these things aside ,I concur with you guys ,this is especially rampant in the IT industry (inspite of being a hi-tech industry) where all the time all the cost cutting is done in Indian offices.
For all these people who are exploiting you, for them its just business. They are not exploiting you because you are Indian. They are doing it because they can. After they are in business & not social work.
Not only do we discriminate, we are also so very racist. Look at our ads, saavli hain toh loser hain? WTF??!!! I have one instance. We have a next door neighbour who has this really dumb kid, oohh ok…hes just a kid! both his parents are pretty dark. once he was there in my house & the TV was on. he says to my wife…shiii…mujhe kaali ladki acchi nahi lagti…:)…we thot tere maa baap ko pehle dekh kiddo!
))
But guys , look at the balls of Barak Hussein Obama…to take on the collective might of the white establishment, make it look effortless and smile while doing it..! He’s been accused of every goddam thing one can think of…’Uncle Tom’, ‘Terrorist Sympathizer’, ‘fairy tale candidate’, ..and even of being the AntiChrist..! For cryin out loud…!! And the guy brushes it off his back and cooly goes about his business..
His ascendance is a huge symbolic shift in the world’s perception of colored people – In the words of Ludacris, ” let’s paint the White House Black…”
Same situation in most of Goa ;)
What Mainak said :-
“For all these people who are exploiting you, for them its just business. They are not exploiting you because you are Indian. They are doing it because they can. After they are in business & not social work.”
—Is absolutly right, but to be more precise its basically CAN YOU GET AWAY WITH IT , WHILE CUTTING CORNERS .
Looks like these Indian guys can get away with INDIANS .
And to some extent we are to be blamed for our miseries.
As a case Study , I am a Software proffessional in US for last 12 years . I came to study my MS and then went for a job ..
Intially , at that time The Goras use to have the same expectations from indians as from the goras .
Now the Y2K boom started and most of the desis started coming on Direct H1 … Theier attitude was , chalo matka laga hai , and we are very grateful to the Indian company and in turn the Main Gora Client .
This attitude started reflecting it as a servile one , Where Haanji Haanji became the slang and later the goras got used to it . So the moral of story is that If Competent people were recruited , they wouldnt have to resort to these means for survival .
I went to the US on a student exchange program for my medical training, and to get my green card I had to serve in a medically underserved area for 5 years. Got employed by an Indian doctor and so began my 5 year slave labor under him. The bastard was abusive,and exploited me to the hilt, knowing that I had no other choice if I wanted ny green card (jobs for J1 visa waivers were very hard to come by in those days)He even used to tell his white nurses that he had me imported from India to work under him!
Turns out I was not the only one. Hundreds of Indian doctors all over the US were similarly (and in some cases worse) exploited by their own countrymen.
Now I am a US citizen but I have sworn never to work with or for any Indian ever again in my life.Can’t trust my own fucking countrymen!What a bloody shame.
We are the most racist and discriminatory group of people in the entire world.
My blood boils when I see young Indian couples at parties bad mouthing India in front of white guests. WTF are they thinking? They’ll appear less Indian and more European if they call India a stinky,filthy place?
I think Indians in India are still in their survival mode of their social evolution,they see an ever increasing number of people fighting for dwindling resources so every man woman child for themselves attitude kicks in.
This is reflected in how Indians are really bad at team work…even in the team he will display his desperation by stepping over his team mates given a small chance.
Indians have to be some how conditioned to think that their life is not at stake but instead take it easy and work together for some purpose higher than just preserving their asses.
On a serious note when anyone mistreats you or you see an Indian or anyone being mistreated don’t take it lying down or bending over…you must retaliate verbally or need be physically so he or she will think twice before they get the urge to shit on someone.Have an attitude of no compromise on any assault on your dignity or anyone elses. This is applicable mainly to people reading this…cos if you are in a position to be able to read this you are in a position to deal with the consequences of standing up to the perpetrators of abuse.
Well…most Indians are forever in ‘ main tera baap ya tu mera baap’ mode. Either they suck up to someone constantly or they try to dominate. The concept of treating other desis with respect…irrespective of their age, place in social heirarchy is still is unknown to most Indians.
Not sure when this will change.
And what about the all out obsession of Indians/other minorities in the West to get a White partner even if the White partner happens to be butt-ugly and looks like a cross between a rhinoceros and a dingo…
ringo starr?
@zoomin
People are free to date and marry whomsoever they please irrespective of race or religion. If u feel dating someone outside’s someone’s community is racist then I would say the Indian mentality of only dating someone inside one’s own caste or community is even more so and is borderline apartheid.
There was a time not long ago when it was unheard of someone to marry outside their own subcaste in India. My point is that whatever brings divergent cultures and people closer together is laudable.
Mitch….my comment was in response to the larger context of this post and some of the comments that came before – I was basically saying that the obsession with Whiteness is so strong that a many minorities would go for a Caucasian partner simply because of their race…not personality,compatibility etc…due to an inbuilt complex, or an urge to be a part of the ‘mainstream’.
I wasn’t disparaging miscegenation…in fact I say that’s the way forward for the human race…let’s all fuck each other till we all look the same…lol
Exploitation has more to do with opportunity to exploit than any inbuilt bias against race/color. I agree there could be elements of racism in many of the cases mentioned but the stronger reason, as mentioned by Mainak, is that people knew they can get away with it. In most of the cases cited, the exploited Indian has to bear with it because s/he is grateful to be there, is getting global exposure, doesn’t know who to turn to or has no alternative to earn money.
Regarding Indian tendency to racism, I think one incident that stood out recently was the alleged removal of two colored cheerleaders during the IPL by their event management company (the company denied the charge at that time). I don’t know where the case stands today, but when it came out first it did appear that the event management company thought they were dispensable since the public, allegedly, weren’t accepting colored cheerleaders.
Mitch – well said. This is such a common stereotype prevalent in so many ethnic communities that someone who dates outside the community only gets mingers or undeserving partners.
Anyway – while I acknowledge the truth of a lot of what’s said here, I also sense that people seem to be carried away by a lot of hyperbole and gross generalizations.
Sure, many Indians discriminate on the basis of colour (our fair skin obsession is ridiculous), exploit others (not just their own countrymen but other vulnerable immigrant workers) and are just generally horrible to work for.
This does not mean that all Indians are like this. The vast majority of Indians in this country are no better or no worse to work for than other ethnic groups.
Sometimes, it’s more a question of the sector that you work for. The restaurant business is notoriously uneven – some owners tend to be brutal and stingy taskmasters, others are generous with working conditions and pay.
In fact, the worst restaurant tip withholding stories I’ve heard in Los Angeles have been about a certain other community, told mostly by friends of mine belonging to this ethnic community.
And lots of ethnicities are fighting over the worst tipper crown, Indians aren’t the only ones
. Many Europeans are terrible tippers because they don’t have a tipping culture in their respective countries and don’t expect to tip.
So let’s not be too harsh on ourselves – but we seem to excel in self-flagellation more than anyone else.
Back when I first started to work on Indo-Canadian TV Miniseries, it was for a fellow Punjabi, who happened to be a Rajputh, whereas many of us were Jatt… so we somehow felt “above” us. I was his close friend, which kind of helped and hurt at the same time. Helped, because at least I was part of the creative team (working out storylines and had some input on direction.. eventually started writing, then directing edits then directing)… Hurting because I worked long hours for little compensation (sometimes nothing at all). When I would question why certain crew members (a gora grip and some of the more experienced actors) got paid and we didn’t, I would get this guilt-trip on how I needed to be a team player and how we only had a limited budget and we HAD to pay those people because they wouldn’t work for free whereas I HAD to be understanding for the betterment/advancement of the project.
Personally I subject myself to that only because I wanted to gain that grassroots, Indie-production experience. I figured if I could do good work under those conditions, then I can do much better when treated much better.
Srikanth – you take trolling to new heights. Do you realize that anyone can google your name and read the vicious racist tripe that you’ve written here? I bet you’re the sort of person who’d cry racism at the drop of a hat, but have no qualms saying such nasty things about other races.
@Dewi
Yes, I agree i am a racist and do u want me to say this on TV. I am up for it keeping in mind with the atrocities faced by third world countries by western nosy political system. Africa is class example…Did you forget 200 yrs of abuse of british.
I might sound looser, but i dont gain anything by presenting myself as looser.
You might be right, but you dont have the right to correct my rightness. I went overboard with my language and its a conscious effort.
I want a shuffled up world, where u find amalgamation of races. There ends “RACISM” and your bias views.
@Dewi
I feel sorry for the derogatory remarks i made on white race. My sorry to you as well, if you are offended.
Let me clarify to PFC i am not a looser and pls keep this message, dont trash it.
I find an earlier comment that Indians in the west would marry a person just because she is a white ridiculous………………………………….
I would however comment that if given the choice of having a sexual encounter with an equally ugly white,black,hispanic or Asian woman, 100% of Indians would go for the white one…………………………………………..
Its probably the “blue film” syndrome rather than a white skin obsession that would make us do that.