Tag: india

Cartoon blog day 34: Indian names

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Let me tell you a story which might resemble that of Gulliver’s travels. I was born and raised in India. I did my higher studies in Europe and now I am living in Thailand. I remember how people found my Indian last name difficult to pronounce. They could do it if they tried but they were worried they would say it wrong and offend me in a way.

When I came to Thailand their names were even longer than the Indian names I knew.

I don’t know to what extent but there are many similarities between Indian and Thai cultures. Their language seem to come from Sanskrit which if I have to simplify, is for south Asian languages what Latin is for French, English, Spanish (to name the the ones I know).

Thanks to the book Bridging the gap by Kriengsak Niratpattanasai, I understood the reason behind the long last names in Thailand. According to the book, Thai people submit their first name and last name to the government officials.  “The office then searched the records for identical last names. The name had to be unique and different from those already in use […] As time went by, unique names became harder to come by. More and more syllables were tacked on, resulting in the long names we see today.” (Bridging the gap,  Niratpattanasai)

I also found another thing, I don’t know if everybody in Thailand will agree though. In Europe, Indians are usually seen as the shy ones, in Thailand however they are seen as highly competitive, in certain cases aggressive.

Interesting isn’t it?

 

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Cartoon blog day 33: Moustache

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Do you remember the movie FIGHT CLUB from 1999?

Like most young men I was obsessed with this movie. After The Matrix (the first movie) this was the movie which made me understand that there is more to a movie than what you see on the screen.

When I watched it then I understood it as a calling against the capitalist system which we need to fight against, I didn’t do anything about it because I was too busy studying for my Bachelor in International Management.

I am not that old, the movie came out in 1999, I watched it in 2008 for the first time.

When I watch it again now, I see it as a movie which questions the place of Men in society.

In India, moustache was and is a sign of masculinity, I remember being jealous of my friends who had thick facial hair. Slowly that jealousy faded away. Even now I have a light and most of the time no facial hair, because I understood that there is more to a man than having facial hair.

You are maybe waiting for an answer about Men’s place in society. I believe it’s not a written and done snapshot, it’s a work in progress.

Our place is at the table same as women’s to figure out the future of this experiment we call civilization.

Bonne journée.