Today was quite the cultural day. On a field trip we went to the Indian National Museum which was full of amazing stuff like ancient coins from the 2500 B.C. and miniature paintings done under Muslim patronage around 11 cent A.D. Everything was SO OLD! Everything Dr. Storm showed us in the museum were things we learned about in class so I could piece the history to everything I was actually looking at. There was one sculpture I really liked with a woman holding an empty glass being held up by two friends… even in the 5th cent BC people knew how to party.
In the evening I saw “My Name is Khan” at a local cinema. It was so intense… Seeing this movie as a foreigner in India definitely gave the entire movie a different meaning to me compared to an India viewer. America was dramatized and stereotyped in a way which I knew existed but had never seen before my eyes. The way the movie portrayed Americans as violent and vicious after the attacks on September 11th by having them attack Muslim store owners and killing Indian boys at school cast the impression that this was a daily occurrence (which to an extent may have been) but made me realize how this distortion could be easily created. This movie is a popular movie in India with thousands of Indians viewing it every night. They walk away with this intense twisted view of America from just a three hour movie. Their views are constructed entirely from what is chosen to be portrayed by the director. This made me step back and question what I know about other countries where I have never even set foot in. Take coming to India for example. I had an entire view of India in my mind composed from only images I have seen and stories I have been told. As I am learning, the India I had stereotyped in my mind is far different from reality.
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