#goodnessgraciousme

As I read more of the book, I’m coming to the conclusion that this is a book about traditional Indian culture injected into modern London life. I think it’s safe to say that this is a plot of the book, it’s more of a theme that’s constant and prominent, but attention isn’t being drawn to it at any point. No character is screaming “I just want to show my Punjabi family roots in this hectic, English city!”, but the mentions of culture and lifestyle are scattered casually through the text. In the way that Trainspotting blows through the reader with unapologetic Scottish slang without saying “Once upon a time, in the land of kilts and haggis, there were three heroin addicts…”, Life Isn’t All Haha Heehee isn’t throwing the Punjabi in your face, it’s just clear in the style of writing. 

While I don’t imagine my final design will fully use devanagiri (the alphabet commonly associated with Indian script), the shapes it can create are what my mind automatically goes to when thinking about Indian fonts. Below are examples of text from Indian culture, alongside some personal opinions on why they stand out to me. Firstly, Goodness Gracious Me, the 90s sketch show. Then Indian food brands, followed by posters from Bollywood films.

REFERENCE

Bhaskar, S., Syal, M., Ghir, K., Wadia, N., Lamb, D., Plowman, J., Gupta, A. and Kohli, S. (2002). Goodness Gracious Me - Complete Series 1. [online] Amazon. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Goodness-Gracious-Me-Complete-DVD/dp/B00006HCOZ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2021]. ‌

AU, P. (n.d.). Patak’s Australia & New Zealand -Thanks Patak’s. [online] Patak’s. Available at: https://www.pataks.com.au [Accessed 24 Feb. 2021]. ‌

Desimartini. (2013). 22 Iconic Bollywood Posters. [online] Available at: https://www.desimartini.com/news/martini-shots/archive/iconic-best-bollywood-posters-article6368.htm [Accessed 24 Feb. 2021].

Growing up as a British Bengali meant that there were very few T.V programmes that featured people that looked like me, and that were for me. This all changed when I first watched Goodness Gracious me. Yes, they were Indian (Indian!), but it was still a breath of fresh air to watch.

One of the things that really spoke to me was the sketches were whiteness itself was made to seem odd. These were often the sketches were they would simply reverse the roles of the characters. Hence going for an English (in which a bunch of drunk Indians go visit an English restaurant), The Delhi students etc. It made something that was always invisible (white culture) visible. It became less desirable, tt was ok to be brown for once.

They of course made fun of Asian culture too, I was fine with that since me and siblings did the same all the time. But it was that they did so much more than just give in to racist narratives that meant so much to me. It’s a shame that there has not really been a proper follow up (Do not talk about Citizen Khan!), and the current underrepresentation of ethnic people in media still stands. Whiteness and white people tended always to be the butt of the joke, essentially their perspective way de-centered for once.

In part, I owe part of my perspective to this show, though I know it is not perfect, it was all we had.