I grew up in Mumbai, India till I was 16 years old – and in 1995 my family made the big big move to Toronto. While most people might think of India in the ‘80s as a place filled will roaming cows and lots of homeless people – Mumbai was, and continues to be quite the thriving metropolis. While we did not have Blockbuster, or MTV (till the early 90’s), we did have the local video store – and the local video store’s distant cousin third cousin by marriage who lived somewhere in America!!! In all my years I never met this enigma from the West – but she (or he) was quite influential in my life. You see – these unknown relatives were the Pop Culture Gurus for generations of Indian city kids. They would dutifully (and highly illegally I know realize) tape popular sitcoms, hours of MTV, and Tom Cruise movies and bring them back by the suitcase full to Mumbai on their yearly holidays. These illegal VHS tapes would then be pride of place in our local little video store primed for viewing by Indian kids!
At 5 I was already singing “Like a Virgin” and dancing around my poor traumatized Nana’s living room – watching 2 hour features of Cosby episodes, and by the time I was eight years old, I was convinced I was going to Mrs. Kirk Cameron – aka Mike Seaver (before he went all crazy religious of course!).
That’s the thing about Pop Culture – it really has the ability to connect people who really might not have anything in common. Very little of my life in India looked like the shows I was watching, the people around me certainly did not – but there was still a feeling of connection with what we watched. It also allowed me to have instant connections with friends I made years later in Toronto – it was hard enough being the new Indian kid, but having little common themes to talk about – whether it was knowing the cast of 90210, or being able to sing Nirvana songs it certainly make the world a bit flatter and a bit more familiar.
I am excited about this course – as I’ve always been a pop culture fan, but must admit in recent years have also been alarmed at some of the recurring themes of violence and sex – and even scarier sexualized violence that seems to be cropping up in today’s pop culture. Now as a mother of two young girls – I don’t want to turn into an old crow who bans all pop culture media from our house, instead I want to understand it and learn about – so that I can teach my kids to find a way to enjoy pop culture, while understanding and analyzing the messages it’s teaching them.
At 5 I was already singing “Like a Virgin” and dancing around my poor traumatized Nana’s living room – watching 2 hour features of Cosby episodes, and by the time I was eight years old, I was convinced I was going to Mrs. Kirk Cameron – aka Mike Seaver (before he went all crazy religious of course!).
That’s the thing about Pop Culture – it really has the ability to connect people who really might not have anything in common. Very little of my life in India looked like the shows I was watching, the people around me certainly did not – but there was still a feeling of connection with what we watched. It also allowed me to have instant connections with friends I made years later in Toronto – it was hard enough being the new Indian kid, but having little common themes to talk about – whether it was knowing the cast of 90210, or being able to sing Nirvana songs it certainly make the world a bit flatter and a bit more familiar.
I am excited about this course – as I’ve always been a pop culture fan, but must admit in recent years have also been alarmed at some of the recurring themes of violence and sex – and even scarier sexualized violence that seems to be cropping up in today’s pop culture. Now as a mother of two young girls – I don’t want to turn into an old crow who bans all pop culture media from our house, instead I want to understand it and learn about – so that I can teach my kids to find a way to enjoy pop culture, while understanding and analyzing the messages it’s teaching them.