Losing one’s culture

It may sound like a cliché but I do think that we are beginning to loose our cultural identity. Increasingly, I see people use more and more of “Hindi” words in their everyday lexicon. We see more phrases like “Aj mera Janam din ha”, “Is main mera koi Dosh nahi” or “Zara Shant ho jaao” and etc. Since we Pakistanis don’t have our own cultural icons of epic proportion, no pun intended to late Nusrat Fateh Ali, it is natural for us to look somewhere else.

It does not strike me a least bit odd, when I began to hear hindi words of Bollywood Masala movies. The influence of Bollywood is just absolutely unparallel on our “Spaghetti” Pakistani culture. And I call it “Spaghetti” because that is what it is. It is a mush of four or five different cultures thrown together that is searching for its place. Since people do not feel a sense of belonging with “Pakistani Culture”, they naturally gravitate towards the feel good and look good culture of Bollywood.

And the irony of whole thing is the culture that is being shown in Bollywood movies does not reflect Indian culture either. I for one can vouch for the fact without being cynical that most of the youth in Pakistan do want to dress and act like “John Abraham” or “Shahruk Khan”. On one occasion, at one of the party I overheard bunch of exuberant youthful kids discussing the acting merits of Hrithik Roshan and John Abraham and their body types. Well, who can blame them; it was either them or Sultan Rahi with his “Gandasa”, right? Everywhere I go among my Pakistani friends, there are either semi clad Indian dancers shaking their rumps or it is their hero with well chiseled body beating up thugs and gangster on their TV sets.

I don’t recall seeing and sitting through entire Indian movie in last five years, because they just have become too cheesy. And the most heartbreaking thing is Indian Bollywood has been able to fool the most of vulnerable, hungry for entertainment Pakistanis of fickle mind with its cheesiest works of so called art. So long and behold, the cultural invasion has begun. With the launch of Direct Access TV channel, more nudity is going to be shown with more brazen topics on indian satellite channels to attract more viewers. Now the genie is out of the bottle, who can stop them? It was India’s plan right from the beginning to annihilate fragile Pakistani culture and now they have succeeded. While we as native Urdu speakers struggles with our Urdu language and try to cavalierly alternate “Kaaf” for the words that begins with “Qhaaf”, subconsciously, our language and our culture gets run over with the glitter and fake make believe world of Bollywood.