Writing POC 101

Indian Characters - @faithbeattop

Hey, I'm Niharika (AKA @faithbeattop) and I'd like to extend @fallenblaze 's chapter on Indian characters.

If you plan to write a book with an Indian character, all I ask you is to get your facts straight before you describe the character as someone who has a deep accent or eats only butter chicken and naan for meals. I hope the following points help you.

D I V E R S I T Y :

India is a diverse country and I intentionally italicized the word 'diverse' to add some emphasis on it. I mean it when I say that the country I live in is diverse. Whatever state/ region is your character from, affects the way he/she has been brought up. India has a total of thirty six states and union territories, and all of them have rich culture and heritage. If your character migrates from one state to another (or one region to another), the character will face problems adjusting, and won't just adjust easily. Each state has its own festival and language, and hence the diversity. Please check out the culture of a region before writing. Not all Indians are Hindus, and there are other religions like Islam, Sikhism, Christianity etc. as well.

C L I M A T E :

India is a hot country.

NO.

India is a tropical country with all the major seasons, and they can be felt differently in different regions.

We have both summer and winter, and also the monsoon season.

Writers, please don't make it snow in winter; it isn't that common as it is in the States or the UK. Snowfall takes place only in the hilly regions, that too in the ones in the northern part in places where it's high altitude. It is very cold in the northern and eastern part of India, and not so cold in the south, west, south east and south west. (Unless you write a novel where the climate and stuff goes all topsy-turvy due to the misfortunes of us humans.)

We have high mountains as well as coastal regions, and we have a desert and a place where it rains heavily pretty much the entire year, so please check out the geographical stats of a region you're unfamiliar of.

E D U C A T I O N :

Please STOP with the immensely huge stereotype where you state or look upon us Indians as the huge nerds who know only math, science and computers as if those are the only three subjects we learn. JUST STOP. We do not have only smart people who excel in school and are young Einstein's or something, thank you. We have the average and below average students as well, and everyone has their own specialty or talent to be proud of. We are as well in English than the other countries with English as their first language if not better, and no, all of us don't have a heavy accent. People tend to lose their accent after they move abroad.

Education is a very important aspect of Indian life, and Indian kids are expected to do well in school, they don't score all A's because they're some prodigies or something. A lot of hard work goes in, and the results come out just the same way.

School education is laid out in different phases, all according to the age of the student.

We have the playgroup stage for toddlers and young kids which is kind of optional (as far as I know), and then we enter real school.

Grades are called Classes in India.

School is laid out in the following phases:

- Nursery and Prep (Pre Primary) ( two years)

- Primary school (Elementary school for you ; from grade one to five)

- Middle school (from grade fifth to eighth)

- High school (Two years ; grade nine and ten)

- Higher Secondary / Junior College / Pre-University (grade eleven and twelve)

A student is most likely to pass out school between seventeen or eighteen years old. We don't have the elaborate graduation ceremonies like other countries have for their students, we have a farewell party organized by the junior classes at grade twelve before a month or two from passing out. There is a formal dress code in those parties, and girls are usually dressed in a sari on that occasion.

Students pass out school after they give an external examination which is of significance for admission to colleges/Universities. There are different affiliations for education in India at school level, like the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), the ICSE/ICS board and the respective state boards. There are different grading systems for every class and affiliation at school level.

CBSE has its grading system on a scale of A1 to E1, with A1 being the top grade to E1 being the worst for classes one to ten, and then the percentage system for classes eleven and twelve. I don't know much about the other boards' grading system till class ten, but every board has the percentage system for higher secondary level.

The undergrad part takes generally three to five years, and that depends on the course you take. Whatever course you take for your undergrad, there is a time period of six months to a year for training in workplaces/ internship. That's all I know for college and stuff, because I'm still in higher secondary level.

We live in our parents place till we start earning ourselves after our education (generally). Also, please don't write about Indian kids working at high school level or something, that doesn't really happen.

Enough for the education part I suppose.

F A M I L Y :

I saw a lot of chapters where other fellow writers told about Family and relations being an important part of their life, and the same is true in India's case. Importance is given to family, and there are more nuclear families than joint families. Relations in a family are generally tightly knit, and parents aren't left to rot in an old age home after they grow old, they are taken care of (Again, that is the general case. Exceptions do exist.)

W E D D I N G S :

Weddings are a big thing in India and winter is the preferred time to get married (I really don't know why). There is a growth spurt in the number of marriages in winter, and that's all I know. Big fat weddings are common, and a lot of people are invited to the ceremonies.

Every region and religion have their own ceremonies and stuff, I suggest you check out about those things before writing about Indian marriages in your book.

Weddings are a time when the cousins and relatives reunite and have fun. The ceremonies don't just get over in a day, they may be planned out for an entire week. That depends on the culture and region.

F E S T I V A L S A N D H O L I D A Y S :

The immense amount of diversity in India leads to a lot of festivity, and religious holidays spread out all over the year. We celebrate every festival with peace and harmony, and everyone celebrates a major festival, not just a particular religious group.

The schools are generally closed for summer break after a month into the new academic session. The schools are closed for a month or two, generally in the period of May through June. The schools stay closed for at least a month, and it's a gala time for the students. The winter break tends to be combined with the Christmas break starting from around Christmas and lasting till a week or two after the New Year. The year-end examinations take place in March (Yes, I'm talking about the finals). The colleges start in September or August.

Workplaces have generally six working days, and there are other offices as well which have five working days with holidays on Saturday and Sunday.

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I hope this much helps you, I think I bored you with such a long content.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR WRITING! :D

PS: feel free to PM me anytime if you need to ask any other stuff, I don't bite!