Writing POC 101

Indian Characters - @missmessymarsaddcit

India is a land of diversity—from the languages in the various states/regions to the food habits, customs and yes, communities.

India is a developing economy. A bulk of our people live in villages and are in the agriculture sector. At the same time, people live in cities and live like any city-dweller.

From a Wattpad author's point of view, I'll focus mostly on the Indian cities.

India has many cities like Bangalore, Chennai etc. in the south, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida etc. in the north, Mumbai in the west and Kolkatta etc. in the east Out of these there are four metropolitan cities i.e. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkatta and Chennai.

Like most cities in the world, Indian cities are cosmopolitan in nature. Migrants from different regions and different classes live and dwell there because they are lack of opportunities in smaller towns and in villages, adding to the diversity.

Indian cities are a foodie's dream (I swear!) and have lot of food items like pav bhaji, dhokla, biryani, dosa, idli, jalebi etc. from different states. There are stalls for street food in every corner and they are cheap. Food joints like McDonalds and KFC are available in shopping malls as well as individual joints and they have an Indian element in some of their food items, although you'll have to shell out quite a bit. There are Thai, Korean and Chinese restaurants too and Indo-Chinese fusion is a part of the street food culture.

Urban Indian clothing consists of various items from Indian wear like sari, salwar-kameez, kurti and lehengas to Western clothing like jeans, T-shirt, shorts etc. Many brands of repute, including clothing, are available in both shops as well as online also.

Infrastructure in cities is very good compared to villages. There are good hospitals, schools and yes, roads (although not like foreign ones). There are transport facilities like auto-rickshaws, buses etc. and communication facilities such as telephone, internet etc. are used by many. In terms of job opportunities, there are many like doctors, engineers, corporate professional, lawyer etc.

People celebrate lot of festivals like Diwali, Christmas, Eid etc. As India is a diverse place, there are people from religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam etc., although Hinduism is the dominant religion. The same thing is applied from people from different states.

Coming to a teen's life or life in India (Important, as most Wattpad writers are teens), almost all of them go to English-medium schools and speak mostly in Hindi or Hinglish. They hang out in food joints, go for movies and party hard like any teen around the globe. They are on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. Many of them are in relationships (dating and all) though it is frowned upon by many people in the society. People are being more open though.

An important aspect of Indian culture is of arranged marriage. Here, the parents choose the groom/bride for their children. But children have some say in this these days. The system of dowry is gradually disappearing from many homes.There are love marriages from inter-caste to inter-religions one and attitudes are changing regarding love and relationships.

Indians are a stickler for values and customs. They treasure them and have a lot of respect for their parents and elders. Guests are treated as God and are treated very well.

It is said that many don't value the girl child in India. There are crimes against her like female feticide, infanticide, dowry killings etc. and they are not given much freedom and privileges. It is a sad truth. But there are many families who don't believe in such muck and consider a girl child as an asset. Luckily, this attitude is changing.

THE NORTH-EAST

*drumrolls*

I belong to the North-East India although I live in one of the metropolitan cities. Well, you can say that we are a different kind of Indians because in the way we look, speak, eat and so on.

North-East India consists of eight states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Compared to the rest of India, our region is underdeveloped and that's why a lot of us migrate to the cities.

North-east people GENERALLY have Mongoloid features and are short people like the rest of Asian races and due to this, we are mistaken for Chinese or Japanese by many, including mainland Indians themselves. Some people can be cruel by calling us Chinki and there are hate crimes against us (like the blacks in the US) in the cities. But the government is doing it's best to avoid this by introducing laws protecting us.

There are many famous people from the North-east who made their mark nationally and internationally. Some of them are Bollywood actor Danny Denzongpa (Kancha Cheena of Agneepath) Olympic boxer Mary Kom, Shillong Chamber Choir, Kiren Rijuji, a politician, and so on.

North-east cuisine is a totally different delight. It's mostly constituted of fermented foods- fermented bamboo shoot, fermented soy beans, fermented fish and many other interesting stuff. Meat related dishes dominate this cuisine (sorry vegetarians)

Another important aspect of this is unlike mainland Indian cooking, there is hardly any use of oil or spices. It is either boiled stuff or fermented stuff, hence not much popular compared to butter chicken or biriyani. Northeast India has one of the spiciest chili on the earth: The Bhut Jolokia which is used in the dishes.

People think that North-east is one whole community, which is not true. Like the rest of India, there are many communities within Northeast itself like Khasis, Garos, Jaintias etc. Also, there are religions like Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, although Christianity dominates the region.

In terms of clothing, it is different and varied. There are people who wear saris and dhoti-kurta due to influences of Hinduism and since most states are tribal, they wear tribal wear consisting of headgears and jewellery, especially during festivals. The clothing patterns are different, indicating the different communities/tribes. Women generally wrap a cloth around their waist called phanek or ponve, the name depending from state to sate. The youth, however prefer Indo-Western fusion wear or jean-Tshirt combo.

Another stereotype is that North-east people are very bad at speaking in Hindi. Though true, but doesn't necessary apply for all. The children of migrants and the city-dwellers are very good at speaking in Hindi and converse with their mates in Hindi. Also, many in my parent's generation (my parents also) and people residing in smaller towns speak butchered Hindi. This is because, Hindi is not our first language (applied for other states also) and it's not given much importance in schools/colleges.

Surprisingly, despite religious influences, many people are still rooted to their tribal/communal culture and celebrate tribal festivals along with Christmas or Diwali with great gusto.

I guess, celebrating festivals, being rooted to traditions and customs and loving our family and respecting elders makes us no different from the rest of India or Indians.

I hope, I haven't bored you all with this info, guys. Till then, goodbye and keep reading!