Ever felt conscious of your Indian accent when talking to someone with, say, a British or an American accent? That’s a very small result of how toxic mainstream youth culture is to us. We’re constantly exposed to instances that glorify everything that’s from the west and downplay anything that’s our own. We all know that one friend who goes to New York for a week and comes back with a terrible, terrible fake accent. Being able to speak English is considered to be synonymous to being considered “cool” or “smart”. We take turns to make fun of our friends’ mispronunciations, as though English is the only language we’ve ever had in our country.  We all know people who wouldn’t ever hesitate to trash talk our societal rules, our traditions, our ethics. Continue reading Be Your Own Aesthetic