Life of a Hipster

Pic: Random

You have excessive facial hair, a scruffy unshaven look, enough to make any Bangali mother cringe in disgust. You believe it makes you look more serious. Even if that’s not it, you like it anyway.

You discuss politics and philosophy (aka ‘antlami’). A group of people having an animated discussion on the current political party in power and coming up with the most exaggerated ‘conspiracy theories’ is a hipster thing to do. If you wish to join, make up your own theory. You don’t want people saying that they came up with it first!

The ‘Original Hipster’ was the jhola-carrying, kurta-wearing intellectual. And a fashionable goatee, for him!

You probably puff a cigar or a pipe. Or bidis and rollies — hipsters will forever roll their own cigarettes. Even though this works out cheaper, it’s really more about the principle than the money. You are what you smoke.

You condemn TV-watching. You condemn big brands like Starbucks. However, you’ll spend the same amount of money buying special filter coffee (since it’s not that mainstream… yet!).

You don’t wear Converse anymore because everyone wears it. You find other vintage shoes.

Pic: Random

You carry an analog or vintage Polaroid camera. You collect LP records. At the same time, you own cool tools and will take out a MacBook from your satchel (not backpack) and in all probability will possess the most expensive sound headset.

You stand out with your Woody Allen glasses or large black-framed glasses.

You focus on upcoming indie bands, not bands that are currently popular. It could be The Antlers, m83, St. Vincent or Snowmine. The first thing you’ll tell others is, “You probably haven’t heard of them yet....” You need to use Spotify for these.

Hipsters are never happy. That’s why they love Twitter.

You think it’s cool to cycle. You cycle to college (sometimes, even nightclubs).

Edward Yang 

You probably like Taiwanese New Wave filmmakers like Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. You watched Ship of Theseus months before anyone here had even heard of it.

You eat organic food and attend farmers’ markets. You drink chamomile tea.

The funny bone of Indian Politics

A few days back, I was reading an interesting book on political satire called Unreal Elections – which digs into the Indian political satire amidst the clamour of heated debates. Surprisingly, as I delved deeper into this new genre of writings, I figured out that the internet is full of such political sarcasms.  Thanks to technology, a barrage of political spoofs on the internet and TV ensures that every Indian politician is cut down to size.

For a country where everyone takes politics very seriously and in the rural areas where many aspire to be a politician, it is surprising to find Indians laughing their way to the elections. Thanks to the new age satirists, a generous dose of political humour doing rounds in every nook and corner of the tech world using rhetorical campaigns.

Pic: Random

The genre is not something new in India – it was always there in diverse forms of cartoons in newspapers, it’s just the appetite has increased.  

No doubt, humour should be integrated in politics. For example, there seems to be a lot more humour in the presidential elections of the USA than you’ll find in India.  Indians have a tendency of taking things seriously. Sarcastic comments by Narendra Modi often receive a very blistering response from political opponents for using the term "Shahzada" for Rahul Gandhi frequently. I find it quite funny and of course, a brilliant tactic. But instead of taking it sportingly, opposition leaders have taken offence to it and responded in a different tone altogether.

The moment you open any social networking sites, you’ll be flooded with varied jokes and graphics based on Indian politicians and politics. The current trend of such satires are inevitably based on the top notch political parties and their supremoes like, Congress, AAP, BJP and who can deny the constant jokes on our home-grown party, TMC.

As I browsed the internet, came across a very interesting take on Indian politics by Irfan – the new breed of cartoonists who gained popularity for his catchy graphics based on similar theme. If you think that it needs acute finesse to capture the funny bone of politics, you’re wrong. Many amateur artists and writers have also taken such steps and later became internet sensation. 

Pic: Random

Gone are the days when Jawaharlal Nehru who had a great sense of humour, once told cartoonist Shankar, "Don't spare me".  It was also reported that once Laura Bush comically teased her husband George W Bush during the White House Correspondent’s Dinner of his inability to pronounce “nuclear”, his poor reading habits and even his bedtime activities. Can you imagine this in India?

“Ooh there you go again”, says future anonymous commenter “bootlicking the West.” I never get this logic. What is the problem in imbibing the good things of the West—their rationality, their work culture and their sense of humour?