silver5trikestars - Tumblr blog

[silver5trikestars]

*Hannah and Olivia vibing at the Sydney skz concert*

*Ominous breathing begins*

Hannah: I knew I shouldn't have stayed here too long smh...

[silver5trikestars]

STATVOFFICIAL:

[아이돌리그] Xdinary Heroes (엑스디너리 히어로즈) ⚠️JYP 밴드 전통을 이어버렸다 ⚠️JYP가 만든 춤신춤왕 밴드 엑스디너리 히어로즈｜선공개 

💟 1월 15일 토요일 저녁 8시 #STATV ☞ youtu.be/YlBiQWjtLMo 

#XdinaryHeroes #엑스디너리히어로즈 @XH_official

ENG TRANS @xdinaryheroes-data

[Idol League] Xdinary Heroes ⚠️It’s a JYP band tradition ⚠️JYP’s dance god dance king band Xdinary Heroes will be pre-released

💟Saturday, Jan. 15 at 8 PM KST #STATV ☞ youtu.be/YlBiQWjtLMo 

[silver5trikestars]

I wish I could be like one of those Tumblr people who make well-written and informed analyses on their interests and hyperfixations but no I got stuck with the GGAGRRHHD AARRAARFGHFGG. HHGGGGRGGGGRGRRRGGHH MMBBRBBRBJGJGJ KKAAAAAAAAAAA HHHHH AAA !!?,,!??,!

[silver5trikestars]

Chan after meeting Jisung: I've only had him for 2 minutes but if anything happens to him I will kill everyone here and then myself.

[silver5trikestars]

Does anyone else like have that one box of chocolates that you were given but you're not allowed to eat because it's to be given to someone else?

[silver5trikestars]

After watching Encanto, (by the way it's a REALLY good movie) I see how it's a catharsis for many Latino families and people. I would also like to add my two cents in as a South Indian. I don't really understand the interfamily trauma that divides. Like for most Indians or Desis, some people try to fix the trauma that they face and try and fix it for their kids, but the stigmas that the older generations had felt make the elders force the younger ones to repress it. So I see Encanto as the pressure that the family is placed under, simply because of "What others would think." We see Alma try and maintain the one image of a perfect gifted family, even when everything is crumbling (quite literally even). The way that Mirabel tries to make everyone see it way very jarring for me because I felt like someone else could understand it. Alma needed to show that everyone is strong and happy, even at the expense of their mental health and inter family relations. Mirabel needed to show her family they don't have to be confined to the role that the village and her family set on them.

When the whole village comes together despite seeing their humanness, I was really emotional. This hit home for me.

[silver5trikestars]

Changbin : Hey! I grew 2 centimetres!!! I'm not short anymore!!!

Seungmin : hmmm

Hyunjin : hmmmmmm

Tomorrow by Together: Hmmmmmmm

Literally the rest of the kpop world : HMMMMMMMM

[silver5trikestars]

Changbin : Hey! I grew 2 centimetres!!! I'm not short anymore!!!

Seungmin : hmmm

Hyunjin : hmmmmmm

Tomorrow by Together: Hmmmmmmm

Literally the rest of the kpop world : HMMMMMMMM

[silver5trikestars]

FELIX : You know when you do something rash, but don't regret it...

CHAN GETTING NERVOUS: What did you do Lix?

FELIX TRYING TO HIDE A MOUNTAIN OF BROWNIES BEHIND HIM: Oh you know, just some stress baking...

HYUNJIN FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE MOUNTAIN: This is heaven and Felix is my personal Angel !!!!

[silver5trikestars]

They actually make a really important point... As as Tamil person I find no representation at all (and I mean at all) is any sort of film other than tamil films... I'm not even talking about a relevant tamil girl in Western media, but just a South Indian person in general. I feel pretty insulted and "not indian enough" when I hear my class mates ask about India and ask if I speak Hindi or "Indian." I as a writer try and include Indian and South Indian characters in my writing, especially modelled off my own life, but lots of people try and correct me on it saying that what I'm writing is "not indian".

Honestly, if people just start acknowledging India as a country with different cultures and that everything is not just one culture, then I'd feel a lot more included.

writing south indian characters

[@/moonlit_sunflower_books on ig]

The primary Indian story that is told through modern literature and media is a very North-Indian focused narrative, and while there's nothing wrong with that, there's a massive lack of south Indian representation. Often we're sort of ostracised from other Indians as well, so i thought i'd make a post outlining how to write South Indian characters talking about the differences between our cultures :)

If you have anything to add or things to point out, please go ahead! This is all based on my own personal experience and knowledge.

how do you define "south indian"

"South Indian" is used as a very broad term and is also highly relative. Generally, it encompasses people from the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. The problem with grouping all these characters under one massive umbrella is that our cultures are all vastly different, the same way that someone from Assam and Punjab would have entirely different. I'm going to elaborate on this further as we go!

food

South Indian food, contrary to popular belief, does not consist of idli and dosa.

Some examples of more food are bisi bele bath, pongal and vathakuzhambu (i promise it's not that hard to pronounce), sambhar shadam (a type of rice and curry), rasam, coconut-based kormas, tamarind rice, chakkarai pongal (which is sweet), vadai (yes we pronounce it differently from North Indians), mysore pak, lime rice, our famous filter coffee (or "kaapi"), and so much more.

South Indian food is more rice-heavy than grain-heavy, and we don't really have a roti equivalent. There's also a lot of non-vegetarian food, but since I'm vegetarian, I don't know a whole lot about it :)

There's also obvious language differences: for example, in a Tamilian household, we would call curd rice "thayir shadam", which means the same thing. Which brings me to my next point...

languages

There is a reason that there's a debate as to whether or not Hindi should be the national language. Spoiler alert: it should not.

South India is home to so many languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malyalam. Very often someone from North India will make the assumption that Indian people speak Hindi, whereas this is completely untrue - South Indians should not be expected to speak Hindi any more than North Indians should be expected to speak Tamil.

If you're writing about a South Indian character, make sure that they speak their native language and NOT Hindi at home! And if it's a South Indian character who lives in a different part of the country, like I do, they'll likely know the language of the part of the country they live in as well as their native language. (But this also depends - if a Telugu person has grown up in Delhi, they're likely to speak Hindi better than Telugu.)

Even characters that live abroad will have some connection to their language. As someone who spent many years outside India, I learnt quite a bit of random vocabulary in the form of food and short phrases like "look here", "what do you want", "what happened", and things like that.

fashion

The South Indian version of a lehenga is called a pavada or pavadai, and it's often what younger girls wear at any formal or festive event. Older women will often wear saris. Traditionally, Brahmins used to wear 9 yard saris that were tied differently, but in an attempt to eradicate the caste system, this largely isn't worn anymore.

Men wear veshtis, which is a type of cloth tied around the waist. Traditionally, this would have been worn without a shirt, but today it's not uncommon to see people walking around with a veshti and formal shirt.

Keep in mind, though, India has become really westernised, so many people will also jeans and shirts and things like that. Fusing ethnic and western wear, like jeans with kurta tops, is not uncommon.

It also varies a lot from region to region - in Chennai you're much more likely to see someone walking around casually in a sari than you are in Bangalore, simply because of the culture that surrounds the two cities.

physically

South Indians stereotypically have much thicker, curlier hair and darker skin than North Indians. (But this obviously varies from person to person.)

names

Within South Indian names, it's fairly easy to tell where someone is from - and this is true of any micro-region, state, or culture within India.

Some examples of Tamil names could include "Srinivasan", "Iyer", or "Pillai". (Iyer and Iyengar are actually two sub-sects of Tamilian Brahmins who worship Shiva and Vishnu respectively, but I won't get into that.) Telugu surnames could include "Komati" or "Nayak".

But traditionally, South Indians never had surnames. There would be 2-3 initials that stood for one's village name and father's name, followed by your name. So, for example, C. V. Raman was his full name! Some people still use this system, but because it becomes difficult during documentation etc, most people have switched to the westernised version of the system.

general culture

Two of my personal favourite parts of South Indian culture are Carnatic Music and Bharatnatyam, both of which I have learnt. Carnatic music is a form of classical music where one sings varnams and shlokas and padams in different raagas and taalams. Bharatnatyam is a classical dance form from Tamilnadu with two main styles - Thanjavur and Kalakshetra.

Of course, there are millions of little aspects to South Indian culture, but I couldn't possibly fit them all here :)

being south indian

Being South Indian in other parts of India means that you're subject to a whole lot of racism.

I've had people say "how can you call yourself a real indian" and, like I said earlier, use words like "dosa" and "pongal" instead of my name. There's also language-based discrimination like I mentioned, because many people assume Hindi should be spoken across the country.

The caste system is also very prominent, and there are multiple movements to eradicate it across South India.