Chander Blog reader Shareen writes about a new South Asian kids magazine, Kahani:
"Thanks for the link to Kahani.I hope they transition into a text that is less conscious of the otherness of South Asians (parents accent etc). The point is that I wish Kahani took South Asianness as normal, and not self-consiously different. Maybe this comes across as hypercritical, but there is an uneasy undercurrent of children constantly negotiating their identity. It is a stressful read and the happy parts look forced. It has great potential though. Tinkle is a good source of inspiration for a happy childhood read, though it is very homespun."
It's seems a fair point. It would be nice if South Asian kids were just normal--not unusual, not, as Shareen writes, constantly negotiating their identity. Of course, in an ideal world, I'd want S.Asian kids negotiating their identity, too--as that reflects reality as well.
British films sometimes manage that--I recall a cad in Notting Hill who happened to be South Asian--and there was a minor South Asian kid in the latest of the Star Wars cycle.
But, in any case, Kahani seems a very helpful start--a point of departure from the traditional media where the most one can hope is to glimpse a South Asian kid on the planet Naboo.
(There, yet another topic that Becker/Posner would be unlikely to raise!)