BLACK FRIDAY IN RAINBOW INDIA

WHAT is Black Friday doing in India, I asked myself when I saw a spate of online promotions and colourful ads promising discounts galore.

- MADHAVAN NARAYANAN

Having grown up with the usual Diwali and Christmas sales, I had never heard of Black Friday until the internet happened, bringing with it an overdose of American habits, customs and, of course, strange-sounding words that have now become common in India.

We cannot blame this one on British colonial rule. But leftists and ultra-nationalists may ascribe the surge in the Black Friday phenomenon to cultural imperialism. Still, a careful look may tell you there is more to it than a culture imposed on Indians.

It’s undeniable that burgers and colas are a part of the Americanisation of global culture, often serving as symbols of being ‘with it’ in certain circles. Some extreme forms of this can be found in elite enclaves like SoBo (South Mumbai) and the Gram (Guruguram).

Parents of kids marked for higher education in the US are happy to see their wards acclimatising in advance with Halloween parties that entail trick-or-treats and outré costumes. They are probably not aware that Bengalis have had their own celebration of ghosts and ghouls on the Bhoot Chaturdashi that falls close to the Kali Puja (Diwali), much the same way that the American festival falls close to the old Christian All Saints’ Day and borrows heavily from the Day of the Dead in Aztec Mexico.