Never Have I Ever been so displeased

Okay so, before I go off on one of my medium length harangues, I’d like to make it clear that I’m not unappreciative of the fact that Mindy Kaling was able to finally shed some light on South-Indian culture. In fact, it is commendable that a North-Indian girl like myself was also able to relate to a few things, meaning the show scoops up the gamut of Indian girls everywhere, under one umbrella. We come together when watching such shows, because we all know what it’s like to live in our judgemental society and all my Desi girls know how to avoid the burns of a hot-tea spilling Aunty!

There’s something about Poojas (cultural functions) that brings out a special edition level of nosiness in these aunties, which is why my favourite episode conflates gossiping and Devi running around trying to make sure no one from her school sees her in her half-sari! I completely understand her ‘I am American and everything else about me can be compromised’ phase, but I can’t comprehend her full fledged addiction to Paxton! I mean seriously Devi? Him? She is fixated on the idea of this boy being her boyfriend and truthfully, I envisaged such a show to highlight a dynamic young woman, with dreams and substance, because we don’t crush on worthless boys anymore and hustle is the only word out on the streets.

Now I know a lot of people say her Father’s passing has an impact and I don’t disagree, because grief exhibits itself in many forms. However, if she really wanted to make her dad proud, she wouldn’t have screamed at someone who could get her an Ivy league place and you know what, that isn’t even the most disappointing thing. It’s 2020 and surprise surprise! Stereotypes STILL exist. I mean the least Kaling could do was let Devi’s character be an average student, but how could she break from the oh-so-obvious nerd character assigned to Asian kids? This may be hard to believe, but not all of us are actually that sharp, there are lots of Indian kids who aren’t academically stalwart and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!

It’s incredibly frustrating to think that a large platform, like Netflix, could have been properly utilised. Other people don’t know how I’ve lived my life, they aren’t in my head and they certainly haven’t been through what I have, because they aren’t me. Therefore, I’d like for things I watch to thoroughly educate me and not give me the wrong idea on topics I can’t fathom. I don’t want documentaries on Black History to give me incorrect information, nobody would. So why should the image of me and my people be displayed in the form of a joke?

All Never Have I Ever managed to get across was Devi’s craziness and I don’t mean the good kind!