Ironical
though it may sound, post-colonial urban Indians are prone to closet colonial
mimicry, whether they know and/or admit it or not. In their best colonial mimicry
mode, many Indian script writers foist from time to time Teddy Bears on to
their characters as a symbol of childhood innocence and on to their storylines
as a pointer to the impending arrival of a baby in the family, an adoption and
so forth. Often, they unwittingly insert Teddy into imagined homes least likely
to be aware of its iconic role in English-speaking Western cultures as a “warm,
friendly, tolerant, accepting and compassionate” friend. http://bit.ly/1kNwPuf
Mind you, I have nothing against poor cuddly Teddies per se − in their proper place and in
the right context. I must confess, though, that I as a child never had one. We
Mankars, colonial mimics of the second – if not the first – water, residing at
233 Khetwadi Main Road http://bit.ly/1fcggIG seasonally consumed rum’n’raisin
Christmas cakes from the original Monginis at Flora Fountain and plum pudding
from Kayani’s; bought faux Christmas
stockings from the toy shops at Crawford Market; shopped occasionally − and
that too, very, very sparingly − at Whiteaway Laidlaw and Evan Fraser on Hornby
Road and Army & Navy on Esplanade Road http://bit.ly/R9RuxY in Fort; read Dickens,
Richmal Crompton and the Grimm Brothers; devoutly chanted Mother Goose nursery
rhymes; listened from time to time to Doing
the Lambeth Walk on our wind-up turntable; and stood up in the cinema hall every
time they played God Save the King. In short, we did without fail all the things all self-respecting
pre-1947 colonial mimics were expected to do.
The epiphany that dropped in for a visit after I
googled “Teddy Bear” concerned the place of its nativity. The awesome cuddly
did not – alas! – hail from the homeland of our erstwhile Imperial masters.
Instead, it was a native of the old country from across the Big Pond of their
erstwhile colonial cousins. Apocrypha has it that its moniker mimicked the
sporting US Prez “Teddy” Roosevelt’s “handle” to honour his refusal to shoot a
live bear tied to a willow tree during a 1902 hunting trip arranged by the
Mississippi governor. http://bbc.in/1kxDlmW
Teddy’s birth is equally noteworthy. Like the recent idiot-box
fad of simulcast, It was simul-birthed. Morris Michtom, a Russian immigrant
selling candy in his Brooklyn store, is one of the two credited with making the
first Teddy. The other joint holder of the Teddy Maker title was Richard Steiff
who exhibited his version of the stuffed marvel at the Leipzig Toy Fair in
1903.
Enough already. By now, you can probably make a shrewd
guess why I prefer Linus van Pelt’s security blanket insouciantly flung over
his left shoulder to Nancy’s and Garfield’s Teddies. Has this something to do
with the fact that Linus’s constant companion is multi-functional? http://bit.ly/1kMXKGk Maybe. Richard H
Passman, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee psychologist, found that “the
blanket promoted play, exploration and non-distress in their mothers' absence”.
The security blanket acts as a “pretend” playmate-comforter, in other words.
Far
be it for me to sell Teddy short, though, just because I do not personally gel
with it. In English-speaking Western cultures, psychologists see it variously as
“a normal part of a child’s development”, a “transitional experience between
the infant’s ability to distinguish the inner subjective world from outside
reality”, a substitute for the absent mother (temp surrogate mom?) – in short, a
normal, desirable and beneficial component of growing up. Teddy has also done
yeoman service in class rooms by intrinsically motivating children to learn (i.e.,
by creating an ambience – mood, feel or atmosphere – where the pleasure of
learning is its own reward). Teddy has done himself proud by being the perfect helpmate
to cops, firemen and paramedics for reaching out to scared, lost and
traumatized children in rescue scenarios as well. In a Boston Children’s Museum project, kids
were encouraged to take their Teddy Bears for a free medical check-up by real
doctors with a view to lessen their fear of medical practitioners and
hospitals.
Okay,
Teddy. It’s time I gave up. You’re no bugbear. On the contrary, you may be
quite the opposite. I owe you an apology.
