This Cartoon Perfectly Nails How Foreigners Stereotype All Indian Food As "Curry"

"Important PSA."

This is Krish Raghav, a Chennai-born, Beijing-based cartoonist.

facebook.com

Raghav's cartoons often focus on Indian traditions and localities, or on other places' perceptions of India.

Krish Raghav / Via facebook.com

Raghav told BuzzFeed his comics are largely either autobiographical or journalistic, so they tend to be from an "Indian" perspective.

And his most recent one – about the word "curry" – has delighted and enamoured a bunch of people.

Krish Raghav

The cartoon was retweeted 1,500 times in a day, with lots of people quoting Raghav's tweet.

Twitter: @shonottra

Twitter: @krishashok

Twitter: @ssdatar

"This comic was actually created in Mandarin first," Raghav told BuzzFeed. "For friends and folks here who only know Indian food as 'curry'. It doesn't help that the few Indian restaurants in Beijing largely cater to this stereotype."

Krish Raghav

"I cook South Indian food, and I do this little thing where I invite friends and strangers and cook for them," he said. "Food unlike the 'Indian' food they're used to or expect."

Raghav told BuzzFeed he was very careful in stating that he doesn't want to police the use of the word "curry".

Krish Raghav

"It's fine to say curry as a shorthand for what is, let's face it, the dominant face of Indian cuisines outside India and a few other places with large pan-Indian communities," he said. "But it's important to remember that it IS a shorthand. A catchall term. It is not the food itself, or the totality of it."

You can check out more of Krish Raghav's work here.