Bhubaneswar: Odia actress and star of the popular television show ‘Rajaa Betaa’ Sambhabana Mohanty was a subject of online trolling recently for a harmless tweet.
Sambhabana took to her Twitter account to share a cute post featuring a photograph of her with her mother, the actress Snigdha Mohanty, whom she affectionately addressed as ‘Ammi Jaan’.
“Happiness is Ammi Jaan ??? #momanddaughter #family #purelove,” read her tweet.
Happiness is Ammi Jaan 🥰🥺😘#momanddaughter #family #purelove pic.twitter.com/fym2CYoko1
— Sambhabana Mohanty (@Sambhabana_M) July 30, 2019
The actress’s completely innocuous post was interpreted as something else by several social media users who brutishly and unfairly came down on her in numbers.
One user accused her of ‘abandoning her roots’ by addressing her mother as ‘Ammi’ and not ‘Bou’, an Odia colloquialism for ‘mother’.
ମା ଲୋ ଏତେ ଇଂଲିସ ମୁଁ ବୁଝି ପାରେନା।
Had to do a little search to find who are you. May be many Odia's considering you as a celeb n must be following u.
That's why it will be good if u try to stay to ur roots n inspire them to do so which is largely missing in modern Odia family.
— Dr. RR Sahoo 👩🔬🔬 🇮🇳 (@srrashmi1) July 30, 2019
“You are Odia. And in Odia we don’t call Ammi Jaan to our mother,” wrote one user.
U r odia.. And in odia we don't call Ammi Jann to our mother.
— Soumya (@Soumya_Ratsingh) July 31, 2019
“Hindu ho ki Muslim (Are you Hindu or Muslim?),” wrote one user.
Hindu ho ki Muslim
— Ramesh (@Rama02591110) July 30, 2019
Sambhabana received a barrage of such needless abuses forcing her to post a series of tweets explaining herself.
“So I got massively trolled and shamed by my fellow Odias because I used ‘Ammi Jaan’ to address my mom instead of ‘Maa’ or ‘Bou’ (the odia equivalent) on a post on social media; whereas it has never been an issue when I called her ‘Mom’ or ‘Mummy’,” she wrote. “The reasons given : I left my home state & forgot my roots, I want to convert to Islam, I mostly speak in English, I’m modern, I’ve studied so much that I have forgotten my culture and the funniest one being – I work in a Hindi show & thus I ridicule my mother tongue.”
So I got massively trolled and shamed by my fellow Odias because I used "Ammi Jaan" to address my mom instead of "Maa" or "Bou" (the odia equivalent) on a post on social media; whereas it has never been an issue when I called her "Mom" or "Mummy"..
— Sambhabana Mohanty (@Sambhabana_M) July 31, 2019
“I am not somebody who pays attention or responds to these miniscule banters on the internet but this issue is something that needs to be talked about. I do not have the time or energy to respond to each one personally so here it goes,” she added.
“I’m half odia-half bong, spent 12 years in a Catholic School, studied Sociology for 6 years. My parents, my schooling, my education – everything has taught me how not to discriminate. Mu Odia (I’m Odia), Ami Bangali (I’m Bengali) and to sum that up I’m a Homo sapiens sapiens,” she wrote.
Sambhabana concluded her tweets with: “ETHNOCENTRISM IS A CURSE PEOPLE AND THE PROBLEM IS STILL HUGE. GET OVER IT. BE THE CHANGE because we don’t want another generation with the same mental sickness. Thank you.”
ETHNOCENTRISM IS A CURSE PEOPLE AND THE PROBLEM IS STILL HUGE. GET OVER IT. BE THE CHANGE because we don't want another generation with the same mental sickness.
Thank you.
— Sambhabana Mohanty (@Sambhabana_M) July 31, 2019
Sambhabana essays the role of Purva in ‘Rajaa Betaa’ which also features actor Dishank Arora in the lead.
PNN
