Entertainment
Great to be an Indian in the US right now: YouTube star Vidya Vox
By Natalia Ningthoujam
New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS) US-based YouTube star Vidya Vox says that, while growing up, she tried to shun her Indian heritage as she was often bullied in school. But she is now “100 per cent” proud of her roots and feels it is great to be an Indian in the US right now.
Vidya Iyer, better known by her stage name Vidya Vox, was born in the Indian city Madras (now Chennai), grew up in Virginia, and is based in Los Angeles.
Asked how she feels being an Indian in the US under Donald Trump’s administration, Vidya told IANS here: “It’s great. There are many people like Priyanka Chopra of South Asian descent in the media who are in the forefront right now. That’s really great. While growing up, I didn’t see examples like that.”
“I was bullied when I was in middle school in DC, especially for being an Indian, because there weren’t many Indian kids in school. And because of that, I tended to hide my Indian culture, but that changed by the end of high school. Now, I am 100 per cent proud of it. I am not going to hide it any more,” she said.
“Growing up, I had a bit of an identity crisis. I spoke in Tamil at home and ate dosa and idli. At school, I would listen to Beyonce (Knowles) and eat pizza and fries,” she added.
The singer, who has learnt Carnatic music, felt like she was living in two separate worlds.
“I always thought how could I marry these two worlds… even if it’s for a few minutes. That’s how we came up with the idea of mashups,” said Vidya.
In 2015 she launched her YouTube channel with mashups of western pop hits and music from India. She has amassed over 350 million views and over three million subscribers.
Being a YouTube star, cyber bullying must be common. How does she deal with it?
“I don’t look at comments. I try really hard not to. It’s very difficult… people get bullied all the time. It’s important to remember not to listen to them. Your music is personal. Some people connect with it and some don’t. That’s okay,” said Vidya, popular for mashups like “Closer-Kabira” and “Love me like you do-Hosanna”.
She has also come out with an album, “Kuthu Fire”, consisting of original songs. To promote it, she is currently in India for a multi-city tour.
As part of ‘Vidya Vox Kuthu Fire Tour’, the singer, who is in her 20s, will be performing here on November 25.
Fashion brand Forever 21 is the title sponsor of the tour. Asked about her personal style, she said: “A little bit of Indo-western. I love sort of mixing Indian jewellery with Western silhouettes.”
Her mother and grandmother’s wardrobes also play major roles in her fashion sense.
“They (mother and grandmother) say ‘I don’t want the sari. I am going to throw it away or donate it.’ I say, No! I will take it and recycle it and make clothes for myself,” she said at the Forever 21 store at DLF Mall here.
Is she thinking of starting her own fashion line soon?
“Oh my God! That’s the dream. Hopefully soon,” said Vidya.
(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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