jinyoung is so cute i like no minwoo better lee jeong min beats both of them hands down these are strands of a regular conversation between 15yearold anoushka and her friends in school all of whom follow korean bands religiously and for whom names like jinyoung and no minwoo who incidentally are south koreas reigning superstar singers roll easily off the tongue and they are not the only one the korean wave a term that was coined in mid1999 and refers to spread of popular korean culture comprising music movies and drama is slowly making its presence felt in india and coming under its sway are youngsters from delhi to mumbai aizawl to kohima in fact the northeast was one of the first regions in the country to take to hallyu as the korean wave is also referred to in september 2000 the revolutionary peoples front rpf imposed a blanket ban on the screening of hindi movies and hindi satellite channels in manipur in order to fill up this vacuum people took refuge in southeast asian cinema today korean channels like arirang tv and kbs are aired by the cable operators in the northeast and each household has its own favourite the first koreaindia music festival and cultural event was held in nagaland in 2008 it saw a huge turnout with people queuing up to meet popular korean artists like ilac and vj isak nobody knows for sure why the kword is becoming popular among the youth especially considering that most of the shows and songs are in korean and not even dubbed in english bangalorebased swati sharma who recently went to seoul on a student exchange programme attributes it to cultural similarities i found their habits behaviour and food to be very similar to ours even the way they pronounce their words and their syllables is pretty much like we do i could easily grasp the language she says not surprising then that some kids in manipur are even learning korean through television classes apart from the cultural affinity there is the refreshingly different content korean tv dramas are not about scheming motherinlaws instead many of them feature young boys and girls trying to find their place in the world i caught a korean drama on a family trip to thailand and have been hooked ever since says meghna bajaj a class x student from delhi the easy availability of shows courtesy the internet which has seen a surge in india kids downloading korean tv series songs and movies has helped noreen gurung a student says she follows all the popular bands on youtube online streaming sites like dramacrazynet my soju all korean drama and han cinema are equally popular the korean fixation is not just limited to music movies and tv it is also seeping into kids fashion in india in the northeast for instance its not uncommon for a boy to have his favourite actors hairstyle or for a girl to be seen dressed