With the world becoming smaller and the generation becoming larger more and more people from different cultures and countries are coming together as it has been realized that living in this world without mutual love, respect and cooperation is impossible. However ignorance in cross cultural communication and maintenance of inter cultural relationships has led to many an embarrassing situation with drastic results.

One such recent event that stirred many silent leaves through out the world was the episode in the “Celebrity Big brother saga”. The Celebrity Big Brother experience was such a public expression of racial discrimination that it covered the central headlines in the major newspapers world wide for over a month.

The celebrity Big Brother is in fact a reality show that was held in the UK which involves a selected group of celebrities living together with cameras constantly observing their each move and action in a shared house. The show proceeds with the public opinion on which celebrity is to be voted out of the house and which celebes can continue their stay in the house till the end of the show. During one series of this show Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty who was also a competitor among the big brother contestants was faced with violent bullying and abuse from few other housemates the main offender being Jade Goody.

Goody having a short tempered nature ended up with public ill-treatment towards Shilpa that were labeled as racist actions. The following confrontation led to over 30,000 complaints to the various officials dealing with the show. Large protest against Jude rose up with protests and objections that sprung up from all parts of India alike. The incident covered the newspapers daily columns with widespread protest not only from India but also from other parts of the world.

Racism is a critical topic that has such an ugly face that it causes many a head and face to distort with resent. Difficulty persists in determining whether the actions of Goody were meant to be racist actions or not. However the spice of the story lays in the fact that the root cause for such a commotion was the troubles that occurred in intercultural communication.

Inter cultural communication involves the study of the diversity in the characteristic traits of people in their manners of behaving, thinking, eating, speaking, etc. Trainers in intercultural communication seek to smoothen the relations among people coming from different cultures and countries so that intercultural associations exist in harmony.

Misunderstandings among people coming from different cultures and countries are the root cause for such scenarios that also occurs in multinational companies. Every person’s actions are misunderstood or misjudged by the others due to their ignorance of cross cultural differences.

The events and the final break out in the big brother house can be summarized as follows on the basis of Indian and English culture differences:
1. Communication styles: a communication gap that occurred between Shilpa and goody was the backbone for all the problems. Indians communicate in such a manner that no offence is meant to any other person especially in public and the honor and reputation of the other person is give the desired importance or significance. Their tone of speaking is softer with diplomatic words and well phrased sentences.
On the other hand Goody with an opener and more aggressive expressing manner constantly threw out remarks that were hurting and shocking to Shilpa. Her quiet nature was misunderstood as tactfulness and secrecy by Goody who called her a liar publicly and was used to swearing constantly.
2. Food: Shilpa ate her food using hands and this mostly common occurrence was given a foul meaning by stating that the places where the hands have been were unknown. The direct implication of Shilpa being dirty that was declared so openly was an open offend thrown on each other.
3. Accent was ridiculed by the team of Goody and her close mates though fact states that Shilpa had a better accent than the others. Her countrymen were labeled as skinny people based on the fact that the people in her country were constantly