Comments | pavel_lishin: Busy busy busy

pavel_lishin

Busy busy busy

Nov 28, 2005 02:35

As usual, slacking off has fucked me, and now I have several days of projects, assignments, presentations, and exams to prepare for with - if you add up all the hours for late assignments as negative values - an average of half an hour for each. I haven't even had time to read all the comments that anyone's left for me in the past 48 hours. (Before ( Read more... )

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latelyontime November 28 2005, 08:58:50 UTC

As the privileged outsider...here is my list:
1. California
2. New York
3. Massachusetes (I dont even know how to spell that one!)
4. Michigan
5. Florida.

pavel_lishin November 28 2005, 20:25:28 UTC

Why did you choose Michigan and Massachussetts (also no clue as to spelling)?

nemesis123 November 28 2005, 20:49:20 UTC

Massachusetts because of the controversey over gay marriage maybe? Or the amount of good schools there like MIT? Ya got me.

latelyontime November 29 2005, 05:26:31 UTC

MIT - Massachussetts (lets standardise it for our convinience). Too many friends have gone there to study. Too many people are dying to be there. A lot of the people I read for my thesis seem to be writing from there.

Michigan - Absolutely no idea. No wait! I taught an entire batch of students from a university there. They had come down to bangalore for three months and i was taking courses with them in Indian culture and society.

thats how that happens :)

Do you want the strange reasons behind the other states as well?

pavel_lishin November 29 2005, 05:31:03 UTC

Cali, NY and Florida aren't big surprises, they're popular states. But if you have strange reasons for listing them, I'd love to hear them!

latelyontime November 29 2005, 05:35:22 UTC

I guess they are really popular...and how it hurts my elite snobbish sensitivities to know that I have populist reactions :)

I am not sure if they are strange. But I do know that they are personal. California is the homeland of Gujaratis. I have been led to believe that they actually have a 'Patel' street where all of them own motels. My mom had a very disorienting experience there when she was walking down a beach and heard a conversation being shouted out in gujarati over there. My hometown is in Gujarat. It is a well documented fact that for every Gujarati family in India, there is at least one person living in California.

NY - I blame it entirely on Judy Blume. Two of my most favourite Judy Blume stories are set in NY - Dear God, are you there? It's me Margaret and Then Again Maybe I won't. Also, watching Desperate housewives help.

I have, very strangely, no idea where Florida comes from. Absolutely no personal connections whatsoever. Must be just one of those days, that like flossing, stay with you as a habit :)

pavel_lishin November 29 2005, 20:44:52 UTC

Heh, I always kind of wonder where all the Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/etc. clerks who work at and own convenience stores and gas stations here come from. My mom took several Oracle courses, and her classes were full of Indians from all over the place. Up until then I thought India was pretty homogenous - I didn't know that nearly every region had its own language or dialect.

latelyontime November 30 2005, 05:20:42 UTC

You do realise that one of the more liberal parties might actually attack you for clubbing Indians, pakistanis and bangladeshis together, dont you?
India has 16 official national langauges. My own mother tongue - Gujarati, has 16 documented dialects and many other sub dialects. Homogeniety is a concept that India does not fit into.

pavel_lishin November 30 2005, 05:23:25 UTC

I met this tiny little girl on campus, and when I asked her, "Are you from India?", she instantly turned to me, got a "I'll fucking kill you" look, and informed me through a hiss that she was Bangladeshi.

So, yeah. I don't really ask "Are you from India?" anymore, I just go with the generic "Where are you from?" if they have an accent, or a "Where is your family from?" if they don't.

latelyontime November 30 2005, 05:34:14 UTC

ha ha ha ha...At least you didnt ask her if she was a paki! No wait, thats what the brits do!

Yes, the Indian subcontinent has had a very blood shed history of partition and national identity. Most of the times the nations are trying to make sure they are who they think they are. somebody coming and blurring the boundaries they have maintained so valiantly and fought so much for is not going to help.

As a rule, I don't ask those questions - "where are you from?". Most people are too keen to talk about where they are from anyway...and one gets the answers even without asking.

pavel_lishin November 30 2005, 07:33:41 UTC

Eh, I generally don't bust that out the first time I meet someone - I've seen enough TV shows and educational skits performed by earnest college students to know that's kind of a faux pas. But if I know someone after awhile, I'll usually ask them. I kind of have an opening line, too, being from Russia. I can volunteer my ethnic heritage, and then people generally reciprocate.

latelyontime November 30 2005, 08:23:51 UTC

oooh clever....The outsiders of the USA unite!

Might even help as a pick up line, I think.

pavel_lishin November 30 2005, 08:55:44 UTC

"... you have any Russian in you?"

latelyontime November 30 2005, 08:58:03 UTC

er...that is a particularly loaded question...I will resist the temptation to read sex in it.

Nah...no russian. All Indian but all very mixed up as it is. Mongrel is the word I think.

pavel_lishin November 30 2005, 09:13:04 UTC

That was actually a demonstration of an old pickup line that works if you have some ethnicity in you.

Russian guy: "Hey, do you have any Russian in you?"
Girl: "No..."
Russian guy: "You want some?"

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