November 30, 2007
What Vivek would really sayScience and Technology
Those of you who use gmail and gchat will have seen the news that gchat has gone from monogamous chatting only to full on orgy mode:
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Guess who’s coming to dinner? |
My reaction to this news is that it’s about time! Not the move to group chat, but the use of Vivek in an example. I mean, if you go into one of the many googleplex fine dining establishments and holler “Yo - Vivek!” you know how many people would turn around? So what took Google so long?
Of course, if they’re going for versimilitude here, Vivek would probably not be going camping with Todd (not unless they were a couple) but instead with a truckload of other desis, especially if Vivek is an IBD. The example should really say something like “Group chat - so 10 desi couples can coordinate their camping plans!” The chat would show people discussing who was bringing the dal, who was bringing the chaval, how many kinds of pickles were necessary for an overnight camping trip, whether a pressure cooker will work over a campfire, etc.
Actually, on second thought, I think we’re better off with the example provided. I don’t think even Google’s mighty servers could survive the surge in load from brown people going camping alone, not to mention brown people coordinating movies, dinners, or weddings. Back to Todd and Vivek it is.
ennis on November 30, 2007 01:32 PM in Humor, Science and Technology · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
Yay! Group chat and Emoticons!
But Viveks response seems kinda out of place.. "Thats great"...to what???
And here I thought the Vivek in your title was Vivek Oberoi... or maybe it is...
instead with a truckload of other desis, especially if Vivek is an IBD'
Oh, please. ABDs don't hang out with other desis?
Maybe Todd is also be desi - maybe he is really Todar Mal, or Thotadri, or Dodda Basavappa.
Oops, sorry, please delete "be" from the comment above. I wish I could edit my comment :(
Saw this yesterday and I thought they had that message personalized!! Good for Google anyways :)
If Vivek were IBD he would say "No camping,let's go trekking instead"
Hey Ennis, it was about time for google. Maybe you should follow their lead too. ;)
I think your sentence would probably read better if you added "...chances are Vivek would not...." to it. :)
Oh, the irony.
Another day, another victory.
since when do indians go camping?
But have they extended the group chat to the gtalk application - so far it only seems to be working with gmail!..
Another stereotype is that ABDs ONLY hang out with other ABDs...
I've yet to see brown people coordinate anything en masse.
.. but i just had to say this post really gave me a pre-wknd chuckle; thanks bro
I think Vivek was being sarcastic, like he didn't really want Todd to go. The punctuation tells the story. After Todd says, "yeah, I'm in!", Vivek follows up with a "That's great ..." . The ellipse tips his hand.
I actually have two co-workers who're called Vivek and Todd, so I did a double-take when I saw that chat yesterday on Google, and thought it was personalized off my computer (not just gmail)!
And I'm so, so glad Sepia Mutiny exists and there's a whole bunch of us who can co-gloat about this :-)
We're in it to win it. Watch out.
A few years ago when I was looking through the promotional material for a computer I'd just purchased, I realized that there were more Asian Americans in computer ads than just about anywhere else in the mainstream media. Especially at that point, it was easier to find a space alien on TV than a person of Asian ancestry (I'm pretty sure I read that statistic somewhere at the time!)
I was half impressed that Apple was employing some Asian models for their ads, and half depressed that the models were stuck in the tech ghetto.
I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that Vivek rhymes with the following English words:
shake, bake, rake, lake, snake, wake, make, fake, cake, take
and NOT:
wreck, week, muck
Why does it always have to be what an ABD or IBD would do....
I have been "camping" since the mid-70s in India. There is lots of wilderness, the tents were not as sophisticated as they are now, but yeah I've gone camping complete with compass, camp gear, camp fire etc. both in reserved areas in south India and in the lesser Himalayas up north. And done a lot of camping in the beautiful national parks here since moving here too. :)
Group chat on gmail will be great.
Re Comment#14
It could also be that Vivek has a crush on Todd and is initially thrilled that he will be coming camping. But then he realizes that while he has been fantasizing about being Todd's boyfriend for months, he doesn't have the courage to confront him. The ellipses (...) are Vivek's nerves giving way, at the panic of spending a week-end in the wilderness with Todd, knowing that this is his shot at what he wants, but also knowing he will ultimately chicken out.
But not to worry, Vivek's is fickle and melodramatic. Next week he'll be on love with Hans.
Are you sure it's not this kind of camp? That might explain Vivek's elliptical hesitation - what if mummy and daddy saw him?
Actually, the example is reflective of MY camping reality. Invariably, my desi friends are not interested in camping/outdoor stuff, so I end up exchanging such msgs or going on trips with people named Todd, Jane, or Liz.
The Goog is like that only. Diwali, camping at Lake Tahoe by Desis, not so Desis, and proper esi food for lunch and dinner, etc....
Now Maine can talk to Florida!
But does Maine have anything to say to Florida?
And as my friend Piyush (no, not Bobby) points out ... what are we to make of the "Guess who's coming to dinner?" tag on the chat window? (The movie of that name is a classic on the theme of American prejudice against interracial dating.)
The tag was added by the blogger and was not part of the original Google web page. Click on the image to see the original.
This is a cross-generational relationship because Vivek uses capitalization consistently. Or maybe it's just Google revealing that subconscious nerdy desi stereotype thingie again.
whether a pressure cooker will work over a campfire
I'm sorry, I normally lurk and don't post, but THAT is funny. lol.
On another note both Todd and Vivek are male names. Gender inclusiveness is not a google hallmark I suppose.
Don't forget the trans-gendered folks. They also use google talk. :D
Melbourne Desi,
You're right. When I was in Oz, the Indians I came across seemed every bit uninterested in the fact that they're living in such a perfect environment for camping. They seemed more intent on being in the stadium for Sharukh Khan's filming of that hockey movie there. Or, the pool tables in bars, where you could find endless foursomes of brown guys shooting pool with each other.
It's a pity. Bribie Island, Frazier Island, Cairns, the tropical North, Great Barrier Reef. I really regret not having gone camping more. Never could convince friends.
I love the water. I love hiking. I can't help it, I'm a Northern California boy, the brown John Muir, if you will.
I think a love for the outdoors is definitely something we should hand down to our children. Really people, this is something that should deserve one, if not more non-profits working FOR THE CAUSE.
I have a pet peeve. I hear about people going on disgusting Contiki tours and it really disappoints me. I mean... c'mon people... is that any way to see the world?
When you're traveling, go on hikes, camp on beaches, backpack, go snorkeling. You don't have to go all out, to the Mountain Dew Code Red status.
For instance, my favorite 'guidebook' is called, "The Hikers Guide to Oahu". There are like 40 hikes in this book and I've done like 5. Still, I can just close my eyes and imagine myself on another new trail :)
You can find trails along the coast for whale-watching, challenge your physical conditioning on the "Stairway to Heaven", or just get a different perspective of Waikiki from Diamondhead and Kokohead Craters.
The point is, our generation seems to be geared toward staring at little screens. And I'm concerned. We're creating a generation of people who freak out the second the bars on their cellphone disappear :(
If Indians are not 'supposed' to be into camping and the outdoors, I think we should take steps to make sure it becomes a part of our culture.
Mira is right. So is the person who caught the punctuation. "..." definitely signifies Vivek's reservations about having to, yet again, endure Todd's antics.
Right on, brother. Have you ever been up to Point Bonita? Just discovered it last year. Simply stunning.
I love hiking as well and I've yet to meet another desi who loves water as much as I do. I'm training for my first scuba diving license and I love snorkelling and swimming as well. Desis in my experience seem to hate to get wet.
Meena: Looks like you are yet to meet a number of hikers. We have hikers who wear sarees and have been hiking since the early 60 in the US no less ;-)! We go scuba diving and the rest of the water sports. I would think that some of the hesitation is that Indians are a trifle worried about wearing swimsuits which may be the cuase for not seeing them jump into water. While the next generation may not have any hesitation in wearing bikinis or swimsuits and jumping into the water. Think about it. To tell a whole culture that the women should generally be covered up and then wondering why they don't wear swimsuits exposing most of their bodies....
Or Point Reyes. Simply magnificent!!
Even in the coastal regions of India, the only people who know how to swim really well are the fishermen, not even their wives. Bodies of water in India are for purificatory "bathing" more than for swimming.
If you travel to Fiji or the South Pacific, you will find that the people are very conservative in dress there. While most tourists are oblivious to this, women who are culturally sensitive will wear shorts and a t-shirt over their tops.
There is a generational gap. My mom would much rather spend her time on the beach with a giant vacuum sucking up all the sand--she absolutlely hates the stuff.
I've always wondered if there is a business model lurking in helping South Asians 'go green'. A Brown 'Outward Bound'-type program?
If you look at the Jewish community, the people we're compared to most often in the US, you see that they built their vacation spots around very beautiful outdoor settings.
If there was a real "luminary" in the Silicon Valley set, they would build a bunch of 'eco-lodges' all over North America for the use of outdoor-minded brownies.
"If you build it, they will come"
Swimwear trends may be moving in the opposite direction b/c of concerns of skin cancer - friends of mine in AU wear a UV protecting shirt and sometimes bottom when they go to the beach ... same with some friends in CA ...
My cousin often commented, "what the poor do by neccessity in India, the middle class does for fun in Europe", upon her return from working in Switzerland, regarding camping out and bathing (swimming) in rivers.
For her such activity was not "fun" and her Swiss friends had a hard time convincing her to join them. Maybe this attitude also contributes to the low numbers of desi swimmers and campers.
Actually, shorts are generally inadequate. Long sarongs (or if you're in Samoa, the lavalava) are best, preferably past the knees, ideally down to the ankles.
How can you actually swim in a sarong? Wouldn't the waves knock it off and wouldn't all that cloth pull you down and pose a danger? I guess those who wear sarongs and such in water don't actually swim but probably just wade and frolic in shallow waters. Swimming in deep waters requires swimming attire.
Cycling is cheap and quick. A lot of people I know don't learn driving until their early twenties.
If you're a deft fabric folder, a long sarong can become an unsatisfactory caudal fin.
- It's fun.
- It's good exercise.
- It can save time during rush hour.
- It cuts down on gas $ and parking fee (if applicable), and greenhouse gases.
What makes it a lot easier is:
a. showers at workplace (my previous employer used to have that) or a gym nearby, unless you have a very short ride that doesn't get you (too) sweaty, and
b. if there are no highways along the way.
In India my sister, sister in law, mother and cousins often try to swim in the sea in salwar kameez or saris. It does not work. They often complain that the weight of the cloth drags them to the bottom and then they have to deal with sand burns. Finally my sister said, "F*** tradition" and bought a bathing suit and is much safer, happier and can actually enjoy swimming when we go to the beach.
Meena, let's swap friends. I'm not outdoorsy and often feel like a misfit because of it.
>>>I love hiking as well and I've yet to meet another desi who loves water as much as I do.
I hear that. I have NEVER seen another brown face at my neighborhood pool. While I know several desis who golf, play tennis or squash, and run, swimming has not caught on yet, for whatever reason.
>>>>If there was a real "luminary" in the Silicon Valley set, they would build a bunch of 'eco-lodges' all over North America for the use of outdoor-minded brownies.
That'll be the day. Idli for breakfast, then a 10 mile hike. Works for me.
Only 55 minutes south of the Golden Gate:
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523
Año Nuevo State Reserve is the site of the largest mainland breeding colony in the world for the northern elephant seal
It's a bit of a hike out to the point. Special treat when Seals are present--MASSIVE creatures.
Very funny post! ROTFL about "how many kinds of pickles were necessary for an overnight camping trip, whether a pressure cooker will work over a campfire".
Melbourne Desi and Krish, we do find that there are very few Indians who go camping here in Ozland. We've gone camping at many great places in Victoria and Tasmania. It's a great way to encounter animals in the wild, especially in places like Tassie--pademelons lurking outside the tent, encounters with kangaroos as you make your way to the loo in the darkness!
That being said, some of the locals camp in such luxury that it defeats the purpose of being outdoors. They literally bring everything *and* the kitchen sink along, not to mention a port-a-loo and a shower cubicle.
What we like about camping is the sheer simplicity of the life--going to bed when darkness falls (to the sound of waves on the shore, after watching the brilliance of the stars), waking up when it's light. and spending the rest of the day bushwalking.
at the risk of incurring your wrath for scatalogical reminders---if you go climb the highest peak (whitney) in the lower 48 states of us, you have bigger problems than that. not only you...ahem... do it outside, you pack it up, keep it with you and discard it only when you get back to the base camp.
Actually in India we do alot of "parikramas" which are pilgrimages to holy sites. Many of them require several hours, even days of what could be considered hiking, especially up to Vaishno Devi and other places in the Himalayas. Been doing that for centuries so I would imagine hiking and camping as a natural thing for desis to do outside of India as well.
Cabins OK, or do you object to roughing it at all?
That's probably part of the desi curse/mentality :D :D
Amen, Amit & DJ on Points Reyes and Bonita, the former being one of my fave places, ever. Seriously, though, if you're in the Bay it's not far to Yosemite (usually about only 1-2x the amount of time it takes to get to Pt. Reyes). Every time I go I am soooo happy. But we're lucky and have Monterey and Santa Cruz nearby, also, and of course Mt. Diablo and Mt. Tam.
Meena, I love water but am not a strong swimmer -- same goes for a lot of my fam/friends, actually. I like to think that if we lived in a warmer climate we would swim more; this was certainly the case when I was very little and a much better swimmer. At any rate, water sports are fun,b ut it does help to have a warmer climate (or at least warmer water!).
Seems like it, someone else mentioned above;
It's interesting to note how the wealthy versus the poor in India conduct their pilgrimages. The wealthy often stay in what would be called "luxary hotels" (just motels) along the way while the poor will stay either in cheap dharmashallas or just out in the open if they can't even afford the dharmashallas. Yet come morning time we are all trekking together.
Mira: What I have found is that most of the DBDs who know how to swim are from rural or wealthy backgrounds. Opportunities for swimming are rare for the urban middle class that produces the most expatriate DBDs. Rural kids swim in open irrigation wells & rivers, the rich have clubs and certain classes of the govt that have pools in their "colonies".
Camille:
Pish-posh - not an excuse, it rains all the time in my country and everyone knows how to swim. Scuba divers go under in water that is 10 degrees Celsius. I'm a huge wimp about cold but even I love swimming...Though in my experience desis hate to get hot and sweaty in general, and as such most eschew physical exercise...
patently untrue. would you venture next that all south indians eat thayyir saadam and drink buttermilk all day while patting their paunches and squealing in porcine glee?
There's a huge generational divide between DBDs in terms of athleticism and interest in the outdoors. My parents' set, I will have to agree that most leisure activities took a back seat to getting established. The young set of DBDs trains for marathons, does backwoods extended backpacking trips. They are Lemurian Teddy Roosevelts & Scythian Annie Oakleys. Let's not generalize.
In your country you have no choice but to remain in continuous motion lest you succumb to the effects of your mayonnaise & snausage based "cuisine" ;-)
Seriously, guys, don't you think this "IBDs hanging out only with IBDs" thing is getting old? And, ok, so they put a guys called Vivek in the Ad. What's to celebrate?
Camping, Hiking and backpacking are favorite DBD activities. I've met tonnes of DBD grad students who've been to dozens of national and state parks, camped there, taken hiking and back-packing trails etc.
Grand Canyon, Smokey Mtn, Yosemite, Yellowstone and Acadia are desi favs ...almost all my friends have camped there.
From my personal experience, I'd say that I hardly find any ABDs (college students) at those camping grounds. Is it because they've already been to those places (when they were kids) ?
louiecypher:
Sausages? Dude, that's Germany. Get your cuisines straight. ;) muralimannered? What part of the phrase "in my experience" did you not understand? For the record, I AM South Indian.I can second that. Didn't have any swimming pool where I grew up and the river wasn't safe to learn swimming. The college swimming pool had a physical test for entrance (# of sit-ups & push-ups - guys who went with friends simply exaggerated the numbers and helped each other out) and a limited capacity, so didn't make the cut. Took swimming lessons here at the Y and while I'm not a good swimmer, it doesn't stop me from going to the beach and swimming+floating. It's fun, especially skinny-dipping where possible. ;)
Played a lot of sports growing up, but from 10th-12th grade, more time was spent on studying. Renewed it during college years, but yeah, in general, regular physical activity is difficult to maintain in India, more so for adults. Hopefully the popularity of yoga will compensate for lack of other PA/sports.
Hell yeah we do. Some of us rip too. If you ever come to Jersey, stop by Darlington in Deal -- any season of the year. I'll be the one in the big ass yellow banana board.
Camille, what's the deal with the chilly water around SF-Bay area? I went to a beach during the height of summer and the water was still cold that you couldn't stay in for more than a few minutes, and the only people swimming had full-body rubber suits on. Is there a cold current in the Pacific around SF? Do the beaches south (and maybe north?) of SF have warmer water? Just wondering if it's a regular phenomenon, or whether I visited at the wrong time of the year. Around here, the beaches are swimmable from July-Oct and the water gets quite warm.
Amit, the water around the SF Bay Area is always cold and chilly, never ever warm, so it don't matter when you visit. I think the Alaskan Current might have something to do with this, though I'm not sure. Not until you get down to SLO, Santa Barbara or thereabouts does the water become warmer. San Diego of course has the best temperatures and climate.
Meena, maybe there is more access to pools. Growing up, there were almost NO pools (including public pools), and those that did exist were private or prohibitively expensive. *shrugs* I still swim, just not in the open ocean.
Amit, it's mostly for the reasons Arjun alluded to. The water is NEVER warm from SLO (San Louis Obispo) up north. I have NEVER swam on the northern California coast -- a wet suit is so much trouble, and I will not get (fully) in the water without one. There is an Alaskan current stream that swings past the northern California coast (this is why we have migratory whale patterns for whales that usually make their home up near the Bering Strait). Southern California is also cold, in my opinion (relative to the Atlantic), but much much warmer/tolerable in the summer. Their current stream comes from Mexico and the equator, hence greater water warmth.
Thanks, Arjun & Camille, for the detailed explanation.
>>>Do American Desis surf?
Actually, I know a couple of ABD girls who surf, but no fellow DBDs.
>>>>Hell yeah we do. Some of us rip too. If you ever come to Jersey, stop by Darlington in Deal -- any season of the year. I'll be the one in the big ass yellow banana board.
Nice to see other east coast surfers on this board!
Dude, I was waiting for somebody to say that. I met a DBD family that moved to the Yay three years ago and had already driven to the Grand Canyon and camped and boated at Mount Shasta...twice. I've been to both places...never.
No, it's because we're always looking for the party, yaar. I'm actually kind of serious. Bhangra, babes, and booze beat out brush, backpacks, and boondocks. (In my experience, Murali: please don't get your swimming sarong in a twist.)
Never been.
Haven't been there either. I know, I know: for shame. Perhaps the next SF Meetup can be an outdoors one?
Middle class people in India hike and swim too and have been doing so for a long time. My uncle was an avid hiker and would go hike in the Sahyadris almost every other weekend, in fact there are many groups, public and private in and around Bombay that do that. Take a train Friday night, get to the destination early Saturday morning, hike all day Saturday, get back to Bombay before the workweek starts.
In the summers these groups plan longer hikes to the Himalayas and other northern mountain ranges. One of my professors at Bombay University ( this was in the 90's, he was probably around 55 then) was an expert climber and had hiked extensively in the Himalayas.
As far as swimming is concerned, at least in Bombay there are many public and private pools where one can learn swimming, an activity we enjoyed in the hot humid summers as children, heck even my mother is pretty good swimmer and one of my father's aunts was a swim coach. Another uncle who is now in his late 60's has been regularly swimming several times a week and does so even to this date.
I have noticed a tendency of many people on this board to make sweeping generalizations of Indians in India and the so called DBDs or IBDs.
I wonder if it is because the sample size of Indians they know is very small.
"last one in the pool is a filthy proletariate looser!!"
I agree with Yogi. A lot of Indians do go camping and trekking. There are even organizations like Youth Hostels Association which organize trekking trips.
I remember going trekking in the hills around Nainital, more than a decade ago. We ran into some villagers who were curious as to why we were there. They could not understand why anyone would come from Delhi to see these hills, and why someone would actually come all the way to walk here :P
agreed, i live in india, and people there go trekking all the time. a much smaller, but not insignificant subset of those people bring along there own camping gear.
"whether a pressure cooker will work over a campfire" - heheh, good one! :)
As a grad student in the middle-of-nowhere USA (mid-west USA), I saved up $250.00 (in 2000) to go on a trip with the University's recreation group, on a week long hiking trip to the Grand Canyon. I got quite famous (!), with other desi students mentioning me as the (whacko?) "who spent $250.00 on a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon....". Several students wondered what we'd DO all day (for a week!) at the Canyon!!
Yes, I agree, a lot of my desi friends do not seem to like hiking or outdoor stuff. They'd prefer a Bollywood movie anytime.
Fair enough. I thought by "as such most eschew" to refer to the entire Desi population stateside. Most of my dealings with desis other than my family have come through either cricket or bharatanatym--granted, both activities can be claimed by those eschewing strenuous exercise but the desis I knew did not fit this profile in the least.
I guess the snark came from my experience being the polar opposite of your own.
Well, I got talking about this and my mom in India said in the sixties she would make breakfast and go hiking in Gomia, a little village in Bihar with a baby in tow and when they got to the river all of us would have breakfast and then hike back! The world is indeed flat. Probably they never considered it "hiking" the way I do now with my fancy hiking shoes and hiking sticks...:-). Mom says they used to do it almost every weekend!
How odd! I have noticed a proclivity to make sweeping generalizations about so-called ABDs (and everything else, from gynophobia to party identification).
The sweeping, it (like Angelina) goes both ways!
I am sure that is annoying, I hope I haven't been doing it and may be can agree to do away with gross generalizations as far as possible.
Pray tell what is "gynophobia" do you mean misogyny or am I missing something?
I wanted to see the Adirondacks but couldn't convince my friends about it. And now it won't be possible until its summer here in the northeast :(
That would indeed be mutinous unlike eating and chatting indoors like moms, dads, aunties and auntas.
should read may be we can
gynophobia
1)Fear of women.
2)Pussy..
3)Guys that are probably gay.
No you didn't just go there! You know what's mutinous? Accomodating people with significant mobility issues, especially when they're responsible for organizing and hosting. ;)
btw a slight variation to gynophobe leads to
1) one who is afraid of women. (this may mutate into outright misogyny if left untreated. An excellent remedy is for a considerate, reasonably sexy, sexually enthusiastic woman to fuck the gynophobe's brains out.)
2) a repressed woman afraid of her own vulva and/or sexuality.
3) an otherwise straight man who is too much of a pussy to perform cunnilingus.
No, Yogi. You are fine. I'm with you-- no more gross generalizations! :)
As for the gynophobia, it came up at the tail end of my thread on Chameli, "This is an uncivilized act".
I agre ANNA abt mobility, I was kidding... the word "auntas" struck me this morning and I have been thinking ever since how to use this on SM :)
(back to my spelling bee roots)
Could you use it in a sentence? :D
Growing up, it was more of time thing with my family-- they grew up with parents who told them their time was better spent studying than any sort of recreational activity, and they passed that along to me. Also me being a girl meant it was not only a waste of time, but un lady-like. My dad says he regrets keeping me away from all that outdoorsy stuff because now I have a severe disdain for all things camping, hiking, and general physical activity, and I suppose he blames himself. (I don't think I would have liked it anyway!)
How odd! I have noticed a proclivity to make sweeping generalizations about so-called ABDs (and everything else, from gynophobia to party identification).
Objectively speaking, it is far easier to generalize about ABDs than IBDs or Indians in India. The latter category encompasses over 1 billion people living in one large landmass; culture, religion language etc. are not shared.
On the other hand, the 700,000 ABDs show some strong demographic tendencies, particularly in regards to education, profession, familial background and socio-economic status. That's not to say that ABDs are homogenous, but that generalizations applied to them are several times more accurate than any applied to India. In fact, I could probably come up with list of generalizations right now that apply to well over 2/3 of Mutineers. You would be much more hardpressed to find something similar about those in the desh.
cricket: yes.
bharatanatyam: no.
we did tons of hiking/camping/nature walks at school in india and so did a lot of the other area schools. it seems to be a function of where you are. people in more scenic, hilly/mountainous areas did more of that, including long daily walks. and of course rural people "hiked" (practically bounded up and down steep slopes) just to make a living. the people from the hotter areas who visited were of two types: those that just wanted to enjoy the scenery in a leisurely, non-taxing manner (picknickers - equivalent to RV-ers in the u.s. who drive from place to place, go for a short stroll or day hike and then move on. not really "camping" as such and not really that taxing.) and those who came for more strenous hiking, usually as part of a group.
when i first saw a camping store in the u.s., i was astounded. every mod-con possible to help you conquer the elements and keep nature at bay (sometimes a good thing, sometimes not)! it almost seemed pointless to leave home. i was actually suckered into buying a lot of gizmos and gear. i used one-fourth of the stuff i bought and felt very silly and conned by fear-mongering:) i then remembered the carefree/foolhardy days of youth when one had the basics only and wandered around not even caring what was lurking in the undergrowth. the adventure market is growing in india amongst the middle class, with more young people taking up whitewater rafting etc.
p.s.: a thumbs up for point reyes (that whole part of the coast is beautiful).
muralimannered:
I guess the snark came from my experience being the polar opposite of your own
For the nth time, I'm not from the States, nor from India. Obviously my experience is polar opposite to yours; the United States attracts a different sort of South Asian immigrants than does Europe.
save the outrage for someone who cares. If you bothered to qualify your "all desis eschew exercise" statement with "in xxx country" then people would know WTF context was in which your experience was grounded.
fyi I have relatives in Europe and none of them exhibit this supposed desi-specific indolence of which you seem so sure.
You do realize that the vast majority of comments here come from people residing in the US. If you find a generalized statement and it doesn't seem to apply to your context--voila!--there's the reason why.
come now melbourne desi, it would be so much easier to contextualize your comments if you went by the handle "Nondescript Desi" or "Non-Region-Specific Desi."
I agree, and had a similar experience. Though I find it unimaginable hiking in the White Mts without proper hiking boots. Hiking on some/most of the trails there wearing sneakers is a sure recipe for slipping and/or broken bones and/or twisted ankles. Ditto for hiking without a goretex-like jacket, given the weather in the north-east. But if I go hiking in the Blue Hills (gentle trails), then sneakers are fine.
I've also seen some people camp and they bring every possible contraption to have the same luxury in the wilderness as they would at home. It probably wouldn't work for me as I enjoy the elements somewhat and don't mind a bit of temporary "discomfort," (sitting on a tree stump instead of a folding chair) but if that's what floats their boat, then so be it. I guess everyone has a different definition of what the "essentials" are during a camping trip. :)
I totally agree... muralimannered, weren't you trained in bharata natyam? you didn't find it be strenuous exercise?
I was trained in a style that was especially physically demanding. The effort level and basic technique I've witnessed from some other teachers' (looking at a sample population of students coming to a summer camp taught in my style)students has been alarmingly low and very sloppy. This does create a situation in which people do not really exert themselves significantly at any point in a particular piece because their arms are not at the right angles or they are not sitting enough. If you do it right, you will most likely be exhausted as well. There is general cardiovascular fitness and then there is BN fitness and the latter not immediately picked up by people in good shape by reckoning with the former method.
thus it's possible to have people who eschew strenuous exercise call themselves BN dancers.
True, I've seen some stuff that just made me cringe myself. Though maybe it's to be expected at a summer camp, where students are not learning as a continuous process year-round (and if they do, it wouldn't with the same teacher as the one they learn from for the rest of the year, possibly), and it's summer camp, so they might be more lax about, with a 'I'm just here to have fun' attitude, right?
Meena: Are the desis in Amsterdam mostly Surinamese? Are they working class or professionals? If they are directly from South Asia, are they from India or Pakistan? Do they dip their naan in mayo ?
Nala,
The camp i'm referring to cost the parents a couple grand (outside of travel expenses, some would come from overseas), had at least 6 hours of dancing time every day in addition to hatha yoga. It's a few weeks of intensive, forest-academy style instruction. It's not something that lends itself easily to carefree participation--it's certainly fun if you like to dance but it's also a much higher workload for the newbies than anything they've ever taken on before.
My original point was that there are slackers in both BN and cricket.
PG Wodehouse,
I do not teach because i'm a terrible teacher and i'm woefully out of practice--never pass on what you can't do yourself and all...
My interest is peaked... what's the name of this camp? / Is there a website?
my guru made ample use of the yardstick, rubber bands, and guilt-tripping. perhaps these newbies just need some of that?
melbournedesi, don't most aussie campsites have bathroom facilities? unless you are truly roughing it, of course.
i must be atypical here - many desis i know went camping as kids. we camped a few times (not reccommended during Tassie springs).
Jeez...I know a Vivek, who knows a Todd...
muralimannered:
I'm sorry you took my comment as being outraged; but the internet doesn't allow for proper contextualization. Save your snark for someone else, please. Why are you so eager to be offended?
You should not let your earlier experiences stop you from participating in some physical activity if you want now, remember it is never too late to start. Its great to be outdoors, also the choice doesn't have to be all or nothing, for example hiking the entire Appalachian trail or being a couch potato. You can start small, go for a short hike, see how you enjoy it. Many a time I get through a crappy day, looking forward to my evening run around a lake in a local park.
So you might want to give physical/recreational activity a try before dismissing it completely. Being physically active is definitely not a waste of time and in fact it is something that makes life richer and worth living.
Okay getting off my soapbox now...
It's become obvious, in this rather short exchange, that my at