A intro-blog turns mega-ramble.

As requested / suggested, a blog.
But what to write, what to write?
My position here is an odd one, being the token gori on UP, for very mundane reasons - I was researching an interest of mine, got chatting, and here I still am. Token gori. Yes, an odd term. When I was growing up I heard the term ’token.....’ quite a bit, my mother commenting on the benetton-esque groups of kids in childrens programmes. My exposure to Asian culture was quite subliminal as a child- I have vague memories of my nannyji’s old neighbours cooking and chatting (which gave me a freakish deja-vu feeling when I was in Pakistan for a wedding), My Dad spent half his youth in Southall, my mum grew up in Harrow, and for many years we had Sikh neighbours, whose kids we were forced to be friends with (I recall Gurpreet doing something very un-neighbourly in our garden, but I won’t go into that...). As kids, their grandfather used to scare the hell out of my brother and I. As adults, he still does. Seriously, he’s about 9ft tall.
But I digress....
Last year I stopped procrastinating for once and gave myself a great birthday present - a holiday in India, something I’d dreamed of since I was a child. (I have a travelogue and article in self-publish). I’m planning to go back again soon, while I’m not totally tied down.
I am by no means an Indophile, but it seems I have absorbed some odd things. [for example] Hinglish is a phenomena that was reported on some months ago - the emergence of a language that is used by urban Indian youth, that is a mix of Hindi and English (check Wikipedia). I have a slight case of Engli - random Hindi (and urdu) words used in my English. I use ’yaar’, try to fix my chappals, say ’shukria’ to taxi drivers, and have been ’achaa’-ing for a long time (to the great amusement of somone I used to date, who thought it was ’cute’ and made me paranoid). And actually have called my nannyji by that name for a looong time.
Currently my vocabulary is frustratingly limited (so please don’t test me) due to the lack of language classes in my area. It’s like a secret club. Learn Spanish? Yeah, a million and one classes in my town. Learn Urdu/Hindi/Punjabi/Gurjarati? -impossible if you don’t already know it. (and I roll my ’r’s very well thanks) A few local outreach jobs have interested me, until it says ’’ability to communicate in [insert aforementioned languages] preferred’’. And considering the high number of those speakers in my town, I know my chances of shortlist are nil.
But I shall keep trying. And in the meantime, I will continue with my insomnia-activity... learning Hindi script. Sounds like a strange hobby, but it’s very good for the brain. Like sudoku, but more squiggly........
And as for those comments about my ’Asian’ features? (from 5 different people) Well, that still really confuses me. I’m not offended, but I just don’t see it. Maybe I just attract some weird people into my life (but that’s a subject for a different entry...).

Now that I have started musing on Asain culture and my experiences of it -and its role in cosmopolitan Britaian- , I’ve realised I have a lot to express on the subject. So I dare say this will not be the last blog I write about that. My blog, my subject matter, I guess. Not sure if this is the ’unique veiwpoint’ that anyone wants to read, but hey.... my blog.
It is getting late now, so I shall sign off.
...achaa...