Oh America!

muhammadyassir:

Thanks for interacting, even if it is a bit late! I agree with us being materialistic; i was only observing a section of American society that is different form out perceptions...I don`t think I have been overly critical....and that took some effort.

F

American society is kinda materialistic, but then our own society is materialistic. We run after things that could make us happy for a time being but not forever. We worship money the same way as they do, though we spend them differently. so blaming the american society and saying that they are hiding behind this superficial bubble, this mask is not right. We all are. This world as a whole is hiding behind things that could prevent it from knowing the truth because it is so involved with little tiny things that make them happy.
Fortunately, there are people who are like us. I would incourage you to read 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World By Aldous Huxley if you have not read those books yet. They will give you a good insight to the same prospective but with a different view.
People have been brainwashed by the governements, media and all the controlling bodies that they want them to indulge in intoxicating their bodies with concrete that will block their brains from thinking and pondering.
I liked your article though, it was well established and very well written. You argued your points which is cool but then its also your opinion, I have my own opinion and I have stated it.

Trillium: Salam

You seem always to be in a high blood-pressure condition. Try to bring it lower. You know it is not good for your health!!

#75 by ana_dobarah
``I think I shall just shake the dust off my feet here and walk away. ``
The dust my dear is on your lips, from kissing F.V.`s A$$.... have a nice bidet..

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trillium...
i happen to live in America, and i`ve lived here for most of my life...just where the hell are you...given your responses, you live in venom spewing country...it really doesn`t pay to respond to pricks like you, which is why Farzana is the more dignified one in this case. I think I shall just shake the dust off my feet here and walk away.

#72 by ana_dobarah on January 19, 2003 12:24pm PT
Trillium...
``you are sadly deluded, good man..``

You obviously don`t live in America and you`re obviously the tailor for F.V.`s spiffy new invisible clothes...

Trillium...
you are sadly deluded, good man...by the numbers that turned out at anti-war demonstrations throughout the country...and those who didn`t march but supported the marchers on the sidelines...you are totally misguided in thinking that 99.9% of Americans support the action in Iraq.
as for your vitriol against Farzana...sticks and stones.

#68 by Saminasha
``Anti War Demos Across the US``

I can appreciate your anti-war zeal - but fact is, both actively and by default, 99.9% of Americans support the action against Iraq. Sad, I know.

The hypocrisy of this peace is typical of the narcissistic F.V.
We were recently regaled about the unfitness of Rushdie and Nepal to speak of such matters - yet here comes F.V. Gimme a break, maaaaan..

````The real danger of President Bush`s plans for Iraq is that they are based on the belief that evil can be eradicated from the world. St Augustine knew better and so, after centuries of experience, do Europeans.
By John Gray


According to Javier Solana, formerly secretary general of Nato and currently the European Union`s high representative for foreign relations and security, US foreign policy - particularly towards terrorism - is increasingly shaped by a belief in evil.

In Europe, we see terrorism as one of several threats to the world.

They include poverty and climate change, and each has causes that can be alleviated.

In America, by contrast, terrorism is seen as supremely evil, the work of dark forces that must be defeated and eliminated.

This rift in transatlantic attitudes is not simply a reflection of diverging interests and priorities.

It is a difference in culture.

The perception of evil that drives current American foreign policy makes sense against the background of the intense religiosity that pervades American culture.

It is only in this context that one can represent Saddam Hussein or the Palestine Liberation Organisation as expressions of sheer malignity.

In secular, post-Christian Europe, Solana seems to be suggesting, we simply do not believe in evil in this way.``

Anti War Demos Across the US

If you are interesting in hearing the broadcasts of the march on Washington, New Mexico and San Francisco, tune in to www.wbai.org. On the East Coast: 99.5 FM

re: post #66
The sentence ``The 5 blind men, who were told to ....`` should read:
The 5 blind men were asked to describe..... Just a grammatical error.
Sridhar

re:#54 by S.P.Wakil
A nice post. The elephant analogy is often told to spiritual aspirants to bring home a point. The 5 blind men, who were told to describe an elephant, gave different versions of what they taught an elephant looked like. These blind men are synonymous with the religious beliefs. Few have seen the whole picture (the whole elephant), each saw a part of the whole picture. Each is right in his own way but does not tell the complete truth.
The religious tension in today`s world is about one`s version of God and His teachings when few have seen or heard Him (like the blind men in the story). A few prophets down the ages have been given the previlege but like the blind men, they too have seen only part of the picture. Even that has been so awe-inspiring that their lives have been changed for ever. We must never forget that we are like the blind men in the story and must always seek to forge an understanding between different religious belief systems.
sridhar

#63 by Saminasha on January 17, 2003 7:03am PT

Perhaps she disturbs their carefully balanced justifications for the contradictions between the west and our countries.. They see the problems at home and consider that they are unsolvable and latch on to the nearest peice of wood floating by. You can always expect gratidue from a drowning man. No amount of crituque of the log of wood will enable them to analyse that indeed there is shore somewhere and they can reach it. For them the log is all they have and they cant think of anything else.

#56 by FarhanNazeer

``Very disappointing, to say the least. Shallow and highly biased observation and opinions, generated from seemingly preconceived ideas. You should stick to writing about India, FV. ``

What makes you think her writings about India are any different?

Sri,
You forgot our queer bros and sisters....also, I`m putting out a public question to those interactors who write nasty response posts to any FV column on Chowk...why? Because I don`t understand why y`all continue to squeak your derogatory comments at her and say nothing to other writers...and let me find out that any of you live in the suburbs. Lets hear it, gentlemen...and I`d advise you to consider your comments carefully.

FV,

Eminem....all I know is that if his bone structure wasn`t as finely precise and symmetrical, we wouldn`t be having this conversation. Your piece does touch on one aspect of his success and I guess that his working class personal is political alter ego is something to think about...once I rouse the interest, I`ll check him out.
Meanwhile:

America

America I`ve given you all and now I`m nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can`t stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go f yourself with your atom bomb
I don`t feel good don`t bother me.
I won`t write my poem till I`m in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I`m sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don`t think he`ll come back it`s sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I`m trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I`m doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven`t read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I`m not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there`s going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I`m perfectly right.
I won`t say the Lord`s Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven`t told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over
from Russia.

I`m addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I`m obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It`s always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie
producers are serious. Everybody`s serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.

Asia is rising against me.
I haven`t got a chinaman`s chance.
I`d better consider my national resources.
My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals
an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles and hour and
twentyfivethousand mental institutions.
I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underpriviliged who live in
my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns.
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I`m a Catholic.

America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his
automobiles more so they`re all different sexes
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die
America I am the Scottsboro boys.
America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they
sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the
speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the
workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party
was in 1935 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother
Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have
been a spy.
America you don`re really want to go to war.
America it`s them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia`s power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader`s Digest. her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him makes Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers.
Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I`d better get right down to the job.
It`s true I don`t want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I`m nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I`m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

-Allen Ginsberg

Just popped in to thank ali, Roohi and PM :) and everyone who read the article.

FarhanNazeer: I suppose it is possible to agree to disagree? This note is primarly to thank you for your kind words on my Lonely board. I had been away and therefore could not acknowledge them earlier.

Regards,
Farzana

Farzana,
I think your observations are quite brilliant! Both honest and probing, penetrative as well as expansive, I think you`d do Toqueville himself pretty proud.
America, IMO, is indeed a land of paradoxes and extremes. That, is what yopu get, I suppose when you mix a healthy dose of liberalism (at least economic), fanatically stress on individualism, have people as diverse in ethnicity and of course have corporate interests constantly brought to bear on society.
You aid it weel when you said: ``As somebody said, “You can be impressed by efficiency and dismayed by commercialism; enraptured by natural beauty and appalled by urban ugliness; overwhelmed by kindness and offended by indifference; staggered by wealth and shocked by poverty.”
The truth, of course, is that there really is no `American` character. It`s diverstiy may make nonsense of any attempt to define a nation in cultural terms. Maybe the best part--also the unnerving part-- about it is that is more or less, at least in the cultural sense, a microcosm of the world.
Once again, thoroghly enjoyed the keenness of observation, even if you came across as a tad judgemental (in the bot so good sense) in a few places.
regards,
PM

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American Express ( #57 ),


So leave this place and find your paradise in pakiland or whereever you came from.

By the way, did you register yet ?

Very disappointing, to say the least. Shallow and highly biased observation and opinions, generated from seemingly preconceived ideas. You should stick to writing about India, FV.

This is a Jaini story, I sent it to my dear friend, Zeemax, some years ago on the Chowk. He had not heard it and had asked me to send it to him. The story goes something like this:

These three/five/seven blind men heard that a mahawat was taking his elephant to the nearby pond for a dip and wash. Knowing not what an elephant looked like, these blind men expressed the wish to know what it was. The mahawat let them come close to the elephant and touch it.

One of the blind men took its tail in hand, the other put his arms around its leg, and still another its trunk. And so on....

After the elephant was gone, one of them said, ``what a magnificient animal the elephant was; it was like a solid pillar``. At this another said that ``it was not all that solid really. It was big and thick alright, but it curled all the time and was pliable, supple and pliant like a giant worm.`` The third was totally disappointed at these descriptions and said that he didn`t know what these two were talking about. ``It was more like a thick, small rope hanging from a wall,`` he added.

And so it went. For instance, the fellow who had touched its ear had another picture of the elephant, and said that he did not know what the others were talking about. ``The elephant was like a huge hand fan!``, he said almost disdainfully to his friends.

The moral of the story is clear, in fact there are many, e.g., from the elementary psychology`s concept of the importance of `reality testing` in learning, to the most emphatically and positively demonstrated power of developing a weltanschauung -- our `world-view`.

The story is quite common and I am sure you have heard it. The point in it, to repeat, is how as individuals of different ideas and backgrounds, of different weltanschauungs, we grow up with different world-views and interpret reality -- including art and literature -- in the `light` -- socialization? -- of our own `worlds`. They differ. Only [Linton`s]
`cultural universals` are shared by all, or almost all, of us; so should they be, by virtue of the definition being tautological.

But apart from those `universals` we are very different beings. We are! Our biological baggage interacts [X] with culture, and both of these interact [X] with our unique personal experiences! We are interacting social beings alright but in our personal interpretations of art, literature, humour and symbolic presentations of all genres we are indiviual human boutiques, custom made; one-of-a-kind!

That is what makes some of us painters and others not, some writers and others not. And just to focus on writers for a minute, among writers some John Steinbecks [Travels with Charley] while others, Verseys and Arundhati Roys, pets of gods, irrespective of, whether of small things or of large!

Then there are the literary Lumpenproletariats, of sorts, who learned English composition in their Corporation high schools and some grammar at the same time, and can put a few sentences together as if committing word-rape....
[And start expressing them in the Chowk as sterling opinions, nay, facts, {number of words, lines and such ?} -- perhaps all of us end up doing this at one time or another].

No matter how we look at ourselves, the elephants or the Jainis, we are all blind. The ‘elephant’ at the time does not mind being looked at the way it is, piecemeal [gradationally] and mis-‘conceivedly’. But the elephant is blind too. We, in this universe, shall remain so since this is how the universe is.

I should feel that of all our friends the writer, the literary personage, the erudite litterateur would be more alive to this reality and receptive to it since this is part of the whole package of learning, seeing, studying; being alive to life, and such aspects of it, to which, the hoi-polloi lack appropriate sensitivity than the literati. A litterateur has, or so one hopes, the sensitivity of mind in a way the wine taster has a sensitive palate.

It would be disappointing if the universality of blindness were lost sight of and an elephant, as if with a 20/20 sight, were assumed installed,
‘absent’, as the lawyers say, ‘the realization that the elephant is the biggest blind of us all’ ! I make this statement as a generic case, of course, and, thus, it has no relevance to any specific person on or off Chowk; dead or alive !!

I suggest that all of us write up our own experiences, impressions and emotions that we ran into during our first 30 days or so in the United States. Then compare our interpretations of then and of now of those experiences.

It should make an interesting study for ourselves and a priceless general [Ethnographic] gem in the field of ethnography and anthropology; a gem of a piece of humourous writing, a guide for visitors and students from our part of the world and so on and on...

I feel that such narratives may be very narrow for most since many of the visitors and particularly the students never get an opportunity to go about so many places as has Farzana Versey, still, the objective is to make an original communication, not necessarily a comparative one. When the experiences are collected, the work should cover a fairly large geographical area, perhaps as large as Farzana Versey has traversed.

To show that I am serious and honest about it I shall be the first.

#43 by ssdhillon on January 14, 2003 3:31pm PT

Your justification for the whole article is that you agreee you are prejudiced. Keep your prejudices to yourself. There are many people with something creative to post.

---
yet you do the same against muslims and see no harm. Why? or are you blind to your own prejudice?

farzoo...thanks for the Eminem piece...i`ve yet to hear one of his tracks, let alone meet him!!!
and pata kya...you really should write a piece for some chowkies one of these days in which there is no thought, no questioning, and perhaps nothing from the heart either. prejudiced first-time voyager thi tum amreeka maiN...yahan tau kuch bande aap ka good naam se permanently prejudiced ho gaye haiN....khair, ``kuch tau log kaheNge, logoN ka kaam hai kehna. . .``
love, a.

Pankaj: I made that up..I actually don`t remember what Parbhakar ji said..been long time.:-).

Dulla bhatti

``like Hindi wale master ji, Parbhakar ji, used to say...Kendriya Bhaav matters the most...imtihan mein yehi aata hai. ``

My Hindi madam used to call it ``saar-tatva``. Kendriya bhaav sounds like the literal translation of ``central theme``. I like the word ``saar-tatva`` better :-)

America is the greatest WINNER in the entire human history. That`s the thought I get whenever I drive on any interstate, think about microsoft, third worlders begging for more american aid and writeoffs, visit kennedy space center and the minimum wage worker living in an air conditioned apartment while driving a car.

Losers, third worlders, communists and ummahs can shut up and go back to where they came from.

Farzana - Nice ! I thought in the end this was quite a positive take on Americans for someone who starts out by saying it`s the pits. There is more to the US than the Bold and the Beautiful - actually I don`t know anyone that watches that dumb show here !! But in the end it`s as shallow as any first impression has to be - when I think about what I first thought of America ... I honestly didn`t have a clue, things that seemed to be packed with meaning just seem random in hindsight.

BTW maybe because I`m in the SAHM mode I think you missed something if you didn`t meet any really young american kids. The way to the heart of America is on the big yellow bus (on the yellow brick road ?) and people do live 7 days a week - they are just invisible if you`re working !! That melting pot you couldn`t find is going to be at my house this afternoon - 15 screaming pre-schoolers from my kids playgroup ... with examples as exotic as adopted Korean-American kids with Protestant Mom/Jewish Dad (being raised Jewish), and Polish-Chinese-American to mention a few ... I think the new census showed more and more people with multiple ethnicities ... and that white anglo-saxon man that used to pop out of the melting pot is getting browner and browner

Ref #16 by Ras on January 12, 2003 8:29pm PT
[Farzana, Americans in general are very nice people and America in most parts is a very beautiful country. I would rather visit the superficial America any day then some of the rude and overtly racist countries in the Middle East (Gulf).]

FV response # 37 IN THAT CONTEXT: “btw, Dubai is perfectly civilised”. To twist it takes some doing…

Ditto, the quoting out of context the Mormons, and singling them out and making it appear that I have done so.
***
dullabhatti (#42): If you know what tour guides do, you need not have made an issue of it, just as I think that the $100 bill question was totally uncalled for. Had a man written a travelogue no one would have mentioned about him spending that much money on a trip…regarding ‘kendariya bhaav’, I would rather talk of the navrasas…and their sangat and sangam stimulated by various aspects…
***
And, I have real problems coming to terms with the Bombay riots and the bomb blasts and yet I love the sea and the sparkling lights on Marine Drive. Same principle applies to the Himalayas, which incidentally also make their presence felt in my country.

Unreadable columns are not only read but searched for and posted and commented on…utterly, butterly delicious…

If this is some people’s idea of fun….enjoy!

F.V. - a legend in her own mind....

F.V. - a legend in her own mind.... How about some Prozac?

Re: #37

Farzana do you wish to retain the right to have your opinion on every part of this world from India to USA but poor NRIs don`t? A bit hypocritical isn`t it. If NRI`s living in America cannot tell you who in their opinion is a nice guy or a bad guy? Why should you tell us about a foreign country? Beats me.

Are you a trying really hard to be an ``intellectual`` by pretending to find a differing view in everything. If so that`s OK, just not flattering :)

Quantum Quark

FarzanaVersey

++++++++++
It would help if people defined “condescending”, since there is no
condescension in evidence
++++++++++++

This is an example:
``Religion for the American is an area of darkness. The Christian, Mormon, Nation of Islam and Scientology Movements and the numerous cults are said to be manifestations of the desperate need to seek emotional sustenance.``

According to you millions of mormons are followers of a cult. How is this not condescending. If a mormon called Islam a cult you would had already demanded a fatwa against him/her.

Your justification for the whole article is that you agreee you are prejudiced. Keep your prejudices to yourself. There are many people with something creative to post.

rssaxena
+++++++++++
. I suggest she visit the ghettos in India where majority of muslims live in and get to know them and write an article about them and how they could be integrated with the rest of the community
+++++++++++

I wonder how much her prejudice has got to do with her religion. Read this comment:
++++++++
For me the US was just another country to visit…btw, Dubai is perfectly civilised…
++++++++

Dubai is civilised. Ya right.....All non-arabs have to live as second class citizens. I guess for Farzana even the worst muslim ghetto is better than the US.

#38 by FarzanaVersey on January 14, 2003 11:18am PT

How do I stir them? Jo shaken hai woh tau khud hi stir ho jaate hai, methinks

LOL


but you shouldnt have let that out.... better to keep up pretenses :) hey the will just then shut up on Muslims and Pakistan and just pretend to hide their fear/hate/confusion under the famed peacefulness/unity in diversity... which makes for booring conversations.... me I prefeer some fun .....

Farzana: why would I ask you what were you wearing? I am sorry you felt that way. I did not mention the DBrown incident to mean anything personal towards you. Sorry for that. I was pointing out that most people in America don`t even remember who was Divine brown and precisely where the incident happened. The tour guides probably mention to create interest in the otherwise boring street.

I don`t know what the word condescending literally means but kendariya bhaav of your prose was very clear to most readers. and like Hindi wale master ji, Parbhakar ji, used to say...Kendriya Bhaav matters the most...imtihan mein yehi aata hai.

COOl it GUYS. At LEast SHe ain`t Trashing USA Like she TRashed nEpal.
By the way, what has THIS got To DO with Kama SUtra other than mAkINg people read ur otherwise Unreadable columns? AlSO she Doesn`t Seem too IMpressed by HIMalayas either as She claims noW.

Title : Kathmandu`s Kama Sutra
Author : Farzana Versey
Publication : Mid-day
Date : February 26/27 1999
URL : www.mid-day.com
e-mail : feedback@mid-day.com


I could have done a Madhuri Dikshit and claimed Nepal as my own. It is the kind of place over which you can claim proprietary rights, since no one seems to show any enthusiasm about owning it.

Besides, it does remind you of home. Dust, cows in the streets, and the
familiar disenchantment. If the hippies had once found their haven here, it was because no one cared. Ironically, they escaped to this place because nobody cared back home. But in the anonymity and induced haze, they found the permanent siesta invigorating. Flower-power came from poppy seeds. The ephemeral became the eternal.

``Time is a stick of incense that burns without being consumed. One day can seem like a week, a week like months... There is time enough to do
everything,`` so wrote Jeff Greenwald in the eponymous book Shopping for Buddhas.

Why Buddhas in a Hindu country? Because they have international appeal. It is a great selling point in a country which strives to be ostensibly liberal. Beneath it all, however, the kingdom of Nepal is a Hindu rashtra. But unlike say Europe, where religion plays a subliminal and subtle role, in this part of the subcontinent it imbues people`s everyday actions. They believe they are fated to be what they are.

Like the security guard at the Pashupati temple. You walk through a dirty
pathway, trample upon people`s discarded offerings, and then there is a
loud declaration: ``Only Hindus allowed inside.`` We are yards away from the sanctum, and since I don`t feel any religion really wants me, I can convert to any faith. And becoming a Hindu wouldn`t be difficult, since I come from a land where it would raise my status considerably. But the security man lunges menacingly towards me and giving me a shove with his hand just below my shoulder blade, screams, ``Not allowed.``

Why? ``Foreigner,`` he pronounces.

Much as I would have delighted for the sake of variety to pass of as an Italian mafia don or a Brazilian salsa dancer or even a Maori tribal, I felt strangely humiliated. I then spoke in Hindi and there seemed to be a bit of a thaw, till I was again asked to get out.

I wondered how `different` and how holy the devotees were. Did they feel
transported to heaven when the pujari broke a coconut and looked at their wallets? What kind of double standards forbid you to enter wearing any leather items, but may allow you to witness or participate in the sacrificial slaughter of animals? And what culture is it that says a man can manhandle a woman to save his bhagwan from the unholy sight of a non-Hindu woman?

The `Way of life` theory of course hits you via Royal Nepal Airlines itself. Fatalism rules as four to eight hour delays are not announced but you are expected to report early, lest you are off-loaded even with a confirmed seat! Bhagwan ki marzi! Here, hospitality means announcing that they do not have vegetarian meals on board. Uparwala has ordained that all those who took the trouble for the darshan have to munch salad. As a small concession a surely air sundari plonked a different salad on the trays. I was told later, it was dessert. But if your soul is burning with the flame of dharma, all this is inconsequential.

Like the chap at immigration must have felt when he saw the embarkation card of a friend, who happened to be on the same flight. ``Muslim, hanh?`` he spat out as he read the name. This sets the tone and all the wonderful mountain air cannot blow away the stink. Why go through this charade?

Because tourism is the only business they know. And this they do better
than us. Though again, the attitude is one of indifference. So when we decided to splurge on a Sunrise Balloon Ride, we were taken when the sun was happily smirking away. We had to wait for the balloon to be inflated, for as soon as we had got into our baskets it went `phus`. After another long effort we were finally high up, but without butterflies in the stomach, or wind lashing the face. It was pure stasis and a reasonable photo-op. Those who paid in dollars tried their `Gee, Whiz!` act, though it hurt their jaws to keep smiling at the `phinaaminal veeyou`.

Being good suckers we also did the mountain plane ride in a 16-seater. Dense fog resulted in the inevitable delay. And then we were up again, over the Kanchanjunga and the Everest. Like good souls we ought to have felt humbled, but heck, we were on top and the great peaks looked like waffle-cones with vanilla ice-cream scoops. I know that such things are meant for very religious people who are overawed by everything, or the Westerner, who desperately needs to be.

So instead, I looked with new respect at a smart kid in Patan, who swooped down on us trying to sell us Tankha paintings because we looked creatively-inclined. I did not wince when two guys working at a fast-food restaurant, around closing time, unmindful of their two remaining customers - us - locked themselves together in the loo.

From the junk paradise of Thamel to the electronic glitz of Durbar Square, I got what I thought I should have - a Mandala calendar and a calculator that blinks red, every time a number is punched.

Since I always distort everything holy, I`d say the ultimate nirvana is, in
fact, to be found in maya. And if you can count your days and pennies with it, so much the better.

ana, samina, t: Thought I`d share this from my column on men in The New Indian Express of Jan 12...of course, I have not met the guy and yet dared to write about him!
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THE GRIM REAPER

I am often asked, “Isn’t there any celebrity male you like?” Thinking hard of a man I like for being man enough, and yet quirky, the name that pops up is Eminem. Unbelievable! I am letting down every mother-sister-wife-daughter. I am a feminist scoundrel. Wokay. But I find Barbie-Britney far more regressive. At least Eminem is not hypocritical. In fact, he is stripping even urban Indians. Before putting him down, ask yourselves: Have you never sworn at a woman, or rubbished your mom/spouse (“Don`t you get it b…., no one can hear you?”) or hated gays, or had vile thoughts? Have you never felt like saying, “But when they kill me – I’m bringin’ the world with me”?

But unlike many, Eminem is worried about his fame (an old house of his on the market is being sold as a “bit of Detroit history”) which I think just shows that he wasn’t and does not want to be a part of the herd. He spits fire at flaming egos and has a political conscience: “I drop bombs like I was in Vietnam”. ‘Newsweek’ said, “By flipping his razor-sharp lyrics on himself, Eminem subverts the smirking superiority that plagues mainstream rap, a wily underdog move that lets him get away with more than he could otherwise.”

So, what would you make of a guy who orders his mother to prepare herself for incest, wants to choke a woman “till her vocal chords don’t work in her throat no more” and who dreams, “Like a murder weapon, I’m a conceal you in a closet with mildew, sheets, pillows and film you”?

Why has Eminem become so famous, and yet so dangerous? A couple of years ago, after listening to his songs, a young man in London tortured his sister for four hours: he tied her to a chair, hit her in the head and cut her neck with a kitchen knife. Of course, this is terribly gruesome, but it also reveals the hollowness of our lives.

A once non-descript vocalist has managed to change the mores of society by being obnoxious. One could easily say that he is wrong. In many ways, yes, but he is a product of the environment. Thus far, gangsta rap was the sole property of Blacks. They used it as a weapon to drive home the point of their subjugation. I think Eminem is trying to bring out repressed instincts in the open; he is choosing shock value partly to scandalise and partly to wake us up. I am aware that he appears to be promoting a negative culture, going against all decency and political correctness, but I am amazed that lyrics can get people to do things. It only means these are things many have wanted to do but did not have the courage of mouthing. In his 30s now, he has been through life and as someone said he is “putting on disc all the forbidden thoughts and scandalous scenarios that accompany adolescence and just watching the fallout.”

He knows we are looking for too much in too little. Some of his ideas are radical and regressive, but they are merely to prop up his theory that nothing succeeds like excess. He is showing men their own bile.

FARZANA VERSEY
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I wonder if I should have just submitted that article I have on Saddam…then at least I would not have been surprised at the reaction. I mean, someone reads one sentence in the intro and decides what the whole article is about…

However, about my so-called 10-minute conversations…no, they lasted longer, and some, like Kirk, Annie and the despairing Indian man have been friends for over 10 years. It would help if people defined “condescending”, since there is no condescension in evidence. As a matter of fact, I was questioning myself, my prejudices…as for returning and watching my people defecating, that is the prerogative and obsession of westerners; we are quite used to the sight and have become immune to it. Besides, when you know that women from the slums have to wait until sundown and line up near the gutters with umbrellas to cover their faces while they answer nature’s call, you cannot even think of sounding so very arrogant.

Why are people telling me what I should have done, where I ought to go? Incidentally, the only firm plan I had was a return ticket and my first destination…everything else I decided on later. And I deliberately stayed away from NYC or even Atlanta or places where I had safe havens. I wanted to do it my way, and I did. And these are MY impressions, not a definitive contemporary history of the USA. I wonder, though, how many visitors to India attend classes, listen to radio stations, make it a point to watch Doordarshan and attend meetings at Azad Maidan. I did go to the Grand Canyon, but if you have experienced the Himalayas, you cannot feel moved by anything else to that degree.

I was not looking for anything specific, which is why the itinerary was so flexible. Yet, I get this gem: [“I am also surprised that you will spend so much money to visit here and one of your places of interest to visit will be where a hooker gave blow job to a British actor. Your mentioning it in your travelogue makes it even worse. It is not hard to figure out you are in search of some dirt to throw to re-enforce your earlier convictions.]

I am surprised you did not ask me what I was wearing…my place of interest was not to find a hooker’s workplace; when you go to LA and are on a tour, they take you through the Hollywood maze and the spot is pointed out. What was so wrong in my mentioning it? There were far worse things that I could have, but desisted simply because they did not fit in and are universal to all parts of the world. Remember that this Divine Brown case was milked for all it was worth by the American media, not us. Besides, I do not see these things as dirt. I find minds that cannot read the lines and look for undercurrents far dirtier. And yes, some Indians I met there can play great hosts and open their wallets but they expect to be paid later in kind!

I agree, Anil and Ras, that people do want to be a part of the American dream; it is a choice they make. And if they find peace and happiness, good for them. But I do not want them to tell us how they think Narendra Modi is a nice man, as NRIs have been doing. I do not want them to act as ambassadors of my country. For me the US was just another country to visit…btw, Dubai is perfectly civilised…

And yes, thanks everyone for reading and some for counting the words, characters, spaces etc…I never get round to doing that. Bloody lazy Indian!

Veeresh:
[BTW, Farzana, what is an ``expected docile Indian woman``?]
You won’t ever meet her; she is expected to stay away from you:)

slink:
[i think it will be fun to travel with you :) anytime you come to pakistan (perhaps shot out of a cannon at the wagah border?) please do get in touch.]
Would love to…my great fantasy is go to the Khyber Pass in a burqa with slits upto the thighs and wearing sequined knee-high boots…dat would be fun, no?

Aamir Ansari:
[Mera tau jabra thak jaata tha smile kar kar ke.]
Lol…since I was, according to the worthies here, on a deep mission to find superficialities, I was smiling all the time, courtesy my Islamic ploy to overthrow the regime:)

ana, samina:
Hey, you got it. This was a travelogue…for a while I was beginning to have doubts! I am sure there are many more facets, but I do believe I tried to capture at least what was visible to me and what it could mean…and merci beaucoup…

Temp:
[[...For a first-time prejudiced voyager to the USA to find those familiar hate-inducing stimuli missing can be quite a dampener...]
after this bold disclaimer of sorts...only you can manage to get the dart-brigade to show up with poisoned arrows...(am shaking my head in amazement)...how do you manage to stir them?...amazing....even if you do a piece on penguins or global warming the maggots would stir...]
This is what will happen… ‘Look, she is writing on penguins, typical B&W, no concept of subtleties…besides, this is namak haraami…shouldn’t she be writing about peacocks, the national bird? Or the dodo, which has been extinct due to those Islamic thugs? And she says things like, take those penguins out of the snow…that is the problem with the pseudo liberals. She should be deported to Siberia asap’.

How do I stir them? Jo shaken hai woh tau khud hi stir ho jaate hai, methinks.

Love,
Farzana

#9 by ssdhillon
``How many friends did you make in America. Your gross generalisations make me think your opinions are based on 10 minute conversations. ``
You are damn right about this woman. She has no style, no class. All she does is whine, whine. I believe she is done with criticising the majority community in India and like any good muslim, turned her attention to the ``great satan``. She went there (did she really?) to find faults. I suggest she visit the ghettos in India where majority of muslims live in and get to know them and write an article about them and how they could be integrated with the rest of the community. This is a more pressing problem than USA.
Sridhar

Seminasha #20

In the first two lines [#15], therefore, I had paid her a compliment as well as confessed humility of my mind and sought help, hers or yours. Thank you. And, thank you once again. This, because you not only merit, but are owed, two `thank yous`.

You are right about NYC. I have been there a million times, it seems. I always wish that wherever I had lived were a suburb of New York. When one is young, in the nineteen fifties and the sixties, a guest of the State
Department with unlimited first class travel anywhere, then there are not very many places you do not go to.

And once you have been there you always want to go back there -- on your own -- again and again. And, again.

My spirit is your kindred spirit! I landed at `idlewild` about which Gore Vidal says, ``... that magical old-world airport, idlewild, whose very name reflected our condition.`` I never left Manhattan!

temporal #28.
isn`t that true though? she puts the disclaimer there, and the arrows just keep on keeping on coming...which leads me to believe that even when Farzoo writes something about penguins, to use your example...the shooting gallery will be packed!

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12-head,
only you and you alone can take something out of context and turn it into something so ridiculous....yes, go ahead, give yourself a pat on the back and consider yourself clever because no one else does...with the exception of your various heads and your brother and sister hydras, Jahil excuse for whatever you are.

Hey Im all for returning the compliment. Give these Westerners the same treatment they give us.

#7 by ahmedmadani on January 12, 2003 6:47am PT

my my what a slavish mind
so you think that the east India company officers were praising India when they were swating musquitoes in india?

and you think the we are the only ones who breed. And how so did these whites came to occupy a land with nearly 200 millon whites? spread to south america, Australia?


Hey she need not be right!!! but it is fun to watch people recriporcate the the actions of the whites..

Yo Farzana im with you.

#23 by dullabhatti on January 13, 2003 4:20pm PT

Usually you get/prefer $100 notes while buying dollars in Indian Banks while travelling. Easier to carry.

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Ferz:

[...For a first-time prejudiced voyager to the USA to find those familiar hate-inducing stimuli missing can be quite a dampener...]

after this bold disclaimer of sorts...only you can manage to get the dart-brigade to show up with poisoned arrows...(am shaking my head in amazement)...how do you manage to stir them?...amazing....even if you do a piece on penguins or global warming the maggots would stir...

bspnd,

t

Dulla Bhatti . . . Robin Hood . . . Happy Birthday to you on Lorhi . . . did you distribute sava ser shakar to girls getting married in honour of your handle or not?

As far as citadel of freedom/China and holyland/Arabia are concered, please be informed that we are waiting for The Economist to do it for us, first. And lately, they are!!

Can you imagine, Saudi hackers from inside the controlled networks in Saudia are now getting into vital US installations . . . the future is yours to grab, boss. May not be a bad time to pick up interests in the emerging free states of Arabia??

Quantam, Dullabhatti,

Brothers, please! Yes we all know the heartstirring places FV should go...and I dont get the impression she came looking for dirt...why dont you two write an essay about your America?

Some good observations but mostly the conclusions insinuated are shallow and sweeping generalizations. Not many in America walk around flaunting $100 bills. If someone does, someone will show surprise. It is 2003 and every corner has ATMs and accepts plastic. I travelled for 2 weeks in Canada and East Coast with originally ten $20 bills I got from my local ATM. I have not gone to the Bank in over 2 years can`t remember when I saw a $100 last time. I will make a statement of surprise too if I see $100 bill in an Indian`s hand who is visiting...because ones who visit me never open their pockets during stay.:-).

I am also surprised that you will spend so much money to visit here and one of your places of interest to visit will be where a hooker gave blow job to a British actor. Your mentioning it in your travelog makes it even worse. It is not hard to figure out you are in search of some dirt to throw to re-enforce your earlier convictions.

Yes America is a failed state where hookers give head to strangers on Main streets, Blacks are noticed in some neighourhoods, Guantemalan illegals look over their shoulders(along with Pakistani, Saudis), Every American goes to Las Vegas over weekend, everyone lives for the weekend only(unlike in other countries like India and Pakistan where people live 7 days), in every big city there is a street full of homeless, people are fake and just show smiles all the time etc etc....Now let us move to citadel of freedom China and the Holyland of Arabs and write about it. would you?

Farzana,

Your assessment about America is shallow and the extrapolation of trite behavior (that you may have observed) as mainstream American spirit is deeply flawed. I would liken it to a western tourist who watches Bollywood movies and eats Indian curry travels to India only to see a different picture. T

Farzana,

Your assessment about America is shallow and the extrapolation of trite behavior (that you may have observed) as mainstream American spirit is deeply flawed. I would liken it to a western tourist who watches Bollywood movies and eats Indian curry, travels to India only to see a different picture. The poor person sees flies instead of dancing Romeos and Juliets, gets harrased to exchange dollars at every corner. At least you didn`t get 3 doses of stomach flu in your trip. There`s more to India than these distractions. And there is certainly more to America than McDonalds, Las Vegas, Baywatch, and what an eighty-four year old woman discusses.

Want to really experience America? Go to Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon national parks. Visit the small town hall meetings. Attend a class at american Universities. And please please watch PBS (Public Broadcasting Stations: www.pbs.org) and listen to National Public Radio (available online at www.npr.org). Also, fire your travel agent he/she seems to be rather incompetent.

As for America and its wars. It has fought many. Some more grudgingly some at a haste. Some say war is always evil. Some say sitting around and ignoring evil is evil. I guess time will tell.

QuantumQuark

Wakil Sahib,

FV is holding to onto what can be held onto considering her length of stay, itinerary, etc. I think the struggle to understand any country, as America is a difficult prospect, and the writer`s engagement with it is valid. Specifically what FV has put her finger on is that contradictory and illusionary quality of many American myths and narratives; i.e. the American Dream, the fragmentation of the Left, the consumerist obsession vs. growing poverty, the reworking of identity, religion. On one hand you have Las Vegas and its recreation of Europe for the amusement(-and why Europe, I wonder) or reference point of the past/home/``ancient`` culture/high art juxtaposed with slot machines! Those kinds of juxtapositions can be liberating as well as decontextualising...since I havent been to Las Vegas, I can`t say, but I`m looking forward to figuring it out as well...
NYC is truly a place of constant cultural regeneration...I think everyone on Chowk would love it...

An interesting, stream-of-thought (or whitewater) essay - yep, it`s America, but then again, this is Pakistan, that is France and so on; you`ll find a similar mosaic of people, emotions, religion, problems etc. throughout the world. Culture, even the American one, is like pain; and Tolstoy said it best: pain is universal, but everyone`s pain is different.

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Ras #16

Or France; or, Germany; or, Italy.

Or Bulgaria; or Hungry.
Or Afghanistan! [they have always
treated Pakistanis worse than a
mangy dog].

Or Britain.
*
*
*
*
Ras: Either you are being kind to many other parts of the world, or perhaps your travels may have been limited.

Or, Pakistan!

Farzana,
Americans in general are very nice people and America in most parts is a very beautiful country. I would rather visit the superficial America any day then some of the rude and overtly racist countries in the Middle East (Gulf).

Ras

Saminasha #5

You think she is not holding onto anything yet? She is holding on to plenty. I only wish she or you would tell me what!

Transferred to letter size pages it shows Nine pages, 3248 words, 14,911 characters with spaces; 18,141 without spaces, 49 paragraphs [40 here] and 312 lines [Verdana, size 12]; and you feel she still needs to hold onto something?

Farzoo...
i like this travelogue of yours...and i don`t find it condescending in the least bit. and you were in seattle...just a few hours away from me. Had I known, I would have joined you at the bumbershoot! It is a throwback in some respects. There are those pockets here in the Pacific Northwest where as much as a place grows and changes, flower power is there to stay! farm country is not one of those places!!!!
Speaking of melting pots...I am reminded of the radical feminist, writer and professor Angela Davis. I attended one of her speeches many years ago, and she brought up this idea of a melting pot that has been so much a part of `American` culture for so long. And her question was something to the effect that what was behind this term `melting pot` -- is it like everyone being mixed and melted in this huge pot, only to emerge as white anglo-saxon straight men???!!!
It isn`t so easy to get a grasp of what America is all about...especially for a first-time prejudiced voyager...I emigrated here with my family years ago, and I still am graspless!
Like some of your descriptions like the one about Los Angeles..isn`t that the truth? And as always, you write more from feeling...as I understand from your profile, that is what you do, but there are definitely things to ponder on here...and for a first-time voyager, i think you`ve captured the divide quite well.
chalo..enough bakbak!
lve. ana

Dear Farzana:

This is among your best.

You say ``Nonie......, so where is the problem.?``

I say many non-U.S. citizens of the world, including Iraqis, lust and line up for the U.S......., so where is the problem?

Likewise, Salaam Bombay is not just what Meera Nair saw and depicted. Salaam, as a salute, would also mean that Bombay (now Mumbai) has its own vibrancy and energy to salute, and to be the control of 65% of economic transactions of India. Although Bangalore is certainly now in competition. Its ``Akarias`` still deliver millions of dollars worth of diamonds and money all over with precision (loss and theft insurance is unknown). Its ``Tiffinwalas`` still propel the engine and deliver to the hungry stomachs with the same precision and accuracy freshly delivered food from millions of homly kitchens. Even multi-billion dollar FedEx`s high tech system would envy. These ``Akarias`` and ``Tiffinwalas`` have been even before FedEx came into existence.

So why the Salaam is so weak?......So where is the problem?

It is all in the mindspace. As Dalai Lama would say the dualities (rich-poor, dark-bright, good-evil etc. etc.) always exist otherwise how would you know what is rich (or poor), what is dark (or bright), or what is good... Or as Einstein would say that it is all relative....

Richard Reeves, a well known writer and essayist, once was given an assignment to write about Indians in America for Fortune (or Forbes) magazine and came to interview me among other Indians. He asked me what I thought of America? This simple question tripped me. My answer was that America is not a Nation, it is a System. For example, Silicon Valley is very different from Mississippi, and yet people living in both place would call themselves American. The benefits of technology have reached Bangalore sooner than Jackson Hole, Wyoming. American system, unlike the British Empire, which to me was a system also, has allowed riches (wealth and experience alike) to go past its frontiers to post war Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, now to China, and may soon to India, if it opens the door enough to let intrinsic values come in and not just let the symbols to come in. Richard Reeves, according to him, has used this in his several essays and even in his book. There is nothing wrong in letting India become a system rather than let it be simply be a nation. All game of mindspace and vision. You could be angry or aborb with a Buddhist monk`s power and act. Dualities will always exist, depends what you see, a glass partially full, or a glass partially empty!!!! I do hope you had an enjoyable trip to Silicon Valley. Next time to do let me know.

Personally, I think you should highlight the pain of minorities due to abhoring practices in India. These write-ups show your own pain.

ANIL KAPURIA

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I did not like the condescending tone of the article. I am sick and tired of indians/pakistanis whining about the american way of life.

Have you talked in detail to an American who visited India. I have heard many accounts....Most of them have the same shallow opinion about India that you have about america. It is not possible to judge such a big country without meeting people with a variety of opinions.

How many friends did you make in America. Your gross generalisations make me think your opinions are based on 10 minute conversations.

I hope she is back in Bombay and happy watching people defecating on the roadside again.

Awesome.And yes, the perpetual cheerfulness, the common mental illness, the homeless, the rich in their habitat, and the overexpressed desire to be nonracist...i guess thats america.Nonetheless the number of volunteers and social workers, education, literacy, lower crime rate(as compared to the subcontinent - i know its not independent of its environment but it is safer here even if only in terms of noone takes yr life because u believe in something) laws...well i guess the last two are forced.But there has to be a reason why so many of us have left our homeland to make a life in north america.

At least consistent. From Delhi to Delaware, she never removes her literary blinders except to don those designer concrete sunglasses.

Zindabad! Really liked this.

``Why were they being so goddamn nice?``

It gets you doesn`t it. All that incessant cheerfulness. Hi! How are you! Have a nice day! Mera tau jabra thak jaata tha smile kar kar ke.

I feel we need pakistani writers. (EXpak or Indians can read but not write). Two much same stuff. This is kind of LOafangebazi.
Ms. Farzana and liberal indians and socialist expaks critic USA. BUT no body wants to go to Socialist liberal republics of China or Islamic republics of Libiya. Its all garbage stuff. Whatever this whiners ladies say and cry for black americans etc, their children are not going to marry blacks. ( who wants to marry blackDeshis even from deshis). Or they are not sending children to Iran or sudan or any black country. Its just talking stuff and let steam go off. This people have to understand this socialism or islamic republics or hindu Ramraja etc is is most cruel fraud. Most is let us help poor and feel does not help. All expak shouting is from usa if this people feel so bad why not pack up and return to land of pure.
Real test is people are putting life at risk to rich USA. How come I do not see Americans smuggling to india and pakistan. Our coutrys are poor and 3rd rate and people are real 5th to 6th rate. AMERICA IS GREAT. IF allowed all hindus and muslims will flood in one week. Ask this lady to go and see at US embassies the line. So long people are making fortunes selling water to these deshis. Stop critic america. God damn Saudi or China is not allowing anybody even to settle there. If you do not like at least do not lie. America is not against anybody, god damn they do not care. This people critic USA and then again cry and go on begging.
America is dream come true in world in history of world. Do not blame usa. They give highest % of income to charities. They have fed most food to poor stupid thirld word human breeders. I tell liberals when they say help poor govt should help. Damn liberals and junky socialists who stopped you to help poors. We have more antiusa stupids living in `Defence Colonies`. Pakistani living in Malir does not give damn to liberals. They know if calamity comes it will help from usa. Stop maligning best counrt in world. And all EXpak and EXindians if you feel so bad USA is not holding you scoundrels. It is sad these people are biting hand which is feeding. Let people try with out help from usa, world bank, IMF. As once greatest Islamic leader of world Mr. Khomani of Iran said problem is we are most corroupt and he said we can not blame everything on usa. Show these writers to their poor fellows some mercy and donate like american then write articles against USA. ( now do not ask me to donate, I believe poverty is acquired desease, its indication of lazyness, loss of selfestim and rat like breeding tendency of poor people. See parshi and boharas are rich but they do not breed like rats. More poor people more they crank out babies as if tomorrow is end universe.)

Any way this blaming Feudalism and America is our favourite national past time its cheap, usa does not bothers, its like elephant not bothered by miserable whining dog barking. USA Zindabad. Down with PHONY liberals.Again this is all lafangebazi.

Farzana, America is a state of mind - nothing more and nothing less and it is what you want it to be, because it gives you that personal freedom. Listen to Paul Simon`s ``searching for America`` and you will appreciate the American diversity a little bit more.

Ciao

FV,

Come to NYC, we`ll show you something you can hold onto!

i think it will be fun to travel with you :) anytime you come to pakistan (perhaps shot out of a cannon at the wagah border?) please do get in touch.

shandana

``Next morning I decided to take the bus to Santa Monica, all geared up for ‘Baywatch’ babes and muscular lifeguards.``

Most of the baywatch shows were not shot in Southern California. I believe most of them were in Hawaii or Australia.

Good pleasant read.

``Nobody should visit America for the first time``.

``Yankee Go Home - but take me with you``.

And finally:- (this one is mine) - It is now politically incorrect to think in terms of shades of grey in the US.

BTW, Farzana, what is an ``expected docile Indian woman``?