My friend M very excitedly told me about two 21 year old American girls who came to stay at her house. These girls back-packed from the north to the south, travelling in trains, eating in dhabas, and did it all the 'real way'. After seeking savage solace in the third world, they returned to their NYC apartments and BrownBerkeley whatever. M and her dad were deeply enamored by the boundless courage of these American voyagers.
I just don't get it.
We need to stop pissing our pants with excitement each time a gora does anything outside their bloody bubble.
I remember having read this one day and being very pleased.
I asked my sister to read the blog and tell me what she thinks and this is what she said-
'It's like nice...but why do you LIKE sounding like a loser? Because you're totally not one'. It doesn't take powerful rhetoric and fancy vocab to preach wisdom.
I am going to stop trying to make myself look bad to make myself look good.
Haha, I read that too. :D
ReplyDeleteI feel really shitty and small every time I read about amazing people like William Dalrymple traveling on Marco Polo's trail or Alice Albinia discovering forgotten histories along the Indus - in their 20s. But then I remember that they're white, had SOME diplomatic/journalistic/academic connections and funds and belonged to some of the "best" educational institutes in the world and did all that at least one or two decades ago... Not to belittle their work at all, because I think they're brilliant and still give them respek and mad propz and all that, but being Indian women in 2010, not all that easy to get around, specially when there are different standards for us in our own country than "Western visitors". And we're not even gonna be able to get our little toe into Baluchistan or the interiors of China or whatever.
I dunno, sometimes I think I'm making excuses or trying to make myself feel better.
I also feel like those guys lived in a time when the world was more undiscovered...making it a time to make great art.
ReplyDeleteThese girls also apparently told M that some band at blue frog sucked because 'some guy had an american accent'. Maybe she was disappointed that the band didn't chant tribal mantras on stage. Hope M won't be hurt by this.
and it's killer that you even aspire to do what people like Darlymple have done.you aren't to replying to my msgs man.like WTF.
I also think the wrong kind of white people go to India or travel to low income countries in general. The sort who instinctually tend to condescendingly fetishize and have an 'experience' they can talk about back home. Like my friend Kyle. They are usually neo-libs passing as college liberals who settle for happy suburban domesticity, a commute and a 9-5. And the worst kind of bitties go abroad to teach English, the kind who don't know the diff between proper nouns and pronouns but are like 'omg, amsterdam was wild gurl!' It's sad that white privilege entitles people like that to travel and waste precious fossil fuels.
ReplyDeleteThe really nice people, like my friend Weston for example, would never travel at all. He'd be too shy.
I don't aspire, Dev, I just imagine and envy and am in awe of them. :)
ReplyDeletei think its a bit rich that youre blaming the white people in this deal. no need to get pee our pants but i think its nice that these people break the mould and go off exploring a new country. its really easy to just live in a bubble here and be ignorant of everything else in the world and most white people are. these college kids who come atleast sometimes work and save and spend their own money and thats more than i can say about anyof us. we have money money that we dont even make but we have no problem living in our bubble. any of you ever been to a low income country? and the rupee can buy plenty in lots of countries. lots of people settle for suburban domesticity. atleast these people go out and see the world a bit. kids who take a summer to teach english is amazing because theyre giving up a lot in terms of income and teaching english is a way they know of being useful and having something to do. white privileges often amount to only their passport and ability to earn their own money. parents here dont really support their kids after high school. i fly back twice a year to chill with my bros. what a waste of fossil fuels that is compared to people spending their own money to vacation. :) approaching the end of a very boring weekend. annoyed.
ReplyDeleteDJ IN DA HOUSEEEEEE!!!! We missed your rants.
ReplyDeleteI'm still conflicted on this issue. On the one hand there are those who come to our country to work, live, learn and broaden their world view. On the other there are those who come for cheap drugs, sex and being able to make good party conversation later on in life.
I completely agree that it's respectable that they have their own jobs and earn their own money. It's going to be ages before I do that myself. But how a lot of them chose to spend their money is pretty similar to how we chose to spend our money. Kasol? I might cut the Israeli kids some slack (ME cutting Israelis slack :O ) because they've just finished forced army service and all that. But how many morons have you seen in Khan Market buying 'handicrafts' who will just go back to wherever they came from saying they've got a taste of the real India?
What also pisses me off is the double standards we have in our country for "foreigners" and Indians. All too apparent during the follow up to CWG. Not saying that they always get the best end of the bargain, but often they can get away with a lot.
When M told me about those two girls I thought it was pretty cool that they managed to get across by budgeting their trip wisely and working and contacting people in different cities and basically couchsurfing. But then again there are other stories she told about their attitudes.
"the rupee can buy plenty in lots of countries"
ReplyDelete- but it can't buy very many plane tickets which are universally priced the same, can it? Even US postal workers living in hovels can travel with slick financial ease to the farthest corners of the world, while investment bankers in India prob wouldn't be able to. Let alone students.
My good friend from France spent a summer working in a Swiss cheese factory, literally packing cheese at 9 euros an hour or w.e, and travelled the world for a yr with the money she made. Of course she had to 'slum it' and it was hard and she was thrifty and hardworking and all that, I'm not knocking her for that. But that she had the option of doing that, because of the income differentials,is so ridic. An Indian student simply does not have that option. Plane tickets are prohibitively expensive, even if you couch surf or crash at the Y or whatev.
And Queer Fish succinctly put the issue of white privilege in a nutshell. Indians do treat white foreigners differently, and for good reason (okay, maybe a few bad reasons too)! There's money to be made. I don't blame either party, that's how the world order is rigged. So, either play the game or usher in the revolution. Shit or get off the pot.
The world's still a very colonial place, Devansh.
i dont feel right taking shots at sap without knowing who she is. these idiots can travel cause they dont mind taking on debt. and you have ANY idea how much money indian investment bankers make? yeah it is hard for indian students but why blame white students for spending money they themselves made. and how does how indian people treat white people reflect on white people. and whats wrong with travelling for cheap booze sex and stories? never been to goa any of you?
ReplyDeleteit a very colonial place. look at all us indian kids ranting in english. monday mornings :(
im thinking 'piss' in our pants sounds better na?
ReplyDeletestoned sleepy cant read this debate you guys have decided to have
im glad i could start something, though
yo deejay where you been.
Arre homo, I think you need some meftal spas or some soothing chai or something to ease your PMSyness. Kya kar raha hai? Send me an email no sometime, I only have your ancient hotmail address somewhere.
ReplyDeleteSap is not a girl, so you can be at ease.
Well, there's nothing wrong with traveling for cheap booze and sex and stories. As long as you call a spade a spade. Don't do the eat pray love spiritual angle. Or pretend to be fucking Shantaram because you managed to score some good maal or traveled in a local train or shit like that.
Also the differential treatment thing is just something I say to make myself feel better, it isn't something the firangs can help being at the receiving end of. But you remember when we were in Goa, Olive and Eric didn't want us to "dirty" the mattresses because they were meant for the firang customers during season? That's the kind of thing that pisses me off.
sap is a HE. have you assumed that only women comment on my blog?why is that?
ReplyDeletebasically i was taking a dig at the white chicks who m was speaking about because 1. they were surprised at us for not going in local trains, into fields, appreciate a kid shitting on the street and basically behave like what puts us on a more 'savage' level is what is glamorous and exciting. i think that it's great that they come to see what things are like in a low income country compared to theirs, but they go back with a little bit of a narrow idea.
2. they trashed our band.
my friend nabilah from france is working with the magazine. she is as excited about the laddoos, and halwais and little panwalas on the street but she feels along with a sense of excitement, an understanding as she has been travelling and watching.
leo says it better than me any day man.
I am not denying that i am aware of the social heirarchy that we live in and am glad to be somewhere near the top than the bottom. My point was much narrower bros. I wasn't addressing a general issue. Just a couple of white chicks who hated on my band brothers.
There's nothing wrong with travelling for booze sex and stories.
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy to give them all three.
i dont have your email either. j.devansh293@gmail. im tired of this dumb conversation. just went to a lecture for an hour and the idiot didnt even discuss the case study for which i went. reserved coaches for women in metros is what piss me off. and women being righteous about it. been hermiting in my room. so easy to do here.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing the same here, brotha. Lungi mein baithi hui hoon, ganda maagi aur gandi coffee pee rahi hoon, sutte maar rahi hoon pure din (Rinki isn't around).
ReplyDeleteHm, I was pretty surprised with the women's coaches in the metro when I got back from Bombay. There it's kind of a necessity. Here, I think they just need more coaches in general. Anyone who thinks aggression is a masculine virtue hasn't been boobie shoved by an auntie in a bus/metro/train.
thankyou thankyou for defending my gender you guys :D but oh, can I be a girl just for today? In my defense I have a super girly (androgynous?) body. :P
ReplyDeleteI was just stating facts about how the world is rigged. It's stupid to deny colonial realities. It's no accident, that 1 USD = 50 INR or whatev.
An Indian investment banker has an annual income ranging between 10 and 50 lakhs (22,000 - 100,000 USD). The median income for a US postal worker is $44,000. So if you're in the former category, your vacation privileges depend on where you are in the investment banker spectrum (lowly minion or upwardly mobile aggressive young turk with benefits). With little or no education one can be a rural mail carrier in the US. That was Steve Carrell's old job btw. Of course this is rapidly changing, because the US middle class is rapidly changing, and this is why the tea party guys are so pissed. Why oh why should they have to go to college to get a fucking job??? *heavy sarcasm implied*
I deliberately framed it to compare lowly clerical labor in the developed world with highly educated white collar labor in the developing world. This should make it crystal, why college educated Europeans/N.Americans can work all summer and afford international travel. This option is not on the table for Indian (low income country) students.
I'm not even going to go into cultural dimensions, because it's relational and tangled up with emotional indignation. But economics has a big part to play in all of this.
As for lingual oppression Devansh, frankly, I don't care. Everyone speaks some iteration of a language their ancestors didn't speak. My great grandfather was a ferryman in what is now Bangladesh. He presumably did not speak English, and probably didn't even know Hindi existed.
All of Latin America speaks one of two West European languages, instead of whatev indigenous language they used to. It's a non-issue. Everything changes, get used to it. And there's always a hegemony that exerts dominance. It's English now, it used to be Latin before. And if the world survives through ecological crises/resource scarcity, it'll probably be Mandarin.
Incidentally, Queer Fish, 'spade' is a slur. :D
""" M and her dad were deeply enamored by the boundless courage of these American voyagers.
ReplyDeleteI just don't get it. """
Unusual acts are always noted.
""" I am going to stop trying to make myself look bad to make myself look good. """
"bad" according to you.
thanks for writing short posts, appreciable.