isolated incidents?
I see it happen every SINGLE time I visit any desi Ghetto area like Gerrard or albion.
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DIE HARD !
I have visited Gerrard I think on 3 or 4 occassions at different times of the day - and NEVER had such an experience. Yes I did not like the food, and that's what keeps me away from there.
Have visited Albion a dozen times or so, mainly Brar sweets and Asian Grocery and am happy to say that even with such a small space to park and not so easy to manouver parking lot, people have patiently waited or I have done the same while parking or shopping for sweets/patakhas.
Seems I am lucky at some things in life after all!
Chandresh
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Chandresh
Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!
I have observed this 2 b true . Sm1 has correctly remarked that he same desi guy wud ve held the door had t been a 'gora' environment .
Yeah v may have oriented 4m a 'not so civic' country but evolution is not a 1 day process .It takes time . I m +ve that 2yr old CD wud behave differently than a 1 wk old !!!
But I ve [ersonally observed that if u get up and give ur seat 2 a lady or a senior , the guy next 2 u wud automatically do so . Charity begins @ home . Surprised 2 c that the same guy who wud throw a banana peel on n India street doesnt doesnt do so when he s abroad and next time when he visits India looks 4 a garbage bin !!!
Location: INDIA (sometimes Canada)
Posted on: 12-05-04 04:46:46
Hi Everybody,
These incidents (good and bad both) happens in everybody's life. But in India ratio of bad to good incidents in the public areas is much more than unity. while in Toronto it is less then unity. As one moves in the interiors of Ontario this ratio of bad to good incidents tends towards zero, but never becomes zero.
So, If you are in Canada donot expect that no bad incidents will happen but the probabilty of bad things happening is certainly less than India.
by the way after some happy moments everyone FEEL GOOD..
Enjoy Happiness
--Happy
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Enjoy Happiness -- Happy from India
Quote:
Orginally posted by chandresh
I have visited Gerrard I think on 3 or 4 occassions at different times of the day - and NEVER had such an experience. Yes I did not like the food, and that's what keeps me away from there.
Have visited Albion a dozen times or so, mainly Brar sweets and Asian Grocery and am happy to say that even with such a small space to park and not so easy to manouver parking lot, people have patiently waited or I have done the same while parking or shopping for sweets/patakhas.
Seems I am lucky at some things in life after all!
Chandresh
If you get a chance to come to Scarborough on Markham Road (I know you will come only when I will invite you
), just try to fill your gas tank at any of the gas station on markham/ellsemere and than try to go on the main road and let me know your experience. Especially during pick hours.-----------------------------------------------------------------
A Proud Indian Canadian
I read all the posts here with much interest. It seems that critiquing our own culture is not very well tolerated, but it certainly makes for good conversation!
I think there is good and bad in all races, cultures and societies. Stereotypes may not apply to each individual in a grouping, but as a generality, they are often applicable. Since we do not have the ability to change any other person or group, it makes sense to have a good hard look at ourselves and do what we can to shift our behaviour towards the positive. There are many many many things (family values, work ethic, loyalty, kindness in general to others, humility) that I think that other cultures could learn from us. I think we also, given the same open mindset, could learn from other cultures. We could learn to be more assertive from the French. We could learn to be jollier from the Scots and Italians. We could learn to mind our own business better from the Japanese. We could learn to be more civic minded fromthe Europeans(that in general to all north americans, not just Indians) We could learn to be more involved in local politics from the Americans. This is a comparing of cultural positives and negatives from a very broad prospective, not a criticism of individuals. Of course their are assertive, jolly, unintrusive, and politically active Canadian Desis!!! Please don't be upset with me over this small bit of rhetoric.
Someone up above said something having to do with wives and husbands and not knowing the other culture so we only look at negative. I don't remember the exact words, but that was the jist.
In reply, I can only say that we are lucky, much luckier than people who have never left their homeland, in that we can see our own selves more objectively, we have the ability to compare and contrast, especially here in Canada where we have a multitude of cultures to enjoy. For those of us who have lived and worked in more than Indian and Canada, we are even luckier to see our own positives and negatives with clearer lenses.
Be proud of your own culture, but also keep an open mind to criticism. It only comes because someone loves it enough to want to make it better.
I think GG should not be criticized for voicing her incidents. And she should not have to list every positive attribute of desis before she is allowed to voice a negative. She is obviously a proud desi.
PB
Thats a well-written post PinkyBlinky, though I do disagree that the sterotypes are applicable as a generality. You do recognise it as rhetoric and here is more of the same 
Like Chandresh I have been lucky not to have the experiences that you have with desis. However, I do know that when I notice that the person who cut me off is a desi the first thought that I have is a condescending" oh yeah, another desi...whats new?". Until I check myself. The reasons I check myself:
1) When you draw such a conclussion based on ethinicity it is really easy to do the same all across the board. These, according to me, are the initial seeds of racism. If its so easy to explain -ve by attibuting it to my own race, its going to be much easier to follow the same exapmle for other races as well. Soon, pretty much everything will be attributed to race....where/why would I draw the line?
2) The person who cut me off must be thinking about the loss of his mother OR a layoff OR the srtuggles of a labor job. Though I cannot change his reactions to the same (which may include lack of consideration for others) I CAN change my reactions to him...because I am in a much better place than he is.
I'm not dismissing anyones experiences but all of us, irrespective of race are generous with judgement but miserly with understanding.
imho, assigning +ve and -ve's to ethinicity is a simplified way of dealing with an issue ...namely, we do not have to think about it...because the reasons are already accounted for.
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