Loser, Mishter India, Ayaskant & ON Dada.....

Hello there

Jug Suraiya is a writer of repute & emminence, who often writes articles on the ridiculity of the way some people behave in our society (and not only the Indian society - so relax). His articles are usually penned down in such language, in the last twelve years in which i have followed his articles amongst others, he has rarely come down from his present level of sattire (as used inthis article). Needless to say his articles may be satarical but never untrue or hyped. Newspapers dont usually confer such status on writers as most newspapers have done to him. He hasnt said that we all do it anywhere.

Sharmanee ki kya baat hein. Sach hi to bol raha hein, isnt all this really happening ?

Havent we all seen a small child with his/ her pants down on the pavement (in front of a movie theatre in Connaught place, a restaurant foyer, the zoo, movie hall, pavement, market place - diaper pehnane se toh kharab hota hein - foren log kerte hein yeh saab chochle) with either the mom or dada chanting the magic code words "shooooooooooo". So it being this fine act of expression of freedom which the situation allows back here, it stays with the child whole life. people too dont mind, they just step over the child or the excreta as if it were dog poo (which incidentally is fine too). It would be strange indeed if we all havent seen a grown up man (by that i mean his physical growth and not the mental part) on the roadside or standing by a lamp pole and .....??

Why deny the fact.

Theres been a lot of hype that Hyderabad and Bangalore police are doing great jobs - their chief ministers are implementing a good thing by imposing fines on spitting, etc. Whats great ? Its been there in the Indian police act ever since it was made over 100 years ago by the british under "Public nuisance". Even so how many times do we see it being enforced.

When police do confront these "defaulters" - they retort - "Kaha karey?". Thats a valid point too - where does one go ? District Administrations have funds for public convenience places - but the rest is better left unsaid. Where are the sweepers ? SDO Saab ke bangley mein gaye hein - madam ne bulaya he aaj.

While the govt has no measures (or perhaps the time or inclination) to curb or reduce this apart from enforcing fines, the normal houseowners have turned to dealing with this problems spoiling the paint on their walls by some ingenuinity which i have recently come across (as would have a lot of you)....taking a lead from our politicians ....they have turned to religion, so put some ceramic tiles which have pictures of all the Gods(hindu, muslims, sikh & isai dharms all included - lest one of the community gentemen be not addressed) on these walls to ward off the shoo shoo guys !

Leaving the sho sho part of the discussion - lets go to South extension,where you will find a Mr X with his shirt buttons undone till his stomach, gold necklaces with a huge gold biscuit on that, gold watch, his wife walking along in a creepe saree with all the gold assortments eating bhel puree and three children with bhel puri in their hands and maybe a maid with a small bag in her hand. They bulldoze through all the meek on the pavement - kaun panga lega - Mr X is over 120 kgs - Mr X pays for a pan (with a Rs 50 tip) and boards his Sonata, reverses the car with the most irritating of sounds from the reveresing tones buzzer (but then who cares), all board, momma and bache chuck the bhel puri paper plates to the wind, Pappaji opens his door - kya karey bechare - paan thookna hein na (after all car is expensive)- phooooch- a little clearing of throat - ahhhh thooooo- bliss, and they are off. Riches dont teach good manners or etiquettes, they produce children and send them off to school and leave it to the teacher.

I am pretty sure we have all seen something ofthe sort when in India.

I was reading somewhere in one of the post on one of the other postings - about Desh bhakti - what is that ? Leave the country yourself and then propogate "desh bhakti" ? Why not stay here and love all "this".

Closing your eyes to all that is despicable around you or not accepting it is not desh bhakti.

Some time back in the US, we used to frequent a pizza joint whose owner was a Latino, since we were put up nearby, we were usuals there. They guy got friendly with us and one day during the course of a conversation he said " i dont find you people like that but dont Indians have anything else to do but produce children". It was awful - not that we could disagree with what he said - but what was worse that we were assosiated with that shame. So what i told him was that "they all arent mine - are all labourers and maids in California from your family ?" So he shut up after that.

If you recall the first image which STAR TV broadcast when telecasting from India was of a cowsitting in the middle of a road. Is that what India is ?

What does one say to something like that. Its not as if we are personally doing that - but its something that we are assosiated with - and can you deny it ? Ok this one time we could shut up one latino - but then the whole world knows of it. How do you counter that - by past greatness and ?? Thats sort of preachy and living in "denial" or in past glory - if thats what it was ever was, glorious. I wish it were that easy. Past glory is good for movies and stuff. Tourism maybe( with some bakrupt man dressing up as a maharaja , standing at the door of his confiscated palace welcoming guests).

What makes it correct for us to presume we are great - why do we have to be so defensive - why are we always out to prove something - hold up the heritage and past stuff- why not lead simple lives with others in the world. The people who struggled are long gone dead, which one of them conferred the right to us to use their sacrifice to justify our wrongs ??

Where is it stated that other countries havent have had their share of suffering, misery, pains , holocausts, wars and struggles -or that they dont have a rich heritage ?

Is the heritage factor more important than our present. If we are to look at it that way, then what you are doing today is the heritage of the next generation, what are we leaving them - excuses for our present wrong doings by quoting our "rich" heritage.

Yes undeniably it hurts as it pains, when you being the representative of that community are assosiated with these things, its difficult to convince the other person that you are a different entity- that you are YOU. What matters then is how you conduct yourself and refused to be identified by both these acts as well as with great heritage/ past. Be plain good yourself. Everyone likes a gentleman - whatever race he be.

Regards

SF

Exacty SF moshai... I made my comments, with regard to MI's post, only because the author was Jug Suraiya.. He is a veteran in these aspects and when he writes something (He is one of the last objective journalists remaining), ppl do read it seriously.

MI, havent you heard of the old adage
"A few rotten apples spoils the whole pack" ?
"Sept 9/11 gave all arabs a bad name" ?

JS also talked abt the importance of being polite. In a previous thread, we all discussed how this concept of politeness was lacking amongst desi's. So how come

Quote:

---

I am surprised that journalisitic standards have dipped so low at TOI.
How can they paint all indians with the same brush.

And even if an article like this was published in TOI, why bring it here and give it even more publicity.

---

-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Aur Vaise Bhi, Sharafat ki jab kapde utarti hai, sabse zyaada mazaa shareefon ko hi aati hai"....(From The Dirty Picture)

Warning !! SCAM ALERT !!
http://www.canadiandesi.ca/read.php?TID=4169 & http://www.canadiandesi.ca/read.php?TID=1379
This is a Useful Health related Tip
http://www.canadiandesi.ca/read.php?TID=3865
Please visit
http://www.cmje.org/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php for some interesting Information ! (Especially 009.005 )

SF,

Like the others, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post of yours too. The "shooooooo" part really cracked me up, dude. Good stuff.

I agree with Misthar that the author has basically collected all stereotypes about Indians in one bag and accusation is too broad to believe. Yet, it does seem at times that when it comes to civic sense, we lag more than people in the west. Call it improper training, lack of foresight, a don't-care attitude or what have you, but even here, you will find that when you go to a mall that consists of mostly desi shops, you'll always have to lower your cleanliness standards to enjoy the experience. Be it Oak-tree road in NJ or Gerrard street in Toronto or the dundas-Hwy 10 area in Mississauga. Makes you think, don't it? And you can't point the finger only at the management, its also the consumers who are to blame.

Why?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Are you there?

Hello BL, ON

Thank you for the read

All Indians arent that, for SURE.

Anyone who tries saying that all Indians are like that, will end up with a crack on the jaw.

Regards

SF

Hey Soberflier

Your post as well as Jug Suraiya's article brought back some memories......I'd been a frequent flyer on the London - Bombay sector during the late 1990s, and the in-flight behaviour from 'desis' was just terrible. 2 things stood out - the drinking (since booze was free) and toilet manners (water splashed all over the place) - probably related since people drank till they puked. Haven't seen behaviour that bad anywhere else, not even on flights from the Middle East to India, but then those flights are so much shorter - about 2 hours usually.

Some of Suraiya's comments are probably a little over the top though (kids relieving themselves in aircraft aisles?!!!......yuk.....never seen that).

Hi all,

Jug Suraiya with his blunt and inimical style has done it once again - hit a raw nerve that is.

If he hadn't been this blunt, the message wouldn't have penetrated and hurt. Baat tikhi hai par sahi hai. In fact, I think we should talk more openly about the things he has written about.

When it comes to civic discipline, there can't be a worse example than us Indians.

I have been in Tanzania, East Africa, for seven years now and no doubt the Tanzanians are much poorer than the Indians here. But there is a kind of dignity about them, which does not make their poverty all that much stark and ugly.

Indians with their flashy clothing and loud personalities cannot beat the Africans when it comes to good manners. That is, manner of speaking, public behaviour and personal hygiene. No Tanzanian would pass by without greeting you. Even Tanzanian children say shikamo (regards) to any adult they meet while Indian children may not necessarily greet every adult they come across.

An admirable trait people here have is to greet everyone, be it a cleaner, clerk or officer the same way.

I am not saying we are all those things that Jug says, but he has a point. And lack of patience is the root cause of many of our ills.

Only yesterday, I took my child for an allergy test to a hospital. There was a long queue with around 50 people waiting for their turn. While the Tanzanians sat patiently, the Indians started fidgeting, chatting loudly with each other... their kids (including mine I must admit) running amok.

I think being patriotic does not necessarily mean dying for your country but treating your surroundings with respect. If we don't talk about this, even the coming generation will continue with the wrong things.

We Indians do have some extraordinary qualities, especially our social discipline and penchant for hard work. But without civic discipline, we can never get people to see beyond the surface.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Atulgs

well said, atul......