Random Ramblers Timbuktoo#70!!!!

Congrats everyone on making it to 70!!! 🥳

Anu - Special thanks to you for being the mastermind, soul and keeper of this thread ... Muaah *blows virtual kisses*

Congrats on the new CC, everyone!!! 🤗

Replying to LadyM from the last CC:



Firstly...haha yeah we're finally done with 69...Shreya's dirty mind can't come up with anything for 70 I think so the innocent junta of this CC is safe for now ;-)

As for the rest...honestly I fear having kids in this country in some ways...I mean how on earth do you balance out their identity crisis issues? I would never want my kids to grow up as one-dimensional ABCD type caricatures either...better that they become totally gora-fied rather than be like na idhar ke na udhar ke...LOL...all this "cultural identification" stuff has no point if it's in name only...like you said, most of them don't get the MEANING of what they are doing...they are just going through the motions to show that they are still in touch with their culture...which is what I mostly see around me out here in the U.S.

You're Gujju? LOL how come your name is Amy then? :S...I guess I haven't heard that Gujju name before...

I thought Raas/Garba was the dance with the claps and Dandiya was the one with the sticks, no?

I understand what you are trying to say, Amy...I have enough cousins born and brought up here that I've observed too...they're like you...they can speak the language...sing shabads in the gurudwaras, do bhangra at their college competitions...the whole laundry list...but I still think most of these things are surface level only...they don't REALLY give you a genuine understanding of the MEANING of your culture...

I think we'll just have to leave it at a difference of perspective...to a person born and brought up in India, this would never look like full on genuine identification with culture...it seems more cosmetic...but I guess it works for you guys cuz you are your own community of kids born here so you all bond over this kind of stuff in whatever way you do...it's a different community...

Hmph. LadyM, maine ab tak 69 fiasco pe search nahi kiya. I'm a shareef bachi!  Edited by nimrah - 12 years ago

Heyyy Nimrah *hugs*

LOL yeah Anant was latkoing from the auto and even went one step further than Mayank by doing those dumb hand waves *facepalm*

LOL they didn't show SRK in SSK today??? Aww *comforting hugs* Chalo koi nahin baad mein dekh lena...all the best for your exam!

Nahin Shreya didn't make her gallery :/...even though we all bugged her a lot...pata nahin if she's posting her stuff properly anywhere else :S

@anu-- Ummm i don't like to use my real name in public forums. Not comfortable disclosing it.🤔

anyhow, I guess there can never be a middle ground in this lol.😆 You see no matter how much "we" try to indianize ourselves, we just can't because after all we're still Americans. It's like how it is with Chinese-Americans or Mexican-Americans or Philippino-American kids here. It's  whole different culture within the two larger cultures. And ummm I don't feel clueless being a part of both cultures.
But from what i saw in india with all that "wanna-be-ish" thingies...ummm atleast i don't do those. If i don't know something about the culture, i ask my parents to explain it.
lol and ummm  those stereotypical NRI characters in indian telly and shows with fake hindi accents are so not how I am (can't speak for others). I try to pronounce it right...don't fake the accent...  it sounds different just like how Indian accent on english sounds different.
ahem ahem i don't say "ram" as "Ram-a"😆 

my main point is that I try to take interest and learn about the culture.



Edited by Ramy25 - 12 years ago

I'm catching up on old pages of the CC ATM...and today I WON'T give a blink and miss appearance. I'm finally free from that manhoos project.



Is this a way to talk to a FRIEND who has been here after sooo many days? What if I take offense? 😛



@bold...ehmm..I bet she can...I can. 😛 If you have a 'good' dirty mind...trust me...you could always come up with something for everything.

@blue...Arey don't worry...if you think about such a thing...you'd definitely work on and would try to balance out the identity issues of your kids. More than the kids, I feel, its the parents there who are confused...have identity crises. From the families I have seen, more than half of them don't even realize what their children are going through..

Hmmm Anu - A very very profound question. I don't know if I have all the answers yet. Still, I believe that parents play a huge role in their children's upbringing.

If you see today, even back home the parents of the children growing up in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc face the same issues with westernization. Kids lying to their parents, wanting a taste of the fast life, sex scandals, vices like smoking/drinking/drugs, etc... I mean there is desi culture there right? Then what has happened to the kids of today, back home? Why are they falling prey to all these vices and ripping apart the values we hold so dear? 

As opposed to this, we come to US with the time stamped images of India in our minds and that is the type of culture we try to imbibe on our kids. So in some respect I think we try to bring up kids more strictly here than back home. These days whenever I go back home, I get a cultural shock everytime. Let me site an example, when we went to India last time, my son who was learning to speak was reciting bhajans that I taught him, whereas the neighbors kids in India were singing "Munni badnaam hui" without even understanding the meaning of it, while their parents were nodding/laughing approvingly. In a nutshell, things back home are not as rosy as you think anymore, Anu.

As far as the "confused" state goes ... we as parents have to try to strike the balance between being a parent and being a friend. Secondly, there are some things that we as parents have to be flexible about by having an open mind. On my part, as a parent, all I care about is the fact that my son learns to first respect himself, then his parents, and to some extent even his culture. Most of all, he needs to be a better human being first.

I am not sure how to go about doing that Anu. And I am as scared and apprehensive about the entire process, as anyone else in my situation is ... *sigh* I never knew it was so hard to be a parent.