about to EXPLODE from cutesy

HillsBus again ft. hippies

The last post (read that first if you haven't) seemed to interest a lot of people and provided fodder for more conversation on the bus, which in turn, is feeding back into this...

First, a glorious text I was sent about a week ago:

Somebody on hillsbus was eating mandarin pieces with toothpicks as chopsticks :///

Then she went to the back of the bus and lay down to sleep with her ass in my face.

Rai and I caught the same 620X last Friday with the horrible man who starred in the previous post. His reaction to us was ambiguous, not sure whether he was intimidated or trying to be intimidating. I was reeeeally tempted to sit directly behind him again, to pick up the threads of the conversation where we had left off last. It didn't happen, I am a spineless worm.

I've had many interesting bus conversations since I wrote here last, but none have have stuck in my mind and continued to whirl around as much as this one with Simran. It was a while ago so it's a little blurry how much of this was actually spoken and how much was tacked on later in my imagination when I replayed it in my head.

After some random banter, we somehow landed on the topic of cultural sensitivity and what a warped idea of it most people seem to have. The fact that I'm Indian does not mean I want to talk to you about butter chicken. I mean, I especially don't want to, being vegetarian and all. Nor does it (or our films or yoga, or henna) constitute any significant part of "Indianness". Exoticising a culture by stripping it down to gimmicky, superficial things like this is demeaning. You're reducing it to something that's really two-dimensional and ultimately, not as legitimately "real" as Western culture.

If you're reading this and cringing at the fact that you've done this around me, just take this as something to keep in mind. Some of my favourite people in the world are guilty of it all the time. I don't really begrudge them because it's obviously not something that people do malevolently, so much as for a conversation filler. Besides which, that may be the depth of your knowledge on the culture (disturbing) so it's not like you have anywhere else to start (just don't) 

Anyway, then we moved on to discuss stupid Tree of Life salesgirls in bindis and harem pants. I actually love that shop, their cotton dresses are just luverly... but occasionally when I walk in, I cringe a little at these girls who think that, in donning the clothes that they do, they somehow are a greater authority than me on my own culture. Yes, that's actually how a few of them act. You might think I'm being excessively bitchy here, but it's a lot more sinister than it seems at first glance.

Mainstream society abstracts stuff from its original context, shakes it around, completely confuddles what it really "is" and then imposes the reinterpretation on the people it really belongs to, often as a frivolous, disposable trend. I read something years ago about how destructive this has been with naive Americans. It just isn't nice to hijack and trivialise things like that... ESPECIALLY when it comes to religion. Ganesh and Saraswati are NOT funky trinkets to hang around your neck. The Swastika... let's not even go there.

This brings me to the hippies. Most people are surprised when I say I dislike them. Though I agree with the ideas they theoretically espouse, what did they actually do, apart from strum and smoke pot? Not a lot. (rhyming! heh I am so clever)

When we were in India earlier this year, my family took a short trip to Haridwar and Rishikesh, two important places of pilgrimage. Rishikesh, a town at the foothills of the Himalayas was beautiful. The Ganges were amazingly blue (it's still pristine at this point, gets messed up further South) and it made me feel all floaty and happy. Until I saw the scraggly hippies scattered along the pavement, nursing bongs and putting lots of effort into looking as nonchalant as possible. I know it's a totally irrational but something flared up inside me and I got really, really mad. The sanctity of the place was being tainted by some complete wankers who were so goddamn smug and self-important just because they were in the "East", had dreadlocks and stupid "om" pendants.

 

kk I love the Beatles, but.

All in all, what an I saying? I don't mean to imply in any way that white people should completely stop interacting with other cultures for fear of corrupting them. All I ask is a little more respect and some acknowledgement that some things run deeper than you can understand or even perceive. Another person's culture is not something you can just slip on, and it is no less meaningful or sophisticated than yours. Also, India's only an example I took to illustrate something that's universal. 

I'm all hyped up and kind of tempted to rewrite the first part of this for Honi or something because I really wish more people were aware... but you know. Most prob. won't :)

P.S. Don't take this too seriously, it's just a delirious 2:00 am rant. I am prone to exaggerationz