Where are you really from ?..... AGAIN ! @#$$$

It is tiring to conform to the stereotype, Indians are subjected to, here in Malaysia Apparently all Indians are Tamil, stuck in time line 1930s and dress up in lungis. If you are anything else, you must be either an Indian who is a citizen of west or a mixed breed! Grrrrrrr...

Just look at those newspapers and talk to the regular guy on the street, they have no clue beyond their nose about India. They are ill informed and moreover find it beneath themselves to get informed either. Oh no... we only ape the West, good for you! So the tedious task of tolerating rubbish becomes part and parcel of an Expat Indian' life. Not to say this shit was not there in DXB or the US but it everywhere, only here the Malays actually come right up to your face and ask, thinking their curiosity could be looked at as, interest. The Malay Indian on the other hand is a totally different ball game ( I am generalising ) I have met exceptions.

• Some don't like being Indian and Some don't know what its like to be an Indian
• They are not accepted as Malays

uh oh! Dhobi ka ...
What if we ( Indians ) say, we don't accept them as same either ??!! ooooh !!!!double trouble :) Where does that leave them?
Okay I am getting really petty now, just that i have had a particularly tiresome conversation with a Malay today.

Even more tiresome is telling people that even though my husband is fair and I am dark, we both really belong to different parts of India. No he is not a foreigner because he is fair and I am DEFINITELY not MALAYU because I am dark, for the hundredth time. If anyone assumes ,I am, one more time, I will KILL them.

• I do not speak Tamil
• I do not perform strange ceremonies that pass of as "Hindu" here
• Moreover I don't oil my hair , wear fluorescent colors and look like a tube light
• Just because I have a semblance of reasonable dress , speak reasonable Hindi and English, choose to live in a nice house, I am continuously subjected to ...

• Oh! you are Indian! ( Duh! )
  
• She must be the maid... ( what else? you limited piece of sh@t! )
  
• Oh! you speak English!!!! ( "Mainu Punjabi which gaali dene bhi aandi hai, tussi sunogey? " )
  
• Your husband is white why is your daughter black? ( a. its none of your business b. ever heard of harry belafonte? one of his songs goes like this "I was treating a girl independently, she was making baby for me, when de baby born i went to see, Eyes was blue, it was not by me ...that's right the woman is uh smarter...)
  
• But you don't speak Tamil? how come? BECAUSE I AM NOT TAMIL, I AM BENGALI, there are 28 states in India ... did you ever go to a school and pass your geography?
  
• You mean you actually eat things in India. other than idlis and dosas?? You bet!
  
• But you're "Modern"! - I apologise and rest my case ...
  

Catching up

Almost 2 months now that we'll have arrived in KL. the maid saga got over as we had to pay up in Dhaka and the much needed respite in the form of Naseema arrived! Paheli is taking her time getting used to her which was expected so i still am very much needed around, as when i am at home she won't got o anyone else!. It still is a huge relief to have someone around full time to help. Naseema seems preoccupied and is slow on the uptake now a days, maybe coz she is missing home or simply taking some time to get used to the surroundings, whatever be the case i hope it sorts out soon.

B is headed for China in a week and it will start getting lonelier than it is as of now, on the other hand one needs time on hand to feel lonely and with Paheli, there is an added dimension which changes things a lot , so i don't think we get as much time as we had expected. Its good as of now.

The trip to Bali was nice the first few days in Padang Bai. Nusa Dua is too touristy and expensive for my like. Paheli also got ill as soon as we reached so that put a bit of a damper but i was more worried if she had caught the dreaded flu! As that want the case i have to admit being roomed up in Ayodhya hotel wasn't too bad apart from the horrendous bills!!!
making friends here is turning out to be tougher than i thought, i guess like a typical metro, people are involved dealing with their own so much its hard to make time, we'll get there, coming by friends is always hard.

The house is settled but there is always this and that. I have to get back to work, starting by updating and having my site online which it hasn't been in a while and contacting Herga's bro for contracts, lets see, one thing at a time.

Been reading up a lot on Cambodia since the shipping agent in DXB told me about it. I am glad we are in south Asia and had not travelled here much other than Thailand. Being here now gives us a chance to update and get to know it better. The fact that is that being in Asia one tends to look up a lot more local news and more curious to find out about whats going on. I used to keep hearing about north Korea but only here have i actually dug a bit deeper to find out whats actually going on there. At least its a more balanced opinion when you see multiple news channels instead of the good old BBC. Korea seems to be in a total mess, one doesn't know which way one' favour should lean???!! will take more in depth knowledge.

Cambodia on the other hand seems more and more interesting on reading about the Khmer kingdom and what has happened since.
So much for now more later.
cheers!

Black and White and some in between like me ...

I've been thinking about this for a while and having been an Indian expat in a few countries i faced a fair bit of racist prejudices myself, so here it goes .... I wonder about somethings ...

When it comes to holidays people move to Asia / Subcontinent ..where

• Their money gets them more
• People are apparently more hospitable & friendly
• Culturally its enlightening
• They get "privileges" as foreigners
• They like the "food"
• They find it "interesting"
• They find it "educative"
• They find the history engrossing
• They talk about our contributions to society

on the other hand these countries only see us as cheap labour that does sub standard work...

• They think they pay us too much
• They are threatened we will take their jobs and for good measure we deserve to.. be it that we work cheap ( you get what you pay for, pay peanuts and you will get monkeys ) or be it that we are actually qualified better than them to deliver in a lot of cases
• They resent that we will take over their country with immigration, because some search for a better standard of living
• Their movies make fun of a small call center industry we host and their ignorant people think we are limited to being India, Pakistan, Afganistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Cambodia, etc etc to be all one country really and we morons actually go make stereotype megashit movies, like Indiana Jones and Transformers, block busters!
• They make money and hype out of Slumdog Millionaire and discuss our poverty over Cognacs. Apart from the fact that it does amaze me how people actually make bucks selling our misery, how disgusting is that? If it was a documentary i could buy it but for heaven' sake the movie was a masala formula well exceuted, a lot of movies have done this better maybe?
• They travel on safaris in Africa yet do very little other than changing channels when programs on gross human right violation news on countries like Burma, Korea and Africa come on
• That a lot of expats couldn't survive if cheap maids were not possible from Asian countries ( hardship allowance my fu@#ing Foot !)

Sometimes i wonder how hypocritical these guys are and then when i look back at my own roots and the divides, I know, we are the greatest hypocrites of all, as we allow this situation to fuel by being the most racist of all. We kiss their backside and kick down our own people ... huh? This world just makes no sense at all and some people should just evaporate...
On that note ... Shalom!