"You're in India? It's so spiritual there."

[Recursion]

Sorry... Just losing my shit for a second.

Yeah, Swami: it's "spiritual" as fuck here. What are you looking for? The random dark-skinned woman to tell you you that you had the secret to going back to Kansas all along? Yeah, she's here; 500 rupees per session, and she'll tell you exactly what you want to hear. She's good at that. India on the whole is very good at telling people what they want to hear, particularly Indians.

What makes India "spiritual"?

Is it the universal open public defecation, that proves that Indian persons are closer to God or whatever than our limited Western minds can ever conceive? Possibly, and I have in fact seen people taking a dump literally on the roof of the public washroom, which was at least kind of amusing. Is that it, Swami? The disdain for Western peccadilloes? Maybe.

Or is it the darker side? The deaths from typhus and TB and whooping cough? Is that what you're after, Brah? Because India has that shit in spades, man. Even better: if you live here long enough you will actually start gaming it, and you'll try to figure out which random adult mook standing about is the handler for the trafficked child who just knocked on your car window asking for money. And you can give that kid 100 rupees and your Dharma is fulfilled for the day. Because India is spiritual as fuck, you know?

Truth is, if you come here eyes open you never get to go back to Kansas.

When I first moved here, I thought this post would teach me a lot about the world outside America. And it did; no doubt. But it taught me even more about what America is and what Americans think, and I don't really like at all what it's taught me.

IDK. I'm just seriously pissed off tonight; please ignore this if it bothers you.

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

1. Heartfelt rant.

Pardon us spiritual Americans while we argue which candidate better understands "ghettos" and women's rights. Your post has made me think for the past hour. I love posts that make me think, and more than break my heart. Thank you.

[JI7]

2. i always wonder how much things can improve there

Without the"spiritual" scammers. Too many people who look to these types to make things better while corrupt elected officials are able to get away with their shit.

[betsuni]

3. When I'm in the States

it seems every woman I know takes yoga classes. They urge me to go with them. No. I'm not doing yoga. You can't make me. Why do have to? It's not my culture. They're always trying to get me to meditate too. Not a chance. Fuck off.

I despised that terrible book beloved by the yoga/meditation people, "Eat, Pray, Love," so much that I wanted to set it on fire. Ridiculous.

[Kind of Blue]

6. Didn't like the book either though

I'm a yoga/meditation person. I wondered how Indian reviewers felt about the movie when it came out years ago. They were laughing, finding it silly. I can't remember why now. Wish I'd bookmarked it.

[JI7]

9. haven't read our watched and no interest in doing so

[kwassa]

4. To continue your rant ...

What is it about Americans you learned over there that you don't like?

[Kind of Blue]

5. I didn't know how to respond.

So this is a very good question to begin with.

Thanx!

[Recursion]

12. The short version

First: that we value cheap shirts more than the lives of Bangladeshi teenagers.

Second: that all it takes to get an effective pass on anything is turning on a Muslim criminal figure (Rajan absolutely did not keep hidden this long on his own; that's a slightly separate story)

Third: that America is even richer than a Mumbai street kid can imagine, and he wants that, and he's coming for it. And I don't know what we're going to say to him.

[kwassa]

15. We've been doing a brain drain on India for awhile

The DC suburbs, at least, are awash with Indian professionals. My physician is Indian. Going back a generation, my aunt married an Indian college professor, and I have a set of half-Indian first cousins.

[Hortensis]

7. Hardly apropos of a thoughtful message that also has

me wondering and wanting it to continue, but...

I went recently to a little Indian food market to pick up some cardamom, and the only other couple there, a happy, nicely dressed older pair, were curiously wondering what various things were but hesitant to ask, so I asked for them/us, starting a cheery little conversation that rather quickly segued to their suggestion that the owners should give cooking classes (in their 400 square feet) using those strange ingredients and even more quickly to how many people more might come if they also taught "belly dancing" with the cooking.

That's it. Premature punch line, end of story.

Except that the owner was a nice gentleman. His wife was hidden in an aisle, and I could only wonder what she was thinking, but he pleasantly if vaguely agreed that dancing classes could be considered, and the couple went off having enjoyed themselves very much in their store. Recursion, I hope this found you in more of a mood to laugh than otherwise.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

8. Oh wow

Do you write for a living, by the way?

If not, you should.

I was inside that store with you, well done.

[kwassa]

16. My eight-year-old daughter absolutely loves this song.

I like it, too.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

17. He is one of the greats of our or any generation.

So is

[kwassa]

18. Micheal Jackson got a lot of his stuff from Jackie Wilson

just sayin'

[Jackie Wilson Said]

19. And this guy

[kwassa]

20. indeed, but much of the high vocal stuff was more JW.

the moves came from both these influences.

[Recursion]

13. Heh

Belly dancing is Persian, except the Persians say it's Egyptian, except the Egyptians say it's Roma or Berber (I personally lean towards Roma there).

It's not a thing in India as far as I know, though.

Though as a side point: the burqa is famously 3 meters of cloth that cuts a woman off from the world. The saree, meanwhile, is 7 full meters of cloth, that's 22 feet, and the woman still isn't allowed to cover her midriff with it.

Someone convince me which one is more oppressive...

[Hortensis]

14. Lol. Glad it turned out to be a "heh," btw.

I had to "school my face" in the store, but I realized I didn't know that there was no "belly" dancing, native or ancient Middle Eastern import, in the whole of the Indian subcontinent. I actually went home and googled it. Oh, well.

Jackie Wilson Said, I have never been able to tell a joke, so I'm especially happy that I did get that little scene across. Everyone was nice, and I'm guessing the version the middle-aged store owners tell their friends is much enjoyed.

[JI7]

10. just read about the 16 year old raped and burned to death there

While cases like this well get attention for how horrific it is there was an article not long ago about most rape victims still being ignored and treated like shit.

[Recursion]

11. Yeah. And I smile at diplo parties about the fact that the rape laws were changed.

(Trigger warnings below)

And they were: no lie. This is the kind of bilateral shit we love to drum up.

Rape of men was finally recognized (in 20 God damned 14) as a crime.

Female victims were finally given the right to give their statement in their own homes, to a female officer. Before '14, they had to give a statement, in the district station, to a (generally male) officer, in front of the entire precinct.

A majority of precincts do not have sufficient female officers to make this actually possible. So the law is inactive on its face. But it's a start.

For years Mumbai thought it had some kind of immunity from the rest of India (we're west of the Ghats, so we look at India as almost a foreign country, as odd as that seems), then a photojournalist gets raped photographing the old abandoned mills. She has a support system. She has a family that is rich and in town and cares about her. And she'll be the first to say: she got the absolute best imaginable treatment from the police (she's said so).

The problems came when the six lower-class darker-skin women came forward to say they were also raped.

And here is where the trigger warnings are active, so I want to give another line or two.

The rape-gang's strategy was to record their attacks on video, and threaten to share it on the Internet if they told anyone. It worked until this high-caste rich woman stood up with her family behind her, and then the whole thing collapsed within 4 days.

That's what really gets me. The entire God damned neighborhood knew who the bad guys were. They were Tamil and Telugu so the Marathi nationalists managed to find them in about 5 minutes. (They came in with "unspecified injuries" -- the Marathi nationalist groups keep muscle on contingency sitting out in plastic chairs reading newspapers every day. With cricket bats nearby. In case an "impromptu cricket game" breaks out. cough cough btw the shit I've seen in Mumbai makes DC look like Chevy Chase) But it took this case, with this media attention, to make it happen.

For years Mumbai looked on itself as a gangster town more than an India town, and in some ways it still is; closer to Lahore than Delhi. Back in the day Dawood Ibrahim used to not even have to send muscle, if he wanted your building. He would walk by, and leave his signature white walking cane. If you woke up and that cane was there, you knew it was time to go.

I don't know if those days ever actually were, but they're gone now. 500 immigrants to the city from the villages. Per day. That's 182K per year. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Anyways. Mumbai like most cities is just about up on solving yesterday's problem, but it's already tomorrow. IDK. I wish I had a pat answer to this stuff, but I don't.