Please see this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
A miss South Carolina answers the question: "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?"
No kidding here...you just can't get a better answer......than this
Among many gemstone like things that you might pick up....let me pre-pick-up the following for you:
1. That there are U.S. Americans
2. That there is a phrase called "Everywhere like such as"
3. US should help others in Education.
Notwithstanding, i sincerely want to know....where do these people come from? I know where they live.
and WHAT is it?? What the Fuck????!!!!!!
Oh yeah...May God Bless America. Truly.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Life in a ...Metro
As I was involved into a Sunday afternoon lazy routine of reading "The Telegraph", the following excerpt from a similar titled feature was successful in sticking out in my mind:
"The Metro is not foreigner-friendly, either. A hush descends as soon as a phirang comes into the compartment. “I feel very conscious whenever I get on to a train. Nine out of 10 passengers will turn to look at me, measuring me up from head to toe,” complains Jennifer, a researcher living in the city for a year."
Source: "Entertainment", The Telegraph, Sunday, August 19, 2007.
Apparently, the "foreigner experience" has a common element, irrespective of time and place; I also have a tweaking suspicion that being of a particular gender assigns a similarity to it. Obviously, I didn't actually "learn" this small piece of truth from reading The Telegraph, but the tangible piece of news was reassuring and disheartening at the same time. Reassuring as I could see I am not alone; disheartening to see my place and place-men doing the same detestable thing..... even now when supposedly Calcutta has "changed".
Of course, I never expected "chivalry" from Calcutta men. If this sounds too objectionable, let me put it thus: I never expected and observed chivalry from men travelling in bus-es, auto-s and metro-s of Calcutta. This is because most of the male species were (and are) involved in extracting varying degrees of derivations from pleasures of travelling with women by touching them with whatever body part comes 'handy' (in true sense of the term...that is using body parts as hands); For example, toe fingers, shoe soles, elbows, love-handles...you could think of all sorts of body parts men would use to show they are dicks and what could be used in lieu of a dick......to touch a female wherever touchable.
Leching? yeah.....leching was there, but that was Level 1 of extracting derivations from pleasure. Most men grew up from Level 1.
So yeah...I was saying that I never expected nor observed any form of chivalry from Calcutta men. I'm sure most men wouldn't know what chivalry entails, let alone spell it.
Chivalry was something too pricey to ask for. Humane feelings were also in rare supply (even though we, Calcuttans, would like to brag about them).
Seats were seldom offered to pregnant women, from men; Or to senior citizens. These gestures comprised more of a scene in a public bus of Calcutta....but Metro was something else. Metro was Calcutta's pride in its supposedly stylish packaging, fast service and Bhadrolok clientèle. Metro signified a space where people left their class and class values (middle class values at that) with cold business and plain individuality of each to one's own.
The exception offered was the gaze. From men to women; from women to women; seldom...from women to men; and almost never from men to men;
Sharing some personal experience would make the above assertion less ambiguous.
When I was travelling with a plastered right hand in Calcutta Metro for almost a month in 1999....seldom was I offered a seat; of course I could manage without one, even with one working hand, but it was indeed amusing and interesting to see that men held to their seats as there was no tomorrow....with seats. Of all the offers of seats I could think of...it used to come from women and old gentlemen.
My plaster exhibited love from my friends: funny, serious, weird quotes, mushy sher-o-shayari's and whacky messages adorned my plaster from my adorable friends. In addition to being a female of 21, the plaster was also a piece of observation with an unfaltering gaze from men.
Women also used to read and oftentimes I would play with that gaze:- If I were standing and a woman was reading it, I would slightly move my hand at an angle where she would have to squint her eyes....even then she would move her head, squint her eye and keep on reading! And I would keep moving my hand....and watch the game! Satyi bangali poraku jaat!
I did not use to see any more reading however....certainly some persons used to carry newspaper rolled into a convenient size as they held on to their handrails and briefcases...but reading books and newspapers were not a common sight.
I think my plaster came as an oasis to these hapless passengers.
In fact, doing anything extra-ordinary got the metro passenger's attention, e.g, even listening to a harmless and status-less walkman. Unlike the Canadian experience, that walkman did not make the fellow passenger listen to the music played, but people would keep staring nonetheless at the little tool and the owner..... as they perhaps silently hailed me from doing this extra-ordinary thing. Sometimes me and one of my friend would share the musical experience, in that she would have one earphone and I, the another....and that would do the ultimate magical trick. NOTHING, nothing could take the eyes off us then. From men.
Which makes me wonder....are Calcuttans bored? So that anything that goes over the predictable gets their attention so instantly and holds their gaze so long? And is asking this question very non-calcuttan?? I was never bored when I was and am in Calcutta...even though we get used to monotonous routines of life there. Monotony exists in every city, but it seldom makes its citizens so bored as Calcuttans.
Therefore... what are the factors in operation here?
"The Metro is not foreigner-friendly, either. A hush descends as soon as a phirang comes into the compartment. “I feel very conscious whenever I get on to a train. Nine out of 10 passengers will turn to look at me, measuring me up from head to toe,” complains Jennifer, a researcher living in the city for a year."
Source: "Entertainment", The Telegraph, Sunday, August 19, 2007.
Apparently, the "foreigner experience" has a common element, irrespective of time and place; I also have a tweaking suspicion that being of a particular gender assigns a similarity to it. Obviously, I didn't actually "learn" this small piece of truth from reading The Telegraph, but the tangible piece of news was reassuring and disheartening at the same time. Reassuring as I could see I am not alone; disheartening to see my place and place-men doing the same detestable thing..... even now when supposedly Calcutta has "changed".
Of course, I never expected "chivalry" from Calcutta men. If this sounds too objectionable, let me put it thus: I never expected and observed chivalry from men travelling in bus-es, auto-s and metro-s of Calcutta. This is because most of the male species were (and are) involved in extracting varying degrees of derivations from pleasures of travelling with women by touching them with whatever body part comes 'handy' (in true sense of the term...that is using body parts as hands); For example, toe fingers, shoe soles, elbows, love-handles...you could think of all sorts of body parts men would use to show they are dicks and what could be used in lieu of a dick......to touch a female wherever touchable.
Leching? yeah.....leching was there, but that was Level 1 of extracting derivations from pleasure. Most men grew up from Level 1.
So yeah...I was saying that I never expected nor observed any form of chivalry from Calcutta men. I'm sure most men wouldn't know what chivalry entails, let alone spell it.
Chivalry was something too pricey to ask for. Humane feelings were also in rare supply (even though we, Calcuttans, would like to brag about them).
Seats were seldom offered to pregnant women, from men; Or to senior citizens. These gestures comprised more of a scene in a public bus of Calcutta....but Metro was something else. Metro was Calcutta's pride in its supposedly stylish packaging, fast service and Bhadrolok clientèle. Metro signified a space where people left their class and class values (middle class values at that) with cold business and plain individuality of each to one's own.
The exception offered was the gaze. From men to women; from women to women; seldom...from women to men; and almost never from men to men;
Sharing some personal experience would make the above assertion less ambiguous.
When I was travelling with a plastered right hand in Calcutta Metro for almost a month in 1999....seldom was I offered a seat; of course I could manage without one, even with one working hand, but it was indeed amusing and interesting to see that men held to their seats as there was no tomorrow....with seats. Of all the offers of seats I could think of...it used to come from women and old gentlemen.
My plaster exhibited love from my friends: funny, serious, weird quotes, mushy sher-o-shayari's and whacky messages adorned my plaster from my adorable friends. In addition to being a female of 21, the plaster was also a piece of observation with an unfaltering gaze from men.
Women also used to read and oftentimes I would play with that gaze:- If I were standing and a woman was reading it, I would slightly move my hand at an angle where she would have to squint her eyes....even then she would move her head, squint her eye and keep on reading! And I would keep moving my hand....and watch the game! Satyi bangali poraku jaat!
I did not use to see any more reading however....certainly some persons used to carry newspaper rolled into a convenient size as they held on to their handrails and briefcases...but reading books and newspapers were not a common sight.
I think my plaster came as an oasis to these hapless passengers.
In fact, doing anything extra-ordinary got the metro passenger's attention, e.g, even listening to a harmless and status-less walkman. Unlike the Canadian experience, that walkman did not make the fellow passenger listen to the music played, but people would keep staring nonetheless at the little tool and the owner..... as they perhaps silently hailed me from doing this extra-ordinary thing. Sometimes me and one of my friend would share the musical experience, in that she would have one earphone and I, the another....and that would do the ultimate magical trick. NOTHING, nothing could take the eyes off us then. From men.
Which makes me wonder....are Calcuttans bored? So that anything that goes over the predictable gets their attention so instantly and holds their gaze so long? And is asking this question very non-calcuttan?? I was never bored when I was and am in Calcutta...even though we get used to monotonous routines of life there. Monotony exists in every city, but it seldom makes its citizens so bored as Calcuttans.
Therefore... what are the factors in operation here?
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Getting into dark.....
In this time of the year, lots of rabbits/bunnies could be seen in Calgary. They are almost on every green space...enjoying themselves and making us enjoy them.....
Which made me wonder where do they go in winter time? I see them in winter when the snow melts but when it snows....they are possibly back again in their dark little homes underground....making us wonder, "Where did they go? when will they be out again?"
I wish I had such a dark, little, cold home underground. Where I could go and be an undisturbed recluse. Where nobody could touch me; where nothing could touch me.
And I also wish people will ask, "Where did she go? when will she be out again?"
I wish.
Like all wishes....this can never be true..........except perhaps the invisible dark hole I'm left into. trapped into. this life....it has almost become an unique wished upon thing. It doesn't move, it doesn't change...it stays in the same point. So wistful...no?
When will the dark underground wish come true?
Which made me wonder where do they go in winter time? I see them in winter when the snow melts but when it snows....they are possibly back again in their dark little homes underground....making us wonder, "Where did they go? when will they be out again?"
I wish I had such a dark, little, cold home underground. Where I could go and be an undisturbed recluse. Where nobody could touch me; where nothing could touch me.
And I also wish people will ask, "Where did she go? when will she be out again?"
I wish.
Like all wishes....this can never be true..........except perhaps the invisible dark hole I'm left into. trapped into. this life....it has almost become an unique wished upon thing. It doesn't move, it doesn't change...it stays in the same point. So wistful...no?
When will the dark underground wish come true?
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