*****Pecking/Packing:Village Bumpkin but only to a Few Fellow Indians***** Many of my friends are already aware of how my dhoti/kurta attire and my shikha (tuft) have been criticized ridiculed in India by various people, professors, students (mostly the left, DMK and perverted gultes), a few friends and relatives too. I thought this problem of self deprecation is endemic only to Indians in India alone. But with my experience traveling across the globe I have realized that this problem of identity crisis is quite common to our Indian friends. Here is what happened during my trip to Canada this time. I had checked in my luggage at Bangalore airport. I was struggling to hold my Sarangi, badminton racket and my magical life sustaining black bag and trying to embark upon the escalator. I saw a girl (a beautiful one :P ) who saw me jiggling and gave a smile expressing pity. She thought I do not know to use the escalator. With a motherly compassion ( :( ) she was about to help me and I could clearly see she was extending her helping hand when suddenly I ended up talking to a senior person in English and immediately her face turned pale with shock (and I was disappointed). Then at Vancouver there was this first generation Canadian Indian officer who was questioning a new Indian immigrant. Officer: Whada ya hia fo? Immigrant: I am come as a Pecker.. Officer (with an oblique smile): Peckher or Packher? Immigrant: Pecker Pecker.. Officer: hmm Ok...ya good to go... Next was my turn. She saw me tip to toe and my oily, fatigued face, wearing a a dhoti that almost looked stained and she probably thought This guy definitely must be a village bumpkin and asked me with least regard... Officer: hmmm..So what about you? Lord: hmmm..What about me? Officer: I mean whada ya hia fa? Lord: I have come herrre as a PhD student (pay attention to the rolling r :P) Officer:Have ya come hia beforrre? Lord:Yes. I was a postdoc at UoA in the department of Mech Eng last yearrr (oh shit why am I doing this) Officer: What do you do now? Lord: I divorced my old field of study on energy and climate change and am here to study musicology. Officer: Thats interesting :) (the tone changed completely. She was a lot more friendly now) All the best. Take Khare.. Lord: Thank UUU (with a stress on UU) :) Today at the university, again a 1st generation CI... CI: have you,...addonl;fd.y%^&*ine Lord: Sorry? CI:did you..,sdkjkjr%^&*ine. Lord: what? can you say that again? :-o Pavan Kumar: (smiling at my helplessness and that CIs adamancy) Did you submit the photograph online? (yes, he translated English to English :) ) Lord: Oh.. No I did not. CI: k...will taka picturrre... Lord:ya shyuurre... CI:Yuppp Lord: thanks...khyool The last khyool used instead of cool, by me, sounded like khaak pthooo (saliva.txt) to my own ears. I dont know how it sounded to her (CI) :P to be contd.... Yours truly Lord Deepak (PBUM) P.S: I am yet to come across someone like Ashwin Iyer who can shift between accents to suit American, Indian and Chinese needs, despite his upbringing in Canada. Total Respek. Ya Ashwin, I am jet lagged. what will I do other than fb ing? :P
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 07:35:32 +0000
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