What Tribe am I?
What does it mean to be Desi? Indian? South Asian?
Duration 21m 36s
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Oftentimes, Desis brought up in the Diaspora are disparaged by people from "back home" for thinking of themselves as Indian, or Pakistani, or Sri Lankan, or Bangladeshi. We get told, "You are not Truly Indian, not Truly Pakistani, not Truly Bangladeshi, not Truly Sri Lankan..."
Since I am of Indian background, I'd like to ask the question:
Who has the right to call themselves Indian? Is there a particular set of experiences that constitutes "authentic Indian" versus "Not-Really-Indian"?
And what about this word "desi"? Why do we use it?
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Hello Eswar,
Thank you for your honest reaction to this show... This particular episode was one of my favorite ones to create, so it is especially meaningful to me to know it has made an impact on you.
I promise to "rant" some more, soon! :)
Best,
Yesha aka Generation 1.5
Thank you for your honest reaction to this show... This particular episode was one of my favorite ones to create, so it is especially meaningful to me to know it has made an impact on you.
I promise to "rant" some more, soon! :)
Best,
Yesha aka Generation 1.5
I am sitting outside the fence on hearing your accent from indian as you claim to be. As you walked through all the events questioning your identity, i am got involved. More to the end, i can see the inside of you.
THanks to the unique story telling you have. Its compulsive.
Talking about identity, a friend of mine who studied, played with me until his schools days, now lives in phildelphia.
We have these buddy talks. I can see the identity crisis he's facing, the way he talks, his accent changes, his questions of all the beliefs he has been holding.
I dont want you to bore you further, but want to respond , so you continue to rant a lot. I have all my ears.
Cheers,
Eswar
THanks to the unique story telling you have. Its compulsive.
Talking about identity, a friend of mine who studied, played with me until his schools days, now lives in phildelphia.
We have these buddy talks. I can see the identity crisis he's facing, the way he talks, his accent changes, his questions of all the beliefs he has been holding.
I dont want you to bore you further, but want to respond , so you continue to rant a lot. I have all my ears.
Cheers,
Eswar
Thank you for your feedback and your question...
True, I do not lay out a "lesson to be learned" for the listener... I would rather present my thoughts, stories, and experiences, and have folks come to their own conclusions... so, in the end what you get out of it is as much dependent on your frame of mind as it is on what I present...
...to borrow the words of a school of literary criticism called reader-response theory, "...the reader is a producer rather than a consumer of meanings." So, I would rather you draw your own conclusions, than me making a pat statement of what I intend my message to be...
But you have a good point, that more than just the "desi tribes" need to hear not only my story, but similar stories from the world over... and to that end, I do hope that you will help me in spreading the word about this episode, and that you will tell your own stories too!
best,
yesha
True, I do not lay out a "lesson to be learned" for the listener... I would rather present my thoughts, stories, and experiences, and have folks come to their own conclusions... so, in the end what you get out of it is as much dependent on your frame of mind as it is on what I present...
...to borrow the words of a school of literary criticism called reader-response theory, "...the reader is a producer rather than a consumer of meanings." So, I would rather you draw your own conclusions, than me making a pat statement of what I intend my message to be...
But you have a good point, that more than just the "desi tribes" need to hear not only my story, but similar stories from the world over... and to that end, I do hope that you will help me in spreading the word about this episode, and that you will tell your own stories too!
best,
yesha
