Filed under: the ussh. | Tags: Community, Culture, Documentary, Film, Indian, Life, Movie, Pakistan, South Asian
Ali Jafri is a guy I met back when I was lending whatever arm or leg I could for Ed the Sock and his show. Every now and then Ali will leave me some random tidbit from Youtube, or if I’m lucky, he’ll run into me waiting for the streetcar and offer me a ride to the subway.
He’s just finished his first short documentary, and to be honest, I’m really proud. Double Lives: Lost in Transition focuses on the secrecy and taboo subject of the double life within South Asian communities. It’s about people who are caught between cultures and deals with the lingering question of identity. It’s something I’ve dealt with in my life, and still do. You can view both parts below:
Filed under: Humour, Interesting | Tags: Culture, Health, Laughter, Life, people, Sagar Speaks, self-help, Wellness
My friend and co-worker Sagar is really into social dynamics lately. Last night, after working some hard overtime, we walked to the subway together. On our walk he started talking about why we laugh. I said he should write something about it and put it on my blog. He did.
I was walking home yesterday with Kavi and began ranting to him, as I usually do, about a seemingly mundane topic that I recently took an interest in: laughter. Kavi mentioned that he was intrigued by the arbitrary subjects I go on about and suggested I write an entry on his blog about my findings, so here we are.
Laughter. Everybody laughs. Truly a fascinating thing when you think about it. It is recognized by all cultures and backgrounds, all over the world. I can laugh with someone from half way across the globe, and despite not speaking a word of the same language, we would both understand each other. It is one of the few universally recognized elements of human language.
Maybe I should back up a bit. What got me on this whole laughter bit in the first place? Last week when I was walking, I came up to a stop light and noticed a homeless fellow singing to himself in a rather amusing way. As I looked over my shoulder, I noticed there was a cute girl standing next to me who happened to notice this guy as well, so we exchanged looks and began laughing. I started chatting to her and we ended up having a twenty minute conversation.
I know what you’re thinking: Nice story, but what does it have to do with anything? Well, as I reflected on that interaction later on, I realized how extremely powerful laughter is. I’ve always had an interest in social dynamics, but it was both bizarre and intriguing to me that two strangers on the street can share a laugh about such a trivial thing and mutually understand it as way of saying “Hi, I’d like to bond with you socially.”
As you may know, laughter is not done consciously. It is not thought, it is not planned. Our brain decides to do it for is. Like most people, before I did any research on the matter, I always attributed laughter to funny things. Jokes, comedians, and the like. Perhaps the most interesting thing I discovered was this: most laughter is not in response to something that’s funny.
Since I read that, I began observing the people around me and those I interact with regularly. Guess what? It’s true. People laugh for all kind of reasons – rarely does it have to do with something funny. Some people laugh as a way of breaking tension. Some people laugh to seek approval. Some laugh as a means of compensating for insecurity, and some people laugh for no reason at all. Despite the myriad of reasons that people laugh, I think it’s generally accepted as a way of conveying good vibrations.
Have you ever found yourself laughing with a group of people, but not sure why? It’s human instinct to laugh when others around us are laughing. Laughter is like social glue. That’s why you would sooner talk to yourself than laugh with yourself. A psychological study shows that people watching television shows that contain sound clips of laughter are more inclined to think of those shows as being funny, as well as to laugh along with them.
I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, and given my short attention span I’ll probably be ranting about something like missile silos next week, but for now what I can suggest is: maybe all the world needs is a little more laughter. Try it, you might agree.
Filed under: Travel | Tags: 2009, Cuba, Culture, Don McKellar, Guantanamera, Music, Song, Tourism, Travel, Video, Vimeo
I was showing my parents the pictures from Cuba and forgot about this video. It’s a band playing Guantanamera at a road-side stop on the way to Havana. The lead singer was loving the spotlight I gave him, and his attention was solely on my camera lens. I guess it was his 15 minutes.
This song was everywhere in Cuba—it’s the country’s most popular song, and it associates with Cuban culture. I can’t get enough of it. I remember first hearing it in Don McKellar’s movie Last Night.
*I’ve linked the video because I know when Facebook imports this post, it’ll screw up the formatting and embedable media.
Filed under: the ussh. | Tags: 2009, Blog, Culture, Family, Internet, Life, Web 2.0, Writing
Look at the curve on my thumb!
When my cousin Ashwin was visiting in December, he told me how he found it odd that everyone I knew had a blog. He found it weird that everyone was blogging, and that it was weird how we all talked about how we had read each others blogs. He pointed out the fact that we even talked about similar posts that someone else had written. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. Since he left, actually. For the most part it made us look web crazy.
Why have we immersed ourselves in our blogs? I don’t know a single person from back home who blogs. What does it say about our lifestyle here? I still don’t know the answer to that question, and a majority of what I do for a living revolves around what people say on blogs. I wonder if I’ll ever figure it out. A part of me likes to think that everyone wants to be heard. Everyone wants to say, “You can read about it on my blog!”
Filed under: the ussh. | Tags: 2009, Creative Writing, Culture, Decisions, Life, Lifecapture Interactive, Schedule, School, Venture Communications, Work, Writing
Actual photo of me writing, or whatever.
I just finished my first full day at the new office and with the new company. It’s crazy; the team is bigger now and we all have to work together. Synergy! I really hate that word. Whatever.
It was a long day but it was exciting none the less. I’ve left my reclusive hole of an office and sit with the rest of the team. That’s going to take a lot of getting use to. It was great to find my new desk fully settled with all my belongings this morning. The people who had moved our stuff even remembered my bottle of Advil and 12 post-it note pads. I also realized that I have two staplers, none of which work.
A few weeks ago I had to decide fairly quickly what my life would be like for the next year or so. If I wanted to join the rest of the team from LCI over at Venture, I’d have to sacrifice schooling during the day; a luxury afforded to me because of the nature of Lifecapture’s office culture. Venture is more rigid; for a corporation of it’s size and success, I’m going to have to prove myself to them in order to continue school. I mentioned previously that I’m setting up a schedule that will probably be the death of me; work 9-6, and summer school 7-9 for at least four days a week. I can handle it, I think.
I’m sitting idle for the next three months, and it’s kind of sad; I liked my creative writing class a lot, and I was doing really well. My prof. promised she’d mail me the remainder of my assignments marked and graded with comments. What’s great is that she said she would write a letter of recommendation if needed. I’m interested in going for a full creative writing degree. Who knows though, at the moment, I’m out of school and working hardcore. I’m also writing hardcore; I finished my one page (actually wrote two so MLEH!) of fiction for today, and now I’m writing here. Suck it.
Filed under: Interesting | Tags: 2009, Books, Culture, news, The Guardian, Will Self, writers, Writing, Writing For A Living
Writers are probably some of the most annoying people in the world. They complain way too much about how writing is so hard, when it’s what they chose to do. Insert eye roll here. The Guardian asked several authors about writing for a living; is it a joy, or a chore? A lot of them come off as whiny little brats, but you can always rely on Will Self to say something uplifting:
I gain nothing but pleasure from writing fiction; short stories are foreplay, novellas are heavy petting – but novels are the full monte. Frankly, if I didn’t enjoy writing novels I wouldn’t do it – the world hardly needs any more and I can think of numerous more useful things someone with my skills could be engaged in. As it is, the immersion in parallel but believable worlds satisfies all my demands for vicarious experience, voyeurism and philosophic calithenics. I even enjoy the mechanics of writing, the dull timpani of the typewriter keys, the making of notes – many notes – and most seducttive of all: the buying of stationery. That the transmogrification of my beautiful thoughts into a grossly imperfect prose is always the end result doesn’t faze me: all novels are only a version- there is no Platonic ideal. But I’d go further still: fiction is my way of thinking about and relating to the world; if I don’t write I’m not engaged in any praxis, and lose all purchase.
Filed under: the ussh. | Tags: 2008, Asia, Attacks, Awareness, Culture, Ignorance, India, Life, Mumbai, news, november, Pakistan, Poltics, terrorism
The recent events in Mumbai have garnered considerable attention, and a few posts ago I had spoken out about the awareness India was receiving. I was angry because any other extremist attack involving the country would have been largely unnoticed by the media, and largely ignored by the public. The web is being engulfed by people who are suddenly aware of what is going on, telling anyone who will read how they feel, that they understand what’s going on. I find that to be the largest form of ignorance.
All of a sudden this awareness entitles you to a voice. You want to share with the world that what has just happened was not OK, because you love India, because for some retarded reason, you know India better than Indians. So you’ve been to your local bookstore and browsed the travel section, maybe even rented a copy of Gandhi–better yet, you’ve gone out and eaten curry. You no longer see India as that exotic destination you want to backpack through, you now understand India. You have become aware of India. You’re saddened that people would do such a thing to a country that you never really cared about because the incident involved international citizens.
I can’t stand the word awareness. Gint said it best, and I can’t remember the exact wording, so I’m going to paraphrase it: “Learning about something and being aware of it doesn’t mean that you understand it.” It doesn’t give you the right to go around commenting on what you believe should have been the right solution with your eyes closed in some smug asshole like manner. People are suddenly sympathetic, their “prayers go out to the families that have lost loved ones”. Fine, you feel hurt. People died, innocent people. But I ask you this; where was that sympathy and support when it was just Indians being blown up and shot?
The attacks are now horrifying, terrible instances of cowardice by extremists religious groups who took out their frustration on innocent tourists. The tragedy that happened last week goes beyond the fact that those killed were mostly from the Western world. It goes beyond their hate for Western practices, and it goes beyond our time. What’s been going on there has been going on for centuries. I’m angry now because it’s only because of last week that people really noticed what’s going on, but still they have the wrong idea. Don’t tell me that these acts of injustice are random or unprovoked–that they could have happened anywhere. These events happen for a reason, and these reasons have been boiling far longer than a lot of you could care to notice. When it finally hits close to home, when one of your own ends up in the middle of someone elses conflict, do people realize what the problem is.
India, the Middle East, and most of Asia has been a hotbed of modern “terrorism” for a large part of the 20th century. These conflicts arise from religious clashes, dispute over land, and governance. To say that Mumbai has been cursed with a future of unstable tourism and that people would assume danger when hearing about the region is wrong. It only opens up the hypocracy of their understanding. Western media has tainted the region, spewing non stop headlines and breaking news because some of their own have been caught in the crossfire. Stuff like this has been happening for a long time, yet people still flocked to India. But when you take one isolated incident and blow it up to really strike the fears of ignorant people, that’s when you cause the real damage. A small blurb in the daily newspaper is one thing, but when you sensationalize the angle of foreigners getting hurt, that’s when it suddenly becomes a front page expose. Why can’t it be of front page importance when 500 locals are killed, people who are just as innocent as the foreigners? This coverage should be considered for all incidents, be they in Asia or not.
“But Kavi, if we gave every incident in the world the same importance, people would just live in a constant state of fear!” Sure, unfortunately people are just as ignorant then. But you can’t sensationalize and pin point one incident that involved a fellow American or Briton. That’s what instills the most fear in people, the idea that one of their own has been hurt in a country that they know nothing about. Then Mumbai’s economy crumbles, tourism dies, and the city becomes a no-no.
Now people are criticizing the local governments for not being prepared, for not being on the look out. You don’t know how India works, how it runs. There’s no way you can say that they weren’t prepared. Maybe they were prepared, but not to the same standards of how things run here. Things move differently over there, and sadly some aspects are weaker than others, but that’s how it is. The country is young, it’s still growing, trying to figure out where it belongs and how it works. In sixty-one years, India has managed to become a future super power. Sixty-one years after the United States gained independance, the nation was just as divided and in a state of turmoil. You can sit there all high and mighty and say “We would’ve ran things differently”. You can judge all the people from that region for being a problem, but in the end, it’s you that’s the problem. The ignorant human being.
You may never understand something that doesn’t affect you directly, but the least you could do is say that you don’t get it. We don’t want to hear what should have been done or what could have been done, we just want you to know that shit happens regardless of any Westerner around.
