ams@philabs.UUCP (Ali Shaik) (02/22/86)
>Ah! The pangs of being stereotyped... Tch! Tch!! >And how much do *WE* know about life of people in countries closer >to India, huh? Take Burma for example. But then why go to Burma. Good point. How much does one really know about Sri Lanka for instance (besides the problems they have been having there..). My experience is that there are a *few* Americans who know a *lot* of stuff about India, so much so that sometimes the only extra we (Indians) may have is the substantial time we lived there. The difficult thing for me is that even among the well read ones, the images Naipaul conveys (all negative) may be found more readily than those of Narayan (which to me are closer to the particular images I have of home). Among the average Americans, those exposed to the usual images the media conveys (Tigers, Elephants, Bed_of_nails, Snake_charmers, Poverty..) one can also expect a somewhat distorted view. To be fair, the first 4 items listed are only found in the movies. And papers like the NY Times mostly present a fair image. So, yes, I do get a pang at being stereotyped in a negative sense. Sometimes ignorance about Sri Lanka may be better than only having the information that people are killing each other on the basis of language there. For instance, how many people have heard about its natural beauty lately? >I grew up in Indore (M.P.). When I came to IIT Bombay, my newly >aquired friends, who had grown up in Bombay, made more offensive .. >some major cities like Bombay, New Delhi, Madras, Calcutta etc. :-) Bombay? Where's Bombay?? And there's an IIT there? You mean :-) just like the one in Madras? No kidding! :-) And what about Bangalore huh? Why didn't you mention :-) Bangalore?? Don't you know where *Bangalore* is??? Ali "YouKnowWhereImFrom" Shaik ..ihnp4!philabs!ams ..ucbvax!/