Friday, December 02, 2005

terrfic, but ironic, joke

dec 2nd

this was on the kqed forum interview of vikram seth by michael krasny. (do get itunes and pick up the podcast for forum, and the podcasts from stanford etc. and you dont even need an ipod, you can listen to them on your PC! it's great stuff, especially when you are sitting at your computer and doing your normal stuff, to listen to these interesting discussions.)

on to the joke:

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so this young jewish man escapes from the warsaw ghetto of world war II, leaving his father behind. the young man goes to britain and makes a fortune, and then launches a rescue operation to get his father. the father comes to britain, and the young man tells him, 'dad, this is the land that saved me and made me prosperous, and now it has saved you. i want you to think of yourselves as an englishman now on.'

he takes his father to bond street and gets him a new suit. then he takes him to a hair-dresser's where they cut his jewish sidelocks off. and the old man bursts into tears.

the son asks, 'dad, are you crying because you're losing your jewish identity?'

the father says, 'no, i am crying because we lost india!'

==================

think about it for a minute: how easily we bcome comfortable in our new roles! this is what has happened to the chrisist converts and the marxist converts (of course, it is required of mohammedan converts). you give up every shred of your old identity, and slip on this new identity as though it were a new suit.

and then we abuse those who haven't actually put on the new suit.

i thought it was a brilliant joke, totally unexpected twist in the tail (tale?).

seth responds with an anecdote that shows how uncle shanti had taken on a veneer of britishness, rebuking seth's parents for not being british enough.

seth does state that he is indian, incidentally, almost in a defensive, reflexive way, when krasny asks him whether he has come a long way from his original interest in chinese economics at stanford.

michael krasny, not surprisingly, brings up caste and dalits. and seth says that there has been a great deal of movement forward; so does krasny.

overall, seth comes across as a much less obnoxious person than salman rushdie; there was, as i have mentioned here before, another forum interview with rushdie recently.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rajeev,

Do check out this article in the Chindu's 'business' newspaper..See the bias in the questioning ?? Who is this Rasheeda Bhagat ??

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/03/03/stories/2004030300220900.htm

Question : So the backbone of quality education in Pakistan, as in India, is Christian ??


Another Question : In India, when there are attacks on nuns and missionaries, some of us, beneficiaries of education in Christian institutions, are dismayed.
(serious !! thats a question)

How would you compare this to the status of Christians in India and the way they are treated?

(leading question..)

This Bishop is a shady character(more on him later)..Here is a sample quote from him..

http://www.hvk.org/articles/0502/115.html.31990.VINCLUDEFIX

“Pakistan Is Leaving Fundamentalism Behind,” Bishop says.."There is no official policy of persecution(of non-muslims).

Bishop Anthony Lobo of Islamabad and Rawalpindi...is a friend of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

This Pakistan strongman has undergone a metamorphosis from a Muslim dictator and protector of the Taliban and Al Qaeda to a pro-Western liberal leader. "He is the best there is,"

..fundamentalism is a frankenstein created by the United States to serve an anti-Soviet purpose, which has turned against its creators," Bishop Lobo concluded.

Anonymous said...

off topic
related to Japanese investment in India. The author sheds light on the amount of investment made by the Japanese in India and this article comes close at the heels of the Toyota boss' visit to India.
Bottomline: India is not automatically the destination for Japanese FDI when Japan burnt its fingers slightly in China. Thailand and other south-east nations seem to be attractive destinations.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20051202&fname=chandra&sid=1

Anonymous said...

I am so surprised that the article
was published in a Pakistani
newspaper. Does the press there
really have that much freedom ?

You have an interesting point. It
is always one side that is being
expected to be more tolerant and
loving and accepting, regardless
of what another does (in the
context of these two religions).

Anyway, speaking of religious
identity, here is an article really
worth reading.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=59670

Savitha R.

Anonymous said...

Savitha,

"Hindus have been traditionally groomed by the Vedanta to drop all identities."

Only surface grazers with no profound knowledge of Vedantam would say so.

King Janaka,Choodalai and her husband who ruled efficiently and many such instances of Vedanthins are there.Sri Ramar and Krishnar,everyone is familiar with;Sri Parasuramar...what could he not achieve with His legitimate rage?

Somerset Maugham's Larry of Razor's Edge is one Major Chadwick.

We Hindus are the most convenient,non reacting punching bags for many with a fetish for political correctness!

Swami Vivekananda,without mincing words, rightly crucifies the missionaries and the diabolical whites
for the "calumnies" spread about Hinduism.

Swami Dayananda,had written an open letter to the pope who passed away;anyone else gutsy enough??

Lord Krishna bestows "divya drishti" and not "Brahmagyan" on Arjuna;which is why he is inconsolable after Abhimanyu's death.Arjunan,in his next
birth is born a hunter,one of the greatest Shivabhathar,'KannappaNayanar'and merges in Him.

Enough of self flagellation!!

Thank God,Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi and Kanchi Mahaperiyavaal "groomed" me
without engendering self abasement!!!

Anonymous said...

Kalyani,

The core philosophy of Vedanta is:

"Atman is everything and everything
is Atman". (translation for those
who are not familiar with sanskrit - Everything is the Self
or Atman).

"Aham Brahmasmi, Tatvamasi"
Translation : "I am Brahman (the
supreme Self). And you are That".

Those are fundamental truths
asserted by ALL self-realized
sages in India, since time
immemorial. Including Ramana
Maharshi, Sankara, and any other
sage who attained Brahman consciousness.

The above statements mean that
underlying any apparent outer
seperateness, there is total Unity.
There is no TWO. There is only ONE.
Call it by whatever name.

Thus, separate identities are ruled
out at the fundamental level.

I guess is what Sri Sri means by
"Vendanta has groomed us to
drop all identities".

I rest the matter here.

Savitha.

Anonymous said...

Advaitham (or the apprehension of basic oneness)is experiential.It transcends words and concepts.

In this phenomenal world ,it should not be erroneously interpreted as to depute someone like nagma to make 'Pranava Upadesam'!I was in Coimbatore when there was a huge gathering of willy nilly Hindu students (yess, formidable institutions like schools and colleges very often "make offers that one cannot refuse")who had to put
up with such a travesty of Hinduism!

I am sure those who have internalised Mahaperiyavaal's Upadesam would understand.In fact Ramana Maharishi Himself has stated once:-

"Had I sat there in the Peetham,in place of Him,I would have been much more strict in enforcing Dharmam"

I have written quite a bit about what goes on inside cult gatherings based on first hand reports.gandhi was a curse who debilitated Hindus...let us not accelerate it.

Anonymous said...

That which doesn't suit Kalyani is not Hinduism!!
Don't you understand that, Savitha?