I’m following Drew Binksy, the travelloger, as he is falling in love with Pakistan. It seems to be his favourite country along with Iran. It will be a glorious day when Iran, Iraq, all the Stans (including Kurdistan) and Azerbaijan form some sort of Turanian cultural connection.
https://www.instagram.com/stories/drewbinsky/?hl=en
In this story he talks about how everyone in Peshawar (or Pakistan) has yogurt with everything. It’s funny because I must compulsively have yogurt with my food and it seems a Iranic quirk (Desi food obviously has yogurt but I’ll always have dollops of it).
The irony is that yogurt, which is so deeply associated with Iranian culture, is of course Turk-Mongolian. But I think the greatness of Iranian patriotism is that unlike say the Greek who make a point of calling it “Greek Yogurt”, Iranians don’t feel the need to Iranify everything.
Pakistan Zindabad!
Finally I’ve noticed that white people are never advised well when wearing desi clothes. The colour patterns and sizes of desi clothes is very different and white people being so pale need to adjust accordingly. Drew is wearing a blue shalwar kameez that’s ill-fitted.
I was looking online at white people wearing Desi clothes for examples of them wearing well and then I remember two white people who wear Indian dresses very well.
When wearing colourful desi clothing one must present contrast. Kalki has opted for a black to offset her pallour and Katrina, I imagine, uses some foundation (and probably darkens her hair) to accentuate her desiness. Whether she’s fully European or not is beside the point what does do however is wear it well. This is another good example of a European wearing desi clothing well. Iranians for instance make a very bad job of wearing desi clothes and I get annoyed when they try to go “Ethnic” and mess it up (I may bleat about Iran online but Iranians can even get to me sometimes).
“It will be a glorious day when Iran, Iraq, all the Stans (including Kurdistan) and Azerbaijan form some sort of Turanian cultural connection”
Do you consider Pak-istan to be part of this “Turanian connection”?
Why not; the more the merrier, may as well chuck in Rajasthan too ?
On second thoughts aren’t Rajputs supposed to be Scythians.
Indo-Turanians were a thing from what I remember!
An interesting feature about the modern world is that most countries are plugged into the West rather than their neighbouring regions..
I don’t know about the current situation but in the old, formative stages of India culturally during and just before the Atharvavedic, Rgvedic periods, etc., the centre of the world seems to have been the BMAC of Turkmenistan lol (and not the stupid Indus civilisation lol). Man I just happened to read one Asko Parpola’s work about the development of Shaktism yesterday and he so painstakingly traces most of the currently-visible parts of it to BMAC straight (with some Indus civilisation thrown in too because it will feel bad otherwise and also because both Indus and BMAC were Mesopotamia-oriented and Iran_N-dominated civilisations), including the deity Durga, the actual physical designs of the yantras and mandalas, etc.!
I am so very sorry for spamming your thread like this but I had to do it lol. Please delete it if you deem it offensive.
Why would it be offensive or spam?
Because I kinda used (more like had to use lol) your poor post to find that single Turanian -stan-country thread and make my merry from there, venting out all my ungodly-reading-related excitement (and actually a bit of a fear too because I should not actually read stuff like that lol (but to my defense I had read blogs by an actual Shakta person day before yesterday which ended up unsettling my fragile mind wrestling with my current lack of proper religiosity and I had to come back to Asko Parpola and the entire objectification-and-academisation-of-Shaktism project just to feel comfortably materialist again lol)) related to what is, realistically speaking, a completely unrelated topic to your post?
I’m the master of the meander ?
“It’s funny because I must compulsively have yogurt with my food and it seems a Iranic quirk ”
South Indians eat lots of yoghurt and yoghurt-derived products. As do Ghatis. As probably do, most South Asians.Not sure where Iran came in here.
Perhaps – but I do remember growing up that lots of desis would recommend on how much yogurt we consumed. I never thought much about it but yes of course South Asia is also yogurt-heavy..
Indians consume lots of yogurt and have been doing so for a very long time. Yogurt is attested – as dadhi – in the Rg veda, way before Turks even existed/coalesced as a people. RV dadhi > Hindi dahI
dadhi and ghRta (> ghee) have a lot of ritual/religious significance in Hinduism as well. Offered to the gods in various yajna-s.
PS: I don’t buy yogurt at home but make our own in copious amounts…
Oh my – yes I wikipediaed it. I always assumed it was Turko-Mongolian but oh well!
May be part of the reason for the higher incidence of elevated cholesterol and heart disease in S. Asian populations.
The Russian idea of Eurasianism is similar to the Turan you mention. Dugin is quite fond of Indo European Identity and possibly sees it as an alternative to Western Liberalism. But I think Iraq maybe closer to the Middle East than Turan.
Westen Women could do a lot better with South Asian fashion. It seems they go for the more obvious cliche of short sarees with bright colours, Clothes from the North would probably be better for them, Punjabi Kurtas, Tribal Embroideries etc.