I did a mini-gasp on social media when I saw Drew check in “Azad Kashmir.” Surely he would have been aware of the hyper-political language.
I would like to call him a Coloniser but since I’m in Turanian, rather than Tharoorian, phase at the moment; he’s one of the good guys.
PewDiePie on the other is a racist low-class wannabe Coloniser..
Also (related but not really):
India in 2019: 1. Nehru’s great-granddaughter signals that her family still follows obscure Kashmiri Brahmin custom. 2. Apparently manages to get the festival’s name wrong. 3. Person handling Twitter account doesn’t know how to use apostrophes. https://t.co/DRuyW5HR0H
I think Ta’arof translates into Takaluf in the Urdu speaking world but I can’t be sure.
I find it rather amusing that while India is being dissed on the world’s most popular youtube channel; a Jewish American travelloger is extolling Pakistan to the skies.
If Vidhi wasn’t Indian then I can take some schadenfraude but considering she is a daughter of the Indus, and her tribe are exiles from Pakistan, they are the best type of Pakistanis; those that are entirely free from the taint of Islam. Continue reading Misunderstanding Ta’arof
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.
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.
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).
You can google “white people desi clothes” for examples where they don’t dress well. I think Desi fashion is probably one of the best in the world (obviously biased) but it’s remained, like Bollywood, remarkably indigenous and prevalent.
This is a parody account, which has been started by that blonde twitter account (I can’t recall her name).
However what I find interesting is treating the Hepthalites as “white.” There is a strain in Anglo-Saxon civilisation to absorb other heritages into their own. Furthermore as a shadow of the Western hegemony, “whiteness” is a trait often bestowed (the Aryans are treated as a white people).
I understand that there are many nuances but as the Devil Wears Prada teaches us, subtleties in the elite level trickle all the way down into the popular one.
I still cant sleep thinking about Alexander the great crossing the Hindu Kush.
The average Persian or India has a continuous link to their ancient by way of geography, history or ethnicity. What link does the average WASP really have to Alexander the Great; except a sentiment that they belong to the same “civilisation.” Constantly absorbing the winners of history into a mythos is what led to disasters like the film 300. The last traces of colonisation is economic & psychological; you still have to perceive another civilisation as superior to be able to buy into their lifestyle.
Some years ago in Tehran a 90 something gentleman got up to greet someone half his age since he said those are the manners he was taught as a young lad. I instagrammed it as “amazing ta’arof” and my Persian friends immediately corrected me that was not ta’arof but genuine.
So Ta’arof is not always a positive force since it’s mixed in with traces of deception. This article below was a very old post in my blog and thought I would share it since it’s so well-written.
One of the most complicated aspects of Persian culture — and language — is the untranslatable ta’arof. Depending on the circumstance, it can mean any number of things: To offer, to compliment and/or exchange pleasantries. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. I doubt if any study can lead to a full understanding of Ta’arof. A born and raised Persian, even I find myself losing my grasp on it from time to time.
Our Brown Pundit Zachary Latif will hopefully share his perspectives on Pakistani Psychosis soon. Tarek Fatah gives a good synopsis of Pakistani Psychosis and Islamism in the above video. I am not an expert on Pakistani Pysochosis, and cannot validate many of Tarek Fatah’s perspectives on Pakistan. However, with respect to Islam, many muslims (including prominent religious leaders) privately share many of Tarek’s views, but the vast majority are too afraid to share their views publicly. Tarek Fatah is very knowledgeable about Arabic, Islamic scripture and Islamic law. If you have the time, please watch the entire video.
What is Pakistani psychosis? I am not completely certain and look forward to evolving my views with new information. To oversimplify, it is the combination of several things:
In an example of art imitating life; I was in Mahabalipuram last week reading up on the Persian origins of the Pallavas and then somehow there was a thread about it here on BP.
Our South Indian podcast sort of fell through after the lead guest flaked out at the last minute (rather annoying in light that he insisted that we have a Dravidian focus).
We’ll probably now do a more general linguistics-genetics podcast and take it from there.
Ever since I got back from Chennai I’ve been ruminating on the “deep Hinduism”‘of the south. I have a few thoughts on it but it’s difficult to express them succinctly..
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Concerned about Pakistan’s international isolation and faltering economy, the country’s powerful military has quietly reached out to its archrival India about resuming peace talks, but the response was tepid, according to Western diplomats and a senior Pakistani official.
The outreach, initiated by the army’s top commander, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, began months before Pakistan’s national elections. Pakistan offered to resume on-and-off talks with India over their border dispute in the Kashmir region, which stalled in 2015 as violence flared up there.
A key objective for Pakistan in reaching out to India is to open barriers to trade between the countries, which would give Pakistan more access to regional markets. Any eventual peace talks over Kashmir are likely to involve an increase in bilateral trade as a confidence-building measure.
