You must know some Vedic methods?

It is bad enough that the women I meet at bars sexualize me by assuming that just because I am brown, I must have Tantric skillz. NOW my collegues at school are going to ask me, and all of you other brown scientists and engineers, if we are skilled in the Vedic methods as well:

What is the square of 85? In an instant, a 17-year-old boy said without blinking, “7,225.”
Kamlesh Shetty had used a trick from a quaint concept called Vedic math, a compilation of arithmetic shortcuts believed to have been written by ancient Indians who lived centuries before Christ, during a glorious period in Indian history called the Vedic Age. Its math has now crawled into the 21st century to further Shetty’s dream of cracking a nasty engineering entrance exam.

I don’t think it is a coincidence that the word “nasty” was used in the above paragraph.

One thought on “You must know some Vedic methods?

  1. It is bad enough that the women I meet at bars sexualize me by assuming that just because I am brown, I must have Tantric skillz. NOW my collegues at school are going to ask me, and all of you other brown scientists and engineers, if we are skilled in the Vedic methods as well

    Heh 🙂 Reminds me of this post by Razib:

    Girl: Hey, can I talk to you? Me: Who, me? Girl: Yeah, I’m really interested in diversity and various cultures. Me: Ok. Girl: Are you from India? Me: I was born in Bangladesh. Girl: I really admire your gods. Me: Excuse me? Girl: I really admire your gods, they are so spiritual. Me: Uh, my family is Muslim. Girl: [Embarrassed] Me: Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time. Girl: I’ve never met a Muslim from India before. Me: I was born in Bangladesh. Girl: Well, I have a friend, [some name] Patel, he’s a Hindu. Me: Cool. Girl: So I assumed you know, being from India, that you were Hindu. Me: My family is from Bangladesh- Girl: But you know, I like Islam, the idea of one God, I kind of believe something like that. Simple and pure. Me: I’m an atheist. Girl: Excuse me? Me: I’ve never believed in God. Girl: Oh, well, I think Islam is kind of severe. Me: Uh, yeah, so I do I…. [cut to long diatribe about how she won’t get rid of her tatoos even though she’s converting to Reform Judaism]