Intentblog, the weblog aggregation of the Chopra spiritual-aspirational empire, is a strange mishmash of largely desi-written key-issues insight (Sepia friend Dave Sidhu), New Age preening (nympho-striver Saira Mohan), and general bloviating (too many to list), generating awkward, fawning comments, many of which seem to be from Polish guys named Marek looking for a date.
Amid all this are entries from the Chopras themselves, including the big man and his progeny. Of these, the oddly-spelled Gotham has earned some visibility for his own projects and initiatives beyond the family business. These include the Virgin Comics line of desi superhero tales, which I’ve seen a couple of copies of and look pretty damn cool, even to my untrained eye, and more dubious ventures like the midtown Manhattan “Kama Sutra-themed” K Lounge, which one astute Citysearch user reviewed as follows: “Pros: easy jersey booty; Cons: bad bartenders, bad jersey booty.” We’ve also mentioned Gotham here in the mutiny’s early days, smoking out various fans, haters and impersonators in the process.
Lately Gotham’s been waxing worried about the decline of desi cultural identity in the multiculti American stew, having traveled to the belly of the beast — the notorious SASA conference which Abhi roundly dissed yesterday — and been horrified by the brown binge-drinking buffoons and playa and hoochie wannabes he found setting the tone of the proceedings. Gotham was so alienated that he had to move out of the conference hotel to a more spiritually centered location. After several days of processing, he wrote this cri de coeur, and though I admit I’m vacillating in my tone here between snark and sympathy, I have to say I feel for the brother. Here’s what he saw:
I, myself, am only 30 years old but found myself so shockingly displaced from the South Asian community congregated down at the conference that I’ve been unable to articulate my thoughts the last few days and even blog about it. This is my best shot.
Thr primary focus, it seemed, amongst the over 1000 20-somethings (and yes, this is a broad generalization so take it for what it is) was oft articulated by the attendees themselvs, was to ‘get drunk and hook up.’ Not unlike, their other generational brethrens of any other cultural or racial background…
Not surprising in itself, he says, but here’s the real problem:
It’s no real condemnation to say that 20 somethings act like 20 somethings but the disappointing part was that there was nothing at all very distinctly Indian about what was going on at the conference. Save for a few Bhangara beats spun by the many dj’s (South Asian’s seemingly new career focus) at the various mixers, no one else seemed particularly interested in their cultural ancestry.
Not that I was looking for Geeta study classes or how I could refine my sanskrit, but I did, for some reason, feel a profound sense of disappointment at the total lack of cultural definition that I witnessed. On the one hand, we – or at least I do A LOT – proclaim the Asian invasion, the India boom, the reverse brain drain, going from outsourcing to sourcing, etc etc, and yet, none of the above seemed at all evident from what I say from this small sliver of the Indian community. In fact, if anything, it seemed to me that these young South Asians were emulating others – African Americans, Latinos, in an effort to hijack some of their coolness.
To wit:
I saw more young Indians aching to look like Allen Iverson or Shakira than I could have ever imagines. Not only that, but the ways the guys strut, the fact that they actually – seriously – refer to each other as ‘niggah’ – with no hint of sarcasm – belies an absolute cultural inidentity.
Gotham’s finding:
Something is happening to us in the assimilation process. A quick snap shot of this weekend would tell you that a generation of 20 somethings is struggling some to find that anchor that roots them with some sort of distinctive identity. Clearly the culture of sex and bling and gangsta has found a very willing market amongst young South Asian Americans. Clearly, we/they/whomever is running away from something in our collective cultural ancestry and apparently running toward something more culturally amorphous.
Damn! Clearly the brother was traumatized by what he witnessed, and he raises some substantive concerns about what it all means for the culture. But on the other hand, it’s clear he was dealing with an extremely skewed sample — college kids attending a conference notorious for the behavior he decries, sited in Miami no less — and I’d also be interested to know the socio-economic background of the attendees, to get a sense of how much this is an upper middle class suburban malady.
Far be it from my avuncular ass to speak for a generation I’m old enough to have sired, but I’d like to respond to Gotham’s worries with a counter-hypothesis. Maybe the kids are alright. Maybe, in fact, they’re just being dumb privileged kids like dumb privileged kids do the world over, and though it’s ugly to watch, it’s not that big a deal as long as they pay for the material damage and no one gets hurt. (Which isn’t always the case in these settings, of course, especially with respect to sexual assault.)
Frankly I’m more concerned about desi kids who don’t have the money for plane fare and hotel rooms, even if they had the inclination to begin with. The working class kids. And also: The Muslim kids, who face the worst of suspicion and discrimination in the American climate today. The Sikh kids, especially the boys, staring at a lifetime of towelhead insults. The off-the-boat immigrant kids with unstable visa prospects. You know, the kids with more serious issues to deal with than whether to do a tenth year of bharatnatyam training or what do to when you wake up hungover and soaked in your own vomit.
Now I know Gotham and crew check out our site, so brother, don’t take this the wrong way — I really do feel your pain, plus you’re a fellow New England Patriots fan, so you know you my nigga macaca, dawg — but at the end of the day, I think that handwringing over the cultural decay of the young and ignorant is something that we who are getting older can afford to forgo. Spiritually speaking, at least. Economically, of course, if a core proposition of your business ventures is to sell high-priced cultural authenticity products to well-off young desis, then you’ve got a whole ‘nother problem.
Sure I do. But if you’re arguing against a person who thinks hip hop necessarily equals the most extreme media image of hedonistic crunk idiocy, it makes sense to use the opposite extreme to make your case.
But like I said, even with Lil Jon or the Yin Yang Twins you’ll find a really interesting core of discontent and emotion that just isn’t there with most rock or pop these days. That’s worth something.
Ay ay ay, cocopuffs, could you make that 40-50 please? Maybe that’s why they knock you down – you’re calling them old at age 30 🙂
I’m no fan of gangsta and hip-hop, but the criticism of the genre could basically be applied to any kind of music. I know that when I was a teenager my mum was concerned about the effects of rock music and unusual colours of nail polish on my mental well-being. The same could be said of the time that Elvis hit the airwaves, or the Roaring Twenties. It’s just a generational phenomenon.
Hell yes, but, like Neal said, if you’re trying to break down the elegance and poetics of hip hop, then it helps to be able to poi to “easy to understand” examples, right? 🙂 Maybe there’s a lot of hate for hip hop because a misunderstanding about the politics, history, and form. Man, folks should watch some Brown Sugar.
To tack on what Neal says, does anyonre recall ‘Chamillionare – Ridin’ dirtay’? This was a top 10 hit and approached the topic of racial profiling. 20/20 cancelled his interview, they apologized only because Chamillionare publicly said it ruined his week.
Deepa – lol, 35-45, is that a happy medium? 30 is the new 20 anyway.
cocopuffs, i hear what you are saying there, and it is hard when socializing in the desi crowd means frequently putting up with people pulling rank. i don’t necessarily agree that you should feel compelled to offend back or return the favor, but the angst is something everyone on this thread can atleast say they’ve experienced.
now to contribute more generally: in the line of that very angst-ridden point cocopuffs made above, i can see a discussion of ethnicity, socioeconomics, relationships, white privilege and so on that could ensue. so while cocopuffs may be angry, he is angry about topics that i feel hip hop is constantly resisting against. hip hop, like many forms of music, is resistance music and camille’s link to natasha sharma’s work serves to support that notion. anyway, that is why i listen to hip hop, because i didn’t grow up with bling. even if we surmise that “popular” hip hop is reviling, can we analyze that music even from a micro level and look at the beats and sounds coming out as modes of resistance? say, for example, timbaland; he makes some pretty hyphy beats that are pretty much revolutionizing the sounds we hear coming from the hip hop world.
i agree with siddhartha and many others that you shouldn’t worry about the kids too much. i don’t think hip hop makes rebellious indian kids as SASA. i think rebellious indian kids at SASA are so because they want a piece of the high-rolling life that white corporate america has celebrated since forever. i personally don’t see value in that lifestyle, but hey macaca, what ever you choose to resist against…
I’m sure the number of guys trying to act ‘gangsta’ would be far less if desi girls didn’t dig ‘thugs’, at least here in Canada. But most do, at least until around the early twenties, which is reflected by the fact that most brown guys stop dressing that way around that same age too.
Cocopuffs: Are you Barbara Boxer?
(SM Intern: I posted this retort last night but it has since been deleted. I’ve been deleted before and ususally don’t complain since its your blog, but in this case I can’t see any way how I crossed a line. So I posted it again since I figure it must have been some mistake. On 2nd thought, maybe threadjacking? if so, my apologies, please delete.)
Wow. That is a shame.
Sure, a minimum of 35 to define “old” is ok – for the next year 😉 But seriously, when people start the “when you are my age” stuff it’s at least partly a defensive response to your youth (their realization that they don’t have your youth). Though there can be other, more meaningful components to it too, depending on the case.
mudphud girl – word. ya, the offend back is pretty much my immaturity, and also part of my generation.
I completely agree, a lot of kids like myself are rebellious cause we feel we take too much shit from people. I’ve been typecasted as a dork/nerd my whole life because i’m desi. The gansta thug lifestyle has appeal. (i’m personally more the cali, stoner/skater type)Therefore i rep for all the none dork/nerds, hopefully changing some peoples views. Sure i go overboard a lot, but thats just me.
Manju- lol, i’m glad someone found some of this to be funny.
Deepa – i agree, but as the next wave of 1rst gen desi kids, we’re typecasted by the first wave of 1rst gens who came through(i.e. elder desis) While i like a lot of these people, for the most part they faced a lot more adversity than us, and dealt with it in a different manner most of the time, non-violent and probably more rational. A lot of my older cousins are great people and successful, but aren’t “cool” according to the rules of popular culture, and i’m pretty sure they got a lot of shit growing up.
Now the cirumstances have changed since they have assimilated more into the world and times have progressed, views on desi people are changing, really slowly, i hope(i don’t know). So kids like me and i’m sure many kids who are blindians are just sick of having to deal with it. I don’t want to glorify my juvenile existence, but i never fit the mold of doing all the SASA crap or any of the elder desis(maybe i just haven’t found any yet?). I used to be a battle DJ in college, i snowboard, do le-parkour, make beats, went to raves a lot, do lots of drugs(clearly not good), chase after pretty girls, practice muay thai and wing chun, you get the picture. I’m not ashamed of being desi or anything, but in nearly all of these activities there were never any other desi people. I think within the past 12 years of going snowboarding and skiing, i’ve been the only desi person on the mountain, err correction, desi person on the mountain who’s not on the bunny hill, probably 98% of the time. Sadly the one time i saw a desi brother at the Outerlimits at Killington(most difficult trail), he was being brought down by ski patrol, because he was scared of the incline…
so in a nutshell, its no ones fault, but i feel if i was an elder desi i would be the same way i am now, and maybe some misguided youth like me would have someone to look up. The irony is that younger desi kids look up to my type of lifestyle more than the perfect suitable boy. I think thats the appeal of Londonstani, Harjit, is a rude boy who will fuck just about anyone up, all the characters have pride and rep being desi. Desi kids need to have backbone and stop being bullied. As a promoter in NYC, we throw parties at some of the most exclusive clubs, no DESIS ever, well maybe some bollywood celebs, but they’re boring as hell. WHY? they almost all go to the bhangra clubs and parties on desi-party.com; which i’ve gone to before, and its horrendous, lots of these people have no class what so ever.
So ya, i guess what i’m saying is i’m angry. Its all good tho, i do lots of drugs and girls, not proud of it, the only solution i’ve found thus far.
cocopuffs, There are others out there but few and far between. Keep with it. Desis that live the current pop lifestyle without having to also be a Ph.D in Nukular Physics are much needed.
Just curious about the dating situation. I’m assuming you are 21. Do you have friends that are starting to get married? Are any of them desi? Are the usual trite desi concerns of finding eligible boy/girl raising its head once these people reach mid to late 20s?
delirium tremens – dunno if you’re a she or he, but hell, like the fact you’re an alcoholic
word brotha, i’m down with both, work hard, play hard, i got a degree in computer engineering. In college, i used to be in lab for like 10 hours debugging some garbage, then went out for 8 hours to booze and chat up some ladies. I still believe knowledge has to be the foundation. Like in snowboarding, you don’t need to know physics, but it certainly helps when you try to do hard tricks, like centrifugal force and shit. Also you gotta be a educated drug user, or you might kill yourself by accident one day.
Like pharrel said, ” i said i was a nerd but i ain’t a punk”
older bro, 24, and ya, a couple. Mostly not desi people, a few desis from college are now getting married. A lot of the desi people i knew in college are starting to hit this point, well atleast the few girls i still keep in touch with. I’ll tell you what i do know about desi people and marriage(my opinion, no hating, lol), wait until you’re like 30-355 if your a guy. 1) all of the coolest desi girls i’ve met are single, intelligent, usually intimidatingly beautiful and in their early 30s and are sick of typical asshole (desi) guys, being desi is usually hindering, but if you get like a minute to talk to them and you’re not an ass you may have a chance. 2)it lets most of the idiot SASA kids settle down, basically a good process of weeding out the idiot girls who make you wish you were deaf from their insessent nagging.
LOL, the 30somethings are great tho, they feel they’re taking advantage of me cause i’m so young and naive. I’m pretty much looking for those future 30somethings, the 30somethings of my generation.
Cocopuffs I too snowboard and even now living in Vancouver with its heavy desi population I see maybe 1 or 2 on the hill.
ahh clueless…the bean clan was at whistler skiing/snowboarding last xmas..the highlight? seeing the run, garbanzo express and the chick pea cafe on the slopes.. that was an ‘aha’ moment for me :)..whistler/blackcomb are AWESOME!
What about desi PhD in nukular physics who are gangsta? I see a few these days, but maybe I’m not hanging out with the right crowds..