Welcome to the 21st Century

I fail to understand how disasters like this make it to the front page. I did not get the point of this article, nor was it written well and if you know you are generalizing and if you know it`s not the complete truth - then please, refrain.

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Sameena
I think chnage is an essential element of our universe.
Dessies are changing in America just like they are changing back in pakistan. I believe the rate of change is quite close, because it is not bound by the man-made boundries. I think that we are converging to single point with the passage of time. It is like water flow from higher potential energy to lower potential energy, and after some time water stops flowing because of same energy level.It is going to be, what it is to be.

Which category you fall in, half abcd, half fob, or x_abcd where x could be zero to hundred percent?
Enjoyed reading!!

Regards.

If this is a ramble on what chowk.com will be like a few decades from now, well, you arer welcome to your views and analysis.

If this is a reflection on desi kids being brought up ``in foreign``, then, well, each case is different. Increasingly, I think, children need to be brought as world citizens, and not as throw-backs to something their parents may have wanted to be.

If this is a brief on what it is like growing up ``in foreign``, I guess you should be doing fine as long as your desi non-resident parents didn`t stuff down your throat with the morning cornflakes the threat that ``you should be glad you were not born/brought up in India / Pakistan / Bangladesh / Afghanistan . . . ``

The Chowk will always be what its constituents make it to be. Nature will try to keep the bigots and fundoos out, though.

An interesting MSN group on Pakistan Popular Culture History:

http://groups.msn.com/PakistanPopularCultureHistory

I too fail to see the point of this article. Is it that chowk will change and become indistinguishable from other north american publications or that Pakistani culture is disappearing from those living in north america.

Either way, isn`t change the essence of life anyway? Culture is not some dead thing. It`s a dynamic, evolving, changing force. So, Pakistani (or Indian or whatever) culture will disappear as we know it, from the diaspora. So what? The disaporic culture will become what it is meant to become. For that matter, culture in Pakistan and India is also changing as is the culture in Canada and the US. It`s not stagnant. Why should people from there live in a time warped version of `back home?`

If chowk or any other publication keeps spewing the same thing over and over again through the years without acknowledging changing tastes and realities, what`s the point? Any up to date publication needs to be in step, in touch and keep changing, trying to keep pace with the changing culture in which it exists.

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Now I’m not some sort of bigot saying that girls and boys should never have any fun, but what I see happening is dissolution of the South Asian cultural identity. It’s not being transferred to further generations. Wearing Pakistani clothes is considered embarrassing to some desi teens. Striving for an education is superfluous, what’s the point when you’re having so much fun blowing your parents’hard earned money? And of course what is the value of family? It doesn’t have one anymore.
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It`s up to the parents (and community) to provide some exposure to their language and culture so that the kids can feel learn and feel positive about their heritage while adopting American values as well. Somehow I get the impression that this is less of a problem with the Indian expats ? Perhaps the parents themselves are not terribly comfortable with their own background and culture and they convey this implicitly to the kids ? I dont see why wanting a car or a delayed curfew or having fun has to necessarily conflict with appreciation for one`s roots. Once you get past the surface aspects, people arent that different. globalization is spawning new subcultures.

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In this article, I didnt find any sign of welcoming 21st century by any measure rather spaghetti of ordinary ideas which a common person can adequately persume living in any desi-land of South Asia.

Welcome to 21st century doesnt mean seeing the sun of a west nation`s developed horizons and our incompatibilities with it but thriving for our morning in our dark.

This article is full of the usual Despair of the loss of desi culture while living in the West theme-discuseed all too often at any first generation desi get togethers. The cultural doomsday scenario while enjoying the economic benefits of living in this `decadant` society is hypocritical and pointless.

Yes the desi cultural aspect is reducing in the second generation-which is to be expected as they are not living in Pakistan/India anymore. By the third or fourth generation it`s very likely that our descendants will be western in culture completely due to nominal or zero contact with family members from India/Pakistan. Plus intermarrying with other races will further blur the lines.

Culture like others have already stated is an evolving characteristic-shaped by external and internal influences.

One of the big problem for desis is that they fear loss of culture equates to loss of moral/religious values. That being of a western culture is inherently decadent. That I disagree with. In our current generation and the next, we are going through an upheaval with our religous establishments having a strong cultural element from India/Pakistan. In future generations, I`m sure that a westernized Islam will emerge along with a westernizied version of Hinduism, Sikhism etc and it already is to a certain extent. All the horror talk of the easy access to drugs, alcohol and sex fail to acknowledge that there are already young muslims here in the west who practice a much more conservative version of Islam than their parents. Not trying to say that`s necessarily a good thing. Just that aspect of society is emerging in the `immoral` west as well.

Lack of respect is not cultural, it`s due to family upbringing. I see more respect in non-desi European descendant kids than our desi children. Parents need to alter the way they teach children values such as respect.

So relax ``Aunty`` Sameena, and look for ways to positively integrate into this society rather than constantly bashing it and accomplishing nothing aside from some hand wringing and quick fix solutions (Force our kids to wear shalwar kameez!) to the problems.

Fozia

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I totally understand where you`re coming from. However, I think within this generation, there are also many of us who actually want to perserve it and therefore bring up the issue at hand, pretty soon we will have the Coalition of Pakistani-Americans, scholorships for Pakistanis, and our full assilimation will continue. The US is a melting pot in order to assimilate, and we won`t lose sight of our culture, we`ll just create a sub-culture-Pakistani-Americans.. PAPs-Pakistani American Princesses, You get the picture... Green and White Pride! Kiss me I`m Punjabi shirts... the list goes on.. and on..

It is encouraging to note two things. Firstly, that Ms. Sameena`s parents have successfully
cultivated the importance of her (religious, cultural, etc) roots in her and secondly, and
more importantly, that she has not just accepted them at face value but has taken the time
to reflect and work through these things herself. That, it is still happening augurs well for
our community abroad.

My antidote for this imminent cultural cleansing is for the parents to arrange for their kids
to visit their ancestral home on vacations. Surely, the kids will hate the lack of amenities,
miss starbucks and their friends. But undoubtedly, in time, they will learn to appreciate the
value of this exercise.

They will in-time, be able to look past the oily hair, the black trousers and white joggers on
a FOB --the way a regular shallow, arrogant and ignorant american does...and appreciate
the dedication, the hard-work, rava dari and simplicity that define him.

I dont see any response from our writer. It be nice if she could interact more on the subject. Chowk is a platefom where we debate and dialogue with each other, and reach a synthesis.

Jawahara
It is nice to see your post. I used to read your articles a while back. There was one about the TREE, which i really liked.

Veeresh
I try to read your post manytimes, although i dont agree manytimes as well.

Regards.

garam_chai/14, I too read everything I can get my hands on, and don`t agree with many things I read. That`s absolutely fine, so I do appreciate the fact that even if you don`t agree with me, you read my posts.

Idea is to learn. Agreeing or not agreeing is not the big ticket.

Simon/13, yes visit the ancestral roots is great, but along the way, see the rest of the world too (not just Heathrow or Changi or Narita or CDG or Dubai duty free shops . . .) and most of all, do not place the ancestral roots in a patronising frame. A large number of emigres from our part of the world tend to replace their children`s Daily Prayer with another one that tells them to be Thankful that they were not born in

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. (place your home town

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here)

By the way check out ratedesi.com and you`ll see a lot of negative adaptation to this culture and some positive too.

Thanks for the feedback!

Samina :)