Again, Merritt ... Nothing to do with your specific story. I just used that as a launching pad for pent-up reasons-for-debate ... Read my reply to Thaths!
- Vinit > -----Original Message----- > From: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > et] On Behalf Of A. M. Merritt > Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 1:22 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [silk] Indian history spat hits US > > On 1/25/06, Vinit Bhansali <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Yeah. > > > > Those dumb idiots should have realized that it is every > > english-only-speaking person's RIGHT to demand flexibility > from people who > > know more than one language. > > > > Right? > > > > ;-) > > $;^D I didn't demand anything, I just sat there and let > them chatter on, quietly thinking how rude it was to > totally exclude me so suddenly from the conversation. > That's why I about busted a gut when I realized that they > had unintentionally excluded the driver as well, since > they assumed that ALL Indian people speak Hindi, but > the driver was from Tamil Nadu and spoke none. THAT > was the crux of my joke. $;^D Ashok, the driver, was far > more miffed than I was - I'm used to people chattering > away in any of a dozen languages, since my high > school was highly "diverse". > > I think it's quite dumb for a Tamil Nadu native to > demand that Hindi speakers speak only in Tamil > Nadu's language, right? Especially in America! > He should be more sensitive to their needs, since > they're the majority-language-speaker in India, > even though we're not in India, we're in America, > and everyone in the car at least speaks English in > common, if nothing else. It cuts both ways. So I > and our Tamil Nadu driver are horribly guilty of > oppressing Hindi speakers. I'm sure it went down > on our permanent records. $;^D > > > Anne Marie > -- > Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata. > --Ovid, Amores, III, 4, 7. >
