So all of us living in the west are a blend of two cultures and we do ddesi things and white things..so list the so desi n so white thing you did lately…
Yesterday I did a really desi thing, I saw this huge 20lbs sack of potatoes on sale for 3.97 and I purchased it. Now I am thinking of different ways to cook them and will feed the poor children potatoes till they are blue in the face.
The white thing I did was have a really fun friendly no lectures no naseehat nonjudgmental conversation over breakfast with my teenager
So I made a whole bunch of wedges for the kids and all n leftover daal spicy kebabs for wife n me.
For white thing Mrs tells me kids like baked potatoes n sour cream so I will do that tomorrow.
Yesterday I had an English muffin and that was such a white thing.
My neighbors warmly greet my dog when I walk her and talk to her as if she was a person and I appreciate that. I rescued her from abuse so that was a white thing.
@Bobby1 , I love that potato story . Its the story of my house ,every other week . My husband comes across a deal , picks up not one , not two but dozen packets of the product and I end up putting the same ingredients on the plate day after day !!! At the minute the sad story in my house is the ingredient called Capsicum
Now on to the topic , the desi thing I have done recently is became lazy and cooked curry without changing my clothes coz i had to run out again shortly after . And then halfway through the journey , I just couldnt take the curry smell eminating out of my clothes . Ghazab khuda ka , even perfumes cant hold back the curry fumes that get into the clothes . I just returned and changed and rushed back out again !
And the white thing, had beans on toast this morning after ages . Just craved it so badly
Just to add , I think desiness and whiteness gets mixed in us , coz I have had to think hard what actions could be classed as desi and what could be classed as White actions
For the first time in my career, i am selling in a community where there are a lot of desis so I can tell the difference between behavior. We were talking about massages and my assistant told me that the masseuse charged her 100 n hour and she paid her 15 dollars in tip. Although I tip n restaurants but I don’t tip the masseuse. The desi restaurant I go to hardly anyone tips although food is cheap and amazing.Yeah bean n toast is very white. You can roast the capsicum, grind in paste and use in curry.
I think for curry smell the coriander powder is a big culprit so we never use that and just do haldi, mirch and zeera powder. I mostly use dried onion flakes, they brown in seconds and don’t stink up the house.
The only time I had genuinely felt the desi / white difference is when I go to Pakistan , I haggle in the shops like there is no tomorrow and as soon as I come back , I cant haggle for the life of me !! Something in the air ,that turns us desi the minute we touch down in Pakland
Yesterday our designer Angela came to our work loaded with exciting new samples of wire brushed hardwood floors, herringbone backsplashes etc, she had these high heels on, a caffeinated drink and a purse in hand and she is juggling these heavy samples, both my assistant and I offered to help and she was too proud to accept our help. Many people give her a hard time but I am always appreciative of her work hence she pays extra attention while doing things for us.
I also let Kristy have a lot of input into the selections because if she is a part of the process she will be able to sell with confidence.
This being proud and refusing help is a gora thing, if you offer help to the older goras they refuse it and in the beautiful tan people I see able-bodied older people want to make people do things for them and ask people to fetch them a glass of water or chai.
Desi stuff: eating/ cooking lots of desi food ( I <3 biryani), desi clothes- because they’re sparkly and pretty, urdu, joining the fam at desi parties and nodding yes to everything the aunties say, making iftaari to distribute to people in Ramadan, talking about my cultural background to white people and the struggles it is living as a female-visible minority (or maybe this is a white thing, I can’t tell), halal bridal showers, mehendi (aka henna tattoo), there’s tons…
White stuff: everything else I am doing when not doing the above
Haha…you kept all the fun stuff from the desi culture, one of my assistants is from Fiji and we were talking about the good desi stuff and for me one of the great desi value is giving without expecting anything in return. My childhood friend who I still keep in touch with came from a wealthy family we grew up together, he would take a bunch of us to eat out with him on almost a daily basis for years at very fancy restaurants without asking anything in return. He is even more blessed now he posted a pic of a Lambo on FB and that jogged my memories of him.
When we cooked for the team and parents they were just in awe as the goras don’t do that sort of stuff for each other.
Desi stuff: bragged to a bunch or random strangers on the internet about some old acquaintance posting a facebook pic of probably someone else’s lamborgini.
White stuff: still grilling sausages in the open trying to be noticed by that cute soccer dad, but he isnt interested.
