Kirpan.
“Those who join the Khalsa must always carry with them the “five Ks”: kesh (unshorn hair: anyone cutting his hair is a renegade); kacha (short trousers), kirpan (dagger), kara (iron bracelet) e kanga (comb).”
Oh, great - so much for learning one handy language. It would really be useful to have enough to explain library policies and speak to the children. Maybe I can ask some of the ladies what they speak, but I’m not sure I know enough to understand the answer.
I just came in here to say that Tris rocks the socks of the universe.
Yeah. 
Anaamika, this is a complete and utter hijack, but I’ve been itching to ask this for a while, and it seems like an ideal time:
I do the occasional bit of graphic design, catering to individuals and small business wanting to present an image to the outside world, some for the first time. In reference to the nature of “Starting Out,” I do business as Ganesha Graphics, and I use an illustration of Lord Ganesha as my logo, he being the patron of auspicious beginnings, etc. Is this offensive? Is it akin to a non-Christian starting up The Jesus Moped company? I have no wish be disrespectful…
No, I might do a :dubious: but that’d be more out of curiosity. I’d be intrigued, for sure.
I think it’s kind of cool. Bear in mind we don’t have any saying, commandments, etc., regarding blasphemy - God’s name *cannot * be taken in vain. It’s impossible to do so.
silenus, bows thank you. It’s been so long since I’ve been to gurdvara since there’s none around here I’d forgotten. I apologize.
I didn’t notice this.
Almost every *state * has a different language. Gujrati people speak…Gujrati. No, really. And I don’t understand Gujrati. Sometimes I can pick it up from the context, but not always.
It’s akin to me living in NY, and NY, Connecticut, Mass, and Vermont speak *dialects * of the same language (but not exactly the same), but Maine speaks an entirely different language and I wouldn’t be able to understand them.
On second thought, they seem to anyway. Scratch that.
The official name of India is Bharat, I think. Can we refer to an Indian from the Subcontinent as a Bharati ?
Oh, yes. And I, at least would like it very much and be extremely pleased and happy that you bothered to find out the real name of our country.
This is also a great way to end confusion of the type of Indian.
Thanks!
Tip o’the hat to you Triskadecamus.
You are a kind human being, which I like to think can be seen on your face too.
I agree with the posters here that the South-Asian folks we meet here in N.A. do tend, in general, to be kind, courteous, and often highly educated.
I ought to know: I married one! 
(* her family is from Kerala, South India*)
So can you curse someone by invoking the Deity’s name? Like “Shiva take you!” or “May Parvati mash your nuts with a large stone!”?
I guess I’ve got loads of questions, actually. One of these days, I’ll start my own thread to get answers.
I used to get called “Auntie”, “dearest Auntie Nava” and “Godmother” by my Latin American customers, specially the Mexicans. I’m from Spain, so from “the Mother Country” and my job consisted basically of helping them (both with explanations and by doing stuff that made their job easier).
It’s a mite exaggerated by Spanish standards, specially the “Godmother” part, but Mexicans are a lot more effusive.
Calling someone who is not related to you “Uncle” or “Aunt” as a sign of respect has pretty much become lost in Spain, but it used to be very common just 40 or 50 years ago.
No, not really. The first one seems more like a blessing. Anyway, our curses mostly tend to be insulting your family line, like
“saala” means brother-in-law, but it’s a very common insult, too, meaning, “I’m fucking your sister”.
Stuff like that.
As for Parvati, she is the calming influence on Shiva. Heaven hopes she won’t be smashing anyone’s nuts with a large stone, as that’s Shiva’s job. It goes something like this:
Bhramha is the creator, who married Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, because you need knowledge to create.
Vishnu is the sustainer, and he married Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, because you need wealth to survive.
And Shiva is the destroyer, and he married Parvati, the goddess of strength & compassion, because you need both to destroy. They are the parents of Ganesh. (If you want to know a brief story of how Ganesh came to be I’d be glad to oblige).
It’s a lot more complicated, and don’t forget everyone is reincarnated from earlier gods, but that’s the end of my severe hijack.
Regarding proper ways of labeling people: am I playing it as safely as I think I am when I refer to someone of unknown nationality as desi? My understanding is that it’s pretty much a catch-all for someone from the subcontinent. Is this accurate? It’s used in this context by several of my friends from the region, but I don’t know how universally-accepted it is.
Calling me or my friends born in India *desi * will get you a pleased smile. It works just fine. I’m not sure how American-born feel about it, though.
People of Indian descent refer to each other as "Desi"s. It basically means “someone from our nation”. Therefore, it really wouldn’t be used by anyone of non-Indian descent. But even if it is, no one would take offense. The term is similar to “homeboy” or “paesano”.
Also, when people ask me about India, I usually compare it to Europe. India’s one country, but there are numerous languages, types of cuisine, religions, customs, etc. That’s why the term “Indian food” is pretty ridiculous. There are so many types of cuisine in India that the term is analagous to “Earth food”.
Now that you mention it, none of my friends that regularly use the term are American-born. The American-born ones seem to just say Indian if they don’t know which country a person is from, or if they’re referring to a group of people from the subcontinent who may or may not all actually be from India.
Then there’s the whole ABCD thing, which is another can of worms entirely.
I’m glad that in Britain, ‘Asian’ means ‘from the Indian subcontinent region’, and therefore covers everything from Pakistan to Sri Lanka. However, I guess we’re then stuck when we don’t know if somebody is from Japan or Korea… :smack:
I thought that oriental was acceptable in Britain as a term for people from East Asia; is that changing? It’s been un-PC in the US for as long as I can remember.
Nope, ‘Oriental’ will identify you as stuck in the 1950s. In all seriousness, it’s not really very ‘un-PC’, simply because it’s never ever used.
I have some Hindu neighbors downstairs; they’re invariably polite, and while Indian cuisine and I didn’t get along too well the one time I had it, the food smells wafting from their apartment is absolutely heavenly.