For anyone interested in joining the Spring Gori Girl Meetup in DC (we’re doing this quarterly now) on April 16th, the details are below. All are welcome, and feel free to bring friends if you like.
Who: Anyone who’s interested in coming.
What: A chance to chat in person and get some good food & drinks.
Where: Northside Social Coffee & Wine, 3211 Wilson Blvd., Arlington VA (Orange line, Clarendon stop)
When: I’ll be there at 6:30 pm (April 16th – i.e. this Friday), at the latest, as will Aditya, and we’ll stay there until at least 7:30 pm. Then, depending on the interest of the group, we will either continue to stay there for dinner (Northside has a small menu) or will go to one of the local restaurants to eat. If you want to come, but are unsure whether you’ll be able to arrive by 7:30, please send me an email at gorigirl.admin@gmail.com, and we’ll figure out something.
Why: Dude. ‘Cause.
Eating options post-Northside are extensive in Clarendon, including a couple of Indian joints. I’d suggest Taste of Morocco, but majority choice will rule. If you could RVSP in this thread so we can get an accurate count of how many to expect, that’d be great.
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For anyone wondering why there haven’t been any blog posts about the India trip… well, let’s just say I find it hard to write about India without feeling like I’m being banal, clichéd, or just posting pretty pictures with some boring descriptive text. I’ve taken a few stabs at writing something… but then I delete it because it’s not up to the standard set by GoriWife with her writing on Pakistan.
I’ll give it the ol’ college try again tonight, Internet people. Oh, and that picture is of Aditya and I in front of his parents’ house in Shantiniketan.
13. April 2010 at 6:32 pm
Writing about travels IS hard, I agree. I keep telling myself I will write about my trip to Pakistan, yet I know I will never do the it justice.
Michelle of Scribbit recently went to India to visit her parents. Her parents are working there, so her account is entirely via a tourist view. However, she did an eloquent job of detailing her travels there: http://scribbit.blogspot.com/search/label/travel
She did a sweet job highlighting what is so special about India, yet remained respectful of the cultural differences.
13. April 2010 at 6:55 pm
Those *are* good posts. Thanks for the pointer.
My main problem with writing is that, really, I have difficulty remembering and articulating the differences. Without a doubt, India is extremely different than the US. But when I’m in India, I accept that India is Indian-like, and leave it at that, mentally, for the most part. Or I go all development economist, which is very analytical and fun for me, but not for the non-economist who doesn’t much care about how this and that experience show the relationships between different sorts of consumer goods in India or shows how elasticities are changing, or whathaveyou.
Which makes the trip hard to write about. We traveled around, had adventures, and it was really great experience. But you (general you) don’t want to sit through the modern equivalent of the next-door neighbor’s family vacation slideshow. We spent time with family, and it was fun, with plenty of good laughs and small touches to ease our trip & showed the family’s love for us. But that’s not particularly gripping either.
…maybe this, expanded, should be my first post about the trip.
14. April 2010 at 12:42 pm
I second that– Gori Wife’s postings about Pakistan are great, and I LOVE all the pictures she takes, even of things that I would never think to take (of everyday life) that gives a great sense of her experiences!
Looking forward to the meet up, I’m really really trying to come (and really excited– ask P– he’s like, “But you don’t even really *know* these people” he gets in response a giant “NOT TRUE!!!”) but if my doggie still isn’t feeling well I might not be able to make the trip down from New England
Keep your fingers crossed.
15. April 2010 at 10:16 am
Thanks for that. I tend to think that when I write about my travels in Pakistan, that’s exactly what I’m doing: the next-door neighbor’s family vacation slideshow. I can only defend it in my own head by thinking that 7 years ago, I would have killed to see the neighbor’s slideshow about Pakistan!
15. April 2010 at 11:04 am
Hope you guys have fun!
Sorry I can’t make the trek down there.
I, for one, wouldn’t mind seeing your version of the neighbor’s slide show. And the nice thing about the internet is that if someone doesn’t want to sit through it, they just skip that post.
16. April 2010 at 10:48 pm
Thanks for the great meet up! I had a wonderful time and was so excited to meet people in person!
Kudos to GG and Aditiya for the organizing efforts
16. April 2010 at 10:48 pm
Hey, we had a great time tonight! It was fun to meet everyone who showed up. Thanks for getting us all together, GG!
17. April 2010 at 11:33 am
There are millions of Indians in US and you will rarely see blogs
“My American Experience” or something like that…
Yet there is something about the west which wants to document, theorize and
publish that experience…May be Indians think its too trivial to talk about..
If you really really want to understand India, and would like to know why it is what it is…you have to get a grip on Indian spirituality and how it is hardwired into Indian minds..Until then for you west India will be a Exotic location..and we continue to chuckle at your trivial blogs…its a lot of work though..keep rocking
17. April 2010 at 12:55 pm
@Desi – I’m not sure why you chose to post this here, as this thread is about getting together for some coffee, but I’ll go ahead and take your bait. CHOMP! I just bit your hook.
Although you claim to speak for all Indians, there are plenty of NRIs in the US and Australia who write about their experiences in “mixed” marriages abroad. If you think the blogs are trivial, then don’t waste your time on them. Those of us who are in inter-cultural marriages don’t think that issues of maintaining identity, dealing with resistance to our marriages, and raising kids to understand both cultures are at all trivial.
In terms of spirituality, I agree with you that it’s important understand ones partner’s religious beliefs, but I actually find that many Americans take that idea too far. I find that religion is one of the areas in which many Westerners seem to exoticize and stereotype Indians, particularly Hindus. Personally, as a religious person myself, I find the American habit of appropriating Hindu practice and imagery obnoxious. Nor is being “hard-wired” with a religious world-view something endemic to India. We all have it in different ways, whether its Catholic guilt about hell or Muslim ideas about what constitutes a sin. Yes, we have different groundwork laid in our heads, but that’s part of what this whole blog-subculture is about–finding, learning about, and examining different cultures.
20. April 2010 at 6:16 am
I find that religion is one of the areas in which many Westerners seem to exoticize and stereotype Indians, particularly Hindus
you people do that because you people have been targeted by propaganda for years that only tells you that other cultures are backward that your own western culture.
what this whole blog-subculture is about–finding, learning about, and examining different cultures.
i don’t see that happening here.
26. April 2010 at 1:50 pm
Hi!
Found this on IHM with reference to our discussion on GGTS on Raising Confused Desi Daughters
http://indianhomemaker.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/what-do-men-need-liberation-from/#comment-25041
http://girlsguidetosurvival.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/desi-parenting-raising-confused-daughters/
Enjoy,
Desi Girl
29. April 2010 at 10:47 am
Thanks – I actually have Indian Homemaker in my RSS Reader already, although I don’t often comment there.
27. April 2010 at 9:07 pm
As I live in the midwest, I would love to hear how the meetup went. How many came? ???
29. April 2010 at 10:43 am
It went really well, Jamily. I think we had around twelve or fourteen people come, and we were all talking up a storm the whole time.
Highlights of the evenings include meeting GoriWife’s adorable little son, watching DJain throw down some belly dancing moves at the Moroccan restaurant we ate at (they had an in-house show that went on for a bit too long, but it was fun), and Aditya, myself, and another couple pretty much getting gently kicked out of the restaurant because they wanted to close, but we were still chatting.
29. April 2010 at 11:05 am
Sounds like you all had a blast! Hope you can have another one in the near future so we can attend!
19. January 2012 at 8:18 am
Hey Gori girl first of all thanks for your invitation. I will try to attend surely.