Desi Manifesto Blog: The Forum for South Asian American Men

Reader P’s story of “the burrito”: P is an Indian guy in his early to mid 20s in LA. Works in a corporate-ish building, though his company is relatively relaxed in dress code.

During lunch break, he grabbed some food to go and made his way back to the office. As he rode the elevator up, bag with food in hand, the door opened and another building worker (different company) entered…

“Well she was a white woman probably in her late 30s. I was coming up from the parking garage and the door opened on the ground floor, I was about to step off but then I stopped and realized it was the wrong floor. She got on the elevator, looked at me and smiled, then said: “Let me guess, you’re delivering a burrito?”

Terrible couple of weeks for large swaths of Asia, from the South to the East to the Southeast. Whether it was Cyclone Nargis bludgeoning Burma (though perhaps the ruling military junta’s indignant stance is the greater tragedy as her people suffer), the 7.9 magnitude quake in central China, or the terrorist attacks in Jaipur, India, this has been a devastating and shitty month for the most populous regions of the world.

Sometimes I feel resigned to the cycle. If Buddha and the Gita had it right, life is just suffering. Is this an un-Disney circle of life? Maybe this is just how things go, and will we ever change anything unless we change everything? And what new problems will those changes bring?

We were also invaded by a couple different groups throughout history, and on the whole, we’ve been stepped on because of our race, deemed to be inferior to the invading stock. I believe we’ve proven otherwise. But if we’re so stupid that we then turn around and do the same to another race in our very position, I feel we’re only proving that we may indeed lack mentally. At the very least, we’re not learning from history.

Sure, the news in general is skewed towards the twisted aspects of daily life as opposed to the righteous and uplifting. But that’s even more exaggerated regarding Muslims in American media. This is the one article I’ve read in many months that portrays Muslims in a positive light. That’s about a 25-to-1 ratio.

Do you honestly believe there are 25 atrocities committed by Muslims for every one virtuous act? I do not.