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It’s become obvious, in this rather short exchange, that my attempts at helping you get your point across efficiently are failing. I haven’t seen your handle pop up in many threads over the past couple of months, have never responded to you and don’t see how your protestations of “having to say for the nth time” are valid. The migrant experience in America involves having to repeat many things ‘for the nth time’ and being at least good-humored when being prompted to do so. There are many things about myself which necessitate the certainly annoying but vitally important exercise of repeating myself to establish context.

quite simply, if you want everyone to know a contextual detail that automatically distinguishes you from the vast majority of commenters here, put it in your handle. i.e. “Meena from Amsterdam/Alkmar Noord/Den Hague/whathaveyou…” or include the detail in the comment.

You should not let your earlier experiences stop you from participating in some physical activity if you want now, remember it is never too late to start. Its great to be outdoors, also the choice doesn’t have to be all or nothing, for example hiking the entire Appalachian trail or being a couch potato. You can start small, go for a short hike, see how you enjoy it. Many a time I get through a crappy day, looking forward to my evening run around a lake in a local park.

So you might want to give physical/recreational activity a try before dismissing it completely. Being physically active is definitely not a waste of time and in fact it is something that makes life richer and worth living.

Okay getting off my soapbox now…

I don’t live in Amsterdam, but never mind that. I know very few Surinamese desis, so I have no idea if they are working class or not. I also know some Indians via my parents, and none of them eat mayonnaise(what is your obsession with mayo anyway?).

save the outrage for someone who cares. If you bothered to qualify your “all desis eschew exercise” statement with “in xxx country” then people would know WTF context was in which your experience was grounded. fyi I have relatives in Europe and none of them exhibit this supposed desi-specific indolence of which you seem so sure.

I’m sorry you took my comment as being outraged; but the internet doesn’t allow for proper contextualization. Save your snark for someone else, please. Why are you so eager to be offended?

i must be atypical here – many desis i know went camping as kids. we camped a few times (not reccommended during Tassie springs).

My interest is peaked… what’s the name of this camp? / Is there a website?

my guru made ample use of the yardstick, rubber bands, and guilt-tripping. perhaps these newbies just need some of that?

The camp i’m referring to cost the parents a couple grand (outside of travel expenses, some would come from overseas), had at least 6 hours of dancing time every day in addition to hatha yoga. It’s a few weeks of intensive, forest-academy style instruction. It’s not something that lends itself easily to carefree participation–it’s certainly fun if you like to dance but it’s also a much higher workload for the newbies than anything they’ve ever taken on before.

My original point was that there are slackers in both BN and cricket.

PG Wodehouse,

I do not teach because i’m a terrible teacher and i’m woefully out of practice–never pass on what you can’t do yourself and all…

Meena: Are the desis in Amsterdam mostly Surinamese? Are they working class or professionals? If they are directly from South Asia, are they from India or Pakistan? Do they dip their naan in mayo ?