How about “chota lingam”?

Chockalingam is pronounced "chok-ka-lingam" and not "chok-kay-lingam". So what the probs?

That’s because Letterman was thinking of a different pronunciation for Chokalingam.

Or in Tamil: Vera Chokalingam.

Oh man, I almost cracked up at work. Well played.

That’s because Letterman was thinking of a different pronunciation for Chokalingam.

Or in Tamil: Vera Chokalingam.

thanks

Comments like this remind me of what I love about SM comment boards. Y’all can be so funneee

And your last comment reminds me of what I love about SM. That was brilliant and beautiful. Thank you.

180 · annoyed said

and I will hopefully not post again for the next few years and get on with facing some real life discrimination

don’t forget to leave ample time to feel sorry for yourself. all those hurt feelings might be offended if you don’t nurse them properly.

Comments like this remind me of what I love about SM comment boards. Y’all can be so funneee

annoyed: Seriously, “next frontier for the civil rights movement”? I understand your point about not reading tone into your words, but your words do get a bit (unintentionally?) bombastic sometimes.

I’m not American born, but I washed up here in my early teens and had to assimilate pretty quickly. When teachers carefully ignore your waving hand in class because they don’t want the bother of trying to understand your “foreign” accent, and kids follow you around calling you “dot-head” (esp neat since I don’t wear a bindi) … color me talented but I sure did get my As pancake-flat and stopped rrrrrrrolling my Rs to sound like a proper midwesterner mighty darn quick.

Anyway, I understand how frustrating it can be when people focus on how you say something instead of what you’re actually saying. But most ABCD (ABD? what terms are we using for PC reasons again? I can’t keep up) commenters on SM talk about “FOBs” and “Aunties” and “Uncles” and accents with the kind of mockery that comes from and is tempered with love and a slight sense of longing… love for their accented FOB parents/aunts/uncles and a sense of longing for the South Asia they represent and talk about. Going to visit is never the same as being “from” there, you know? They are just different, and that difference, with no judgements, is what this blog tries to address…. I think

I used to think it was rather ridiculous how ABD kids would obsess (in my eyes) over parent’s tea drinking habits or desi dishes or some other minor detail…I was trying to Americanize as fast as I possibly could and dealing with geopolitical identity issues (was a very angsty teen) and here they were bragging about how they could also make dhal? But I’ve been here so long I can’t say I’m ‘from’ my country of birth anymore and I’ve caught myself getting weirdly excited when I find someone else who likes Marmite.

So my point is, please don’t assume the motives of everyone who comments or what this blog is about based on your interpretation of our interpretation of a few words.

156 · annoyed said

Sorry to be blunt, but that doesn’t sound convincing. There must be more credible reasons why you avoided speaking Punjabi at the time. I applaud that you took the effort later to learn the language.

You know what? That is the truth and no offense but I don’t really care whether you believe me OR applaud me–just as I’d hope you don’t really give a hoot what I think. We’re just strangers passing by each other on teh interwebs, who cares? It’s Friday!

and I will hopefully not post again for the next few years and get on with facing some real life discrimination

don’t forget to leave ample time to feel sorry for yourself. all those hurt feelings might be offended if you don’t nurse them properly.

Nopus copus.I am sorry if I failed to clarify ( but I think I did). There was,what I consider to be a failure to acknowledge/understand a certain viewpoint and that was mildly grating but I do not think there was,from my side, any allegation or even insinuation of malicious intent(at least from anyone on SM).That is not to say that the systematic malice is entirely non-existent ……your viewpoint seems to be ‘even if there is’,its ignoreworthy,my viewpoint is that,given the PCness that exists on SM otherwise, its not.Maybe that is all there is to it.

By calling this thread “relatively civil,” I only meant that, despite the barbs and jibes, this is relatively smooth.