Post: #76

Indian women used to walk around topless before the Islamic invasions about 1000 years ago. It seems that the ancient Indians liked their curves in the right places.



I think Indian culture was closer to Thai culture in it's attitudes towards sex before the Muslims and British arrived.

This is from 1000 year old Indian temple know as Khajuraho:



India was a very sexual place before the prudish foreigners changed its culture.

Even to this day, some Hindu sects have the Shiva Lingam in their temple:



This is about the energy of god - It's a stone phallus and I'm sure that there's no need to tell you guys what the milk represents!

Also, the Kama Sutra was written around the same time as the New Testament of the Bible.

Post: #77

(12-04-2013 02:10 PM)Wutang Wrote:  Had no idea it was mostly the elite Brahmin class that immigrated to the US, interesting. I always thought it was the poorer, darker skinned ones that had to resort to leaving the country in order to get ahead since they would have very little social mobility in their home country. I live in NJ which has a big Indian population in the central area of the state and I've met quite a few South Indian Christians over the years.

It really depends where you are - there's a lot of "untouchable" Indian Punjabis in northern California and in UK. Many have been in the US or UK since the 1960s. Because they come from the bottom rung of Indian society, they're pretty down to earth people and the women don't have this "princess" attitude. The women get put in the kitchen at a young age and as a result of this most of these women can cook...they're most not career women and many have never been to college. This has been changing in the last 10-15 years and many are starting to go to college.

A lot of the "untouchable" Punjabis drink, smoke, screw around & like to party. I know many that have been to jail. They're a world away from the FOB IT/Engineering nerds who come and work in the US & UK. I remembering asking some south Indian IT guys what they did for fun in India - they said that they played chess! A lot of the nightclubs in some UK towns are owned or run by Punjabi people.

I've come across many Indians in the US who are non-drinkers or vegetarians..most of the "untouchable" UK or US born Indians eat and drink anything.

There's Indians all over the world and a lot of the labourers in the Middle East are from a poor background. However, there are rich Indians in the middle east too - a lot of doctors and jewellery guys are Indian.

Indians Unseat Antwerp's Jews As the Biggest Diamond Traders

Post: #78

(12-06-2013 02:53 PM)WalterBlack Wrote:  It really depends where you are - there's a lot of "untouchable" Indian Punjabis in northern California and in UK. Many have been in the US or UK since the 1960s. Because they come from the bottom rung of Indian society, they're pretty down to earth people and the women don't have this "princess" attitude. The women get put in the kitchen at a young age and as a result of this most of these women can cook...they're most not career women and many have never been to college. This has been changing in the last 10-15 years and many are starting to go to college.

A lot of the "untouchable" Punjabis drink, smoke, screw around & like to party. I know many that have been to jail. They're a world away from the FOB IT/Engineering nerds who come and work in the US & UK. I remembering asking some south Indian IT guys what they did for fun in India - they said that they played chess! A lot of the nightclubs in some UK towns are owned or run by Punjabi people.

I've come across many Indians in the US who are non-drinkers or vegetarians..most of the "untouchable" UK or US born Indians eat and drink anything.

There's Indians all over the world and a lot of the labourers in the Middle East are from a poor background. However, there are rich Indians in the middle east too - a lot of doctors and jewellery guys are Indian.

Indians Unseat Antwerp's Jews As the Biggest Diamond Traders

The Punjabis are rarely untouchables. The absolute lowest castes in the Punjab don't have anything approaching the resources and money required to move to the states. Most Punjabi, Pakistani, and Afghan immigrants to the states are, however, poorer and more prone to crime than peninsular Indian-Americans. These three groups, however, tend to look better, party harder, and pull better than most other South Asians.

Punjabis are pretty common around San Jose in the SF Bay Area and throughout the East Bay(Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo etc.) The lower-income one basically match the description you just provided(minus the caste thing). There are also plenty of richer Punjabis, however.

Chances are, if you meet an Indian guy with game, he's Punjabi. I myself hail from Tamil Nadu, and, apart from a few friends of Carnatic and Telugu origin, I have never met another South Indian with any semblance of game.

I personally believe Punjabi culture is the most alpha in India. There's little of the monasticism and vegetarianism that typifies South Indian culture, nor is there any real belief in pacifism. While religion in the Punjab(both Hindu and Muslim) has a long tradition of advocating nonviolence and universal love, you only have to look at the history of the area to understand that these people will fight when necessary, and are very good at doing so. This is the warrior race of India. These are the descendants of the people who served as the subcontinent's first line of the defense, the race who broke the morale of Alexander's army, routed the Huns and Muslims numerous times, and refused to ever fully submit to the Mughal emperors. The Punjabi Sikh empire of Ranjit Singh gave the British one of the best fights they would ever receive at the hands of a native polity. Even after colonization, most of Britain's Indian recruits were Sikhs of Punjabi descent.

Post: #79

agreed with above post. Punjabi that are in US/Canada are often from middle to upper class... Because of agriculture revolution these people made out like bandits and it allowed them to migrate to canada/US.
You'd think these guys have game simply because they are the most outgoing extrovert people in India. Of course they also tend to have fairer skin as compared to South Indians.
About Vegetarianism... The break up of caste system, only Pundits/Priests/Brahmin in India who follow a Veg diet. Warrior Caste (Kshatriya) often ate meat, drank wine and all that stuff... Merchant caste were never fixed, some followed veg diet, some didn't. Last were Service class which weren't wealthy enough to buy non-veg.
As only wealthy people can leave the country, you'd see more of Brahmin or merchant class and it added to the stereotype of leaf eaters in India...

Post: #80

Ha yeah I remember seeing a Sikh guy with the turban at this nightlife spot ordering a big load of shots a while back. And I knew about how the British made use of them as soldiers and police through out their Asian empire. Anglo-Saxons are one of the most xenophobic people out there so if they saw something in the Sikhs it must be legit. I vaguely recall hearing a story about how a small group of Sikh soldiers managed to hold off hundreds of Muslim fights for a long time during some battle.

Post: #81

Someone said this was a stimulating thread. I agree, completely.

Indian culture is something close to me and part of me. It’s a part that I have had to often times hide or “set aside” to get ahead in the west. Some of this part is lost because of this “assimilation.” In a sense, it’s great because I have become westernized and accepted into mainstream U.S. culture. In contrast, it may I have left behind something that was once strong, only because it was bastardized by those inside and even outside of India just to gain some power. This is not just my story, but probably something that even resonates with you Indian players on the forum. Honestly, finding the forum has actually gotten me closer to these true roots than I was before even given the IRT flaming. That being said, I really would like to leave a few cents behind.

Sanskrit usage in the south: I hail from the deep south (Kerala). I’ve never really lived there but my parents are from there and I visited enough. South Indian languages are very different to Hindi. However, you will notice a lot of Sanskrit words used in the mainstream Southern languages than used in Hindi. I’m not going to pretend to know the exact reason why. However, my main theory is likely had to do with early North Indian influence that left it behind and it continued strong fueled by the South Indians’ refusal to conform to the North Indian norms.

Sex and Hinduism: I went to India in 2011. I hadn’t dropped a data sheet because I didn’t think it would be worth it. Now I’m reconsidering it. I was driving with some old friends I grew up with from Haryana to Punjab for another friend’s wedding. We made a lot of pit stops. One of the most interesting conversations I had was at a gas station with a random villager. He insisted that Krishna (one of the most consistently worshipped gods across India, North and South) was chaste. Krishna was anything but. The entire Kamasutra was somewhat based on the relations Krishna had with the town Gopis. They would get wet at the sight of him. From when he was a teenager, he would steal the girls’ clothes off of the river banks as they bathe. He also played the flute which attracted a lot of these gopis to his music. I know that this flute was not the only long object Krishna was using. Krishna also had one of the first “fuck-buddies” I have heard of. Radha, his “consort” was a friend of his. She was in love with him. He still messed around with the gopis. They never were in an LTR. Fast forward to today: almost every place where Krishna is worshipped, Radha is right next to him. Krishna even got married later to someone else. Yet, he is worshipped along with Radha. Yet, still, there are thirsty Indian dudes at gas stations that deny the ancient wisdom. I can go on and on but I’ll leave with one thing. Krishna is also the character in the Mahabharat (piggybacking from Bojangles above) who shows Arjun what Karma really is through the Bhagvad-Gita. The Bhagvad-Gita describes a lot of things like letting go of anxiety, embracing oneself and how to practice yoga (not just the physical kind, but many others). Arjun needed this because he was facing his cousins and uncles across the battlefield. I heard this story from my grandfather’s mouth in old prose and then he described it plainly. An experience I’ll cherish until the day I die. Krishna was and will forever remain etched in my memory as the first character I knew about with game.

Pedestalization: India has a huge pedestalization culture. Huge! When I was there a few years ago, there were white 5-s getting attention that not even 7+ get from hungry and thirsty dudes in the states. This pedestalization is an offshoot of Indian hospitality. They want guests to see and experience their culture at its fullest. So in the confusion between the ego resulting from pedestalization of their own culture and pedestalization through hospitality, they may forget about themselves and who they truly are. I think many have taken advantage of this, including the British. A success focused mentality does exist within these people. This is the majority just seems to want to get by and increase their current standard of living rather than excel. Look at all the IT professionals that are satisified with learning code and building systems.

Martial arts: I was lucky enough to grow up around the “Kalari” culture. It is an old South Indian martial art that is still practiced, albeit minimally, in Kerala. The weapons can be pretty badass. Some guys can wield this snakish double edged long sword. Kalari was practiced by Chekavars, an offshoot of the “Kshatriyas” or warrior caste but in South India. As the influence of Christianity grew in Kerala with the onslaught of western trade, some of these Chekavars were actually Christian. These Chekavars ended up being the sportsman of their time. India was known to be fairly divided with no real unity. Kings always got into arguments over territory. In North India, they would typically fight it out on the battlefield. The South Indian time of the Chekavars was a little different. The kings “outsourced” the fight to the Chekavars who fought on each king’s behalf. The Chekavar who won kept his king’s pride (and land). It seemed like a system that worked for quite some time. The martial art was so good that it is known as the basis of Chinese martial arts such as Kung-Fu. It just sucks that it’s not so well known.

Shit, I could go on forever, but I’ll take a break for now.

Post: #82

(12-07-2013 01:22 PM)Wutang Wrote:  Ha yeah I remember seeing a Sikh guy with the turban at this nightlife spot ordering a big load of shots a while back. And I knew about how the British made use of them as soldiers and police through out their Asian empire. Anglo-Saxons are one of the most xenophobic people out there so if they saw something in the Sikhs it must be legit. I vaguely recall hearing a story about how a small group of Sikh soldiers managed to hold off hundreds of Muslim fights for a long time during some battle.

The battle you're talking about is called the Battle of Chamkaur. 44 Sikh soldiers fought thousands of Muslim soldiers who were a part of the Mogul empire and wanted to kill the Sikhs for not converting to Islam. All 44 soldiers died but killed 3/4 of the opposing army in the process. Punjabi people are like the Scandinavians of India. Taller, less prude, like to drink and very involved in strength sports.

One of the popular sports played by Punjabi people (who are almost all Sikh) is called kabaddi

Post: #83

That's actually not true, most Punjabis are muslim. Remember, Punjab itself was partitioned in 1947, with a mass exodus that followed. The Pakistani part of Punjab has about 100mil people, there's maybe 20-30mil Sikhs in the world? Nevertheless, most if not all Sikhs are Punjabi.

As for Chamkaur...it's questionable how accurate those numbers are. Guru Govind Ji said his warriors faced a million foes. I assume he meant a million as a metaphor for many people. One has to wonder just how many there really were. I mean, if you asked me to look at a crowd of people and guess if there were 1000 or 10,000 people, I wouldn't be able to tell you. If I had to take a guess, those 44 brave warriors most likely faced several hundreds. But several thousands?

Keep in mind that the 300 Spartans, although facing a massive army, had a huge tactical advantage of not having to face the entire army all at once. Unless a similar situation presented itself at Chamkaur, I don't believe 44 guys would have been to kill 75% of several thousands guys.

That said, the Sikh regiment is the most decorated regiment in the Indian Army. So they're definitely some badass fighters.