Archive for March, 2007
Mar 18th, 2007, 07:41 pm
A disappointingly high percentage of young men in Argentina sport mullets and rattails. A firm believer in the grotesqueness of these haircuts, I cannot help but cringe when I see preppy Argentine boys acting like they’re all that with those things flopping behind their heads. Still, I wonder if growing a mullet will help me win the hearts of Argentine women. I mean, why else would all these guys have such hideous hair?
Do my thoughts make me ethnocentric, or even worse, racist? I think not. Well, maybe a little of the former.
Posted in Argentina, Fashion | 11 Comments | Trackback
Mar 17th, 2007, 01:38 am
I dearly miss Bangladeshi dawats. They formed an integral part of my life growing up. Because I’ve always lived in places with small Bangladeshi communities, dawats (invitations) were my primary source of socialization with Bangladeshi Americans and Muslims from my early years till high school.
“What the $%#@ is a dawat?” Well, first you can tone down your language. I believe dawat means invitation in Bengali, but in the context of Bangladeshi American life, it means a get together of family friends, who are almost always Bangladeshi. Sometimes you get the occasional white guy who works at your dad’s office who obviously feels really uncomfortable and out of place. And he usually comments about how spicy the food is.
Dawats are especially important for the older, immigrant generation. Not quite comfortable with American life, they find solace in socializing with other Bangladeshi immigrants. Dawats allow them to talk to others with whom they can relate. When I was younger, I didn’t understand why my parents loved dawats so much. But now, as an American living in Argentina, I can totally empathize. Whenever I meet Americans randomly in Buenos Aires, I feel like I’ve met a long-lost friend, even though we probably wouldn’t care to hang out with each other back home. It’s funny how that works.
The younger, American-raised generation has mixed feelings about the dawat scene. There are those who absolutely hate them to those who love going for the food. Because they are more comfortable with American culture than their parents and have friends outside of their Bangladeshi circle, they generally don’t rely on dawats as their prime source of socialization.
I’ve been to dawats across the U.S., and they all seem to consist of the same things. They typically start with guests arriving at least twenty to thirty minutes late. Even though they were told to come at seven, they think it’s no big deal to show up nearly an hour later. The uncles then go to the living room while the aunties congregate in the vicinity of the kitchen or some other room. Keeping with tradition, males and females are almost totally segregated. Also keeping with tradition, the females, especially the aunties and teenage girls, almost always wear saris and salwar kameezes. And the guys, well, they just wear Western garb. The toddlers and little kids run around the house screaming, or they find toys to keep them occupied. Then they run around the house screaming. The older kids and teenagers play video games or hang out in some isolated area. Oh yeah, the teenage guys and girls try not to acknowledge each other too much, fearing that their parents might suspect some shadiness. This definitely applies to the college crowd, who I will talk about right now. In between uncles/aunties and high schoolers, they’re not quite sure where they fit in. They try to avoid talking with the elders too much because they have this feeling that they’re trying to hook them up with some girl or guy in Chittagong.
After hanging out for about an hour, dinner is served. It typically consists of Bangladeshi fare, but “American” dishes such as ravioli may be served to satisfy the American-raised youngsters. Drinks usually consist of soda and water. Oftentimes, there won’t be any silverware, and one must ask for a spoon or fork. I was (and still am) that person.
About two hours after dinner, mishti (sweets) and cha (tea) are served. Of course, no good dawat is complete without roshogollas. These days, many families even serve “American” dishes, like store-bought pumpkin pie. We have to try to be American sometimes, you know.
The dawat can end anywhere from one to several hours after desert. There never is an official end time. In fact, they can last all night. I’ve never been to a dawat like this, but I’ve heard crazy stories about how some lasted till the crack of dawn. We really know how to party.
Posted in South Asians, Bangladesh | 14 Comments | Trackback
Mar 13th, 2007, 11:58 pm
The professional dog walker to dog ratio in Buenos Aires must be something like 2:9. I don’t think I had ever seen a professional dog walker prior to arriving here three weeks ago. Once I saw this huge, buff guy with a body like The Rock walk about ten big perros at the same time. That takes a lot of strength. But that dude was an exceptional case. Most of the dog walkers seem to be average-sized women walking dogs of various sizes. However, it’s still not uncommon to see these people walk about five to ten dogs simultaneously. I wonder how they keep them from fighting each other.
The billions of dogs in this city also means there’s a lot of dog doo on the sidewalks. I accidentally stepped on some yesterday.
Posted in Argentina | 1 Comment | Trackback
Mar 12th, 2007, 02:03 am
Yesterday I hung out with a few Argentine Muslims. The Centro Cultural Islámico Rey Fahd served lunch and hosted a day of soccer, pool, and Ping-Pong. I heard about it at jummah, and I thought I’d check it out to meet some locals.
I met a bunch of people, mostly Argentine converts. Typically, our conversations began with questions about where I’m from, my ethnic origins, and discrimination against American Muslims. They seemed impressed that I could speak Spanish. I was told that I speak it well a few times, but I don’t know if they were just saying that to be nice. I think I speak it well until I don’t know how to say something, which happens a lot.
As I mentioned in my post about my first visit to the masjid, the Muslim community seems very small. There were only about thirty people at this massive masjid. According to a few sources, there over half a million Argentines of Muslim ancestry, but few of them identify as Muslims or practice. Sadly, Islam mostly died out with the first Arab Muslim immigrants. There was a large wave of Arab immigration from the Ottoman Empire before World War I. Although most of these immigrants were Christians (from Lebanon and Syria), there were many Muslims as well. Yet, Islam didn’t last long. A convert I met said that they didn’t have the education or time to preserve their Islamic identity. ¡Qué lástima!
As a side note, Arabs were the third largest immigrant group in Argentina after Italians and Spaniards. I bet you didn’t know that.
The Muslim presence in Latin America is quite intriguing. Although it’s not nearly as large and vibrant as the North American Muslim community, it’s still alive and well. North American Muslims should take the time and effort to learn about their southern neighbors, especially considering most of us don’t even know there are Muslims here. Before I decided to study abroad, I have to admit that I was pretty ignorant about Latin American Muslims too. Heck, I didn’t even know there was an America outside the real America.
On a totally different topic, I ate about a quarter pound of fried cheese for lunch on Saturday. Disgusting. Oh, the joys of living in a new country and not knowing for sure what you order.
Posted in Argentina, Islam/Muslims, Latin America, Life | 2 Comments | Trackback
Mar 11th, 2007, 01:33 am
 The amount of graffiti in Buenos Aires is astounding. You see it everywhere, from rich to poor neighborhoods, from tourist spots to residential areas. I’ve never seen so much street art. I don’t understand what most of them mean because they’re typically in slang, but the ones I do understand are often political and graphic (as in, using illustrations instead of words).
I don’t know why graffiti is so ubiquitous here, but perhaps it’s because of the massive political and economic turmoil Argentina has faced over the past few decades. In the U.S., graffiti is most often present in marginalized neighborhoods. It serves as a form of expression for the voiceless youth. Could it be that so many porteño (Buenos Aires residents) youngsters feel powerless and angry at the “system”?
Posted in Argentina, Art | No Comments | Trackback
Mar 9th, 2007, 11:31 pm
 I went to the Centro Cultural Islámico Rey Fahd (King Fahd Islamic Cultural Center) today for jummah prayer. It was my third trip there. My first one was two Sundays ago, but no one was at the gate. And my second trip was yesterday, when I walked there in the pouring rain for a guided tour. Unfortunately, the guy at the gate told me they don’t give tours when it rains. Blah. But I was successful today, despite the security. In fact, I had to tell the guards I’m Muslim so that they’d let me in.
The masjid is enormous and breathtaking. The prayer spaces can accomodate up to 2,000 people. However, I doubt the place will reach anywhere near full capacity anytime in the forseeable future. There were only about fifty men (I didn’t see the women’s section). That’s tiny. That’s about how many people go to Friday prayers at the compartively miniscule masjid in Springfield, Illinois. You would expect to find a huge Muslim community when you see a masjid of such massive proportions.
Before the khutbah began, I met two guys from Bangladesh. They came from the motherland about a month ago to work, knowing zero Spanish. One of them had a Bengali to English to Spanish book, which I didn’t even know existed. The same guy also told me that there are about twenty Bangladeshis in Buenos Aires. Ever since coming to Argentina, I’ve really missed the company of other desis, especially Bangladeshis, so it was comforting to meet these guys. I spoke to them in Banglish because I suck at speaking Bengali, so I just mixed my two native tongues. It was especially hard for me to speak Bengali because I kept thinking in Spanish. Embarrassingly, I accidentally blurted out Spanish words a few times when I meant to say something in Bengali.
 It’s quite interesting that Bangladeshis would come to Argentina to work. This country doesn’t exactly strike me as a land of opportunity. My guess is that it’s easier for Bangladeshis to get into Argentina than the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other English-speaking countries. Argentina is much more developed than Bangladesh, so maybe that’s part of the draw. Still, I consider Argentina somewhere between the developing and developed worlds.
After praying, I checked out the masjid library because it seemed to be a happening place. There was a class, where the students were memorizing and reciting verses from the Qur’an. I decided to stay around for a bit to get a feel for the place. While there, I met an Argentine who converted to Islam two weeks ago. Pretty cool. I also signed up for a free, weekly Arabic class. I’ve wanted to learn to read and write Arabic for years, so I figured that I should take advantage of this opportunity. It should be quite an experience to learn Arabic through Spanish, my third language.
 I was quite surprised to see a guy teaching a predominantly female group in a masjid. In the U.S., there would have be an uproar. Beards would be ripped, hijabs would be torn. I even felt sort of weird looking at a group of women (I was sitting up front, facing the students) in an Islamic place of worship. I don’t mind hanging out with girls at all, but this just wasn’t what I’m used to. Conservatism runs deep in immigrant Muslim communities in North America, where most masjids are heavily segregated by gender, often questionably. I think most of these students were Argentine converts, who mostly appeared to be in their 40s and 50s.
Now that I’ve met a few Muslims in Argentina, I don’t feel as alien in this unfamiliar country. I feel somewhat foreign around my American peers and even more foreign around Argentines, but, fortunately, I think I’ve found a great compromise.
Posted in Argentina, Islam/Muslims, Life | 3 Comments | Trackback
Mar 9th, 2007, 10:53 pm
In my eighteen days in Argentina, I’ve learned five very important things:
- A disproportionate percentage of the girls here are amazingly attractive. I heard about this before coming here from a few of my friends who had been to Argentina, but I didn’t quite believe it. I mean, is it really possibly for that many people to look good? Yes, it is. I really hope plastic surgery isn’t the reason behind it. That would just kill everything. And for you ladies and gay guys out there, I’ve been told the guys here are good-looking as well.
- Argentines are very Eurocentric. They seem to look at Europe for inspiration, not Latin America. For example, Buenos Aires is known as the Paris of South America. Why must everything be related back to Europe? Perhaps this is because the vast majority of Argentines are of European descent, while the rest of Latin Americans come from more diverse, mixed origins (indigenous, European, African, Asian, etc.). Still. This ain’t Europa.
- Argentine beef makes American beef taste like trash. The steaks here are truly delicious, but eating beef twice a day gets annoying.
- Always ask where the colectivos, or city buses, go if you’re not sure. Otherwise, you may end up in an strange, dangerous place many kilómetros from your home at night. Did I learn this from experience? Maybe.
- Argentines call Indians from India hindús. I don’t like this term at all. It’s so misleading because not all Indians are Hindus.
Wanna know what else I learn about Argentina? Making lungis.com a regular part of your daily routine.
Posted in Argentina, Life | 1 Comment | Trackback
Mar 9th, 2007, 10:47 pm
After a year-long hiatus, lungis.com is up and running again! Please excuse the generic default layout. A new layout is in the works (seriously).
Posted in lungis.com | 1 Comment | Trackback
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