Spring Break
LOST IN THOUGHT: The fantasy land of American wealth shapes the world
by Mohit Gourisaria
Columnists | 1/29/08
Posted online at 1:35 AM EST on 1/29/08
"America" is synonymous with "fantasy land" in many countries. I had my first acquaintance with America's greatness when I was barely five or six, studying in a boarding school on the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. My father used to live in New York for about six months every year during that period. And once, every year or so, he wrote me a postcard that bore that Statue of Liberty on its face.
This one time, as the postman was handing out a postcard to me, he stared at me with countenance mingled with admiration and disbelief. When I asked what was troubling him, he spoke in Nepali, and this is the best I can do to translate: "Sir, I hear that in Amreeca (his pronunciation for America), postmen have cars. Some people even say that if you do good in this life, you'll be born there in your next life."
Although my boarding school remained faithful to its British roots in the strictest of manners, some of America's glory often found its way into the institution. We were barely 12 or 13 when we had a good idea of whether we would leave for America, Britain, Japan or the Indian mainland when we grew older. I had been to nearly every continent before I came to America. Thus, it took me 20 years to begin to construe the world's obsession with the United States of America.
Hong Kong is Manhattan in Chinese sauce-narrow one-way streets; tall, glass-fronted multi-story buildings; Bossini, Guess, Diesel, AX, DKNY or Nike every hundred or so yards; flashy bank branches; billboards as tall as houses; and innumerable people walking about in haste. In fact, you need to only step into one of the stores to hear Kanye West or Akon's talent being given more respect than they could ever have dreamed of here.
However, the store clerk who seems to be admiring those lyrics, which many English speakers fail to understand, does not speak English; in fact, if you ask her for the cost of something, she will type numbers on a calculator. But when it comes to culture, they want to represent what they "think" America is. And the irony of our times is that America would feel alien if it were to ever step into its impersonated streets.
This one time, as the postman was handing out a postcard to me, he stared at me with countenance mingled with admiration and disbelief. When I asked what was troubling him, he spoke in Nepali, and this is the best I can do to translate: "Sir, I hear that in Amreeca (his pronunciation for America), postmen have cars. Some people even say that if you do good in this life, you'll be born there in your next life."
Although my boarding school remained faithful to its British roots in the strictest of manners, some of America's glory often found its way into the institution. We were barely 12 or 13 when we had a good idea of whether we would leave for America, Britain, Japan or the Indian mainland when we grew older. I had been to nearly every continent before I came to America. Thus, it took me 20 years to begin to construe the world's obsession with the United States of America.
Hong Kong is Manhattan in Chinese sauce-narrow one-way streets; tall, glass-fronted multi-story buildings; Bossini, Guess, Diesel, AX, DKNY or Nike every hundred or so yards; flashy bank branches; billboards as tall as houses; and innumerable people walking about in haste. In fact, you need to only step into one of the stores to hear Kanye West or Akon's talent being given more respect than they could ever have dreamed of here.
However, the store clerk who seems to be admiring those lyrics, which many English speakers fail to understand, does not speak English; in fact, if you ask her for the cost of something, she will type numbers on a calculator. But when it comes to culture, they want to represent what they "think" America is. And the irony of our times is that America would feel alien if it were to ever step into its impersonated streets.
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