Western-isation

This is not something new that I am going to scribble about. All of us know how western we are in India and how indian we are in the US.

But some incidents do deserve mention here.

Incident #1:

I had taken my daughter to the play park in our complex and he is a conversation between 2 boys (may be 14 and 12).(the language has not been tempered with to keep the authenticity)
Boy #1- You know what.....my dad has a friend Joe who lives in Manhattan.....You know what Manhattan is? It is in New York.
Boy#2- Yeah I know New York. It is in US.
Boy #1- Yeah....but Manhattan is the business place in New York. New York is a State. But Manhattan is where this Joe lives.
Boy#2- Nodding his head all through
Boy #1- Whenever my dad visits US, which is every 2-3 months, he meets joe and one night they went for drinks some place in Manhattan and........

"Went for drinks", "Dude"- This is not the language 12-13 years olds spoke when we were grown ups(like 20-24).
Now this boy #1's dad must have had many friends with whom he went for coffee, tea, dinner. But since this guy Joe is a white, lives in Manhattan and with Joe, the dad went for "drinks", so this deserves a special mention. Also, this gave boy #1 a chance to flaunt his US knowledge and his Dad's foreign trips.

Incident #2-
Twin 13 year old girls talking to a simple 10 year old friend-

Twin Girl 1- We got to get going now since mom might be home any time now and I am feeling hungry also.(it was about 9:30 in the night and mom was still not home with teenagers! Hmmmmmmmm! May be I am too old-fashioned now).
Simple Girl- Oh! Is your mom back from the trip?Where had she gone to?
Twin Girl 1- She went to japan this time. And she has got us Wii this time.
Simple Girl- "Wow!!"
Twin Girl 2- Yeah Last year we got Laptops from US, this year we got Wii and Dad is bringing us iPods for our birthday.
Simple girl- Nods head and smiles while trying to hide her actual feelings about it."What is Wii?"
Twin Girls- Hahaha
Twin Girl 2- Wii is a latest Video game kind of a thing and you can plug it to your TV and play games.
Simple Girl- Oh! You know we are going on a cruise during summer break?(may be trying to hide her simplicity or modest family)
twin Girl 1- Oh That will be nice. We have been on cruise. It is soooooo cool! We ate cakes like anything.
Twin Girl 2- I dont like cakes. I love Pies.
Twin Girl 1- We are going to hong kong Disney land next to next saturday.
Simple girl- I got to go home now. Mom wull get upset.

How young kids are influenced by US is amazing(read shocking) here. We also drooled at the thought of travelling abroad or disneyland when were their age but these guys sound so wanna bes to me. And yes. Another girl who lives in our complex speaks english with a very strong american accent.....and I know she has never been to US. :)

Dude, Cool, kick ass, s***, F***, are the words for kids these days. We grown ups have to invent stronger words to express our feelings. And some parents dont seem to mind.