Friday, November 17, 2006

How did it know?

This one is too funny ... another one of those humorous and silly "blog quizzes" (via Sr. Susan Rose) ... "How will you be defined in the dictionary?"


Gashwin Gomes --

[noun]:

An alien



'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com


Heh. They are watching.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

An alien is a non-citizen resident of a country (aka: foreigner)!

Yep - You are one! (Grin)

Sincerely,

D.D.

assiniboine said...

Ah, but "aliens" have such useful insights on what is right (always welcome) and what is not right (this needs to be expressed tactfully), don't you find?

Incidentally, my Indian acquaintance here in Australia are streaming forth to take out citizenship now that India has selectively permitted dual nationality: only in countries it deems India-friendly, though, which Australia apparently is. (I really should get busy and do it myself: the fee for taking out citizenship is precisely the same as to renew one's "permanent" (for three years) resident status and the inconvenience of having to carry two passports is increasingly overborn by the repeated cost over time of being a resident alien.)

(I wonder if Canada still is -- India-friendly, that is -- now that the former Honourable Mr Justice Oppal -- a Canadian-born Sikh: and how, with his improbable given name of Wallace, nicknamed Wally, indeed -- has left the British Columbia Court of Appeal bench in favour of politics: he's now the provincial Attorney-General and he's really letting fly now that judicial inhibition on speaking one's mind no longer pertains: "The politically-correct conspiracy of silence has to come to an end," he says (well, I paraphrase). "The fact is that there is is a culture of tolerance for domestic violence among Indo-Canadians and it has to be brought to account." He's also letting fly as to the slow pace of litigation being brought to conclusion being in his view attributable to judicial laziness. MUCH tut-tutting from his former brethren and sistern (as 'twere), needless to say.

Will you be able to remain an Indian citizen if you take out US citizenship?

My Bohri Muslim friend's parents are coming from Bombay for Christmas. (Well why not: surely Christmas is not much of an event for Indian Muslims, other than in the present department -- wow, have they ever bought into that! -- and and it sure isn't here in Australia: the department stores have seriously missed out, I think. My kids think Christmas in North America is out of this world, and they haven't even experienced the Eaton's Santa Claus Parade in Toronto much less its prototype in NYC -- only the provincial lieutenant-governor's levee in Government House in Saskatchewan and Christmas Midnight Mass and the thrilling commercial hype and turkey dinner and Twelfth Night parties on January 5 before the tree comes down....)

Well, Hassan-Ali will get his favourite Carlton Mid-Strength lager (apparently Indian beer is somewhat for the birds) and Mrs Hassan-Ali her prodigiously cheap (by Indian standards) vodka and we might even get them in on an English turkey dinner. (But it must be ensured that they sit elsewhere than where the Muslims were last year: across the table from some Chinese doctors who seriously dug into the baked ham, provoking nausea in the Muslims.)

Do you suppose that an invitation to a slap-up high Anglican Xmas midnight mass would be beyond the pale? Not especially their cup of tea, obviously, but at least they would be persuaded that we're not entirely kaffir in these parts....

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

Right on about the insights of aliens, Assiniboine.

As to dual-citizenship: it's really with for Indian-origin citizens of countries that are, hmm, "developed." I.e. rich. I don't think Overseas Indian Citizenship is being granted to Guyanese or Fijians or Congolese or Trinidadians of Indian descent. Just the countries of "recent" emigration in the West. Canada, US, UK, Australian, NZ and so on.

When I do get naturalized as a US citizen, I intend to apply for Overseas Indian Citizenship. It confers most of the benefits of regular Indian nationality, with the exception of the right to vote. Seems fair.

Oh and do invite your friends to a Midnight Mass. Most Indians I know, regardless of religion, would appreciate the invitation, even if they don't accept.