How messed up is this world?

I had one of my normally decent, non-bothersome colleagues at work give me a dressing down for some things today that I didn't quite appreciate... and I figured I would make a point of it by writing. He took issue with the fact that I didn't know who Matt Damon was and how I didn't watch any of Matt Damon's 40 odd films and how that was a terrible thing for me. He took further issue with the fact that I didn't really know too much about Michael Jackson's thriller (apparently the most watched video on earth or some such poppycock). Right. I told him that where I grew up, Michael Jackson wasn't exactly the most popular thing. Apparently I was wrong. To support his claim he sent me two things. One was a youtube video. I refuse to embed it on my blog because it a pile of piping hot shite. But you can watch it here. The second was the website of the Indian Michael Jackson fan club. The terms 'Indian Michael Jackson fan club' somehow sound wrong in structure, but leave that aside for now. I knew one person and one person only in India who actually listened to Michael Jackson's crotch grabbing music... and that was my cousin. I think I once saw a video (when we used to first get MTV in Madras... before too many other cable TV channels) of a black Michael Jackson with Sir Paul McCartney I think. Perhaps that is a figment of my imagination.

Anyway, this is going to be a rant, so prepare yourself. I have lived in the 'West' for half my life easily. To many, perhaps, I am a Westerner. I definitely have some of their characters. I use and abuse resources... I drive a car when I can, I eat what they eat (cows, pigs, raw fish etc), I fly regularly across the continent (not enough... sometimes) and generally, I am a fat, loud bastard. But, make no mistake, I am not a Westerner in your run-of-the-mill, Michael Jackson crotch-grabbing, Matt Damon movie-watching sense. I don't know exactly what I am... I was born in India, I have lived on 4 continents... and I am now living in the capital of the United States of Americaland.

And I am just fine with who I am. I don't follow sports. At least not sport people in North America follow. I find baseball boring. I find American and Canadian football downright silly. I find ice hockey violent and I don't really like basketball because I tried to play it once and decided that you needed to be 7 feet tall to have a shot at putting the ball in the basket. Does that make me a terrible person? I don't give a flying fuck who the New England Patriots are or who Tom Brady is. I don't care that there is an American League and a National League in baseball... nor do I care that there are a hundred million games a season in baseball. I don't care particularly for golf or anything of that sort. Again, I ask you, does that somehow diminish the quality of my life?

I watch football. The real kind. Where men dress in shorts and play ball (as in something that is round) with their feet. Mostly Internationals... not so much the premier league or La liga or the Bundesliga or Copa Libertadores variety. I will watch it if I have nothing else to do. That makes me happy. Just watching the scores of the recent Finland vs Germany draw was enough for me. I was thrilled to bits. And it seemed, I was the only one. The enlightened bastards around me wouldn't know a football if it came up and said, hello, I am a football.

I used to watch Cricket. I can still spend a day watching a good game of cricket. I will when I go home. Am I somehow living a less than fulfilled life as a result? Don't get me wrong, I do watch the odd ice-hockey game too; in fact, I've been to a half a dozen or so, so far in my life. And never to one cricket match. I've curled. I loved it. I will do it again, the next chance I get. Does that make me somehow a lesser human being?

I can honestly say that I rarely if ever watch films. I hated Indian run-around-the-trees-in-the-rain-while-wailing-some-terrible-song type movies forever. And I _am_ Indian. I described just about every Indian movie that was ever made right there. They have little to no substance, they are unrealistic and full of the hottest piles of shit that side of the Indian Ocean. And somehow, they sell. Does that make me narrow minded?

I have rarely watched many so called Hollywood films either. I have never seen the Matrix or Star Wars or Star Trek or Matt-Damon-run-around-the-place-shooting-up-stuff movies. I don't care for them either. Star Crap movies are weird. They have creatures with things growing off their faces. I watch funny movies. I will watch a movie with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, even if it is the same for 5 sequels. Because they are funny. Maybe you get bored by the second one, but I find them humourous. I will watch John Candy teach a bunch of Jamaicans how to bobsled every chance I get. Does that make me any less of a human being? Am I missing out from 'culture'? Is the Matrix culture? I don't know. I don't know much about it and aside from being lost when someone brings up an analogy on the fact or they ruminate on some finer point on the subject, but, knowing or not knowing anything about the Matrix has no impact whatsoever on my life. Am I poorer for not knowing it?

I mentioned this once before... but it doesn't hurt to mention it once more. My taste in Music is different than your average person's. I don't care for snoopy dog dog or Phil the rockstar. I listen to different things. I listen to what pipebands produce like March, Strathspey and Reels. I listen to Goran Bregovic. Because I stumbled across his music when researching Dublin. I listen to the BBC a lot. Because I like them. Does any of that make me less cultured? Less approachable? Less _anything_? Do I need to expose myself to modern pop culture? What good does it do me?

If I said I knew who Akira Kurosawa is but not what Oceans eleven or twelve or whatever is (they aren't about Oceans at all apparently), does that make me less of a person? Are Star Wars, Matrix and God Father universal? Will a kid off the streets of Mombasa know what that is? For that matter, will a kid off the streets of Kannur? Would a twenty-something year old in Ulan Bator believe that Michael Jackson is the greatest performer alive? Am I ignorant for disagreeing?

We all live in our own perception of reality. Your common place is not always my common place. Yes, I reside in America. No I am not American. I am me. There is only one of me on god's green earth (but which god, whose god?). That does not make me any less of a person. That does not somehow make my life poorer. I may not know who Hillary Duff is or who Jared Leto is dating... nor do I care... I do know plenty of what is happeneing in the world I care about. I do know where Kenya and Mongolia are and can probably tell you on any given day where North and South are. I can probably tell you where North and South Korea are on a map. And North and South Dakota for that matter. None of that makes me ignorant. Or enlightened. I am not about to receive moksha on a mountain for any of that.

I do not take kindly to people telling me who I am or what I should believe in. I think I am a fairly level headed person and I can go with the flow as it were... but I will not, I will NOT sit down and let someone tell me what to do, how to think and when to breathe. That is not in my being. For life is indeed too short to live someone else's reality. I live in my reality... and everything in it as a combination makes my life unique. And richer. And better. So I say fuck off to all you bastard who tell me I am wrong. But do tell me something. Please.