ABSTRACT

This unique work explores, through personal narratives, the overlapping and intermingling of cultures as well as the immense cultural diversity across the world. This exploration inevitably questions notions of higher or lower cultures, and civilized or uncivilized peoples. Indeed it questions the very concept of superiority amongst peoples. Apart from cross-cultural encounters, this work also discusses how various democratic and non-democratic governments and organizations have attempted to conceal cross-cultural influences by inventing superiority, purity, and authenticity of cultures and civilizations to the detriment of others. Yet cross-culture pollination, an ongoing process, always reveals itself through the ignored cracks of history. The book shows that India is no exception and has been and continues to be porous. The numerous examples of cross-pollination — with Algeria, Indonesia, Cambodia, to mention a few — force us to re-look cultural constructs and indeed the very meaning of culture.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

chapter |3 pages

The Black Virgin

chapter |3 pages

Travelling Buddha

chapter |3 pages

Coffee

chapter |3 pages

Cultural Baggage

chapter |3 pages

Words' Worth

chapter |3 pages

Batata Aloo

chapter |3 pages

Halo! Halo!

chapter |3 pages

Tuneful Maladies

chapter |3 pages

Candy'd Talk

chapter |3 pages

Tongue Untied

chapter |3 pages

The Kashmiri Magician

chapter |3 pages

Encounters

chapter |3 pages

Head to Toe

chapter |3 pages

Home and Away

chapter |3 pages

Wear with All

chapter |3 pages

I Am Bandit

chapter |3 pages

Badghizi

chapter |3 pages

Blackouts

chapter |3 pages

Oh Bokhara!

chapter |3 pages

Fiddler on the Loose

chapter |3 pages

The Game of the Name

chapter |3 pages

The Tulips

chapter |3 pages

Chewing Rice for Others

chapter |3 pages

Repetersburg

chapter |3 pages

Jokes Apart

chapter |3 pages

Juvenile Delinquents

chapter |3 pages

Earthquacks?

chapter |3 pages

Crosswords

chapter |3 pages

Food Traffic

chapter |3 pages

Once Upon a Time

chapter |3 pages

A Tribute …

chapter |3 pages

Teri Mary Maa

chapter |3 pages

Size Matters

chapter |3 pages

‘Georgia on My Mind'

chapter |3 pages

The ‘Civil' Servant

chapter |3 pages

Devotion

chapter |3 pages

Authentiques

chapter |3 pages

To The Holy Pope

chapter |3 pages

Linguistic Creativity

chapter |3 pages

Paper Trails

chapter |3 pages

You're in Safe Hands

chapter |3 pages

How to Steal a Billion

chapter |3 pages

Bollywood

chapter |3 pages

Emptiness

chapter |3 pages

Two Sides of a Coin

chapter |3 pages

We Owe the Armenians

chapter |3 pages

A Wondrous World Wide Web

chapter |4 pages

Winter Sonata

chapter |4 pages

Linguistricks

chapter |4 pages

Maali Blues

chapter |3 pages

Stutter Nonsense

chapter |3 pages

This Order, That Order

chapter |3 pages

Telling Time

chapter |4 pages

‘Red Roses in the Snow'

chapter |3 pages

Rung Interpretation

chapter |3 pages

African Indians

chapter |3 pages

Phantom Foes

chapter |3 pages

Wagah Woes!