Posts from — August 2007

Setting: Macy’s at Newpark Mall

I was wandering around the women’s clothing area by myself waiting for a friend who was in the restroom.

An older lady passed by me and I (accidentally) made eye contact for a split second. I went passed her and continued to wander around.

“Missy, missy!” I hear. I turn to see the old lady.

“This for you,” she said and she handed me a card. She had a slight accent but I don’t know much about accents. Eastern European maybe?

I looked down at her card. She was a psychic/fortuneteller/palm reader.

I looked back up at her. She looked at me expectantly and raised her eyebrows a few times in a suggestive manner and then walked away.

This wasn’t the first time someone randomly handed me a card for a service (The Scene - Junoon concert. The Card- one for a matrimonial bureau. Har.) but really, do I look like someone who needs psychic services?

Maybe wandering around the women’s section without a focus in mind symbolized wandering aimlessly through life. Maybe, maybe, she ’sensed’ that all from me with a single glance.

I just stood there confounded for a bit and grew weary. I looked around to see if any other crazies were going to approach me. No. I was alone but I was starting to feel really weird. I felt better once I got out of Macy’s.

She reminded me of the palm reader from Before Sunrise, who I found a bit creepy. I half expected this lady to turn back to me and say “We are all stardust!” like the one in the film but she didn’t. She probably went looking for more aimless youth to give her card to.

Don’t make eye contact folks. It’s not worth it.

(I probably should have written this last week)

Last week was the 60th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence. August 14, 1947 signified the ‘Parition,’ when Pakistan split from India. Pakistan was created to be a “Muslim” country so Muslims that were on the India side migrated to Pakistan for the most part (still plenty left there) and Hindus on the Pakistan side went to India.

My mom was just a baby when her family migrated. Everyone in the village next to theirs was killed, at which time they realized it was time to go to Pakistan. The put a lock on the door of the house and left with few possessions.

There would be these camps that those who were migrating stayed in as they trekked over to Pakistan. A while ago my dad, who was about 7 at the time his family migrated, said how one night he snuck out of the camp to get a cookie. He said it offhandedly and I don’t even know what we were all talking about when he brought it up, but my sister and I exchanged a look. I was like, “Dad, you risked your life for a cookie?”It was beyond me.

Although I was born and raised in the U.S., I’m still defined by my Pakistani ethnicity and yet I still don’t know much of the story behind the partition. All I really do know is that Muslims and Hindus were killing each other. I don’t know what events transpired surrounding the break from India, the key players, etc. I don’t know anything.

So when I was at Borders last week, I got excited when I saw the book Indian Summer, which is about the summer India and Pakistan achieved their independence. After I’m done with this book, I’ll look into it more. And then one day, maybe I’ll travel to the town of Uttar Pardes in India where I still have a few distant relatives and see if I can picture what life must have been like before the country split and most of my family left there. Who knows, maybe while I’m conducting this hypothetical trip I can finally figure out why my last name is Burney.

Extra stuff:
The New Yorker published an extensive review of Indian Summer.

Lana Lang herself, Kristin Kruek, plays a Muslim girl during the time of partition in the Canadian movie Partition, starring with Jimi Mistry. I have yet to see it but I am, I have to admit, intrigued. Why should you watch it? Because of the tagline on the poster of course: Two Faiths. Two Worlds. One Love.

In one of my favorite books, Max Barry’s Syrup, one of the characters was named @. The novel was about marketing soda (that’s a very simplified way of putting it, it’s so much more than that) so for the character to have the @ was a method to directly compete with another character whose name was 6 (once again, simplified explanation).

In real life, the idea of someone having that name is absurd. Who would actually name their kid
or change their own name to @?

Well actually, a couple in China wanted to name their kid, you guessed it, @ - story here.