FUN AND GAMES
One of the wonderful things about reading blogs sometimes, is reading some of the great comments TO a post. I had this serendipitous experience today, and would like to share.
Sepia Mutiny is one of my favorite blogs on "Desi" (from the Indian "old country") matters, 
maintained by expatriate Indians. They had this post titled "I want to be a three-wheeled scooter", referring to the ubiquitous rickshaw-taxis in the cities and towns of india:
"One of my fondest memories from childhood is of playing Monopoly and crushing my friends. I was a ruthless landlord. I’d shoot the dog with the revolver from Clue if he couldn’t pay. Now there is Desi-opoly, UK Desi-opoly to be precise. From the Yorkshire Post Today:
Called Monopoly UK “Desi” – the Asian term for homeland – it will feature Indian icons such as the Taj Mahal and Bollywood, as well as British streets famous for Asian culture, such as London’s Brick Lane and Manchester’s Wilmslow Road.
The traditional counters of top hat, dog, racing car and boot are to be replaced with three-wheeled scooters, tigers, cricket bats and Indian sweets.
Creator Gurdip Ahluwalia, who came up with the idea while working for games manufacturer Hasbro, is still seeking street names and landmarks to replace Mayfair, Park Lane and Old Kent Road.
One of the playing pieces is an Indian sweet? Somehow I can’t picture demanding money from a gulab jamun. Then again I could never understand the purpose of the iron in regular Monopoly....
abhi on May 27, 2005 01:47 AM"
The discussion then takes a turn into the world of Indian sweets as playing pieces:
capitalist pig on May 27, 2005 07:04 AM · Direct link
Jalebi refers to a sometimes sickly-sweet, orange-colored Indian dessert, that could be viewed as the equivalent of pancakes or waffles, in that it's often consumed at breakfast...it's definitely an acquired taste. Gulab jamuns, on the other hand, mentioned in the first comment are a lot easier to take to...
The conversation shifts to more sectarian matters with the following comment:
Punjabi Boy on May 27, 2005 07:43 AM · Direct link
"Once, my cousins had a fight over a game and didnt talk for ages. It brought everything to a head, all the tensions in the family, I think it was a subliminal playing out of a family feud from generations ago about the dividing up of six square feet of land and the division of a herd of goats which took place in the 1920's. People are still sore.
I can only imagine the tension of what took place in that game when one cousin landed on the others property and had to pay thousands, and all the bad blood rose to boiling point.
Monopoly is dangerous for desi's, wouldnt surprise me if it causes a few murders, especially among Punjabi Jatt's, who will use any excuse to bash each other and kill their relatives over property and land.
I have nominated a few roads for this edition. Soho Road in Birmingham, Belgrave Road in Leicester, Southall Broadway in Southall. The other suggestions are rubbish. All those roads are in cities full of tramps like Bradford. I also nominated the road I live in, and the hospital I was born in, because I live there, and was born there. These will cost a million pounds each, on the Monopoly board. I also want one of the playing pieces to be a statue of me."
As various desi folk think more about the religious/sectarian/cultural rivalries that are always skin-deep, the comments continue:
"Punjabi Boy on May 27, 2005 08:10 AM · Direct link
You have to have Brick Lane on it or else there will be a jihad by Bengali's saying they are being ignored, which is frightening. You have to have Southall and Soho Road or else Sikhs will blow up a cinema.
You have to have Leicester and Wembley or else Hindus Gujaratis will go on a riot or tear down a mosque. You have to have Pakistani localities like Bradford or else there will be some more shoe-bombers and stuff.
You have to have Tooting or else some Tamil's will go crazy with Samurai swords. Its just the way it is. It could cause disaster if people arent recognised properly. Its actually more trouble than its worth.
Are you telling me that Sikhs are going to accept it if Southall Broadway is worth less on the Monopoly board than some Pakistani street in Manchester? No way.
That would be a big diss and there would be riots and demonstrations, in fact I would be at the front of them, one of the main organisers. Nobody is going to accept being priced less than Bangladeshi Brick Lane, no way, this will be mayhem.
Brit Spice on May 27, 2005 08:17 AM · Direct linkIn that case, this fella needs to rethink his strategy. You can't please everyone. Maybe he should scratch the roads specific to certain cultures and just have one called "Paki Street".
Funny stuff indeed...
in my humble view, the ultimate Monopoly for the asian sub-continent though might be an Indo-Pakistani set, since as you may have gathered from the the discussion above, there's nothing that gets an Indian or Pakistani's blood going than to bring up the asinine, multi-decade rivalry between the two sides of the same coin.
But then again, you could say that the two countries have been playing a stale-mated version of this game since the British left them in two pieces starting in 1947.
Didn't mean to slip into these heftier matters, but it's my heritage showing, having been born in Mahtama Gandhi's state of Gujarat in the western part of India.
The really funny thing is, that in the flat world of today, while India and Pakistan continue to play their version of monopoly, the Chinese next door continue to win at global Monopoly for real dollars.
P.S. By the way, UK Desi Monopoly, the non-real game, can be found here (click image for larger picture).
I can't wait for the US Desi version...
"My mini-rickshaw will totally leave your jalebi piece in the dust."