Re <<Indians and Pakistanis are the same brown people when they are outside their countries>>
Both you and Arun have a point, just different emphasis and neither wrong.
We in the neighbourhood, within our compound, and in fact upstairs of us, and very lucky for us, have 'uncle' Jayant and 'auntie' Leela as neighbours. They originated from India, lived in HK for the past 50+ years, and until retirement perhaps 10 years ago, Jayant operated a garment business, and Leela taught at the kids' school. They have a very nice helper from Sri Lanka who does fab Indian cooking. I find the neighbours god-sent. They spent much time these days travelling to see grand kids, but still based in HK.
We have a garden and allow our neighbour to harvest spices. They love the chili pepper that is a bit too hot for us. They give us some lightly spiced dishes. Love lamb curry. Besides the kids themselves, Auntie Leela is most responsible for our kids reading, love of reading, and for the Coconut's placement as one of eleven w/ perfect score out of 480,000 English Composition Advance Placement test-takers in this galaxy. Placing #1 in composition is different from placing #1 in a lot of other and arguably less rigorous, or otherwise less subjective exams, such as the very soft economics or history, or the diamond-hard calculous and physics. The Coconut placed 5/5 in all subjects 12 subjects that she bothered to take AP track, but for English Composition is globally singular, ranked by all grading professors as planetary #1. BTW, as a direct result the Coconut is charging US$ 89.74 per hour for tutoring 8th/9th graders English composition :0) So many Chinese, Korean and Japanese moms clamour for her time slots. Her time is full up except when relaxing, or charging US$ 115.38 per hour for ballet teaching. Apparently a lot of physics in ballet, and the nut knows and teaches so. Apparently her time can be tallied at US$138K per annum tax-free should she decide to enter the job market right now. She shall clock ~20K of 'pocket' money by the time I help her to move into her dormitory. The competition for Coconut's time is hilarious. The battle cry, "as much as she wants, for as many hours as my kid have" stands out. She is taking 10% out to ... [drum roll] ... GetFirstGold, to get into the addiction. She is otherwise sooooooo excited of the prospect of the soon Harry-Potter-esque experience. She is fortunate that we are 2+ years into the Covid 'thing' and the colleges can better cope with physically open campus! Holy moly. A note, that the single best piece of electronic device I have every invested in? Kindle. The best service I ever spent pocket change on? Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Next up, the girls (the number of girls who got into top-pish schools seem to out number the boyz) of Coconut's high school shall gather and have a traditional cupcake outing (cup cakes decorated with school logos made of icing :0))))), followed by graduation ceremony the next day. High school all-done! One of the girlz heading for Caltech. That is soooooooo crazy difficult. Next-next up, the Coconut and 6 other girls (one from her high school and 5 from other high schools) shall gather and get acquainted to group-discuss preps for meeting up in college on move-in day, and what to pack, etc etc. These girls shall be difficult to 'marry off', a guess, and a headsup. Funnier still, some friends are wanting their sons to meet up with the girls going to the same or coming from nearby colleges, offering lodging on weekends in big cities over holidays and such. Like I noted, hilarious, and very extremely doubtful that such approaches would bear fruits. |
