The Slow Learner's Blog

 "Occidentalism" as a concept is generally seen in a negative light, as it comes out of the conservatism toolbox as a counter to Orientalism. And that is kinda justified, since Occidentalism does not come with the immense baggage of colonialism and the skewed power dynamics that gives you the license to create a dominant narrative. But it's not non-existent. There is a strong stereotype of the Western society in the oriental mind, and with the recent growth of Asian influence in the world, it's starting to reach the Western audience. While it's not the antithesis of Orientalism in outlook, it's quirky and stereotypical enough to take notice. And the easiest place to find it is in Indian films that portray Western characters.  Historical films from India portray two kinds of westerners-- kind of a good cop/bad cop combo-- the cruel, wily, condescending colonial master and the sympathetic British lady swooning over the Indian protagonist (Exhibit A: Naatu Naatu)...

An alarm goes off between  unturned pages of Meditations .  One wolf  lies dead. Another growls  at the door. The clock marks every second with  a steady hand-- the only stoic in the room.

I created a blog with the same name back in 2007. It was a time when blogs had already started evolving from personal journals to massive community engagements. But I was oblivious to all that. I was just happy that I could have a web presence for free. It was a prestige thing, too. Not many people owned a blog (even less read one).  It was a simpler time-- people used to blog about things they put on facebook now-- hobbies, baby or cat photos, movie reviews, recipes, haikus, whining about school or work or government. My blog was no different. It was chock-full of pointless ramblings, failed attempts at creative writing and fragments of (laughably simple) MATLAB codes-- all to impress friends. Then along the way I found out that people were making money from blogs, so I started putting ugly adsense banners in my blog and posting nonsense Buzzfeedy things to boost traffic ("Ten online games you cannot resist"). It did not help, just defaced my blog and ruined my inner pea...