Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

From UMassWiki

If You Are What You Eat, Then You Must Be Full of Something.

“If you are what you eat, then what am I” is a story about dealing with cultural differences and is told by Geeta Kothari. We learn that Kothari is a woman of Indian descent that is brought up in America in a traditionally Indian home. The cultural differences are caused in part by her parents, they are Indian born and have moved to America to raise their two children. This causes problems because they try to establish a base of Indian culture while still allowing their daughters to experience a completely different American culture. Kothari discusses how as a child she was cast out by her peers and believed her parents to be at fault. The parents’ failing was their lack of knowledge of American customs and therefore their inability to teach their children of how those residing in America should act. The bulk of the story deals with the frustrations this causes between Kothari and her parents and about how she learns how to fit in with her American peers herself. At the end of the story she has a revelation and discovers that although all she wanted in her childhood was to be like the American girls, that now that her parents are gone she wished she had spent more time listening to them. THIS STORY IS COMPLETE HORSE SHIT.
I say this because in my mind her story does not add up. I have lived through a situation very similar to hers, in fact I have done it six different times now and believe me what she is trying to sell you is something you do not want. Her life story is filled with plot holes and unrealistic situations that anyone with knowledge of what she is talking about will read and do what happens when you drink something really sour, when you pull back your head, scrunch in your face and mouth something under your breath
I have lived a rather complex life and as can be expected I have been asked to write and talk about it a great many times. People usually ask me to tell stories of crazy things that have happened to me in my travels, I tell them I was stabbed once and they seem satisfied. I’m telling you this because every time I tell that story either the knife or the guy that used it gets bigger. This is what Kothari’s story feels like to me, a hugely exaggerated version of the actual tale. I’m sure others can attest to this too, when people talk or write about something it usually is not entirely true and that’s fine, but this story seems so untrue that I just can’t let it slide.
Let’s start with Kothari’s talk about her diet. Kothari says that she has been brought up on an Indian diet that is lacking in certain meat groups. This is probably true. She then discusses about how she was desperate to try certain foods that were frowned upon by her culture and that she always used to sneak meals here and there and try things once in awhile. This is where I got my first face scrunch. I was an avid vegetarian for five years and have found myself in a situation like hers, craving and wondering what something tastes like. I had a slight advantage have been an avid carnivore for all the years prior to my vegetarian adventure; I sort of remembered what they tasted like. Having been in her shoes I know that you can’t actually just pick at certain things and try to eat meat every so often just for a taste, it’s just not possible. It’s not possible because your body learns how to process foods through experience. This learning process takes several years in fact, why do you think people don’t feed their babies flank steak and fillet mignon. If you have never eaten meat your body struggles to digest it or if you stop eating meat, after awhile your body begins to stop being able to digest it easily. When you only eat meat on a whim, your body either rejects it or puts you through a lot of pain. Someone who has never eaten red meat or any meat product will be in for a serious lesson the first time they treat themselves to it. So much so that it would probably convince you not to eat it, if you didn’t know why you were getting sick. I gave up eating meat about nine months ago and my body still rejects it on a regular basis, so for someone to talk about how they only eat certain meats once and awhile and have them talk about what a wonderful experience it is, is hard for me to believe.
The next part of her story that threw me a little was about her trip to London, England. I grew up outside London for three years and then spent the next four years living about two hundred miles away in Glasgow, Scotland. London is a haven for people of Indian descent, some of the most amazing curries I have ever consumed came out of London and they were all authentic. London is also one of the most cultured and ethnically diverse places that I have ever been. So to have Kothari talk about how much she was ostracized goes against everything I know. I’m sure she was poked fun at, but who wasn’t in school, it just feels like she is making something sound uncommonly bad to get some sympathy. Kothari’s last complaint about London was how much she didn’t like Spam. Although Britain does have Spam from the Lend-Lease Act enacted during the war, the only place I’ve known of it being used, in Britain, was in chip shops were it is fried and even there it is an unpopular item. I really can’t see a school of picky children that produces awful meals importing a product from America for the purpose of making them worse. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Lastly the point she makes about her husband seems unrealistic. She more or less just bashes on him for about two pages. She talks about how she feels he is an outsider and that she doesn’t agree with the life he lives. Kothari almost sounds as if she is accusing him of cheating when she tells us how he sneaks off to devour meals that she refuses to cook. No man is this much of a pushover. Nobody lets “the one person that loves him no matter what” talk about them in such an insulting manner. If this story were truthful, then instead of talking about her husband she would be talking about her ex-husband. I just can’t see anyone standing idly by while someone openly publishes something like this.
As I had said before people exaggurate when they tell stories, it’s usually what separates a good story from a great one, but you have to be smart about it. You can’t leave a trail of white lies that are so obvious that someone will follow them to the knowledge that your story is made up. To me this story is like when you baby brother or sister tells you about something incredible that happened to them, you pay attention, but in your mind you know it’s not all true. All in all Kothari’s piece sounds (to me) made up. It seems almost like she had to write something for a class and wanted to make it as powerful as possible, so she just kept adding parts until her story was compelling and captivating. For me though, IT’S ALL JUST HORSE SHIT.