Khajuraho - To be Prejudice

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I am in Khajuraho, a small town famous for its erotic temples! This place was highly recommended to me not because I’m bien tai(perverted) but because the sculptures are truly unique. The old kingdom in Khajuraho had a small population and so they heavily promoted sex so that their society can grow. It eventually grew to a very large kingdom. From what I can tell by the sculptures, it seems they're really enjoying sex! There's so many different poses to learn from... At first I thought these sculptures were going to make me giggle like a little girl but by the end, I developed tremendous respect for the sculptors. Enjoy!

To be prejudice

I am prejudice. Not the racist type of prejudice but the prejudice where I make false assumptions about somebody before I actually truly understand the person. This happens because I am neglecting to see the person as an individual and instead, I see the person as a part of a whole group of people, in other words, I generalize . My generalization is shaped by all the ideas created by society like books, TV, movies, news, internet rumors, gossip and virtually anything that has created an opinion about this group of people. Then on occasion, I become stupid enough to believe the generalizations! Let’s take the gay community for example. I always find it odd when somebody tells me about their friend like, “Oh, that’s Ben, he’s gay”. I’m just so confused by that! Why couldn’t he tell me about Ben’s hobbies or interest instead of telling me something as personal as his sex preference? The first thing you tell me is his sex preference?? What am I supposed to do with that information?

My friend doesn’t know it but he has accidently created a generalization in my mind and has made me prejudice. Take a second here, and just picture what Ben would look like in your head, go ahead, do it… Now can you honestly tell me that you pictured him like yourself or any other guy… or did you picture him with ‘flare’? But imagine if my friend had instead said “That’s Ben, he loves to eat pie”, your mind would start to create an image of Ben where he looks more like you because you also like to eat pie. But the sad truth is, I already told you that Ben is gay, so you probably couldn’t turn that image of him anymore, right? You probably just pictured a gay Ben eating pie... In fact, if you imagined Ben at all, then you have the same problem as me, you’ve become prejudice because you made assumptions of what he looks like. But when I finally met Ben, he broke all the stereotypes and ridiculous generalizations for me. He’s a good friend and I felt bad for making pre-judgments about him, but as long as I didn’t say it out loud or act upon it, it’s ok right? I used to think that, but not anymore. My behavior is dictated by my mind and if I don’t completely release myself from these false generalizations of people, then I’ll unconsciously be prejudice. As hard as it is, I need to see every single person as an individual without any judgments about them beforehand. To give everybody a fair chance, I need to see them as a blank sheet and not a sheet full of assuming descriptions.

I’ve experienced a very memorable prejudice moment a long time ago. This was when I first moved back to Taiwan in 4th grade. Our family was looking for housekeepers and we interviewed 12 different people. As you all know, Ah-yi was the best choice we’ve ever made in our lives. I say that with all honesty. But before we found her, my dad was still looking. One day, my dad and I are out walking and he sees two Filipino women across the street so we run across to approach them. My dad talks to them, I forget what he said exactly, but he basically said that he wanted to hire them as our housekeepers and we have room for them! Errr. Bad move It turns out that they aren’t housekeepers but in fact, they’re working at a corporation in Taiwan… Haha Shit pops… My dad assumed they were housekeepers and he would’ve been right 97%!a(MISSING)ll the others times since a large population of Filipinos in Taiwan are housekeepers but he was wrong that day. He made a generalization about two individuals and I thought for sure that we had offended them. We were so embarrassed. But something amazing happened. The two Filipinos were not angry in any way, but they actually laughed instead. They were good-natured and didn’t take offense whatsoever, in fact, they were consoling us for our mistake. Can you imagine that? If somebody had done that to me, I would have been seriously offended and bitter. But these two overcame such anger and saw our ignorance as innocent. They forgave us when we should have been scolded for our narrow-mindedness. The more I think about it, the more amazed I am by that situation. Two things I learned from that experience. The first is that my dad has an innocent charm to him that makes him forgivable because he’s honest about his faults. I’m sure if it was another person who tried to hire the Filipinos, they would have been offended. The second thing I learned is how to counter-act people’s prejudices about you. To just tell the person that they’re wrong can’t change their mind and generalizations. It needs to be shown to them and it needs to be done in grace, not in anger. This strategy was developed by Ghandi , to which Nelson Mendela and MLK Jr. adopted later on to free themselves from racism. Those two Filipino women decided to smile and that smile has made all the difference because we would never want to inadvertently offend good people again by being prejudice.

We’re all prejudice but we just don’t like to admit it. There’s no point in trying hard to convince people that they are wrong to have any assumptions or prejudice because it’s hard to change others. What’s more important to me is how I deal with my prejudices and how to respond to other’s prejudice. I want to be like those Filipinos who can deal with other’s prejudices with grace and not anger. I also want to be forgiven like my dad when I occasionally make wrong assumptions about people. We all make mistakes but we’re not always forgiven. Somehow, my dad has found a way for people to forgive him.
Believe it or not, I have become more prejudice day by day in India. I have hordes of people approaching me every day trying to sell me something. Most of them only talk to me because they want something from me. By mid-day after 20 people have pushed to sell me something, I naturally become irritated and the next person that approaches me, I would just brush them off. But today, I made a mistake. A person approached me and started a conversation with me. The type of conversation that seemed like it was going to end up with him wanting something from me. I was prejudice and assumed he was going to sell me something so I just brushed him off. After walking a little and reflecting on the conversation I had with him, I realized that he genuinely had interest in my culture and that he wasn’t trying to get anything out of me. He wanted to know more about Taiwan and I neglected to give him any of my time. I must have offended one of the honest people because I made a generalization about all Indians who approach me. I needed to see him as an individual but I saw him as ‘all the others’. And for that, I am guilty of not treating him right. This has helped me become more self-aware of how to treat every single person I meet. Just because the last person was trying to trick me, doesn’t mean this person will. Past experience with other people doesn’t necessarily translate into the same situation with a different person. Even though I don’t know the person, I hope he will forgive me for being rude and prejudice. And this is what I mean when I say that I want to have the qualities of my dad where people can forgive me for these mistakes and not take them too personally. An honest mistake from a good person. I will learn to break all my prejudices and give everybody a clean slate when I meet them. A learning process for a man with flaws!

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Photos

Khajuraho
Bend it like beckham

um....HUH?!?
Why, man, why? How is this sculpture-worthy?

French Kissin'
Look closely at their mouths, I think the tongues are sticking out

Oh My God position!
This is my favorite one. Look at that girl's face, it seems like she's saying Oh My God!

Help a buddy help position!
hahaha, this one is just so great. Don't even know how this is possible!

Orgy
Thats quite the party those statues are having over there

again??
I think the ppl really enjoyed this position because they sculpted this one again

Comments

[Mama jenny]

beautiful
What a beautiful place! you have traveled to a place I have never known and probably will never be there. prejudice is very difficult to avoid. Your writing shows that you are thinking independently now. I always think people are good people on the first glance. Guess that is another kind of prejudice. Have fun and be healthy!

[Lost Buddha's Big Bro]

Color Blind is Racism
Bro, remember when we had that summer in LA alone together and I took you to that Museum of Tolerance? Remember two doors as the entrance to the museum? One read "Prejudice" and the other read "Not Prejudice"? And the "Not Prejudice" door was actually locked, forcing everyone that wanted to see the exhibit to have to first face the bleak reality that we are all prejudiced in some way? Well, I think the goal isn't ever to try to force one's way into the "Not Prejudice" door, but to do exactly what you're doing: admitting and being self-aware of all the generalizations that we have developed over the years out of convenience and accept them for what they are, and then accept that other people will always have generalizations about our own identity as well. Jon, the prejudiced, racist Taiwanese

[Raghavarao]

Copulation with Horse
Many a people commented what an awkward position it is and how perverted the copulation with animals. Here one has to see the penist of the man copulating with the horse. It is abnormally large and big. For such abnormal persons copulation with an ordinary human female is not enjoyable and very painful. Perhaps, the Shilpi is suggesting a way to such abnormal persons to have the pleasure of intercourse with animals of the type of horse, etc.

[fuck]

fuck that
i thing in the india thats shame to show it becuse its very bad veiw they thing that travel fuck you

[lostbuddha]

haha
So much anger you have