Tenma Warau [1]

After much deliberation, the name for my Bearded Desert Dragon was put to vote to my fellow dorm members. Incidentally he has been accepted as the dorm mascot and is also the symbol for our unofficial fraternity (which is funny since we have women as part of our troupe!) Chi Lambda Omega. The names up for vote were Notiggy, Fafner, Tonton and Quincy (by popular demand!). The public voted for Tonton (I dare say we have too many Star Wars and Naruto fans around...)

For me, with stories true and apocryphal the semester has begun with a rather overwhelming force. Training workshops, jobs, classes, and the usual crestfall of the mundane college life. At the rate at I'm going L.S.E. looks like a distant dream.

The new freshman batch has come in bringing with itself, the usual, the good and the bad. Perhaps as compensation for being in America, this year the international crop was very interesting. Among others there are a few nice freshman girls and Nelson Mandela's grandson . While the girls have attitudes that say "I desperately wanna be white", Mandela Jr. is well he's like Naseruddin Shah's son back in School. Ah well I guess people said the same things about us when we were freshmen.

Sometimes I get the feeling that I am like a crazy ball who doesn't really identify with any group on campus. For instance, I have many Asian (read: Chinese, Koreans, Japanese et al) friends and I am a part of the Asian Cultural Society and often "chill" with the Asian kids. But somehow, everytime, these Asians break into their vernacular diatribe, I don't feel that sense of belonging, or lack of it thereof. Then there are the rich white kids, my buddies, like James... I spend a lot of time with them. Maybe drink on weekends, smoke, or just play chess and listen to the Grateful Dead, but here too my sense of belonging is lost, for obvious reasons. For the black people, I ain't black enough. Then there are the geeks; movie watching, anime loving, book reading, trivia loving, "I never touch alcohol or any other bad things" geeks. I spend time with those types too, I enjoy their sense of humour - witty and referential and aren't always related to sex or drugs. But since I drink and smoke and party once a while I don't get enough credibility to join their ranks either. As for the Indians, well there are more Nepalis on campus than Indians at the moment. So where does that leave me in this compartmentalized mixed fruit jam? The International Students Union - the group of people caught in no-man's land? Honestly, I don't know, I think I'll just let it pass and not think about it too much. Is it really that important to have a concrete identity?

[1] Japanese Buddha's Laughing.