Born and raised in the U.S. of A.
Pakistani Family, with a STRONG culture.
Strong out of desperation. Moving to the U.S in the 60's is HARD, cause losing your cultural identity is so easy in the nation of glam and over-confidence.
We weren't rich, so we never could afford trips back to our homeland of SouthEast asia. But we LOVED the music, the poetry, and the movies. I joke and say i had three parents: Umee, Auboo, and Amitabh Bhachan.
Entertainment was the only connection we had, cause there were no other muslims and desi's in Kansas.
My relationship with my mother-culture grew from obsessive devotion, to deep seated resentment, to a mature interest and confusion..
So i dropped out nof college and moved to pakistan to study art at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.
Culture shock was what i felt. Sitting in Pakistan i never felt more american in ALL MY LIFE! But in America, i was considered 100% pakistani... I was the international Bastard, drowning somewhere in the atlantic ocean.
but i found some salvation.
A few months before the serious car accident that changed my life and "rolled" me away from my art school and my experience in pakistan, i found the CD that changed EVERYTHING.
It was Beyond Skin. I found an Illegal copy in some rundown shop. Never heard of Nitin before, but i LOVED the art work. And it was only for a dollar! (please dont be angry that i bought an illegal copy, its impossible to find an ORIGINAL copy of ANYTHING in pakistan)
Now, i had never heard any of his music before, i bought the cd for only the value i saw in the album cover's sculpture.
I was instantly in love, but I never cried so hard listening to a CD before. It wasn't pain. well in a sense it was... It was So much Joy, the pain i felt became VERY relevant and real, as opposed to ideas bopping around my head.
it was the feeling like this cd was MADE FOR ME! THE BASTARD OF CULTURES!
It screamed my tongue, my language, my father, my mother, my grandparents, my land, MY ROOT culture! but so much more then this, it spoke to the neglected side of me. The side of me i found in pakistan. My american side. The american, dance, drum machne feuled monster that loved feeling good, and Loved the night as much as the sun.
Beyond skin carried a sound DIFFERENT from my cultural songs.
It wasn't BOLLYWOOD! It wasn't HYPOCRITICAL!! It wasn't an immature blend of cultures, (desi acting american, of american acting desi) instead it was BOTH.
it merged together to become what i felt was ME.
all from a $1 cd.
Thank you Nitin. You helped me find myself, and define myself as something different from both cultures. Two turntables spin to mix both sounds into something new.
I take pride in that.
But im not the only one who needed it. Europe is infiltrated with the desi culture. No desi feels alone there. There are second and third generation transplanted desi's there. So ofcourse they love your music!
But america is lonely for us south-east asians. These lonely kids are dying for a voice, for a sound, to scream like a prayer call and rise them to take action. Internal action to recognize and appreciate their culture, the culture of the American-desi.
These people are lost. They are either all close-minded super desi's and blind to their ACTUAL surroundings, or overly american and resentful and offended by the caramel tint in their skin.
Help them as you helped me.
Please come. Please Distribute, please exist for the people that need you most. Your music isn;t just a good jam, or a nice beat...
its a voice of a scattered culture, making home in wherever it is.
You did that.
You must understand.
Please...
Give to the hungry. You package the south-east asian culture so well, that its hard for people not to love it.
So serve it fairly! And internationally!
Please. Do it for the poor lost american-desi's... They are my people, and you are our voice, please speak to us...