Stupid!! Really??!!!

It was a forward..
About Stupid Americans...
Sent by a Smug Indian..
Who has never left Bharath's shores!!!!....
To other Indians....
Who she is sure..
Are just like her....

In other words...
They KNOW they are superior!!!!

It recounted that..
In an undergrad science class...
In some unnamed US university....
There was disbelief when...
The professor talked about the Moon's gravity...

Apparently...
Only two in the class...
Realized that the Moon was not running on the Earth's gravity

One of them was an Indian..who was rightly horrified!!!
And the other...an American..equally horrified!!!!!

It set the Indian off on a research quest...
To delve into whether all Americans thought the Moon did not exert any gravitational pull!!!

Of course...
Had OUR Indian been a true Indian...
He would have delved first..
Into the antecedents of his like-minded American classmate!!!
And found that...
A la Sunita Williams...
He too had an Indian forefather..
Right up his genealogical tree...
Maybe..
Someone...
From somewhere in the Punjab!!!
Maybe four generations ago....

Anyway..
That apart!!
Our friend's research established...
That it was a common belief..
Among Americans that the Moon has been getting by on the Earth's gravity!!!
And therefore it was that the astronauts floated...
While moon-walking there!!!

Horror of horrors!!!!
Now such ignorance cannot be found in India..could it??
Here...
Young minds are filled with positive and correct scientific information!!!
WE are not DUMB!!!

Maybe not...
But sometimes..I wonder!!

Fast forward to Chennai...
Circa 2010!!
Clean public facilities...paid or otherwise...
Are still a distant dream!!!
Only the extremely stout-hearted can visit these...
And live to tell the tale!!!
So the great open spaces it is..
For most men..
All of whom seem to have so much less bladder control than their female counterparts!!!

Yet..
As one who has followed the voiding habits of the Chennai male..
With great disgust!!!
It still surprises me...
That 9.5 times out of 10...
The Chennai male on the move..
On the city's roads..
Will make a beeline to pee behind the electricity boxes on the road...
Or right under the transmission towers!!!!

Now...
Anyone with basic scientific knowledge...
Who has been to school...
Or has had exposure to it...
Knows..
That electricity is a wild thing...
That fluids in proximity with a live wire...
Can have fatal consequences...
And...
Would shy away from such locales!!!!
Just in case...
And yet!!!

I wonder what an American..
Researching this topic will find??!!!

That the Chennai male is a tough dude..
Who likes to play with electricity???
That his Macho-quotient is the highest in the world???

Or could it be???
Horror of horrors!!!
That he does not EVEN know that electricity can be dangerous???
The researcher cannot conclude that the Chennai male is DUMB...could he???
Could he???

Because DUMB we CANNOT be..
Even the Chennai male..
The Americans cannot feel superior to us because of this endearing habit...
Can they????
Now CAN THEY???????

But then...
One never knows!!
Superiority can stem from so many reasons...
Some feel superior because of their caste..
Or their class...
Some feel superior because of their skin color!!!
Some like Spouse feel superior...
Because they are vegetarian!!!
Or.....
They have an aquiline nose..
And a stentorian voice!!!

And I???

I feel superior because I know!!
And I KNOW that I know!!!
Now how great is THAT???!!!!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Adios then!