Linda’s SoCS prompt for this Saturday.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “mem.” Choose a word or words with the letters “mem” in that order and run with it. Enjoy!
Now I could have gone the obvious route here and spoken of Remembrance Day… I thought I would go off piste (as if I ever do that normally ;P). And these are just my off the cuff thoughts, not intended to offend or educate… just what rolls out of my brain, through my fingers, over the keyboard, and onto the screen!
Mem-Sahib
A word used to address a lady in india. Often a lady of the upper classes, a higher stature than those average folk.
It was a mark of respect, like Sir and Madam, we have Sahib and Mem-Sahib.
When the Raj was ruled by The British Empire, every white skinned woman was automatically a Mem-Sahib. Obviously, due to the reason they were there, they demanded that immediate respect from the lowly brown-skinned locals.
Nowadays you here people in our community talking of girls who are overly westernised, calling them Gori-Mem. White woman, it loosely translates as. Those ‘coconuts’ as it were, white on the inside, brown on the outside! Wannabe westerners!
Of course it can also be used as a descriptive phrase to describe a western woman too.
And as a British Asian, when I go to India, I get called Mem-Sahib, or Madam, an awful lot! Because we are foreigners in our own land, essentially. We live out in the western world, that place apparently paved with gold, we seem to wear an aura of wealth, and it garners an automatic response of respect from our Indian counterparts.
But I am no madam, or Mem-Sahib. I’m just me! I’d rather be referred to as Didi (sister) or Masi (aunt) or even Beti (daughter). Not someone who is ‘above’ others. Because I’m not.
There you have it… Stream of Consciousness Saturday all about the Mem!
LindaGHill
Dec 28, 2016 @ 22:10:39
Cool! Thanks for the lesson, Ritu! 😀
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Ritu
Dec 28, 2016 @ 22:52:39
You’re welcome Linda@
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Fourth Generation Farmgirl
Nov 15, 2016 @ 19:22:35
Thanks for sharing this interesting cultural lesson. I agree that we should all just respect one another.
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Ritu
Nov 15, 2016 @ 19:38:15
Isn’t that the most important lesson ? 😊
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Fourth Generation Farmgirl
Nov 15, 2016 @ 19:40:09
Definitely! 🙂
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Erika Kind
Nov 12, 2016 @ 22:32:39
I am glad you went off-piste with this. I did not know about that! It is sad that you get respect only because of how you look like or where you come from… or get no respect!
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 23:51:58
It’s not great is it, but you see it all over the world unfortunately…
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Erika Kind
Nov 13, 2016 @ 11:52:41
Unfortunately it’s not, not all traditions are!
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Ritu
Nov 13, 2016 @ 11:59:52
Exactly ….
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Judy E Martin
Nov 12, 2016 @ 20:33:00
That was a very interesting and informative post, Sis. I didn’t know what mem-sahib meant although had heard of it 🙂
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 20:33:56
I aim to educate!!!
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Judy E Martin
Nov 12, 2016 @ 20:44:35
You always do, Sis xx
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 20:48:33
I’m in the right profession then!!!
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Judy E Martin
Nov 12, 2016 @ 20:51:29
Ha! You certainly are! 🙂
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 21:11:42
👧
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 20:34:04
Thanks sis 😁
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joey
Nov 12, 2016 @ 19:19:48
Well isn’t that quite the cultural lesson? I have heard the phrasing, but not any explanation, so I appreciate that. What if we just treated people with respect, no matter what, eh? Like, you’re just you, and I’m just me, and they’re just them… I can find very few exceptions 🙂
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 20:17:00
I wish society was really capable of being like that!
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willowdot21
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:51:24
Lovely as ever and interesting too!!
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 19:06:58
Thank you Willow! 😘
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charlypriest
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:37:32
Hello mem Ritu, I like that. I´m corresponding with a high level person here, not everybody can say that mem Ritu.
How do you call a man then? A man with high status in society?
Just to know and probably will make some silly jokes to some of my Indian blogger friends.
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:42:45
Sahib! And thank you Charly Sahib! 😉
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charlypriest
Nov 12, 2016 @ 19:02:44
Sahib, that sounds like me.
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 19:08:30
😁
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Brenda
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:05:10
I wasn’t expecting to be so well informed. 🙂 A great post!
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:16:39
Why thank you!!!
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Brenda
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:19:59
My reading pleasure. 🙂
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:41:26
😘
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Brenda
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:47:45
🙂 🙂 🙂
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mihrank
Nov 12, 2016 @ 17:57:05
great post, must read to learn, good details…
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Ritu
Nov 12, 2016 @ 18:13:26
Thanks Mihran! Hope you are well!
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