Calling all desis, everyone come...

<p>well...thats basically what i meant, anybody from south asia (sorry for putting indian only, if i offended anyone for not including them in the def!) :)
...however, I did not know that it referred to people in any country...thanks for letting me know!</p>

<p>desi = countryman</p>

<p>Hmm lets see</p>

<p>Born in CHennai, lived in bangalore for 2 years, lived in hyderabad for 5, lived in DElhi for 8 and then moved to US ( PHoenix, Arizona ) where I have been for 2 years !! </p>

<p>Thats 16 years in INdia and 2 years in US!! Hence my name !</p>

<p>And by the way do we really look like mexicans??? Lol</p>

<p>mathmajor - gujju from bombay - 6' 3"</p>

<p>Man that earthquake was pretty bad in Chennai . I hope your family is alright nomad!
No we dont look like mexicans!!!!</p>

<p>and btw at 6' 3" 200 pounds, I am still one of the 'smaller' person in my immediate family :D</p>

<p>nomad - almost everyone at my school thinks i'm mexican, unless i tell them otherwise. so people i know know i'm indian, but people i don't know think im mexican unless somebody tells them otherwise.</p>

<p>yeah they tell me I look hispanic or spanish.......unless I tell them I am a desi LOL..</p>

<p>my friends and i play a game called mexican or desi when we're driving around...it's kinda sad...</p>

<p>Indonesian earthquake of 9.0 magnitude, the worst in the world in 40 years, made tidal waves that hit India and Sri Lanka.
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4126971.stm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4126971.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Sri Lanka: 4,500 dead
Indonesia: 4,440 dead
India: 3,200 dead
Thailand: 380 dead
Malaysia: 42 dead
Maldives: 32 dead
Bangladesh: 2 dead</p>

<p>o no, those poor bangledeshies :(</p>

<p>Kiran : Yea, turns out most of them didnt feel anything only !! The tidal wave had more of an impact than the earthquake though ( hence so many deaths). THanks for asking though!</p>

<p>Others : Maybe its because i live in arizona ( second home to mexicans - no offence), But everybody laughs at me when i try to pretend i am a mexican lol ! Their faces seem more broader somehow!</p>

<p>MAtt lol yeah poor bangladeshies !!</p>

<p>Latest India death tolls:
Andaman and Nicobar Islands - 3,000
Tamil Nadu - 2,400
Kerala - 150
Pondicherry - 100
Andhra Pradesh - 96</p>

<p>By the way, this is not something to joke about. Atleast 13,000 people are dead and many more are missing.</p>

<p>this is just too depressing...</p>

<p>it is very disturbing. Sometimes i get this feeling that human lives are not worth as much in the eastern hemisphere, as it is in the western! I am like... look at the number of incidents we have in India where over 100 people die instantly and still the systems dont adapt to it. We saw Latur, Gujarat (cyclone & earthquake), etc.
I know bitchin dont do any good... but food for thought..
Also, if there is anything that yall can do to help, please think about it. We have started fund raising in my school and are in the process of planning an event that will help raise $$ for those poor fishermen.</p>

<p>Not to be too mean, but is it nature's way of balancing Human numbers to some extent?</p>

<p>:) that is a GREAT observation nomad. I am assuming that you have never lost anyone to one of these balancing acts.</p>

<p>Hmmm.. let's see my cousin's family lived in Gujrat(AHmedabad) during the earthquake there.. and also the fact almost my whole family lives in Chennai.. yea. though i havn't lost anyone due to them, that doesnt mean I was concerned. lol . Did you notice i phrased my sentence in the form of a question and not a phrase ? Maybe i should rephrase the my question... </p>

<p>But is it nature's MEAN way of balancing Human numbers to some extent?</p>

<p>wow...22,000 people dead by the latest estimate...</p>

<p>Nomad - that is better phrasing.
To answer your question, there is a school of thought that was initiated by Malthus in the 1700s that advocates that the nature has a mean way to balance the earth's population.
The irony is that even the nature seems to be baised toward the poorer parts of the world (most of the time), which incidentally also happens to be the more popular regions.</p>

<p>apologize if i snapped - but i was in gujarat in 2001 and saw it all unfolding in front of my eyes - there is no logical justification for why it happens so often, and still the systems can adapt to it</p>