Pynchon

I have a joke for you. It is not politically correct.

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Banta Singh from Punjab goes into a brothel in Amsterdam one night and finds himself a prostitute.

He asks her, 'How much do you charge for the hour?'

'£100", replies the Hooker.

Banta asks, 'Okay. Do you do it Indian style?'

The Hooker says, 'No'.

Banta asks her, 'I'll pay you £200 to do it Indian style.'

The Hooker says 'No', not really knowing what Indian style is.

Banta offers the Hooker £300.

Again the Hooker declines his offer.

Finally Banta says, 'I'll give you £500 to go Indian with me!'

The Hooker agrees, thinking to herself, 'Well, I've been on the game for over 10 years. I've been there and done that, had every kind of request from weirdo's from every corner of the world. Just how bad can Indian style be?'

So, the Hooker goes ahead and has sex with Banta, doing it in every kind of way and in every possible position.

Finally, after several intense hours they finish. Exhausted, the Hooker turns to Banta and says, 'That was fantastic. I've never enjoyed sex so much, but I was expecting something perverted and disgusting. Where does the "Indian style" come in?'

Banta replies ......... 'I'll pay you next week'.

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The interesting thing about that joke is that it was sent to me, via email, by an Indian guy that I work with. His name is Asif Aslam. He is a nice guy. Incredibly deadpan sense of humour. Asif is Westernised, but is still a very traditional Sikh. Asif is getting married later in the year and is working on a full beard. Apparently it is something that he is expected to wear. (Actually it is a cracking beard. Long and flowing and black. How black? None more black. The last time I grew a beard it turned out grey. Fuck that. Never again.)

Is that joke racist? Does it reinforce racial stereotypes? In this case that Indian's never pay their bills on time? I think that that joke would work perfectly well as an anti-semitic joke. Change Banta Singh to Abraham Cohen, Punjab to Israel and Indian to Jewish. See what I mean?

Is it OK for an Indian to tell that joke, but not somebody who is not Indian?

Did I laugh? Sure I did.

I do not really have anything to write about. It shows doesn't it?

I hit a new low this evening. I made Lorraine an offer. I told her that I would do the washing up all week, regardless of who cooked, if I could have a tit wank this evening. She turned me down. Of course she did. What kind of an offer is that to make to a woman? She said that I seem to think that sex is the only problem we have, when the fact is that our problems go much deeper than that. I asked her elaborate. She declined and went to bed.

The washing up has not been done.

I just want us to be the way that we used to be. Is that wrong?

This is pathetic.

I won't be here tomorrow.