Some people among the educated section of society, seem to be quite unaware of geography, as far as Asia is concerned.

To many Americans, the term "Asian" refers to people from China or Japan, possibly Vietnam, or Korea. The people I have interacted with, refer to Asian and Indian, as if they were from two different continents, like Asian vs African. I have deferred from correcting them so far, wondering how do people forget school geography so easily?

Until recently. My neighbors are from Canada,and they had recently come down with friends. The gentleman who was meeting me for the first time, the friend, asked me where I was from. I said India. And then he said something about how many Asian restaurants there are. I was tempted to tell him that India is also part of Asia, when his wife herself corrected him quietly, telling him, "India is also in Asia".

I secretly smiled to myself, thankful, that at least one person I had interacted with, knew that India,and Indians were, Asians.

If I thought Americans forgot geography, I was brought to my senses recently, while watching a video interview about Preity Zinta. (Google Videos- Preity Zinta with Omar Qureshi, about the making of her movie, Heaven On Earth) In that interview, while talking about her research to understand and portray her character, she said that, "I have read stories about many women, Pakistani, Asian, Indian..." and I was like, "There you go. One more added to the same group, and this time, an Indian movie actress herself.

Time for you all to get back to school!