Ying Gets Her First Title Censored :-)
I was shopping for shawls in India recently. The owner of the store informed me that he had all kinds of cool stuff made of pure silk, pure pashmina or part silk and part pashmina. They cost anywhere between 1000 to 2000 rupees (which is enough to buy a few people in India). Upon seeing a shawl that costs only 250 rupees, I asked the owner what the difference was between that and the expensive ones. "This one is a fag," he exclaimed. Excuse me? "It's a fag, no good. You don't want it. The real silk or real pashmina better." What do you mean by fag? "It's cotton. See, touch. Different." Hmm, maybe, but the silk and pashmina ones are so much more expensive. "You getting it for your mother? Get her a good one. Don't get fag." But being the cheap Stanford Law student that I was and also a terrible daughter, I said, "No, I'll just take the fag."

Later, my UN friend and travel companion indicated to me that by "fag," my Indian friend was trying to say "fake." Ohhhh, I see. Silly me, I was beginning to think that Indians were just insensitive to gay people. See, I am acquiring new depths of cultural understanding from these foreign expeditions.