Dates Aaj Kal

Usually am a slacker who allows a lot of time to pass between an incident and its entry into this blog. But today, I had the most hilarious of conversations that sent me straight to the keyboard
Background:I’m done with GMAT coaching classes and there’s this classmate, a few years younger to me and also aware of it, who calls me regularly about all sorts of things that’s best described as ‘random’. Totally.
Today, AK, while waiting at a counselling session calls me and starts talking about it. Midway, he announces that he’s gotta go as the counsellor was walking in.
Completely curious, I call him an hour later.
Me: Hey, what’s up?
AK: Hang on. I’ll call you back from another room
Me: ??!
Calls me back.
AK: My mom was in that room. Tell me.
Me: ?? Oh i was just wondering how the counselling went
AK: Ah.. not very well.. The counsellor wanted me to take the prep test and give him a score before he tells me anything.
You know? I’ve been telling you this for a while now, but you just don’t take anything seriously. We should get together and do some practice and get that prep test going. We could do combined studies at my house.
Me: (rolling eyes) I’ll think about it, AK. Btw, I've got some work at the institute tomorrow and will be dropping in. Why don't you pick up the prep-test dumps from there?
AK: Oh no no.. I know what you are doing here! You can’t fool me!
Me: Uh.. what?
AK: You are luring me to the institute.
Me:??
AK: ... to tie a rakhi on my hand.
Me: I do?
AK: Ha.. i knew it!! I’m too smart for that! Listen, there is NO WAY I’m going to be your brother. None of that bull. No way. Not you! No. No.
Me: (playing along) But.. but what’s the harm?
AK: I have too many of those girls around. No way you are getting on that list.
Me: (getting a kick out of this) Hey, listen. You don’t have to give me money or anything. I know you are hard pressed for cash. Just accept the Rakhi.
AK: NO CHANCE! You are crazy. Anyway, my cousin sister is coming home to tie a rakhi and i have to be home for it. I don’t think i can see you tomorrow.
Me: That’s too bad! Another time then.
AK: You wish!
When I hung up the phone, I was laughing so hard, that I was crying. I actually got turned down by a guy who asked me out for movie (for the umpteenth time) just the previous day.

Cheap publicity TIME

So, what exactly is Joel-asshead-Stein's point?

1) That its heart-breaking for him to know that he can't anymore be the petty thug and thief that he once was in his own hometown?

"The Pizza Hut where my busboy friends stole pies for our drunken parties is now an Indian sweets shop with a completely inappropriate roof. The A&P I shoplifted from is now an Indian grocery. The multiplex where we snuck into R-rated movies now shows only Bollywood films and serves samosas. The Italian restaurant that my friends stole cash from as waiters is now Moghul, one of the most famous Indian restaurants in the country. There is an entire generation of white children in Edison who have nowhere to learn crime".

or

2) That American schools don't include 'How to be an anti-social element' in their curriculum?

"In retrospect, I question just how good our schools were if "dot heads" was the best racist insult we could come up with for a group of people whose gods have multiple arms and an elephant nose".

What really bugs me is this - what is a guy like this doing in a magazine like 'Time'? He neither seems intelligent nor original (Compiling all the Googled racial slurs and prejudices against Indians into a few paragraphs does not maketh a column leave alone a humour column.

1 thing is clear - Even Time needs cheap publicity tactics to sustain itself