Ep 26 – The Khan v. Chappelle: Who Did It Better?

This is an audio only podcast.

In this episode of Matcha Talk, Samia and Samar discuss:

+ Procrastination or Productivity

+ David Letterman’s interviews with Dave Chappelle and Shahrukh Khan

+ The first ladies of America

Matcha Talk Episode 26

BASIC BREAKDOWN

Samar shares a lesson learned from a lecture she listened to some time ago about laziness and productivity. Muslims should not procrastinate since life can end at any time so we should maximize the time spent each day. Samia mentions the ‘Productive Muslim’ with a similar idea, ‘seize the barakah moments’. Even doing everyday things, one can add spiritual significance.

It is challenging during quarantine to manage work and personal life all at home but we should be productive and seize the day, to the best of your ability. There are many people who have lists of actions they’ve done since the start of quarantine while others are simply doing their best to get by.

Samia mentions ‘Sacred Text Messages’, a podcast by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf where he shares wisdom from an aayah at a time. They discuss passive worship once more where not doing any physical action but still worshipping by listening to wisdom and pondering over it. This makes the time spent more meaningful and productive.

David Letterman has a Netflix series that Samia recently watched. One episode was with Dave Chappelle and another episode was with Shahrukh Khan. These are two really successful Muslim people, which was news to Samar. Dave Chappelle is asked about his faith in the interview and speaks so beautifully about it as well as admitting that he’s a Muslim, but he’s not good at it. We should not be so quick to make judgements.

The interviews are one on one conversations for about an hour where they are asked an assortment of questions. These are in depth and personal questions about their lives.

They discuss his thoughtful comedy. Samia shares her appreciation of his SNL monologue which was a serious subject being spoken about in a lighthearted setting to allow the audience to think about it in a different light.

The interview with Shahrukh Khan, a Bollywood acting legend, was something Samia was looking forward to. She mentions how underwhelming it was to see that episode after Dave Chappelle’s interview. He did not go in-depth with David Letterman.

It was sad for Samar since Shahrukh Khan is a representative of a non-Westerner who was on such a huge show as David Letterman but did not have a competitively interesting show. Even while pushing uncomfortable topics, Dave Chappelle did still make an effort. Shahrukh Khan did not seem to do so.

After the interview it is clear that no one will know who Shahrukh Khan is since he is so guarded. They discuss the cultural significance of the questions that were discussed. The interviewer’s questions were not inappropriate yet still he did not answer on a deeper level.

Perhaps the cultural expectations of actors is that they are to remain an enigma and not speak of their personal matters. Perhaps interviews are not so personal in that subcontinent. However, knowing there is an interview scheduled would mean the interviewee would know what they are signing up for.

Samar shares a misunderstanding between her and her father that spanned many years. He would ask her, ‘aaj kia parhaya’ when she came home from school. This can be translated in english as ‘what did you learn today’ but Samar misunderstood consistently as ‘what did you teach today’. He meant ‘what did [your teacher] teach today’ which was frustrating in the moment yet funny in hindsight.

Since this occurrence, Samar suggests the subtleties of conversations between different cultures may lead to misunderstandings or things being missed. Samia denies this being the reason for a shallow level interview with Shahrukh Khan. It seems he simply wishes to remain an enigma known as ‘Shahrukh Khan’.

The first ladies of America are always viewed in a shallow manner. For example, her beauty and grace are always mentioned but not much else. Michelle Obama accomplished a lot but Melania Trump does not make any actions. Not knowing them as round individuals is a tragedy. Especially for women who are only recently ‘allowed’ to be more than just looks, it is now a conscious decision to be shallow which is very unfortunate.

Anonymity allows people to remain positive in memory so perhaps that is the reason for people not going deeper in conversations.