Reminiscences

As a kid you fantasize about growing up and being independent and responsible and rich and free to do what you want.

Doesn’t always work out that nicely. I remember back in school where my biggest worry was the couple of marks i didn’t score in the latest weekly test. Or finishing homework early enough to go play cricket in the park. Being able to finish a game during the lunch break. Enduring those long school assemblies where they got great people who went on and on about their greatness.

I couldn’t wait to grow up. To have a job, and correspondingly, money. All worries would go away. I would not have to worry about teachers and school. I will be a free bird.

I am a free bird today. A can do everything i wish for. I can buy anything i want. No one to watch over me. No one to stop me. No one to tell me if i am taking a wrong decision.

This isnt as good as i thought it was going to be. Now i am responsible for everything. Life is so complicated.

Were those days better? When Doordarshan played a single movie in the entire week and i was surprised why the adults weren’t as excited about the Amitabh blockbuster playing that evening. There was no cable tv and life was so much better. We actually went out to play, unlike today’s kids. There were no computers but still the world went around, and was much nicer. No shopping malls yet we all wore great clothes. A rupee actually bought stuff. I could actually speak what was on my mind.

The meanest thing a friend could do was not share his lunch with me. The most i could lose was, well, nothing. All i had to do was some silly math, read stories in different languages, and learn about history. That’s way nicer than adult life.

God! I wish i could get those days back!

Filed under: India, Thoughts , Adult life, Childhood, Joy of Life, kids have it easier, Youth

What Kind of Indian Are You?

1. Do you vote?

1. In the club elections? Always
2. Hell yea
3. They are all equally bad. What’s the use?
4. Used to. Till they ended reservation for my caste.

2. You are stopped at a traffic light. The light turns green and you take four seconds to move. People behind you start honking. You?

1. Stop the car. Get out. Wave a middle finger at the world.
2. Lean out of the window. Curse. Move on.
3. Get moving. These people sometimes carry guns.
4. Take your scooter out of the way.

3. You are stopped at a traffic light. The light turns green and the person in front takes four seconds to move. You?

1. Honk and continue honking till he moves.
2. Honk and show him the finger.
3. Wait patiently for him to move.
4. Dont find it hard to drive your two wheeler out of such situations.

4. Your kid fails in the fourth standard. You?

1. Beat the crap out of him
2. Are helpless. Could never pull him away from the playstation
3. Talk to him and find out his psychological problems.
4. Serves him right. Will listen to me now on.

Continue Reading

Filed under: India , India, India survey, Indian People, Questionnaire, Types of Indians, What kind of Indian Are you

Gandhi – My Father

We always think about Mahatma Gandhi as the freedom fighter, fighting for India’s independence, leading millions of people in protest against the British, liberating the country in his own unique way. What about Gandhi the person, a husband and father of four children?

 

The movie Gandhi My Father takes a close look at one of Mahatma Gandhi’s life’s biggest personal regrets. A rare movie that talks about his family and the problems in his own personal life. That he was able to rise above them in achieving what he did is just an illustration of his being the great man that he was.

It isn’t easy being great. It is harder being a father when you have greater things to achieve. This movie is about Gandhi and his relationship with his eldest son, Harilal Gandhi.

Filed under: History, India, Movies , Akshaye Khanna, Gandhi My Father, Hiralal Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi

Going to America

Going to America. The song was set on an infinite loop in Rajiv’s mind, and had played out about ten thousand times in the last two days.

He was after all, going to America.

That though couldn’t happen till he finished packing. Which would be once his mom was done stuffing fifteen packs of dals, and spices, and snacks, and soaps, and toothpaste, and shoe polish, and god knows what else, into his two suit cases which as per US regulations couldn’t weigh more than 64 pounds.
Not the pound that is the British dollar, but the pound that is the American kilo. (What sort of silly people weigh in Pounds. A woman weighing a nice 40 kilos would probably have a heart failure if someone admiringly told her that she looked about 90, and forgot to add the unit.)

Anyway, who cared. Rajiv had already converted to the pound system. He even went to the Agarwal sweet store and asked for 2 pounds of kaju barfi. He called them ignorant and they shooed him off. Their loss. He was going to America, kaju barfi or not.

Rajiv had grown from strength to strength the past 6 months. He was a wreck during the initial application stage. Only he knew how he managed to get his 95 percentile GRE score. In March he got notification of his acceptance to the University of Southern California (no funding, but his dad was rich enough to pay the thirty thousand dollars. Thank god for rich parents). He was the envy of his classmates, and the latest find for the babes girls. He was a lion. Soon it was time to get the visa. He had heard of so many stories where the visa officer rejected the visas of even deserving people. He was mediocre, on his best day. He was going crazy. He couldn’t afford turning back from here.

There was going to be no need for turning back. The visa officer liked his face, and wished him luck.

Filed under: India, Stories , America, Desi Tales, Going to America, India, Short Stories

Traffic in India

Youtube is turning out to be a modern day Pandora’s box. Check this out.

This video is a clipping of traffic at some intersection somewhere in India. (Any guesses what city this is?) The video is supposed to show just how bad traffic in India is. Now, frankly i thought this was pretty tame. I have seen much worse traffic.

I normally wouldn’t have given this video a second thought, but then i noticed this:

Honors for This Video:
#10 – Most Viewed (All Time) – Autos & Vehicles
#56 – Top Rated (All Time) – Autos & Vehicles
#2 – Most Discussed (All Time) – Autos & Vehicles
#6 – Top Favorites (All Time) – Autos & Vehicles

Filed under: India, Thoughts, Videos , Indian traffic is horrible, Lets bash India, Youtube top videos

Happy Holi!

The alarm went off at exactly 7:30, just like everyday. But it was a Saturday and there was no office today. Akhil slapped his heavy fist on the snooze button of his Chinese alarm clock he had bought from the dollar store last week. Damned alarm.

Ten minutes later he woke up with a start. “Oh crap!” Today was Holi.

 

Akhil felt a pang in his stomach. He was going to miss home today more than ever. His first holi in a new town with hardly any Indian friends around. Nobody to smudge with color, no kids running around throwing water balloons at random people, no celebration of any sort for him. And then it occurred to him that holi in India would already be over – it was early evening there at this time. He smiled at the irony of that realization, but that sinking feeling came creeping back a second later.

He called up home and talked to everybody in the family. They were all there – his parents, uncles, aunts, all the kids. The only one missing was him.
At least he could call them up, if not be with them. Some consolation.

This lasted 30 minutes. It was now 9am and the day had just about begun for him. He had moved to New York last month after finishing grad school in Atlanta, and didn’t really have any friends he could visit or invite over.

“Let’s make some kheer to celebrate” he thought. He was a good cook, and the last time he made kheer was on India’s Independence Day when he had made a potful and taken to his office. Everybody had liked the rice pudding, as they called it.
An hour later the kheer was ready, but Akhil was even more stressed out. All this kheer on a festival and nobody to share it with. The loneliness was killing him.

Even Shakira didn’t help, and Shakira always worked for him.

Last year holi was so much better. He had a big bunch of Indian friends back in grad school and they had so much fun at the Indian Association sponsored celebrations. But now he was in a different corner of the country. Things were a little different this year around.
He called up his dearest buddy Rajiv, who had just about woken up. He was in a different time zone, but in the same situation as Akhil. They talked for a long time, discussing their lives and the multitude of options they had for spending their time. Rajiv had a suggestion – “maybe they do some celebration at the local temple?”
A quick Google search revealed that a temple a short drive from home indeed had some sort of holi celebration in the morning. It was almost noon now, but if he rushed he might make it.

Filed under: India, Stories , Holi, Indian Festivals, Life in America, Stories

Outsourced

A few days back i saw a screening of this movie called Outsourced at the South Asian International Film Festival SAIFF. This movie is about an American guy whose company outsources his work to a call center in India, and sends him to train the person who was going to be his replacement manage that call center! Interesting enough for a dekko.

So our man, the hero - Josh Hamilton, very reluctantly travels to India because his stock options are all locked and quitting the job would mean he loses it all. Very valid reason. Smart man.

He lands at the Mumbai Bombay airport only to be surrounded by about 1000 taxi drivers (Ok. I added a zero to that to add some spice. Btw hero likes spicy food, and the boss made that a point for him to come to India). He finally picks a guy who turns out be be, well, an Autorikshaw driver! Funny scene that one.

What does Mr white guy eat first thing in India? A gola (some sort of ice cream. Only with ice and no cream). Obviously his stomach doesn’t quite like it. Then he is taken to auntyji’s guest house. Aunty looked like the ba of tulsi fame. A typical indian woman who doesn’t like the fact that hero is not married despite being so old (a little over 30), or that he doesn’t live with his parents, or that he eats with his left hand (Please. i am not going to describe the reason for that. Go watch the movie if you must know)

Filed under: India, Movies , Outsourced Movie Review, South Asian International Film Festival

Kashmir (still) Burns

I read a touching post yesterday by a sister remembering her brother who died fighting terrorists in Kashmir.

“J&K: 2 majors, 9 infiltrators killed

How many times have you and I read headlines like these in the last so many years and not given it a second thought? It seems like there is one such headline every few days and all we can do is shake our head in disdain and move on to the next headline. But today, I can’t move on, much as I try. Because Major Dinesh R Raman of 34 Rashtriya Rifles who succumbed to his injuries last night in a Srinagar hospital was my brother. ”

Even in death, his only concern was getting the militants.

“Don’t let any militant escape,” these were the last words of Major D Raghuraman when he was air-lifted from the gun-battle spot in North Kashmir after being hit by a bullet in the chest. (link)

All this for what? How many more people have to die fighting this enemy that just keeps coming at them? New Delhi and Islamabad talk of peace initiatives while everyday people are getting killed in the heaven on earth that wasn’t to be. When is this violence going to end?

Then i came across this news clip about the growing number of Kashmiri people committing suicides. Included was the shocking cctv footage of a man parking his scooter on Amirakdal bridge in Srinagar, and jumping off to his death in the Jhelum.

“Suicide attempts are being reported almost on a daily basis.” “300 people attempted suicide in the past 6 months”

Is a piece of land worth the thousands of bodies lying all over the kashmir valley?

Call me naive, but i cannot understand how anybody can stand to gain by killing another person? When so many people die for no fault of theirs, no one wins. Who loses? Humanity.

Filed under: India, Thoughts , India Pakistan Conflict, Kashmir, Terrorism

The Other India

India is shining. The Indian elephant is on a roll, galloping along on the path to economic progress. India has more billionaires than any other Asian country. Indians are starting new companies. Indian companies are acquiring foreign ones. The rupee is stronger than it has been in recent years. Foreign exchange reserves are at a record high. Stock markets are on a roll. The GDP is growing at a phenomenal rate. The list goes on.

It sure does.

Only the very rich are getting obscenely rich. The growth is mainly due to the services sector and main beneficiaries are probably the technology and finance professionals. Costs are rising as a result, and other middle class Indians are feeling the pinch. Caste based politics is taking several states backward rather than forward. The very partisan media is indulging in a dangerous game of sensationalism that we have never seen earlier. The poor are not getting any benefit of the growth. Large scale migration to the major cities is increasing stress on the urban infrastructure. We have a serious power deficit. Literacy levels are not improving as much as one would hope.

People straight out of technical and business schools are earning salaries unheard of till a few years ago. Not so much growth for other professions. The costs are rising as a result of the increased purchasing power of these professionals. You can go to a coffee shop and spend hundred rupees on a coffee and some snack.

Filed under: India, Thoughts , Disparity, Economic Growth, India, Social Problems

Chak De! Haryana

First there was Chak De! India, then that fantastic Asia cup victory by the Indian men’s hockey team, then the protests by players anguished at how their outstanding work got completely overshadowed by the cricketers who got rewarded handsomely for their world cup win. Now take this.

Haryana government is setting up hockey stadiums in 50 villages, each with an investment of Rs 50 lakh (5 million). Most of the money for this is going to come from the central government. Once the stadiums are setup, the players will be given hockey sticks and balls free of cost. When they talk of grassroots development of the sports infrastructure, this is how it is supposed to be done. Kudos to the government for this initiative.

Another heartening initiative coming from former Indian captain Rajesh Chauhan who has formed the Jai Bharat Charitable and Welfare Trust to “groom players from the rural parts of the state so that the players will one day win an Olympic gold for the country and restore the golden period of Indian hockey to where it was.”

A couple (more) steps in the right direction, we say!

Filed under: Happenings, India , Chak De India, Haryana, Hockey

Sonia Who?

On occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, which is being marked as the International Day of Non Violence by the United Nations this year, Sonia Gandhi today addressed the UN General Assembly.

Normally UN addresses are made by heads of state. So we’re guessing that she must be the prime minister of India. Or at least the president.

But hold on, the prime minister is Manmohan Singh, and the president is Pratibha Patil. So who is this Sonia Gandhi who is representing India at this forum? And who is her son, Rahul Gandhi who is so famously accompanying her on the trip?

Is the president of the Congress party a bigger deal than the official leaders of the country? Oh wait…it’s because she was married into the family that owns India?

Now we understand. Silly us.

 

Protest and hunger strike in Newyork
Pro Hindu fanatics protesting against Sonia’s visit

Filed under: Happenings, India , Gandhi Legacy, International Day of Non Violence, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, United Nations General Assembly

Dosas Conquer Newyork

Thiru Kumar, who runs a roadside dosa cart at Newyork’s Washington Square South won this year’s Vendy Award for New York’s best street food at Tompkins Square Park on Saturday.

Standing at a golf cart-sized kitchen, Thiru “Dosa Man” Kumar made his signature pondicherry dosas to order, spreading dollops of batter over the griddle surface with a tool that looked like hockey puck. He stuffed and rolled the crispy dosas, deftly chopping them into perfect thirds with his spatula.

So there…how incredible is that? Dosas being Newyork’s favorite roadside food! Oh, and by the way Thiru is not Indian – he hails from Sri Lanka.

This event sounds very interesting – a five hour orgy for foodies with a $60-eat-as-much-as-you-can. But then, how much can you eat in a day? And given the variety on offer (and the best that Newyork has to offer), thats one choice we would love to be spoilt for.

Another story on this event

Filed under: Happenings , Dosa, Newyork, Street food, Thiru Kumar, Vendy Award