India in Slow Motion - A Must Read

Well continuing the patriotic fervour...lets re-phrase it... the enlightening of Rang De Basanti, I just completed 'India in Slow Motion' by Mark Tully. For those of u who havent heard the name before, he is an expat BBC journalist who comes out to be more Indian than most others...maybe even myself. He has lived in India for countless years now and observed its obfuscated and self - deprecating state. In this book he has come out with short stories...well not exactly stories but instances of the various facets of the great country. He delves into the problems or phenomena of various parts of the country and dishes out the facts that undermine progress as the developed world knows it. He exposes...well that sounds dramatic..but at least focuses on the neta-babu nexus and how the bureaucracy is hampering the country's development.
In the process of reading this book, I was introduced to a whole new or may I say a better perspective of looking at problems like Child Labor, Communalism and E-governance (not a problem but a solution that one) It gave me an insight into how and why the Kashmiri people have become alienated by India or Indians. I was also able to understand a lot of post independence India which thanks to our great educational system, I was unaware. This was earlier done by books like 'All the Janata Men' and 'All Indiras Men' (well not the exact title) by authors whose name I dont recall. (Thanks Dad for preserving those)
All in all this is one book you should not miss out on. Next on my reading list is 'Seven Habits of highly effective people' Will Keep u guys posted on that......ciao

Jimmy Carter Zindabad

Sometimes when one is on the road, it can get real confusing. But the next time I am lost I ll ask for directions to get to Jimmy Carter Boulevard. This guy is my fav President man. Coz I knw exactly how to get back home when I am onto that Road.
Well the day began early for me as me and 2 others were gonna go for our Drivers license (just the learners so I am still not thru with that one yet) And for some freakish reasons we were sent back frm that DMV office. But for Vishwanath's (Vish in short) insistence we wud have gone back home. But he was admant that we shud go to another DMV and try our luck there. (that was the only good thing he did in the day) So off we went looking for it. We were not supported by Mapquest this time arnd, but were fortunate to get some timely help by a gas station shop clerk (wow i didnt know there was such a post... ok i made that up but u knw who I am talkin abt) We were able to get our licenses after arnd 2-3 hours. (I came to a single conclusion, Govt works with the same mindset everywhere..more on that in some other blog) Anyways so we finished our work there and embarked on a journey beyond any journey I have embarked on. (Sorry 4got the word that wud fit this phrase) We circled arnd Atlanta looking for a way to get back home. Our driver, the able Tushar (by default coz none of the others had a pakka license) has a penchant for panicking at the wrong time. And he has no directional sense at all. So we were outsourced the navigational part. Strict instructions being, 'Tell me when to turn befor 1-2 mins. But more often than not we were as slow or as fast as he was in readin g signs. And we used to shout 'Yahaan Right Le' and the next moment there were profanities thrown at us ' Teri Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep....Pehle bolneka na. Last minute kaise turn karoon. By the time the day ended He was an expert at making a U-turn. But that was not all he made a mistake in not turning on his own after that. And we wre agin at the mercy of a Gas station.
Ok now u are thinking how Jimmy Carter is my messiah. Well that was one road we encountered at least 4-5 times and barring the last time we were always travelling the wrong way or took the wrong turn on that one. So on our last attempt, I finally put my foot down and said we are going the wrong direction on this one (Well Its my blog so I get to be the Hero, all others can write their own versions....after buying the copyrights frm me of course) After many trails and tribulations we reached home safely. And the best part is as we got near our house, Tushar was enlightened and said, 'Yeh road kuch jaana pehchaana lag raha hai. Ab mujhe pata hai. Yahaan se right lena hai' (Subtitles This road looks familiar. I know how to get home from here. We take a right) Ya ya ya u guessed right we had to take a left there and we got our opportunity to throw profanities at our able driver (Teri beep beep beep) Jimmy Carter Zindabad.

Color Me Saffron

'Color Me Saffron' seems outta place right. But so does Rang De Basanti. I tried to give it a modern connotation by converting it into English. But I dont feel that Rang De Basanti is so outta place, specifically after watching the movie by the same name. The analogy drawn between todays India and that of the pre-Independance is amazing. The film succeeds in not enthralling the audience by patriotic fervor, but by pushing us into a space where we as a generation dont like to delve into. A space where we are forced to think about how we feel about our nation and our role in its present and future. Well let me take back the word force and replace it with coax because forcing would be the jingoistics of a 'Border' or a 'Kargil'. No Sir, this movie does not even preach about how one needs to give a thought to our great nation like the slow yet very well made 'Swades' does. RDB just leads u into the world of todays youth and shakes the foundation of our cynicism and lets us re-visit our value system.
Be it the dashing yet vulnerable DJ (inconspicuously played by Aamir) or the anachronistic believer played by a typecasted yet brilliant Atul Kulkarni, every one of the characters are people who u meet everyday. They are characters to which we relate to. And they say things which we must have said at some point of time in our life in India. The film depicts a slow yet sudden change in the mindset of the characters and on some level of that of the audience without ever slackening the pace of the movie. Well I would like to go on and on about the movie's unique concept and brilliance, but I would not like to spoil it for the reader. Its a movie to be experienced and promises to be a timeless piece.
But then, I would like to share with u the feelings this movie has aroused in my mind. This has certainly made me re-think (forgive me for the repetitiveness) about the place I call home and analyse why we as Indians expect others to take up the cudgels against something which we all know is wrong. We always expect someone else to clean the house for us dont we? And the cynicism in the belief 'Is Des ka kuch nahi ho sakta' is really killing India as we know it. Maybe we need to change the India as we know it. I have experienced a change in myself after watching this movie. I dont know whether this will last beyond this weekend or maybe even tonite. Nor do I know whether I will be able to stand up for what I believe is right. All I know is that if watching this movie really changes some of us to fight the 'system' then it has found its mark.
So till the next blog.....Range De Basanti.........

My impressions of Americans

Well the day I set foot in the US, I thought I wud be surrounded by all kinda yuppies u see on US tv shows or movies. But after living here for arnd a month now, I am kinda thinking theres a lot of analogy between america and India. In India, the ppl come from different states and here they are from different countries. Although u would feel that everyone here would speak english, when u venture into a Walmart (ya thats the version of big bazaar in the US. Hey dont groan I knw big bazaar came into existence much later), you kinda see ppl speaking different languages viz. latino, Indian, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, etc. (well not so many I made a few of them up) Anyways the point is everyone has their own separate world.
One thing I appreciated a lot out here is the kindnesss and warmth (maybe I came across the warmer lot. I ll keep u posted on that) Everyone (not literally but in office or near ur apartment) says a 'Hi' or a 'Morning' (good is silent...many a times), when they see u. I am fortunate enough to work with some good ppl in office. You wont believe my skiing escapade (well kinda...a perfect use of the figure of speech hyperbole....gosh I still remember my grammer lessons) has become famous with the ppl I work. It was one of the things to do in my lifetime for many of em. Getting back to the point, my SME (thats jargon for Subject matter expert...well wait a minute thats jargon too... lets say my point of contact in my project), who I had worked with over the phone (simple word for conference calls) gave me a box of chocalates on the day I arrived in office and It had 'Sanchit, Welcome to the US' written on it. It was totally amazing.
Well, I am sure I will update my impressions once I venture out into new places. Maybe I ll come up with a series 'Desi does America' (hehehe thats a nice one right. I got inspired by a US TV series 'Daisy does America'. Hope I dont have copyright issues with the makers) thats all in this blog.

Being Sanjeev Kapoor

Well almost reminiscent of the movie 'Being John Malkovich', I d love to be Sanjeev Kappor for a while. Actually everyday from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm thats our time of cooking. I always had this feeling that I was a good cook. Well I still have conviction about the same. To tell u the truth, I have experimented my cooking prowess since the age of 10. But have become a bit rusty with time. Since I havent entered the kitchen for the past 2 yrs.
Hey u know what its 7:30 pm and its time for me to go into battle er kitchen. Asta La vista.

New Years at Gatlinburg

We (me and my roomies Piyush and Ruturaj. Photos in the same order ) had gone to Smoky Mountain, Gatlinburg in Tennessee state on New Years day. Its a 4 hour drive from Atlanta. We got up at 4 in the morn got there at arnd 9:00 odd. Then we had to go up by cable ride to a place high up in the smoky mountains. We had to rent skiis and other equipment. Initially I was not able to move forward because of the slope. But then as I started trying out different stances, I got a hang of it. It was a beatiful resort with a huge Snow slope. But since we were not experts we did not venture into the higher level. We started skiing on the lower slopes. I fell down a few times but always got up wiser in terms of how I shud not be skiing. There was a similarity with skating so I was not uncomfortable at any point of time.The last few times were good as I was able to control my braking and did not bang into or get banged by others (dont take the slang for that!). It was loads of fun. But it was really taxing on the leg muscles. At arnd 2 pm we packed up and returned to the Gatlinburg township (similar to Mall Road of Shimla or Lonavala) where we had our lunch.

Then we went back to our car (rented Ford Focus) and slept for 2-3 hours. We went back to search for a place to celebrate the New Years Eve. The whole place was packed with ppl and there was a line to get into each and every eatary. Fortunately, we landed up at a place called Puckers pub which had karaoke and was a typical american pub. Here we took a table and stayed there till midnight. The ambience was amazing and loads of ppl were totally drunk. The line to the toilet was really long and a few females were actually wainting in the mens line coz their toilet was overcrowded. (before u get any thoughts this was a single person one) It was similar o the dirty ones in India. (sorry if u were eating while reading this blog. I am gonna make sure I dont write such stuff anymore) But the country music and all was really nice.

At the stroke of midnite, the town had a huge tower which had fireworks and ppl were lined up on the streets to watch the festivities. It was really awesome. We stayed there and wandered the streets till arnd 1:30 am and then went back to our car in the parking lot. There was a big rush of cars to get out of the parking lot and so we thought we ll wait for an hour or so and then we left for Atlanta.
It was an amazing New Years Eve.....

My Trip to the US

After a lot of mehnat mashakkat in my Indian company, I got to here the magic words 'tu onsite jayega' (actually had heard em before but they were just gajars for all that I knw) Anyways so after hurrying through all the shopping and formalities, my bags were finally packed. All goodies like puran poli, masale papd and all were carefully concealed in the pressure cooker and other utensils. I called up everyone I knew and started for the airport with a whole paltan from the family. My friend Yogendra did'nt turn up (as usual) but I know he must have been stuck someplace (as usual again).
Anyways so once at the airport, I thought I wud check in my baggage and then come out and meet my family. uh huh wrong I did not get the opportunity to do that and they ended up waiting outside till 2 am. Really sorry for that guys. I was fortunate to meet one of my company's Bosses in the same plane and we chatted for quite some time over a glass of beer (so guys from my company behave. I ve got friends up there :)
As I sat in my seat in the airline I realised I shudnt have asked for a window seat. I was trapped between the window and a huge guy (who I thought spanish but later found out that he was an Indian settled in NY for 35 yrs) anyways to cut the long story short always ask for a seat by the aisle. It helps ur mobility for...u knw waht.
My stopver was in Paris and I absolutely fell in love with the french landscape with greeen fields and small roofed houses (similar to yash chopra film songs:) I was really pissed at myself for not carrying my credit card as I could not call back home. After a million security checks and a few hours at the Paris airport, I was finally in my plane to Miami. I suddenly found the difference between American food and Indian food as I had my first airline meal. It was bland to the core, palatable enough to consume.
As the plane came close to Miami, I was amazed at the beauty of the place. Blue water, roads, great looking houses, beaches and boats. It was amazing!!! I did my port of entry here. (just jargon for entering the US) The funny part is everyone I talked to started talking to me in Spanish. They instantly marked me as a makku (mexican) or may be I seemed like a latino hunk ala Enrique (who am I kiddin) . After getting my bags from the airport, I took a connecting flight to Atlanta and have been here since then. More later.......(I know u heaved a sigh of relief that the blog got over. Am bored myself! ciao!)