Lull After the Storm

This sequence of events is all too familiar now for most of us. On the 26th of November, we were attacked, wounded and most importantly humiliated by the gang of no more than ten. We watched haplessly as the trauma and the grief ran into minutes, hours and days. We picked up every gory detail of the attacks, we lapped up all that the media fed us, we argued and argued more, we decided in our minds who the enemy was and decided what the best course of action, we looked up the Internet on varied topics from Taj, Oberoi, Mumbai, India's comparative military strength, the origin of our border dispute, the cost of waging a war, the demographic makeup of country, Article 370, Nehru, Gandhi... anything remotely connected to that fateful day. We watched as our political leaders failed us yet again. We called it India's 9/11 (this was a first for us) and thought we had the means and the will to retaliate the US did. We perversely rejoiced at the attention with we getting on the world stage, satisfied with the lip-service doled out to us by the powers that matter. We wrote on chat forums and on our blogs. (As I indeed write on mine now). We changed our orkut and facebook profiles, we joined umpteen number of online groups expressing our support in this time of need. We made personal vows to hurt the enemy in whatever ways we could. We paid our 2 minutes of respect silence and We decided we needed to change... everything. We decided we needed a fresh new start.

And then we moved on.. not instantly but gradually maybe but definitely. They said it was time to move on...i saw the first signs of it when I saw the headline "Mumbai limps back to normalcy"... no doubt the editor didn't lose anyone dear. We saw as the "news" lost its novelty. It was relegated to other more "important" and "news-worthy" incidents like the crash of the stock exchanges worldwide (something that happens with far too much regularity nowadays), the IT meltdown and how Infosys wont hire anymore, England's resumption of the cricket tour... heck even Maradona's coming to India suddenly seemed to be more important than the crisis of the hour. Should the fact that a woman from Haryana gave birth at 70 really be hogging the front page news? How many more 26/11's (another of media's wonderful creation-thank you for giving us memory aids for remembering the dates on which we lose fellow countrymen by hundreds for no fault of theirs. ) do we need before we realize that its not right to forget such incidents in matter of days. How many more lives do we need to lose before we stop treating this horrible breach of our trust as merely an inconvenience and a soap opera all bundled together by the media as a wholesome side-dish to our evening dinners? The enemy is closer than we think, its among us. Its inside each one of us... its called complacence. "Chalta hain" attitude definitely nahin chalta hain. We cant forget what is wrong! It would be doing ourselves and the generations to follow a great disservice.

I am reminded of a stanza from a hindi poem

Khoon jo ab na Khaula
Woh khoon nahi paani hai
Jo desh ke kaam na aaye
Bekar woh jawani hai.

And please don't change channels... Saas-bahu can wait.

A November to remember!

Watching a great drama unfold from the sidelines for someone with limited knowledge but keen interest has its share of pluses and minuses. The lack of knowledge is often overshadowed by the ability to see the things without the prejudice of history and to identify the grey in a sea of black and white.

As an alien in the Promised Land, the Presidential elections slated this November provide me with all the ingredients of a great drama and I have been fortunate enough to witness many of its twists and turns.

The preceding winter was all about Hillary and Obama and how the winner of this contest would eventually find his/her way to the White House creating some kind of history along with it?
As the winter gave to spring and summer, this presidential race also changed its character for reasons sometimes beyond the control of those in it.

If this election were to be neatly wrapped up into bullets points I would present mine as:
1. What is this election about? Both the presidential candidates would be mistaken if they though the election was about them or the issues that they thought were important. The truth could be the farthest from it. If ever the election was for the common man, this one is. Talk to any American and the issue most close to his heart is the mess that the American economy finds itself in. Spiraling gas prices and job cuts are just the symptoms of something far more sinister. For the time-being Iraq can be put on the back-burner. National building exercise must be done at home first.

2. What each one is saying: This election was the seen by many as the clash of two diametrically opposite opponents, the clash of the old vs. the new. Sure enough both had their agendas and their plan of actions if elected to the white house. But it doesn’t matter anymore. The events of the past month have ensured that whoever is elected to the White House will have his hands full in undoing the damage done.

3. Do they really want the job? The White House is the seat of unbridled power and its occupant is arguably the world’s most powerful person. Who wouldn’t want the job? Both the candidates are on the verge of creating some kind of history if they make it to the White House. But surely they wouldn’t want to earn the dubious distinction of herding US deeper into trouble should things get out of hand. I wouldn’t be surprised if both the candidates have had second thoughts about the enormity of the task potentially ahead of them.

4. Battle of the vice presidents: Once the vice-presidential candidates were announced, they have in their own way managed to overshadow the presidential candidates and the election itself. Sarah Palin has managed to tilt the advantage in favor of the Democrats by displaying her evident lack of experience at this level. By nominating an inexperienced candidate like Palin, the Republicans have lost the moral right to attack Obama’s inexperience.

5. Who’s the winner? When America first went into election mode, it was all about Hillary and Obama. The analysts certain that the Republican regime would end soon; it seemed like a cake-walk for Obama once Hillary opted out. One sensed that the feeling of quiet optimism in the Obama camp gave way to one of overconfidence much earlier than required and somehow he couldn’t connect to the masses in the way that he had during the primaries. The central theme of Obama’s campaign has always been “Change”. Then came the realization that the anticipated depression in the US economy was already here and bigger than expected. In such times, I don’t know if the message of “Change” is the best possible one for Obama, not when he confronts a nation that yearns for things the way they always were-the time of $1 menus, fuel guzzlers, a strong dollar and jobs that stayed at home. But atleast he has a message but McCain sadly has none, not atleast that comes to my mind immediately.

Till some time back both were almost neck to neck. And many voters were undecided. Sarah Palin may have unknowingly helped many voters make up their minds, sadly against her party though.

One reckons it’s going to be Obama on 4th November but only just.

The Great Indian Oscar Debate

Every autumn (or fall as it is known here in the land of the Oscars), a committee appointed by the Government of India chooses the official Indian entry to the Oscars for a nomination in the Best foreign film category. Like anything that is connected remotely to the government, the entire process is invariably linked with controversy and to the common man; the entire process seems a futile exercise. More often than not, the official entry is not the sentimental favorite. That would work out fine if the jury sent sensible films to the Oscars. Previous entries like Jeans, Paheli & Saagar don’t fit the bill by a large margin and one is left wondering how movies like Roja, Ek Ruka Hua Faisla , Satya, Lakshya, Monsoon Wedding or even Sholay never made it to the list.

Going through the list of nominations over the years, the movies that I feel really deserved to be on the list are Mother India, Manthan, Saaransh, Salaam Bombay, Bandit Queen, Earth and Shwaas. Even Lagaan for all its pomp and show, drama, cricket and patriotism made for a poor choice compared to Monsoon Wedding, a crisp 90 min movie that brilliantly portrays contemporary Indian urban life against the backdrop of a wedding.

Agreed that you can’t win all the time and this category is one of the most competitive one but shouldn’t we sending movies that atleast give a correct picture of India. I work in the US and still have to answer questions regarding the great Indian rope trick, child marriage and Sati. This inspite of the tremendous progress we have made in the past ten years. Movies like Jeans don’t help.

This year however seems to be different. The official Indian entry is “Taare Zameen Par”, a beautiful and sensitive story about an 8 year old dyslexic kid. The movie is particularly pertinent in a society like ours that refuses to accept disability in more ways than one and preventing them from being a part of the mainstream. With the kind of awareness that is already there in the US regarding dyslexia, the film may not actually appeal to the Oscar panel but it nonetheless deserves to be our official entry for the role it played in sensitizing all of us into accepting all that we perceive to be “not normal”.

My best wishes to the entire “Taare Zameen Par” team… thank you for the job that you have already done. You are already winners in our eyes.

And thank you to the jury for not goofing up this time around.

Let the Games Begin!

So the great games begin tomorrow on a numerically wonderful date of 08/08/08. A few wishes before the frenzy takes over:

1. Let the rains not ruin the wonderful opening ceremony promised to us.
2. Let the focus of the games be the games and not the quality of Beijing air or such frivolous issues.
3. Let the media bring us the games and not their biased opinion about all that is wonderfully correct or horribly wrong about the games.
4. Let us not be pulled into the frenzy of “USA v/s China” as this edition of the games are being billed as. There are many worthy teams in the fray.
5. Lastly let the best team win.

P.S. Happy Birthday Mummy:)

Learn to be Still!

My thoughts in the words of "The Eagles"... thank you for the music


It's just another day in paradise
As you stumble to your bed
You'd give anything to silence
Those voices ringing in your head
You thought you could find happiness
Just over that green hill
You thought you would be satisfied
But you never will- Learn to be still


We are like sheep without a shepherd
We don't know how to be alone
So we wander 'round this desert
And wind up following the wrong gods home
But the flock cries out for another
And they keep answering that bell
And one more starry-eyed messiah Meets a violent farewell- Learn to be still
Learn to be still

Now the flowers in your garden
They don't smell so sweet
Maybe you've forgotten
The heaven lying at your feet

There are so many contridictions In all these messages we send (We keep asking)
How do I get out of here Where do I fit in?
Though the world is torn and shaken
Even if your heart is breakin'
It's waiting for you to awaken
And someday you will- Learn to be still Learn to be still
You just keep on runnin'
Keep on runnin'

Its not about the beer!

As I sipped the latest offering from Budweiser on a sultry Saturday evening in St Louis, I knew that a piece of heritage would soon to be relegated to the pages of history. Sure enough the next days papers were awash with the news of Anheuser Busch (the parent company of Budweieser) being taken over by InBev, a Belgium based beer conglomerate. What surprised me was not the astronomical money that would change hands ($52 billion) or the fact that the merger would result in the world’s largest beer company but rather the fact that tradition and history had to bow down to economics at the end of the day.

From my office in downtown St Louis, I gaze at the Anheuser Busch refinery and the Busch Stadium (home to the St Louis Cardinals baseball team) and can empathize with the sense of loss that fellow citizens would feel . I am not yet even contemplating the economic loss that this could mean to my current city of residence.

Connoisseurs believe Budweiser isn't the best beer in the business but then Budweiser is not just a beer. No beer has as much history attached to it as the Bud. It’s what binds America together along with Levi’s Jeans , Hot Dogs, Hollywood and Coca-Cola.

To many non-Americans who wish to come to this country and make it big, it is a shining beacon of hope of all that life can possibly offer. To merely dismiss it as a 5% v.v alcoholic drink made from grains in USA would be like calling the Taj a marble building.
I am yet to think of an Indian equivalent of Budweiser- Cricket comes closest to it in terms of its ability to bind a country together.

In this time of economic despair, the take-over seems most uncalled for. And yet the silver lining to it may be the fact that the takeover indicates that the US economy is driven by hard facts and profit motive-something that will definitely help it tide over the current trough.

InBev hopes of taking the Budweiser brand across the world. One only hopes it doesn’t end up diluting the great American heritage.

The Week that was!

Perhaps it’s the indication of the fact that we live in very exciting times and the events that as they unfold-minor as they seem are likely to affect us in a way that we may not be able to visualize today. Or perhaps its just the fact that recently I have had nothing much to write about.

Every week (that is how I would ideally want it), I would like to note a few events that I feel are either
1.Of immense importance to our lives.
2. Are offbeat in nature
3. Make for interesting reading

Ideally I would not like to talk about the spiralling gas prices and the falling stock indices of the world.

Eventually I would like this attempt to not be limited to a narration of facts but rather a commentary on the events around us.

What I hope is that in the process I will be able to form or refine opinions.
This is at best a humble effort and I am the first to acknowledge this.

Now for the first “edition”

The events that made news this week:
1. N Korea beginning with nuclear disarmanament.
2. Bill Gates bidding good bye to the tech world.
3. Passing away of the legendary Sam Maneckshaw.

All of the above events have been well-documented including the last one with the story of the President unavailable for the funeral of the greatest Field Marshall India has ever seen.

What caught my attention however was WALL-E, the latest animation offering from PIXAR. WALL E ( acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class). I don’t really want to dwelve into the story but the movie presents a startling but entirely plausible picture of the earth a couple of centuries down the line if we extraplolate the events as they are occuring today. The greatest takeaways from the film is the danger of the rampant consumerism and how we are playing into the hands of the big companies, Secondly automating everything around is deadening our brains and giving the power of the human mind to machines. Auto-Pilot is probably not the answer to everything.But the most endearing piece in the story is how even two futuristic robots cant escape the power of love. The only thing that is likely to survive the mess that we are creating for ourselves is love and of course cockroaches for company if we are there at all.

The movie though not the best offering from PIXAR so far ,delivers the most important lesson ever delivered by an animation-the time to act and the save the earth and the human race is now. There may never be a second chance.

In this world of chaos, WALL E stands for all that needs to change about this world’s and about us.

I only hope the world doesn’t brush this movie aside as a children’s cartoon film.

Random Thoughts

Adventures in a far-away land… this is how I would have ideally hoped to title these string of thoughts that I have been trying to pen down for a long time now…the truth however begs to differ… it will be close to 3 months here and life hasn’t been all that dramatic as I was half-expecting it to be…. No bite of the big apple, no big city lights, no once-in a lifetime photos from breath-taking places and after the initial anguish not even the feeling of being so far away… Wait a minute this is not meant to be a sad post. The introduction is merely a testimony to the fact that life can be beautiful even when it’s not king-size. To the extent of sounding clichéd, I have found happiness or atleast a reason to smile in all the unexpected places whenever I have made the effort.

A foreign country with the idiosyncrasies of its people (or this is how it looks to me) has meant smiles and more smiles whenever I have chosen to see the lighter side. (I am sure I have been a source of amusement alike for many of the locals)… my name pronounced as Gotham, Botham or even Doug (where did that come from?), the sheer futility of trying to drink from the water fountain on the first couple of occasions, managing in the land of toilet paper, ordering the wrong stuff every single time, smiles all round from absolute strangers, nodding heads that convey the opposite of what I have grown up to believe, been told on numerous occasions to speak more clearly and slowly, the sheer bliss in anonymity, chasing outrageous deals, the sheer pleasure of snow, rain and golden sunshine on the same day.

And yet some joys are the same regardless of the land or the people. The joy of seeing smiling children aboard school buses, the thrill of an early let off from work, meeting a dear friend after a hard day at work, cracking jokes at the expense of my colleagues at work, that unexpected phone call from a long-lost friend, the early morning freshness in the air, the laziness of Sundays and the joy of long weekends.

Life for me will always be beautiful as long as I seek happiness in the small things. The bigger picture can meanwhile wait.

8:36 to Union Station

All it takes is 24 hours and a new world and possibly a new life stand in front of me. Through my jet-lagged eyes piercing from a body heavily wrapped up and my groggy legs that set foot on the icy tarmac, the enormity of change strikes me…

A familiar face… my close friend… confused emotions… happiness, relief and a wish to take the next available flight home...

The first few things that I notice on my cab ride “home”… traffic on the right side (wrong side for me really), petrol (or gas) less expensive than diesel, no blaring horns, signs and instructions all around bordering on paranoia, no potholes and a chill in the air that could kill…

Quick stopover at “home”… quick round of introductions with my room-mate… first impressions… nice guy… relief the most overwhelming emotion encountered… Step 1 cleared…

A delightfully cooked Indian meal at my friend’s home… me refreshed but a deep sense of detachment lingers… my sense of humor also fails me… my loss of conversation disconcerts my friend… for once I unable to comfort her…

I sleep a jet-lagged sleep… wake up more disoriented… need groceries.... visit a nearby store with my friend…. The same emotion… too much change to register and by the way why can’t they have lesser varieties of waffles? Waffles incidentally become a big part of my life… I begin my day with them…. People have more choices in waffles than newspapers… anyways who cares... I move on… the aisle of bottled water beckons…

My office I notice is in downtown… a concept as yet unknown to me… from my conversations with colleagues and friends; I stumble onto my own definition:
Downtown: You work here and it has all the nice places that you can’t visit till you have a car coz it’s not safe…

Speaking of car, no Zen here for me… bus and metro will have to do…. It feels horrible on the first few days even with company around….. there is no comfort of peths, nagars and colonies… addresses like so and so boulevard, this and that plaza seem too distant to absorb… somewhere in the maze of Wellston, Rock Road, Delmar, the heart craves for Aundh, Wakad, Kothrud….

Must it be so hard?

Human beings have a wonderful way of moving on with life and thankfully I don’t prove an exception to this….

It takes the most mundane thing to help me realize this... coffee… I stumble from my sense of despair… wake up and smell the coffee… this is the land of Starbucks… the land of consumerism, the land where all the case studies of Kotler came from… wake up and explore the world… I warm up to the brands and the malls and the promise of the American dream. The place provides me the ability to see a “better” me, a concept that keeps me pre-occupied. I enroll myself at the snazziest gym in town. Colleagues call me home for “Pongal” dinner. I discover the heavenly bakery treats on offer. Manage to find the locations of the best Thai and Mexican restaurant in town. Start looking for the best deals on offer in Shnucks, try my hand at picking up Spanish. It helps immensely that Americans are a friendly community… their smiles warm up the heart…. They also like my sense of humor :) or atleast most do…

Life I realize is not bad just a bit different. So what if it’s a few degrees colder than back home, so what if no understands expletives in Hindi, so what if milk is available in gallons and not liters … loved ones are still a message, mail or call away:). The heart has the ability to transcend the longest of physical distances…

Comforted by these thoughts and the central heating I snuggle into a peaceful sleep in my blanket or the comforter as they call it here:)

Next morning, I find myself on the 8:36 to Union… I smile as I gaze at the billboard of a popular Vodka brand… “Life is calling. Where are you?”… I smile and thank God for this opportunity…

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

Some wonderful thoughts brought alive by U2.....

I have climbed the highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run,
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil

It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
I believe in the kingdom come

Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well, yes, I'm still running
You broke the bonds and youLoosed the chains
Carried the cross
And my shame
All my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for