Maah American voyage.....

I have never been away from home before. Life throws first timers at you. It was my first time. I am travelling to the United States of America. I like to call it THE STATES. I am aboard a flight, a couple of hours away to land, on the land of opportunities. I am hitched with a slight shade of mixed feelings, especially nervousness. And this shade is turning out to get darker as the time is ticking by. My mind is inundated with apprehensions and lot of questions. The people here will be different, have different culture, eat different food, have different lifestyles, etc. Will the people here be helpful? Will I survive in the cold weather? What will I have to eat (important, coz I don’t know cooking), most importantly will they understand my English! Because I have heard that American English is much different, at least in pronunciation than the UK counterpart that I’ve learnt. After I came out of the airport, I felt as if there was a void created. I was isolated, disconnected. There is nothing I can relate to. Before flying from India, I had my family, my friends, my colleagues and my people. Just after 19 hours, entire picture has changed! There is no one I can relate to. Somehow, I recovered from my trauma and recollected that I had a few friends whom I can rely on. The shade turned a bit lighter now. I took a cab and reached there. I received a warm welcome from them. The excitement of seeing them made me forget that I should pay the cab driver and grab a receipt!

My next stop. Day1 in office. That ghostly shade has gripped me again. More questions flowing. What will be my co-workers’ expectations? Will they look down upon me? How will they treat me? I am very anxious and trying to be more optimistic. I am much apprehensive about the people I will be working with. The reason being, when I had worked with them from India I learnt that these guys were damn good in their skills/domains. They were experts, well organized and admirable. Now, I will be sharing my workspace with them. Err……. Sorry, they will be sharing their workspace with me :) Mistakenly or non-mistakenly, suppose I pop out something unexpected, for sure I am going to make a fool out of me or invite contempt. What would they be thinking of me then! So I am more careful and uneasy, at the same time. But in the office, most of the things sounded other way round. People were very helpful and hospitable. They are good and cool. Many of them proactively offered me help to settle down. Another observation was that things over here move much faster than our India office. No process hassles. No red tape! ;) The office is just coooolllllll. It has high speed Wi-Fi connectivity. Roam around with your laptop, always connected! We have a coffee vending machine, though it doesn’t spit out many varieties of coffee but still it has its significance. Wondering why me talking about a coffee machine? Coz its Starbucks coffee vending machine. And yes it’s FREE, FREE, FREE!  There are so many good things but still a slight shade of anxiety remains there. I hope with time the shade turns light, and lighter….. and vanishes one day.

Next, People. People are few but are good. You cannot take it for granted that you can find an address by just navigating around an area. Because there are no or few people to ask to if you are lost! You need to rely heavily on Google Earth for that. Now I got it why Google earth is perceived more as fun stuff than of any use in India. People here are helpful and law-abiding. A peculiar thing that I noticed here was that the Americans give away a smile to any passerby but Indians don’t smile at Indians passing by! Strange, I was surprised at this. Even after learning this, I still tried to give a smile to a few Indians here, but many of them, I believe, got confused whether to respond with a smile or turn their head 90 degrees. It made me wonder is my smile that disastrous? Funny, huh? :) I am not alone, same is the case with my colleagues here.

Next, Climate and Food.  Thank God, I have arrived during spring. But still, 10 degrees Celsius is cold for me add to it the unexpected intermittent rains. An instance, it was too cold and raining too, my mind directed my hand to hold a pen. But my thumb and fingers were not able to obey the directions due to the freaking cold! The weather is more unpredictable than women. A colleague of mine shared a joke on weather “If you don’t like the weather in Seattle, wait for 5 mins”. Talking about the food here, they have different names but they all taste same to me. I really miss my home food (ghar ka khana) the rice, dal, bhaaji and chapattis. Are you wondering, How I am still alive? All credit goes to Subway and their team. I think I should take up a platinum card membership with them. It’s not that “I’m lovin it” but have no option. Currently, I don’t possess cooking skills, I hope the above undesirable options for dousing my hunger, will make me take up cooking and acquire these skills. I am having more burgers than chapattis, I am drinking more coke than water, When someone asks me “how are you?” I say “I m good” Oh boy! Am I turning an American? No No No. I still don’t have non-veg on Mondays and Thursdays ;) My appetite for spicy food has not evaporated yet. I still remember who is India’s prime minister and the names of idols worshipped in India. I also follow cricket. Nope. I am not Americanized yet. But there have been some changes or will be. My ‘going to’ is changed to ‘gonna’, my ‘want to’ is changed to ‘wanna’ and God knows what all things are gonna change.

Let me share an instance, once I happened to visit Subway, I ordered a 6” sub and asked them to put capsicum the guy started staring at me he said “What’s that?” I pointed my finger to it and repeated “Cap-see-cum” He said, you mean “Bell pepper”. I thought “what the hell is bell pepper, I have only heard of Black pepper”. Then I got to know Americans call Capsicum, Bell pepper. Welcome to America! There are many other things they call different here. They have an American name for most of the things. I am exploring them, everyday. Further, I went to the billing counter, the cashier asked “Receipt?” I replied “Will do”. The guy said “What?” I repeated my words. Situation remained the same. At last I had to agree on “Yes”. Listen to the guy’s reply “Sir, please speak English” I thought “WTF”. Still, I calmed myself by thinking “Maybe that guy is tutored to listen only to Yes and No” You see I mentioned the problem with English. Rather than English it is also an issue with the American name for everything you ask. I am coping up with it faster now. One more added to American dictionary recently, grams (chana) is called chickpeas here.

While interacting with people here, sometimes they just say something suddenly and I have no clue what they said. So I try to use this philosophy “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and clear the doubt”. But this one doesn’t rescue you everywhere. There have been times where I clear their doubts. The only optimistic way you can take it is just say “It happens” :) Hehehe.  I know it sounds funny. But, I am not the only one riding the boat, my friends too, assist me here.

Days are passing by, and I am settling here, still there is remains a hardly visible shade which hitched me in the flight. I am a Virgo so, bound to be a pessimist ;) I am pretty much positive about the future now, than, when I arrived here. I have my Indian colleagues working with me. Thanks to them, they keep me reminding that I can still speak Hindi/Marathi.

I personally feel, here, it’s more about working smart, being cool, sound cool and look cool. To me it seems, here everyone expects that they and people themselves, are be capable of knowing what to do, when to do, how to do things. You need to know something? Find it out yourself, be independent. But, still people will be around to help you out. This gives me a different environment to explore myself. I know many of you would say, and I too believe this must be viewed as an opportunity to bring out the best of me. And will do the same. I envisage that the hitch will evaporate with time and after this voyage I’ll evolve, different and better. There is something much better hiding inside me and I believe, this voyage is just a plot, which will unfold, to bring it out. It’s time for me to find that thing and strengthen myself. It’s time for me to come out on top of it, it’s time to do something never done before (for e.g. cooking :)). It’s time to achieve much more. It’s time to unleash the better self within.

It’s time to hibernate in India.

It’s time to reboot in THE STATES.

India, China or America?

Last year, November, US President Obama visited India. His visit was very important for both the countries, as very few US presidents have visited us before. He delivered a very good speech at the Parliament. A notable thing was that he concluded his speech with a “Jai Hind”. Do you get the importance of a US president crying out “Jai Hind”? Yes, it means that India has risen to a level that the largest economy, US is acknowledging that India is a strong contender for a global super power. The visit was followed by many media channels holding debates about India being the next superpower. I heard some voices there arguing, that it’s China, not India. Further some opined America will maintain its position of being a global super power. What a super power constitutes of? Does the title go to a nation possessing most nuclear warheads? The definition is not that easy to state in this little writing space. Briefly, it means a nation with a position in international space which has the ability to influence events around the world. Let’s take a closer tour to the three countries to try and decipher the future. A few months ago I read in a reputed Indian daily that India has more poor people than the entire sub Saharan Africa! Can a superpower have more poor people than an entire subcontinent? Very unlikely. We are a superpower in scams. No doubt.

So is the world appeasing us? Are we yet ready to become a super power? I need not tell you, what happens when a partial/incomplete matured child is treated maturely? The child will behave unexpectedly and throw tantrums and create unease and may get depressed himself too. Same might be the case with our nation today. We are yet not ready to take on the global power’s position.

The future (superpower) belongs to the one who will have money (i.e. finances) and power (i.e. influence). Keep in mind the sequence first money and then power. So here we are talking about nations and not individuals. In case of nations, everything straightens down to pure business interests. In order to survive as a super power you must know when, where and how to exercise your money and power. America, the world’s largest economy, has been playing it good, until the sub prime crisis hit it hard. You see the money (i.e. finances) component got impacted and the super power’s designation got challenged. When a top spot gets challenged all of them below it run to claim for the top spot. Same is the case now in the world. There are many arguments, who will rein the top spot? American economy has been the largest economy for many decades now. In the 1980s Japan grew rapidly, challenging America to overtake and become world’s largest economy. But the innovations and lead in the software technology kept American economy always way ahead of the Japanese.

Today, China, second largest economy, has grown rapidly and quietly. It is constantly growing at a rate of 9% and above and is expected to supersede the American economy by 2030. Currently, China seems to have both money and power. They are sitting on foreign currency reserves of $2.85 trillion, the highest reserves in the world; the second highest is distant with around $1 trillion; India has a meagre $298 billion. Foreign reserves are used as a gauge to measure a country’s financial strength. So you can say that today China’s overall wealth is around $3 trillion. Now you can realize the stake China holds for the US economy. China holds most of its assets in American dollars. If China were to sell all the dollars in a day the dollar will drop to half of its value today or may even drop more than that. But doing such may prove suicidal for the Chinese. China has resorted to dollar pegging for accumulating this tremendous reserves. China is the largest exporter to America. The Chinese have undervalued their currency so that they can export their products at relatively cheaper rates to America. The dollars they earn are pumped back in American economy by buying treasury bonds and various assets. The result of this is more and more profits for the Chinese and fatter assets in dollars. The Chinese have established a SWF, a fund manage by government, which invests in various countries for a strategic investment. The fund is used to build China’s food and energy security, as it is a nation with a large population. According to some reports China is already the world’s largest economy by PPP (purchasing power parity). It has gained the required money component. As it has money it will have its influence (power) too. In the recent years China is playing assertive. It is now trying to exercise its influence by claiming Arunachal Pradesh as its own part and issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir. It’s their way of saying that they have arrived. I know you may argue that they are a communist nation, the point I am trying to highlight here is the strategic thinking process they possess and how committed the government is to their interests and issues.

OK Now let’s come to America, err… Sorry Pakistan, an ongoing case, an American consulate employee has shot two Pakistanis in a busy Lahore market, who tried to rob him. Pakistan has charged the diplomat with charges of murder and the trial has begun in a court. America is arguing its diplomat fired in self-defense. Pakistan refuses to buy the argument. In response, the American government has threatened to “kick out” the Pakistani diplomats from America and close all consulates in Pakistan. I need not tell you who will win here. I believe by now you might have got the strategy, thinking process and the attitude a super power needs to possess. If you don’t have the attitude, you can’t carry it. Oh, are you thinking I am unfair to India? Lets come to India, 157 people are killed, later 60 hours of rigorous combat, 6 terrorists are holed up in a world heritage centre, they destroy it considerably, we can compensate the casualty. We lost many police officers and a CWG commander, how are we going to compensate this casualty? One terrorist was caught. Yes, you got him right, he is alive. We are still feeding him. And probably he’s the safest person in this country, today. Incredible India! Our government is unable to save our citizens in our own country, whereas other countries see to it that their citizens are safe in other countries too! I hope we don’t catch Osama bin Laden, coz its 2 years now and Kasab is still not executed, don’t forget the judgment was in High court, more years to go. I believe Osama will not be executed for at least a decade. By the time he reaches his sentence he will be close to his expiry date. Citing Kasab’s case, I think Osama may have already made his mind to get officially arrested only in India!

I know there may be some jingoists here who may think that I am singing paeans of other countries and despising our country but I am just mentioning the facts as they are. Sorry for that. But, this current state of affairs is due to the negligence of our rulers. Our rulers consider their relatives as the only citizens and bestow the showers and favors on them. Our rulers are busy gathering money and stashing them away in Swiss accounts and other tax havens. We are earning money by working daily, while our rulers’ are busy gathering more money, daily.

In India, punishments are more of a tokenism with a few days of arrest, a few media coverages, later these chaps get bail, as the dust settles, these chaps are back to business.

Unlike India, in China has a firing squad, which executes a criminal and guess what the bill for the executing (shooting) is also being charged to the family of the criminal! They don’t even use peoples’ money to punish criminals. We also lack the strategic thinking which the Chinese and the America have. Our foreign and financial policies are not aligned to gain long term benefits.

We do have money and surely we have a huge potential to generate a lot more money that’s the reason the world is appeasing us. That is the significance of the “Jai Hind” cry from the US president. We have the money. We have the workforce. The only need of the hour is to channelize these to the correct opportunities. We must not be blindfolded with this appeasing. The world today knows, we have huge potential to generate money and are prospective customers. But we must make sure that while buying their products we are able to also get the best deal for us. In exchange for these deals we must gain safeguards in other areas such as technology transfer, energy security and regional security. Customer is the king of the market. And India is fast becoming the largest customer. Make sure we are the King! We need to increase our stake in the global economy but for that we first need to look into ourselves. Let’s address the internal issues first, let alone the external (i.e. international) ones. We need to invest more in our infrastructure and increase our competence. Our polity must be purged from corruption and transparency needs to be in the government’s driver seat. Only then, we can be a real super power. It doesn’t stop here; you also need to behave like a super power not a soft power.

Long live India…..

Jai hind!

Can “reality” change the reality?

These days reality shows are a galore. I remember, the first reality show I saw, Indian Idol. It was more or less a national singing competition, but with a difference that anyone can participate, no qualification or eligibility required. That’s why it was called a reality show, where ordinary people participate, and ordinary people decide who wins the competition. This gives the show the required “reality” factor. You will be selected based on one factor your talent, that too in singing, nothing else. I adored the show right from the first episode to the last. The initial rounds involved culling, where some hooligans participated too. They just added to the laughter quotient of the show, people enjoyed it too. As the show progressed, seriousness and competition took precedence between those who qualified for the next round. I believe the show kept the whole nation glued to their television sets at the prime time. The show represented the true celebration of talent in our country. The show renewed the interest of many in singing. Many may have also punched in telephone numbers for professional trainings! It was great. Since then reality television has traveled a long journey.

Technically, reality television is a genre, where events are unscripted, dramatic, actual events are documented, usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, in a contest. The reality shows have provided a platform to the one who is underprivileged, who needs an opportunity to show his talent and make his career in the respective skill.

But these days we see reality shows filled with mere inanity, sensational events which satiate our taste buds and hunger for more myriad and sensational content which we won’t be able to see in reality? In today’s reality shows, children can be rented to be parented by other parents, people are locked in a house for days, marriages are arranged, parents are exchanged and couples’ relationships are pushed towards vulnerability so that more spicy and juicy content can be extracted from the resulting explosion of the relationship.

From talent, today we have reached at relationships going for a toss on reality television. Where will it stop, I have no answer. We like to see the hot, peppered and spicy masala stuff. Need a much real example. Imagine, if two people are fighting, we would sit aside and act as an audience to enjoy the altercation and the bad words and gestures exchanged by both the parties. You might have even performed such acts! But why is it that we enjoy/desire to see such bad things? I believe much of this is due to the lure of the darkness within. I heard somewhere that The negative attracts you easily and much faster. You tend to be pulled by the negative forces more easily than the good once. I am agreeing to it. It seems that we are vulnerable creatures. Can a better sense or taste evolve within us? May be.

Here’s a thought. Our taste buds identify our taste. Our inner sense grooms our taste buds and vice versa. A drunkard will like to have alcohol coz his taste buds demand it. The taste buds demand alcohol because the person’s character is such. Similarly, a gambler will enjoy gambling and enjoys watching and imitating gamblers. Similarly, we, watching a person on TV humiliating another person, making various gestures, watching the bitching (sorry for that word!), maligning and other things on television will develop our taste. This taste will translate to our inner sense. Our sense shapes us and ultimately our society. So are these reality shows shaping our behavior and character? It’s you to decide?

Let me point out, today, media plays an important role in shaping our society. Consider yourself a decade ago and you will notice the change you have come through. Considerable amount of credit goes to the media and entertainment that you consumed in these years. You try to imitate your film stars’ style and attitude. We just enjoy doing it. It is effect of media. But, I feel, in media, the reality television has more effect on us as it has the required reality factor in it which the films and drama serials lack. The reality television has “common” people like us, hence may prove more effective.

Returning back to our topic, to develop a taste you need to try that thing at least once or more than once (you may have experienced it!). Once you start enjoying or liking it you develop a taste for it, irrespective of, whether it is good for your health or not. For example, you cannot resist the fast food & junk food even after you know that it is unhealthy, its because you have developed a liking, a taste for it. As unhealthy food makes you unhealthy, unhealthy content makes your inner sense and character unhealthy. So are these reality shows turning us rude, dishonest, selfish, corrupt and immoral, and get spoilt? Again it’s you to decide. Some people may dismiss above argument by saying that these shows are just for entertainment. Consuming such shows may be like unknowingly you are consuming unhealthy food, and dismissing it as having negligible effect on your body. Unknowingly you are serving unhealthy content to your mind. But once you start serving such content to your mind, unknowingly you create a taste for such content, and such taste doesn’t stay restricted to receiving but you also start serving such stuff to others. Some believe the shows are purposely pepped up with sensational and dramatic events to up the viewership of the show. And people are falling in to this content. May be this is our weakness that the show runners are probably exploiting.

But, everything is not that dark too. We also have reality TV like the game shows and the talent hunt shows. These are the shows that must be used to get the best out of you. I am sure after the Dance India Dance show there would have been a lot of inquiries and admissions for dance classes. These shows drive and encourage you to learn something new or better it, which will evolve you in another way, grow you intellectually and unleash the hidden talent within yourself. And obviously you must spend your life “bettering” it and learning new things. Reality shows can be used as a tool to develop our society and drive our aspirations to greater heights. That way we can make this world a much better place to live.  But unfortunately, today’s reality is that we are surrounded with cheating, looting, scams, corruption, inefficient governance, etc. Can’t we do an Emotional Atyachaar on our corrupt babu by showing his family members/relatives and the world how he is earning that bad money? Can we have reality change the reality?