India, Pakistan, Iraq, USA, gooooo Wikileaks! *

Finally got to a mirror site to read some Wikileaks. For some reason the links would not work on the sites or Firefox would scare me. Tonight the stars aligned and this site let me in..

This was nice reading. Was hoping to have a laugh at what came out of Delhi but found this one from Islamabad and it was interesting..

These two paragraphs really made it interesting..

Pakistan/India
--------------
¶8. (C) Petraeus said the most important threat to Pakistan was on the western border and internally. Terrorists were an existential threat to Pakistan. Kayani agreed. However, Kayani observed that he had postponed a missile test. The Indians, he said, in contrast, had conducted one just a few hours before. Kayani said he had no intention to resume missile testing as long as the current tensions persisted. He promised to be transparent with allies about his plans and had briefed us about his move of 6000 troops to the Indian border. Kayani said he was determined to exercise restraint in his actions with India. He recounted that he had taken no
ISLAMABAD 00000155 003 OF 003
action the evening that Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had supposedly called President Zardari and threatened to declare war. Kayani asked to be alerted if the U.S. had any warning of another attack - he understood that the Indians had been warned about the Mumbai attack. He mentioned that discussion of the consequences of a follow-on attack made both India and Pakistan hostage to extremists and increased the likelihood of an attack. “If there is any clue about another attack,” he said, “please share it with us.”

and

Swat Valley
-----------
¶5. (C) Kayani was clear that the GOP had lost control of the Swat valley. He said the police had no ability to come in after the army to “hold” territory. He recounted that half of the 600 police officers, supposedly from the NWFP’s elite police units, destined for Swat had deserted, largely because there was no command structure. Petraeus replied that the U.S. had confronted this same issue in Iraq, describing it as a “clear and leave” strategy, requiring the retaking of the same ground multiple times. Petraeus observed that the police are the most vulnerable, since they are exposed in communities. Petraeus noted that increased measures to control population movements would probably have to be put in place throughout the country, which would require considerable manpower.

Pakistan has similar issues like Iraq when it comes to controlling extremists.

The military leadership is patient enough to not go for war. That is great. Maybe, maybe there will be a lasting peace when India and Pakistan jointly fight extremists.

The USA for its part is playing both sides. Well, that is to be expected!

India could have hastily gone to war and would be in the same boat as the USA. Thankfully there was no war. Looks like India was warned by the US about the attacks and the Pakistanis could not do anything about it either.

Just go through this stuff.. you might even find out who in India was warned about the attacks and what they did when they were warned!

This is one treasure trove of information which shows you that inspite of all that press and google and facebook being ubiquitous and in our face.. the hows and whys are always wrong!

Educated folks react to information thrown at them by the "in your face" media. We assume so many things, sway to popular opinion or in cases where we think we are better than the person who gets their news from facebook friends because we read and read a lot.. well, we read garbage!

If the press did what Wikileaks exposed on a daily basis, a lot of war, bloodshed would have been averted! A lot of politicians would have been exposed and their true colors come to light. People, countries might be more civil towards each other...

Well, maybe..

Go read it!


*.. this one is equally interesting..

Happy 4th

USA celebrates another birthday amidst challenging times. The great thing about this country is that when things get really ugly, the people find the will and resolve to pull together and change things for the better.

Here's to the US of A!

We did watch fireworks, from a local middle school playground. It was definitely not as good as last years, but we were happy that there was any fireworks at all.













If things go the way they should, next years fireworks should be blast!


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840/- DD 1000 /-

A long line of people standing outside the wall of the US consulate (USEFI, if it is still called that) in what was then Madras, now Chennai... needless to say, a long long time ago.

A 20 year old boy who entered the queue at 5:30 AM (people had told him to go early) only to find that there were already over 100 people in the line to get a Visa the next morning.

We are talking early nineties where you had to go with a bunch of documents, be within the first 200 people in the line, be screened, be interviewed, pay fees and then get a Visa stamp later that afternoon.

If you had a scholarship and all your papers, chances are you were directly called to the counter to pay money and skip the interview part, provided you managed to get in that morning. All you needed was the right applications, the documents (I-120 or whatever.. ), your passport and a DD (Demand Draft) drawn to an exact amount of 840 Rupees for the entry fee. No DD meant, no entry into the gates!

The US consulate taught you very early on that "Money = Possile Entry. No Money = NO Entry", be it the consulate or the country. Capitalism 101..

Yours truly had the DD. In fact the documents were checked and rechecked multiple times as there was nothing else to do in the line from 5:30 AM to 9:00AM under the sodium vapor yellow light. There was also the constant checking of the pockets to make sure that the Visa fee of 3000+ rupees was still there!

A PSBB dude called Guru was behind me and we did some idle chit chatting. He was worried that he would be rejected for various reasons. I was more worried about losing the 840 Rupees. The girls in the line came prepared with magazines to read. Some folks in the line ahead were drivers, helpers, servant maids for the pampered chosen ones who came later in the morning in their fancy cars, all dressed up to take the place of the servants who had slept on the pavement the night before and that showed you another face of Capitalism..

Have servant, you dont have to wait on the pavement yourself. No servant, you have to!

The best part was the third glorious glimpse of capitalism from that very same pavement. This line of almost 300 people... wait, did we just read 300?

Yes. They would only allow 200 people in, but 300 would line up hoping that some of the folks in the line would be rejected for improper documents, stress burnout, sickness, servant reaching the gates before the real applicant, or the MISSING DD!!

Apparently all very common happenings on that line as another seasoned veteran of two attempts later explained to me while waiting inside.

There was one chap who was making a fortune using that line of people.

He had a large drum full of chai/Coffee loaded on the back of a bicyle. He also had bottles of "Bisleri" drinking water hanging from all sides of the plank that he had wedged into the carrier. Then there were magazines, cheetos, etc. all sold at premium pricing to the people who dare not leave the line.

Every now and then he would shout "eightfortydeedeethousandrupees, eightfortydeedeethousandrupeeeeeeeeesssssssss" just like they sell Idly and Vadai in the south Indian railway stations.

At first we did not understand what he was saying. Then we figured out that he was selling Demand Drafts taken in favor of the US Consulate for Rs. 840 with a nice markup. He was selling 840 rupees for 1000.

He would come close to us and say "Saar, DD irukka check pannu saar.. illena ulla vidamaatanga theriyum ille? 4 DD dhan baaki irukku"

(Sir, check if you have your DD.. if you dont have it, they won't let you in. You know that right? I have only 4 DD's left)

This was all round service. He must have made at least 3000 rupees in those 3+ hours with his enterprise. Now that is capitalism for you.

Chances are he is a CEO by now and he never had to sit on any pavement to get his Visa...


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What does one say?!

Adengappa is on the receiving end right now. I completely understand what he is going through!

He is receiving condolences, sympathies for being Indian, amazement that every Indian in the USA made it out of the Indian slums, etc.

This is not a new problem and it goes both ways. Eastern perception of the west or the Western perception of the east (trust me, my Chinese grad school buddies have told me similar stories and this is not just and India USA thing) have the same issues.

In case you are not following this yet, let me give you some case studies.

Mottai or Mundan : We went to India to celebrate my daughters first birthday. As is the south Indian custom, we had our daughters hair shaved off just before her first birthday. We do not give haircuts till sometime before the kid is 9 months old and the first hair cut is a total shave and the hair is offered to gods (usually done in a temple). Grandpa says this actually helps hair take better roots and there is some hair health secret behind this. Nevertheless...

We come back to the USA after the celebration. The kid is a little tired after all the travelling. A woman at the local grocery store is all sympathetic to her. I didn't get it initially and finally figured out that she thought my daughter had cancer and was going through some kind of Radiation treatment! Why else would a kid get its hair shaved off ?!

Women who don't believe in pre-marital sex : This might get me in hot water and you might say this is generalizing, but based on the limited sample size that I have encountered, there are a lot many desi students who show up in the USA who belive that the average American woman accepts pre-marital sex as the norm and are genuinely surprised to find that to be not true!

There are Indians who don't know English : Yeah, seriously.. there were a lot of Americans I have interacted with who thought that all Indians were fluent in English, were we well "versed" in Madonna and Michael Jackson Lyrics as they were with Vedas and Upanishads. After all, why wouldn't they?! All the Indians they encountered in school spoke fluent english. One professor even thought all Indians wore a "poonal" or sacred thread. That really was something. That meant all his previous grad students were Brahmins and no one told him that it was a very small subset of the population.

All Americans are well educated : Even beggars in America beg in English and by extension, they should all be well educated! If you think this is a joke, go take a survey in the potti kadais and barber shops of Chennai and you will see that this image holds true. Truth is far from it. In India speaking English is a sign of education. Here everyone speaks english (or American) and there are people here who cannot read and write fluently but they only speak the language. The public education system here today is no different from the state of "corporation" schools in TamilNadu in the early eighties and people are just about to start chanllenging and changing this system.

Every Indian has visited the Taj Mahal : Just like the Eiffel tower shows up in the window in every hollywood movie that is supposedly shot in Paris, every desi is supposedly been to the Taj. This is almost something taken for granted by Americans. I am yet to visit the Taj Mahal and it is something to be "rectified". I also happen to have travelled the USA a lot more than the average American! Know a lot of Californians who have never visited New York or Washington DC! Seriously, I kid you not! Both India and the USA are large countries and not everyone in these countries has visited every national monument, tourist attaction, and yet.....

All Indians write software,

All Americans own guns and are trigger happy,

All desis are cheap and go to India everytime they need a root canal

etc. etc.

and the list goes on...

All Americans are war mongers : This one joined the list in 2003 after the Iraq invasion.

All of India is a slum : this has just recently joined the list, after Slumdog

There will be many more additions to the list over the coming years!

What does one do though, when faced with these situtations?!

Here is a tip. Do not laugh it off or try to be very witty. It usually does not go well in any situation in any country. Stereotyping is not something that was invented in this century. It has been happening for millenia!

Fifteen odd years ago, I made a remark that went something like "let me do the Indian rope trick or get on my elephant and go find out for you.." and it really rubbed the other person the wrong way! When I found out that the other person really believed that sterotype and the history books in China actually teach them stuff about India in a certain way, I was horrified.

Today's history and geography books in the east and west are probably teaching the kids a view of the other side that is not entirely true. Recently heard on the radio that there is less than 18 pages of total material in history and geography texts in the US about China. That is right, 18 pages for 3000+ years of history! Equally sure that the 200+ years of American modern history is seen as something that doesn't count as history in the true sense of the world. Yet an American very close to me taught me that it is not the number of years of civilization that matters, but what has been accomplished in those years. We would have arguments and he would come up things like "it took you guys almost 400 years to get Independence from the Brits and we did it in 200" and that would send me scurrying to the history books.

The best way to deal with it is to explain in a short sentence that their belief is not supported by real data and leave it at that. Remember, if you are visiting another country, you DO represent your country. Even if you have changed Citizenship, this still happens and you constantly end up reminding yourself and others of your nationality, and it doesn't get through!

As the world shrinks and communication is supposed to shrink it further as the years go by, we grow farther apart with myths and the blurred lines between real and real life which give us more organized sterotyping!

We can only hope for a better world, where more people are eager to learn about other cultures and do get to learn the truth, by traveling as opposed to a jaundiced and censored lesson provided by the press, governments and movie houses!

Happy monday folks!


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Sexual Harassment

Recently took a course at work on the topic. Have taken many a course on workplace ettiquette, sexual harrassment etc. over the last decade (especially after they made it mandatory), but this was the first time we had a lawyer give us the course (and there was no paper exam!, but a spot quiz)

It was interesting to see the range of subjects covered, especially the case studies. It was almost a course on law itself, from the legal point of view, how we would think something is "suing" material, while it is not and other things we would not think are worth suing over which really are etc.

For the most part I was going "come on. no one in their right mind would do something like that." or "this sounds so far fetched. why do you have to lecture us on this stuff", to the borderline "duh! I have been working in the US either at School or industry for all these years and have never encountered anything like this" etc.

The lawyer told me that all the stuff he showed are examples of things that HAVE happened! Just could not believe it.

On an afterthought, I must have been blessed in a previous life not to have seen any of that stuff around me.

Thank god for small favors, or big favors!

The one other thought that won't leave my head?

In this day and age, women in America still go through this for real! Somehow cannot get around that. Words fail me!



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A few thoughts....

Here are some thoughts, that spring to mind after reading the news today.

The American view of a tolerant country is equated with "loser" or "pushover". That is the reason why they really don't understand the concept of Non-Violence.

In America, guns settle things. Be it in old westerns, Chuck Norris movies or the real world, the Marines will take on any problem and where they land, there will be order established! This thought seems to be deeply implanted into most young Americans that I know (not that I know a lot of them, but the statistic is showing high probabilities!).

Also, anyone who suggests taking to guns in haste is not a good thing gets branded as a "Pu$$~", "Wimp" etc. That is the same reason why Obama gets negative ads. when he suggests diplomacy and is exactly the same reason why India is dished out crap by the US Government and there is all this "Pakistan is a victim" stuff we see in the US Media.

There is also a tremendous positive bias for Pakistan in the US Media and at best a feeling of neutrality towards India. The people we interact with daily seem to share a better sentiment of India than the media. Do not understand this.

There is also a TV program that played here every saturday, Namaste America! We stopped watching that a long time ago, because we seriously thought it was funded by Pakistan. It would always put India in bad light to an American audience. No Indian channel worth its salt would put out a "news" program that ran like an ISI infomercial!!

It is a free country out here. Except the microphones are placed in front of certain folks and of course, the loudest voice wins!

It would be really ironic that these "American Voters" would be talking to their representatives to "do something" about "India Vitimizing? Pakistan" in a few months.

When it is time to sell the next load of B15's C15's or F15's or whatever as part of the next wave of improving the American economy, downloading unnecessary weapons to unstable nations and making new foreign policy to strengthen America's ties with "its allies", killing all birds in one stone, the "informed voters" will support the worthy cause, eventhough they don't get 70 virgins for their actions!

Now,that was the cynic in me rearing his ugly head again.

What every Indian or Indian supporter needs to do right now is to undo what the media is doing. If you are an Indian go take over the press! Be a fresh voice. Go do the Mera Bharat Mahan thing, for real!

If you support India, spread awareness on what the real India is like, what real Indians are like, tell people what it meant, means and possibly will mean to be part of the Indian experience.

There are a lot of people I deal with everyday who associate India with the following words:

India =
(
East;
Taj Mahal;
elephants;
british;
rope trick;
raj kapoor;
Gandhi;
Delhi;
himalayas;
poor;
hindoo language;
religious tension;
)

That is their sum total understanding of a country of a billion plus people who have been around in that location for 4000+ years!

So, please sit with the folks and add more words to their idea of what is India. You will be doing the country a great service, and India needs more of this, now more than ever!

A country with a billion plus Ambassadors to the world, with the right message can drown out any, if not all of the negative smear tactics that the media can come up with.

Just my two cents...



ps. We were actually out in Sacramento, spending time at the zoo. The kids were promised a trip for the last two weeks and it was high time we made a trip, to anywhere! Will post pictures tomorrow. The animals co-operated very well for the photos, when the kids disappointedand vice versa, and it was a great day to be outdoors in the Sacramento area...but the thoughts kept going back to Mumbai and Chennai where my parents have to pretty much row out of their house.

pps. In case you haven't heard it in the news, (I am sure you haven't) Chennai is the new Venice!

ppps. Found Sidin's post very touching, very fateful!
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Aaalum Velum palluku urudhi

What does that mean?

(it means that your teeth get stronger if you brush it with twigs from certain trees .. Pipal/Neem to be more specific)

You see, people in the villages in south India used to use twigs from these trees to brush their teeth. Western medicine has finally caught up with the twigs and rumor has it that there are neem farms in Florida where medical research is coming up with neem extracts for curing gum diseases. Now, that is one instance of a natural product that helps dental care. But there are other issues with this.

I tried brushing with a neem branch when I was 5 or 6 years old and did more damage to my teeth than good! While the chemicals in the neem twig are medicinal, twigs are pretty rough on the teeth and gums. Colgate and Binaca toothpaste (or Margo Neem soap for that matter) made it the best of both worlds! As you have probably figured out by now, this post is going to do a 270 degree turn and veer far from the neem twig freeway!

If you are a regular of this blog, you probably know that it sticks 80% to "a naturalized American from India, raising kids in the USA", "how to get the best of both worlds", "how to deal with the worst from both worlds" , etc.. and the other 20% is posts on events that affect the blogger and his family like Bailouts, Voting, travel issues etc.

By now, you have also heard me complain that there is a blatant double standard imposed on Indians who live abroad for the most part, by telling them that they have no right to say anything that could be interpreted as negative. Apparently only people who "live with the problems" can say "where is the problem?" or "we have a problem", and it is some kind of right that has been "earned"!

Now what has this got to do with "Aaalum Velum..."?

This phenomena of "you don't live here anymore, so go mind your business" is true of anyone who leaves a place to go live elsewhere, and is one of those Anthropology things for all I know, and chances are, there are detailed paragraphs in Manu sastra which tell you about this!

Sarcasm apart, my dad tells me that when their family left the village to come settle in Madras (this was 60 odd years ago), they would get the same treatment when they mentioned things like "antibiotics", western medicine (vaccinations), etc. when they went back to the villages and they would see people die of causes that had preventive cures in the City!

They would get the "aalum velum pallukku urudhi" lecture, blown to extraordinary proportions from the guys who never left the village.

It was just funny to see the problem is a universal one (the people, the settings, the issues may be different) which has nothing to do with George Bush, Oil Wars, American Capitalism, Indian culture, etc. etc. All those are just detractors used to argue the "Protectionist" logic. (If I find a good book that deals with this subject, will let you know. Worse case, when I finally retire, tired and broke, a long time from now, will write a book on this topic with the same title as this post and hopefully make some money! After all, universal topics have great readership.)

Fast forward to thirty years ago! Similar things happened to my FIL who decided to graduate from IIT Madras, and go settle in Bombay because he got a really good job there, where he felt he made a difference. He got married to a Tamizh girl, they had San while they were in Bombay and when he would come back to Madras and tell people of how things are "done differently in Bombay" and seem to work for the better, he would get a different version of "Aaalum Velum..." except this time the reasons would be tradition, Tamizh culture, lack of Agraharams in Bombay etc. etc.

Now fast forwarding to the last 13 years or so (ever since my first trip back to India after coming to the USA to study), the same thing happens to me. I get that same "you are an outsider" treatment (this has been irrespective of F1/H1B/Green Card/Citizenship). All I am allowed to do is send money to repent for making that choice to go abroad to study, then work, then raise a family, be some kind of emotional punching bag for the near and dear ones when they see all their problems, as being due to the most energetic person in the family, not being around to do all kinds of errands, from getting Pachchai Milagai from the local grocery store to standing in line for Milk coupons.

Even got a lecture once along the lines of "sundaram, viralukku eththa veekam dhan daa irukkanum.." (Sundar, a finger should only swell to the right size.). What is implied is that if one finger in a hand grows too long, then either the finger has to be cut or the whole hand is to be cut as it will become useless. The translation was, that the average family wanted me to be an average guy so I fit in. So any suggestions to change anything would be considered as a finger too long!

Things have changed a lot, now that everyone in the family has visited the USA or some other country over the years and the advent of the internet penetrating the households. These days I even get sympathy from family when people misunderstand me, things in the USA, how somehow I am responsible for all of GWB's actions, the Iraq war, rising prices etc. They somehow understand that my getting to vote and voting for Obama is taking a stand for issues! At least the ones who understand correct the ones who don't.

Us vs. Them is not a new concept. It has existed for ages, be it in the east or west or anywhere else for that matter, with a varying demographic segment!

Used to end a lot of conversations with "the world is shrinking!". Do not know if it is shrinking or just segregating into a lot of little pockets, like milk that curdles in front of your eyes or blood cells that segregate into little pockets on a slide when the CSI agent puts that special reagent on them, each drop unable to merge with its nearest neighbours*.

Do not know what my girls will go through a few decades from now. What will be the centerpoint of the argument over which they will be taking sides? What will be their choices? Will have to live and see where all this is going.

For the interim, the blogger and this blog are doing to take a resolve to increase the % of lighter side of life posts. It is better to have face to face discussions with folks.

The internet seems to be a wrong medium for a lot of topics.

See you all around!

For now, this blog takes a break from seriousness.




*In 1993, an undergrad student complained to my department head asking that I be warned for using the word "neighbour" when I corrected his Materials 101 exam! He was apparently offended by my spelling and his claim was that he was studying in an American University and he did not have to be corrected on his answer with a "British" spelling. So much for Us vs. them!



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Gay rights Bay rights, let talk Say rights first!

What started as a comment became longer than my usual posts. So instead of taking up space on the MM's box, decided to post it here!

Before we go into this post which is a response to my "right to comment" being questioned, a few things:

The blogosphere is not in any way representative of the general population. If bloggers views were to represent countries, cities, religion etc. it would provide a very skewed opinion because the average blogger is computer savvy, educated and is probably economically well off compared to the average citizen!

I usually stay away from strong statements, spiteful comments, flame wars, etc. simply because that is my way of "live and let live". I have learnt over the years that it is not wise to jump to conclusions based on what you see or hear, or feel on an impulse for that matter!

that said, here is the comment?!

=======


Would like to point out a few things w.r.t. this post and the comments:

1. Just like you are suppposed to have done certain things before you apparently get the right to write hindi movie reviews, you should have lived in two different countries for a big part of your life before you can comment on people with dual citizenship Dual Citizenship or Non Resident Status! People who have never left their birth country to live in another country should not pass judgement on motives or reasons for choosing dual citizenshipdual citizenship or Non Resident Status (same logic should apply, no?) There are many.. and they are not purely financial!

2. If it is possible for people of this world to absorb different cultures and relish it, be it eating pizza for lunch, noodles for dinner and vaththa kozhambu for the next days lunch, or for that matter being able to celebrate Diwali and Halloween in succesion with equal vigor and happiness, there is no reason why these people cannot choose to love two lands equally!

As for "war", yes, it is a big question. As part of taking a US Citizenship, you do have to take an oath (and say it and mean it) where you definitely promise to take sides with the US if it goes to War with your previous homeland. On a personal note, it was the one sticking point for someone like me taking US citizenship. But I said it and meant it, because a long time ago, decided that dual citizenship or not, this is now my home. It was said with fond hopes of that event never happening, but it was said. That does not necessarily make one a traitor or anti-Indian or anything!

Let's take religion for example. God forbid (no pun intended here) if there are Hindu Christian riots in Delhi, what would you do? Take sides at some fundamental level? Is that even a nice or fair question to ask someone? Based on that hypothetical question and a hypothetical answer, is it okay to go pass judgement on an entire class of people?

Please read, this post.


Life takes you places and no one knows what is in store for anyone. All we can hope for is to make the world a better place. Fundamentally there is more bad in religion than good. God did not create religion, man did and for the most part, to further his own interest, but good people can see through that and co-exist. A good christian = a good hindu= a good muslim = a good person! In the event of making certain fundamental choices of right or wrong a good person, irrespective of religion, will make the same call.

I am also surprised by the fact that one is "expected to live in a country" to be able to say anything even slightly negative about that country. (apparently it is okay for anyone to say good things!)

Forget people who have taken dual citizenship, looks like even the non resident Indians have no right to comment on India, if this is true!

That bothers me. It has always bothered me and I have to speak up for my words to be heard!

A conversation this week over phone:

Me: happy diwali , how are you?
Relative: happy diwali. doing okay. What have Americans done? They are collapsing the entire world! Greenspan cooly makes a press statement saying blah blah blah..
Me: !!! (is he expecting me to apologize as an American?)

yet over many similar conversations when I have said something even slightly negative of how things are in terms of infrastructure I am told:

"you are not living here. so what do you care. don't complain. you mind your business where you are!"

Do my parents not live in India?
Do all my relatives not live in India?
Do I not spend at least 1/12 th of my year in India?
Do things that happen in India, not affect me?
When I hear about bomb blasts in Ahmedabad or Varanasi do I just go about my business or worry about family and friends?

Every time I say something about "how things could be better" it is not a "complaint". There is a word in Tamizh for this "aadangam". "oru aagangaththula sollaren". I wish I could translate that word. It is almost like a longing wish that things were different, and that wish is there because you have seen that things can be different, there are solutions and those solutions work.

It is like going to a village without electricity and you know if they had solar panels they could have electricity for at least critical needs! If you say that out loud, you are "complaining about India", "have no right to say things about lack of electricity in villages in India" etc. because:

1. you don't live in India
2. you don't live in a village
3. you are not going to personally take all your savings and convert them to solar panels in Indian villages.

To all of the above, I say "Bah!" (and the funny thing is that the bloggers who question my comment do not live in Villages or are not going to do what they ask me to do either!)

If you write about such a thing as a solar panel, how it works, how it can be cost effective and spread the awareness for the solution, maybe the people in power or the people who put those people in power would consider that approach! It is said with an "aadangam", not with an intent to criticize!

"Improvement" is change in a postive direction. If one suggests improvement, that means "Change"! A very simple statement, but it can be construed differently by different people.

Folks who understand the need for change, embrace it. The rest say things like "you are trying to make fun of the current state of affairs. what right have you? etc. etc."

The world is very polarized today.

If a vegetarian tells a person who eats meat that it is wrong to kill another creature... it sparks a debate

If a person who eats meat, tries to tell a vegetarian not to have an abortion... that sparks another debate

If a meat eating, pro-life civilian asks a vegetarian pro-choice military person, how he can actually pull the trigger and take a human life, that sparks another debate

The world is also very funny today!

The only thing that will get us through is, live and let live!

And that is "tolerance"

Tolerance is the ability to hear what Indian people who live outside have to say about India, and vice versa!

and for the record, I will say

"India is my country" **(OCI which means Overseas Citizen of India apparently does not mean Citizen in any sense of the word. See Lak's comment. So that might leave the statement as questionable at best. Based on that I can make that past tense, but the next sentence still holds true!)

You cannot take what is Indian, or what is American and separate it out of me!



ps. Anyone can write a review. How good a review is depends on the reviewers understanding of the subject matter! A person who is Indian only by blood writing a crappy review in poor taste of a Hindi Movie or Indian youth is wrong. Trying to say NRI's and dual citizens have no right to make comments by extension is equally wrong. That is the summary of this post, in case you are wondering!




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Our way of life

The person who came up with this concept of "our way of life" was a genius.

When a politician comes up with a statement "this threatens our way of life", everyone does not pay attention to the "our".. they think "my"!

Everyone reacts in a way as to preserve what they hold dear as values, be it ones ability to shoot and kill animals, other people, desecrate the environment, their views on marriage, life, religion, etc.

Today a vice presidential candidate is hinting that a presidential candidate is a terrorist.. and it is not a subtle hint. It is almost an accusation!

Somewhere in the middle of her accusation is a logic that,

all muslims are terrorists!

Okay, I do concede that she has had to deal a lot with "all white trash are stupid", but, but, but, ....

is this not going too far?

again, I know, I know.. how far is too far? For someone who can go a long way to "nowhere", too far is going nowhere!

Really scared about my kids future now! We have dual citizenship and both places seem to be going nowhere. Is there a country out there that has a majority of the populace that is actually not bigoted, tolerant and has some collective sense when it comes to getting things right?

Now, if there is a majority of people in this country who subscribe to the "all muslims are terrorists" theory, then there is NO hope for not just the USA but for the world, going forward. Also they have apparently redrawn the voting lines based on statistics that go down to the individual house in some areas in the country during the last eight years. It is going to be very interesting.

India : USA :: Ramadoss : Sarah Palin

Now you get the picture?



ps. Got the link to NYT article via Laks.
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Chuck Norris for President

This post is about "A tale of two countries", USA and India -the perspective of a F1->H1B->NRI->OCI

Before we barge into the perspective (of What? Why? When? etc.), let us get some definitions cleared.

F1 - the student visa on which the fresh off the boat Narayanan landed in the US of A, fifteen plus years ago

H1B - the work visa that changed the economy of the still single, but doctoral graduate ten plus years ago

NRI - Non Resident Indian, a change brought about by taking up permanent residency in the united states, also known as "getting a green card", seven years ago.

OCI - Overseas Citizen of India, the latest change that came with American citizenship two plus years ago, which defaulted the Indian Citizenship to an Overseas Citizenship.

Based on the last weeks news, you have won, if you bet that this post was about the economy, the reaction to the Lehman collapse, etc. Considering the way things are going, it should be obvious that you have not "won" anything, except the bet.

There should be one fact that will be out in the open before anyone judges this post as a meandearing, from a person who came to the US of A with exactly $ 1,050, and is now "living the American Dream" (as one of my Israeli buddies puts it). Since that fateful day fifteen odd years ago when I entered this country to the present, I have been a liberal democrat. I may not have known it by that name, but rest assured, those set of "values" if that is what one calls those, have not changed much.

That said, this post is more about, how my opinion of the USA changed and is continuing to change, based on how intimate I get with the day to day workings of this great country.

The last part was not sarcastic. I do believe that the USA is a great country. At the end of the day, as a collective people, they somehow get policy right. Was so sure of it, in my naive grad school days.

Granted, my view of America was not all that great in the early nineties and Hollywood did not help much. Like in all those Chuck Norris movies where four hundred and thirty five international bodies fall, so the special task force, can rescue that one American hostage who actually looks like his only contribution to his country was to improve the economy by eating a dozen donuts a day. I wanted to be Chuck Norris, and if that was not an option, at least be rescued by Chuck Norris after I ate a dozen donuts and was trapped in an airplane!

All the Americans around me made me feel that being American was like being born again. No, not "born again" as in the Christian sense, but rather "special" like in Tamizh when they ask you "Nee enna rendu thadavai pirandhiya?" ("Are you so special that you were born twice?"). You almost got the feeling that your strength would increase by a factor of 435 if you became American overnight. This theory especially gains momentum after you have read way too many Asterix comics which involve a certain magic potion.

Towards the end of my school days, a lot of things reshaped my view of America. There was talks of restricting immigrant workers, which did not go through, the one person who practically was looked up to by every desi graduate student turning out to be just another liar in the oval office, a simultaneous change of government in India with a nationalist party bent on testing nuclear weapons, a sudden surge in the bank balance thanks to a full time job, having as much fun doing R&D compared to being a not so well paid post doctoral researcher, being respected for doing what one likes to do, tasting "freedom" in a sense it had never been enjoyed before, owning a car, filling up at a gas tank on a regular basis, learning to fill more complicated tax forms than the 1040 EZ, and the list goes on.

During this time, America was the "in thing"! It was a sure bet. A place that held me in awe, simply because I could do what I wanted to do, as long as it was legal and no one would care. It was also a place where a "go getter" attitude was a plus and there was no run in with policy! To top things off, Chuck Norris was now "Walker, Texas ranger" and would grace our screens twice a week, not to mention the reruns. We were introduced to Texas. In a way Chuck gave us a preview to GWB in ways that only we could imagine.

That is when we got married and had dependents, bought and sold property, started accounts in stock trading houses to understand "quick money", lived through black tuesday and learnt some valuable lessons which were already available to us for free, had we only listened to people who had been there before. We were NRI's going through some questions on where to live, raise family, citizenship, voting, taxes, schooling...again a list that goes on and on.

One thing that was a surprise was 9/11, GWB and the rise of religious fundamentalism in the USA. After you get a dozen forwarded emails from people you know and work with, which talk about the "wrath of the eagle" mentioned in the Bible and how Iraq had it coming etc. etc., you start getting cynical, frustrated and then just plain astounded and ask yourself "How come I never saw this side of America before?" , "Was it always there?" or it is just coming out of the woodwork after Cheney runs his proxy dictatorship? not to mention other questions like "what if I dont like this war?", "How come no one has the balls to stop this?" etc. etc.

That is when a profound realization hit me!

When on trips to India, I complained about the local cop who takes a bribe for no reason by stopping you on some non existant pretext, or questioned the medical shop guy who would say "no change" and give me unwanted candy instead of the three rupees he owes me on the 20 I gave him, people around me (mostly family) would attribute my contention to my "American-ness"!

and now for the big realization..or realisation if you prefer,

This so called American-ness is only limited to showing some temper and gall at localized injustices at the everyday level with people who do not make as much money as you. You still do not get to question MK or Jayalalitha or Ramadoss (local politicians) for fear of retalliation. This option is not available to us in the USA if you make money and are above the poverty line. You don't get to see such things in your day to day life. The guy at the store hands you back a penny when you purchased something for 79.99 and you hand him eighty dollars. The cops here flag you, hand you a ticket, and off you go to court. For the most part, you know the law and try to stay within it.

When it comes to bigger things like the Iraq war, government spending, EPA, oil drilling, defense spending, security, freedom, bailouts for irresponsible people, etc. one is left in much the same boat, be it in India or the USA. Your voice is pretty much drowned. California, considered the fifth largest economy in the world (sure it is in the top ten at least) has been going without a budget for months and the common people who were hit by this have not been able to do much, with officials "they" elected!


At a much higher level, the machinery of politics is oiled by the same grease, irrespective of India or USA.

Only, the currency is different!

Now that we are American Citizens and OCI's, we do not think that commandos will be storming in to rescue us anytime soon from any impending crisis.

The day to day life, although a little more stressful, goes on with the knowledge that somehow the people who make way more money than us will get hit more and they will have the money and power to plug this hole! I know, I know. We are being selfish here. But is that not what got everyone to the point we are in now?

It is high time Chuck Norris took over as president of the USA. He can kick the crap out of the bad guys on Wall street and Main Street and put his "star" on the US dollar!

Being born and raised in the great state of Tamilnadu in India, which has been ruled by movie legends for the last thirty plus years, it is in my blood now, to hope for Chuckie to come and solve all our problems with his high kick. If we can expect MGR to solve all problems with the same ease with which he won swashbuckling swordfights with Nambiar, why not Chuck Norris?

I will say it again, Chuck Norris for President!


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Pound wise, is the penny foolish?

It has been a tough week!

Jr. came home from school with an assignment where the teacher had a simple comment, "barely meets standard". The assignment was on counting coins!

Considering that she can do upto adding 8+ a number less than 10, it would be surprising if she could count money. The thing that annoyed me was that in spite of spending an hour with her, it was not easy to teach because there are some fundamental problems with counting money, as seen in the eyes of a kindergardener!

There are also some fundamental problems with seeing money the way it is, in the eyes of a metallurgist!

Here is part primer, part facts, part frustration on what I call "Monetary economics"!

First a quick photo tour of the coins in one shot and some related facts the kids are supposed to remember! (this is on top of the counting).



Pictured in front and back are the most common penny, nickel, dime and quarter. The pictures are those of :
Lincoln / Lincoln Memorial
Jefferson / Monticello
Roosevelt / Wreath
Washington / The Bald Eagle

That said, the coins in the USA are not exactly easy to grasp. Why?

We don't call them 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents and 25 cents. We have to call them penny, nickel, dime and quarter respectively. That is one additional layer of memorization that has to be registered. Mentally they have to convert dime to ten before doing a transation. Any guy worth his computational salt will tell you that it is inefficiency built into the counting process.

Next, the coins do not go from smallest to biggest in size (or biggest to smallest like in other countries where the higher denomiations are made of more precious metal and end up smaller coins)! The Nickel sticks out like a, well sore nickel!

Third, the color and lustre of the coins does not show any gradual change from copper to silvery metal. The nickel is dull. The quarter is equally dull considering its composition is the same as the nickel but somehow the finishing leaves it slightly more shiny! The penny is in a world of its own.

As a kid, it would be difficult if the monetary value did not follow the sequence in nomenclature, size, weight, color or texture!

That left me puzzled. That did not make any sense. One would assume(if you have an undergraduate degree in Metallurgy), that the monetary value of a coin is in some way related to the metal content! That said, daddy faded into the background earlier this afternoon and Metallurgist took over. After going through the web for various facts and fact checking, I present to you the table below:



Have not found any table as a quick reference guide yet on my web surfing, so who knows this compilation might actually find some use!

Now for some facts. The US Mint kept changing metallic compositions of the various coins because as metal prices fluctuated, the cost of making certain coins was significantly more than the value of a coin!

If you look at the old compositions of coins at todays metal prices it looks like the quarter will be worth $2.9 and a dime worth $1.15 and the penny would be worth 2 cents! Understandably zinc got subsituted for copper and the silver is all gone from today's currency. Still by todays standard, the metal value of these coins is not a 1:5:10:25 but a 1:11:4:10. Again, it is the nickel that sticks out and it is the root cause of all counting mistakes made by Jr.!

The penny makes sense today having a metal value of 0.6 cents (sure there is manufacturing cost, which would be hard to keep at 0.4 cents in the future, unless the manufacturing eventually moves to China. A thought which has been considered by economists!).

Pound wise, it is the Nickel that does not make sense!

Hopefully, will be able to teach Jr. to count money...


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Naughty Naughty Naughty

Pictures of the little one at her mischievous best during an afternoon spent at the local park!









I had just gotten out of a serious headache that afternoon. So I parked my "you know what" at the edge of the slide area and started taking pictures.

Jr., a happy go lucky kid who is always smiling, sat down on the bench for a second between her running around. For a fleeting moment I saw a serious side to her that I have never seen before. Do not know what made her so thoughtful for a few seconds. She was off and running again in no time.




Wishing all Americans a happy 4th of July! Let us hope this year brings better things for the US of A. Oil independence, an end to the war, better politics, and everything else the majority of Americans are said to want in opinion polls but somehow never happen!

Surprisingly, Jr. is being taught in school that 4th of July is America's Birthday(not Independence day!). Maybe they are trying to rewrite the history books and remove the "I" word. Maybe they dont want people to think that Independence implies a dependence at some point prior to the Independence?

Jr. came home and declared that it is America's birthday and we celebrate it with fireworks and no school for tomorrow. I did not want to explain the concept of Independence or dependence to Jr. after a long and tiring day. That can wait for some time later.


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By the people, for the people, of the people ???

Yeah, I am talking about the "D" word! Next to the "F" word it is probably the most controversial word in the making.

Cannot help but hear it at least a few times a day, be it in India or the United States.

India : largest Democracy
USA : worlds largest exporter of Democracy

So much of this word that pretty soon it would be Democrazy!!

I am writing about this after I listened to Terry's interview of Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani Journalist, on public radio. It put the word in an all new context!

Democracy is what we want it to be, people. The funny thing is everyone votes, thinking there is a majority opinion out there that has finally made it! Even if the rule of law is not representative of the majority or the system, no one will ever know! Why ? Because the people is a large body and every individual is but a drop in the ocean.

Let us say you are someone like me wondering "why is there more war talk when almost all the people around me dont want the war ?" or "why are we adjusting the clock two weeks ahead, or why are we adjusting the clocks at all ?"...

Then maybe you rationalize the fact that there is war and daylight savings inspite of everyone around you telling you that they are against it, because there must be a great many people in the ocean of democracy who want the war and the daylight savings and they have the majority vote !!

However, they do announce in opinion polls etc., that <40% of the people support the war! Either people say they do not support it and are secretly voting for it or everyone thinks there are a majority of people who must want the war, when in reality it is a few smart people who know how Democracy really works!!

It works using "the other guys must have voted against what I voted for" syndrome!!

In India I used to ask myself "why in the world would anyone do a budget like this? pass a law like this ? etc. etc." and think "I am from the middle class. India is the land of the poor. Maybe the poor majority likes these rules.". But my theory would be dashed to pieces when people who are from poorer segments, like the maids who used to help with cleaning the house and dishes also agree with my ideas or say "they dont want those things either!". Same thing in the US of A with the War!!

Hope the genius in me has finally figured this out!

Now, on the lighter side, you have to watch this video. Puts some things in context while still being hilarious!



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Corruption ?

Read this post by Sree recently. Was reminded of my own post, just after I started blogging !!

Guess things havent changed much in two years!

This post is not just about those questions. It is about the reference to the movie Guru!

Mani Ratnam has made a great movie, a real entertainer and I give him credit for it.

If you have watched Aviator, you cannot help but wonder if a few scenes from Guru have taken their inspiration from Aviator. Would especially point to the one where Leonardo or Abhishek sit down in front of the panel and they take a good look all the whirring video cameras, or the ones where both of them say "do whatever it takes to get the contract". Leonardo offers prostitutes, Abhishek offers a veiled threat!

The jist of Aviator(Guru) is that Howard Hughes (Gurukant Desai) wants to be the king of the Aviation(textile) industry in US (India) and eventually the world, and he has to fight corruption at the Senator(Minister) level to be just that. In doing so, he faces the wrath of the govenment, stockholders, competitors, and the press, then goes through an inquiry comittee and finally comes out with minor damages! In short one man fights against a system that tries to hold him down when he starts firing on all cylinders!

Aviator is more of a biography that focus on Hughes and his disease while Guru is a love story for the most part! So the movies have a look and feel that is very very different.

What is interesting is that :
Howard Hughes - Mid 1940's!
Dhirubhai (Guru) - Mid 1970's!

I do not think things have changed much in the USA or India in regards to the system! The only difference in my opinion is people in the USA are exposed to these corruption levels only if they are multi millionaries, trying to become billionaries. In India even the poorest end up tasting the system!

To clarify, you cannot bribe traffic cops or building inspectors in the US. People who represent the rule of law that an average citizen would normally come in contact! At least I have not heard of any instances. We do get stories of corrupt politicians who take bribes in all forms almost on a daily basis when we tune into public radio!! (Cunningham, Abramof stories, etc. etc.).
I guess in the US, "A bribe too small is not worth taking!!". (I like the way that just came out. Should trademark this Gandhimadhi style!).

As long as sparrows have existed, so have sparrowhawks!! As long as citizens exist, there will be politicians, a goverment by the people, of the people, for the people, that also screws the people if they challenge the government in any way!