PART II

I got this weird thought while on a conference call, the conversation goes like this:


"Meow"

"Is that your kitty?”

"Oh yeah, he is a sweet little kitty and he wants my attention fully but occasionally I need to work on my computer while working from home, unfortunately"

"I understand"

Try to translate the same thing to India. I am not even able to translate this scenario.

I guess we can do with raising more pets back in India. That way I think we can reduce our population and it will generate more job opportunity.

Together with the rising number of child care centers, we can do with more pet care centers, pet motels, pet fitness centers, pet care products and what not.

Another upside being, students need not struggle to keep just the human population hale and healthy, we can make vet nary science popular too.

Also, if there were more pets in India, the job opportunities will be more varied than here, for example, more cleaning service(since we believe in nature and not clean up after our dogs in India, I have seen my neighbour use all the two wheelers in the neighbourhood to relieve her dog),more normal doctors to vaccinate people against dog illnesses, more cases in domestic courts when girls decide to raise pets rather than children and Many more that I have to imagine (Not that idle or bored now)


I have seen in all Hollywood movies that most of the houses have pets but you have to see it to believe it in real life.

I have seen some dog owners with 5 to 6 dogs.

another funny thing I have noticed is ,whenever any dog is not on leash or on an extended leash and tries to come and lick you or bite you or smell you, only the dog knows what it intends, I have heard the owner say "he/she is friendly" to your typical Indian prejudiced reaction of revolt/fright.

I got so used to it now that when I am back in India; I might offer my ankles as willing bait for our own street dogs.

Once I went hiking on a steep hill and no dog,was on leash, which had come hiking with its master. So, even though my normal reaction would be to run away as much as possible from the canine family , I had no choice but to stay on path, to keep myself from falling off the hill as much as possible and just pray that they ignore my existence.There was a couple of people with a couple of dogs going the opposite direction, they turned around, yelled back at me,

"Hey, are you from India"

"Yeah"

"Meet coller here, he is from India too"

I kept searching for another person with them, when they continue,

"I got him, when he was a small puppy"

I thought good that they didn’t atleast name him Raja( pronounce as Raaachaaa)

And like any other dog, this dog came and licked me and like a true Indian, I showed a little fright and they said,

"Don’t worry, he is clean, we vaccinated him"

Hmmm I Was wondering, what happened to "he is friendly" routine.

But I guess it is expected because, it’s an Indian by birth

Being in America-Part I


I got a really funny forward regarding America not knowing what "the rest of the world" means.

I think that is 100% correct accounting for the fact that even some Indians forget India when they come here.

I remember fighting for a pot of water during my board exams near the metro water lorry near my house in madras and now I see sprinklers running even when it is raining near my house here.

Of course, one can not help it, if there is lots of water. All the same, I was wondering how one part of the world thinks there is no other parts existing in this world. I mean, I can not be writing all kinds of facts that I know of, here, then it might get too personal and it’s not needed as long as the meaning is conveyed.

I will just write some common things I notice here and of course take it with a pinch of humour if you like America and as a sad state of affair if you hate America. It’s left in your hands.

I had an Indian friend here complaining about the gasoline price increasing up to a dollar per gallon and there was one funny board in a gasoline station, which just stated the price as "LOL" and compare that to the increase in petrol in India, I guess it is around 10 rupees per liter, so in turn around an increase of 35 rupees per gallon and compare it against the average salary, the average salary here is say 5000 dollars per month and in India it is around 30,000 rupees, now do the math. Clearly India is suffering much more than America but Americans and Indian Americans cry here.

I found another funny thing, if you go to a restaurant in here, you can always forget about cooking for the next day where as in India, you need to order at least two dishes to keep you from getting hungry if you visit a hotel in India. Some restaurants here bring in their "TO-GO' boxes even before we finish eating, because they know. How can there be no food shortage?, also in most of the places it is always "All you can eat buffets", they keep this confidently because, everybody eats too much so the distinction of what is "too much " thins off, no hotel owner in India will dare keep buffet in this scale, if they do they will go bankrupt very soon because people are underfed there.

The only good thing that I can never be sarcastic about is cleanliness here and if ever you find some place thrashed with waste, be assured it is an Indian who has done it. I am saying this, not to make anyone feel bad but I felt bad when I saw one fellow Indian here who kept thrashing in anyplace and everyplace he went, worst of all he talked of politically correct things before I saw him doing this , something like "Indians are keeping their country dirty”,” Indians are not ethically good" and many things like that and when I asked him why he talked like a really good person, he replies that is what everyone does, I was really p***** off hearing that. I can just say this, Indians are hypocritical, at least most of them are, if you are exception, I am happy for you.

These people think America is cool because they can ride great cars, speed on roads, go to gymn, go to LV and get salary in dollars. They don’t even think that they can do their bit in their county to make it cool too.

I understand that somethings we can not change easily (as a common person) like quota system, inflation, exchange rate etc but at least you can keep your country clean. If educated people who come to America do this, not just to India but to America as well, then what will Americans think about us? If I were an American, even I would say the same things that they say to us.


I know not many people will read this but all the same if I meet anyone like that one hypocritical person, I will give a piece of my mind even if it means they wont change or they wont be friends with me again, it is better to be truthful than hypocritical. As I said in one of my "ramblings" before, something have become default because we think we can not change and there is no use just talking if you can not be what you are talking. It is injustice not just to this great world you are born into and but also to yourself.

I read somewhere, if Earth is just a speck in this universe, we are not even visible in it and yet we destroy it before we go.

OF Icons and Fans....

Recently everyone from TamilNadu talks about “CBSE” itself, mentioning an extract regarding Rajini(pasting the same above). It just set me thinking and no offence to anyone.

The forwards say something like “An abstract of the early life of Our Super Star Rajinikanth's has been included in the syllabus of 6th standard school children….. Note that, it's not in the state board syllabus, but CBSE Central board syllabus, under the heading 'Dignity of Work'……………….”

Well for at least two things I find this interesting. One is the stress on “CBSE” syllabus itself mentioning about Rajini and the second thing is the title was not “Rajini” but “dignity of work” and just because Rajini is mentioned there, people associate the two, completely ignoring the other character in the passage, just like the movie “chandramukhi”

I don’t dislike Rajini but at the same time, just because he appears somewhere, I don’t like the undue credit given to him, I feel Rajini himself, would not like that.

The passage tells about how his friend supported him when he was down and how he became a history later on, but we completely ignore the first part and I think that is the reason why there is only one Rajini.

I was telling my friend that sometimes description overshadows the content and nowadays no one wants to look for the content .CBSE never keeps a straight passage. I was a good student in my class and most of the times I scored well in English. I was in CBSE and I feel the others did not score because they didn’t see the content. If descriptions overshadow content, Glamour overshadows even descriptions. It is pretty dangerous, it makes us forget that we are “humans” and no human value is appreciated in front of it.

If “CBSE” intended to talk about Rajini then in that case, in the “evaluate” section why is all the questions regarding the “obscure” normal “faceless” person ?But the one good thing is , everyone is happy that “Rajini” was mentioned in a CBSE textbook, acknowledging the importance of good education.

If only people don’t just go by fancy words and look for the fine prints in everything, India would be a better place and no one would want to leave that country and go after developed countries, most of which has thousands of “rajini’s” in their country already.

People who are famous are to be appreciated for their work and sincerity and more than them the people who identify them when they were “obscure” are more important according to me.

By just looking at one Rajini, One Tagore and One Theresa, people don’t look around for people like them ,in between them and those people loose the opportunity of a friend, like Rajini had.Evenetually, we are neither becoming Rajini nor Raja bahadur.

Sometimes I wonder....

Why I wish things were different if I can not change anything or at least something.
I read this book called " The onion: Our dumb World, Atlas of Planet Earth",
There is of course an online link for this too (http://www.theonion.com/content/atlas) check it out if you want.

It is hilarious but hurts.

In that book, the introduction to the western world or for that matter for anyone who just knows India as just another country in these endless borders of the world is that it is dirty with all capital letters.

I found it really true though hard to accept in front of others.
Our Country is Extremely Dirty and everyone contributes to it and thinks India is not as great or as clean as Singapore or USA and the best part is some people start arguing that USA is not all that clean. We are missing the point there. Whether USA is clean or not, India is definitely not and No one cares or thinks it is a big issue.

Honestly, I don’t even put a bus ticket on the road, even though my bus stop is near the famous or infamous Coovam River in the heart of Chennai, the headquarters of all its filth. Even though I know it doesn’t make a difference anyway, I don’t want to contribute to this ever growing filth and talk about migrating to other cleaner countries.

I have seen lots of people from Tidel Park, spitting and littering in the MRTS train. I am sure 90% of these people are educated to the basic level and talk with multinational clients. If you can copy their accent and their style of dressing, why not their habits?

If these people, who know how some others in this world behave well, are not able to be clean and are not conscious of their surrounding, how can the uneducated people, be blamed for what is happening? IT contributes economically; I think it should contribute socially and behaviorally too. Otherwise there is no use blowing the horns of IT or for that matter economic growth.
So all said, I feel powerless for not able to get anything done.Now, Anniyan and Mudalvan (for some who might not know, these are movies in India regarding setting the country right) are not enough to create awareness, since it was obviously ineffective except for Vikram and Arjun since glamour overshadows anything and everything in cinema in our place. So those fictional characters in real life, is definitely not possible.

So the only thing I can do is write this but there again I am sure at least 90% of those who happen to read this know this already and have similar opinion as me. So there again it becomes a useless exercise. I am not prejudiced against those who read but as far as I am concerned many people who read also think.

But I still went ahead and wrote this cause, I wanted to do at least the 0.01% that I can and if at all it helps someone somewhere not to pollute the world, I am more than happy.
As I said in one of my previous ramblings, Earth is not ours to take for granted; you have rented and just because you don’t have any leasing fine on it, it doesn’t mean you can spoil it in whatever way you want. Of course there is no fine, but in future there will be no life if this goes on.

Its history....

Today, was talking about some incidents which i read in history with couple of my friends and they don't seem to have heard on the same , but hey they were part of lessons for any kind of board you take in India.Not that they weren't interested by the topic, they found it interesting enough,but then why did not they, either remember reading about them or missed reading the same?

It is not that no one is interested in the past, if you ask me since we can not know about the future,at least knowing the past covers two of the three tenses and also your virtual exposure to expanse of the time in the universe,after all universe was created in the past,so it is history besides science.

I have also noticed lots of people taking pride in saying that they did not like history in their school and complaining that it is just a memory game.But I don't seem to remember any dates but i do remember some interesting incidents that i read and trust me, people, who hate history ,have always found these topics engrossing.

Then i think the culprit can be either our education system or our educators.but it is more often the educators rather than the system, if you ask me, how else can you explain my interest in history(more to do with the way my teacher taught me) and another friend's hatred of the same,coming from the same board, leaving apart our individual interests, a good educator can make you read the subject if not love it.

Knowing the past also makes us value the future and the present.If we really value,energy for example,that means you know how difficult it is to get the same and we did get the same because of the past.

There is this ride in EPCOT, as everthing else in Disney is, is huge and it is about conserving energy.I dont have the money to tell the same in a huge screen, i really dont know how many inches the screen was, but it was huge,really huge, but i think it got across people ,atleast 10% of them who came to disney.

We get energy from the past and we get everything else from the past, for the future to have their past correct, we have to make our present undestructible for the future.

I always want people to think before wasting anything leave alone Energy, just because you can afford to pay a few extra bucks on the energy that you waste,doesnt necessarily mean the future can afford it.Every small thing counts and small things in the past is a huge assert for the present and small things of the present are a huge assert for the future.

Just quoting a wonderful line i came across " You have borrowed the earth from your future generations, you have no right to destory it".

If your selfish enough to think that you dont mind what happens after you die after say 100 years, just think about how we think of people who tried to say that 100 years before.

Preserve your present to preserve your past for your future.

It’s Organic.........


















Everything is so huge in here (USA).I was hugely surprised to walk into a 'shop' selling vegetables and see all the onions the size of a watermelon and all small watermelon in the size of huge watermelons. Though I thought it is twice the worth of the money spent on the same, there is always a costlier section on the same vegetable with title "organic" on it, making you feel guilty of eating the inorganic ones.

Even squirrels are not puny here, are they inorganic?


Even milk is either organic or not organic here, though it comes from an organic cow.


So essentially, any living or formally living and presently edible things are either organic and small or inorganic and huge.


I feel being identified with an "organic" status to an already organic material, as a pathetic result of population expansion and development of technology to keep up with the population. But the irony is, India is a more populous country than USA, then I am not able to get, why the organic matters are more organic in India than here. I am not arguing that India does not use pesticides and other damaging cides in its agriculture but matter of factly , the organic materials there are what is specifically available here as "organic".


Even a simple cabbage tastes different here than there. So anyone learning cooking here with traditional recipes should be aware of that and be happy that the taste of the food they make is not entirely due to them, its due to the organics and inorganics of the vegetables here. Well, in any case that is the consolation I give to myself.

The other day I saw a movie in which a person smokes "an organic cigarette", well I will believe that when said two times too. It’s possible they might even get “organic water it’s really possible or is it already there?

But I think you should not have an organic air, in that case it becomes toxic.

So essentially, that conveys that, all organic things are not too good.

But even after all these ramblings about organic, only one thing strikes me strange and ironical, when nature began its course without human intervention, every plant and animal was organic, when man multiplied, the plant part of the equation , or more so , even the animal term of the equation dwindled but man needs them for his uninterrupted rule of the world, so he multiplied them inorganically and found out that its bad for him, so he demarcated some of the things he needs as organic and it comes with a price tag for the humans who can afford it. So eventually, human population should gradually dwindle due to the bad effects of inorganic things but I don’t see that in the near future, so essentially that means either you eat organic or inorganic you survive. The trouble is for the future generations. I am curious how they handle it.

Probably we should redefine chemistry and biology regarding the carbon compounds.

It hurts to be shrewd....At least for me

"Reduce your tension" if you want to get rid of your jaw pain, head aches and other entourages associated with the same, was the prescription given by my doctor for my recurrent pains . I went for physiotherapy, had regular appointments with the orthodontist and mentally told myself to reduce my tension. In fact, when I had to move away from my family for a short duration (relatively short in terms of my probable life time) I promised to my dad that I will be calm and patient and won’t get tensed.

Well, the underlying logic in this is, I get tensed when ever I think “otherwise”, in the sense I got tensed whenever I had other views than my peers and of course I never got tensed if I told my views to my friends who understand me, here also the catch is “who understand” me. I found it extremely to make them understand and in the process of making my point I got extremely tensed. Trust me I got so tensed that I got a XYZ pain syndrome, its XYZ now cause I don’t want to name the pain in public, basically it gets to do with the bones.

So naturally my faulty or smart logic (Yet to be determined, which of the two, since its in experimental stage yet) was that if I avoid having thoughts of my own, then I will get my pain reduced. So, as soon as I came to this new place I avoided confrontation on all fronts possible, or in other words I became a “yes –woman”.

Though this completely eliminated my original problem of pain in the jaw and bones, it created side effects, just like any other medicine. Basically, people started taking me for granted and talked at the back of me and even in front of me. Due to the allegiance to my vow, I smiled and kept smiling even if they ignored me. Even matters concerning me, that is, if my roommate disturbs my sleep, I didn’t talk back and kept quiet when she talked back. So on the whole, the new people I saw or I am seeing think of me as a subservient person who will listen to all the crap anyone talks and smiles back or rarely talks back like a stupid. Well, my medicine did work for one part of the problem , that is people who talked back on me , were again talked back on them by someone else, its basically a lucky instance when you will escape being talked back on and “miraculously” they became tolerate to my presence and didn’t ignore me as much as they did. But it fails on the second part of being taken for granted by a person whom you stay with.

So, after lots of patience and tolerance, I am starting to get back my previous symptom of pain when I start thinking how they take me for granted. The thought that someone is basically using me for their purpose and their wellness hurts my bones. I have to prepare hours or sometimes weeks in advance to put across my view on certain things when it concerns me and hurts me like hell. It’s very hurting to be shrewd and do things for my own and the worst part is I am able to identify that the other person is acting either cunning or shrewd but I don’t talk back, because that’s not me and if I do try to be them, it hurts me again.

So, the conclusion I got is, it hurts if I try to act for my own good and it hurts if I don’t .Though, this is not a solution, I feel I identified the problem at least, there might be no cure for cancer but it feels better when you get diagnosed properly.