Thursday, November 26, 2009

removing the albatross

" Are you a Vegeterian?!"
"Why do people keep asking me that?!"
" because because i guess you are mingled up, i assumed you would have changed"!

- there there i shall remove the albatross across my neck. that and the fact that i added this one
(only non-indian) to my facebook(still a novice there), yes i am all mingled up!

Monday, November 23, 2009

To a dear old friend

I have had it with you. Its time for you to leave. You and me, we go back a long time. Why, Amma says it started right from my birth. By her calculation I was born a month later but even if you take the doctor's words, I was still born much after my expected date. When in a bit of teenage angst I screamed at Amma saying, " I am going to have a love marraige". She screamed right back,"you are too lazy to even do that"!.

During all those times, I never complained. Sometimes, I spelled you even with a bit of pride, teenage was a delight with you. You were the fad among my friends. Just feeling lazy, ya, we revelled on the phone.

But as an adult, you brought in much shame. Those derogatory looks were from others. But today, I dont want you.I dont aspire to be an Indira nooyi, but a normal life of cooking, cleaning, dragging one's posterior & placing it for 8 hours on a chair. That isnt too much to ask.

So here, we split our paths. not sure what the procedure is. Do I need to print it out on Gazette papers or file for a divorce? unfriend you?

I have mountains to hike and camp at, sky to dive from, rivers to raft through, languages to learn/kill, songs to bray through and so on. But all you want to do is drag the rear to the couch and stay put. So, please to leave. While you are at it, take the procrastination bum along with you.

And its not ME, its YOU!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Here a Kashmir, there a Kashmir

"The general told Rajapaksa, his commander-in-chief, that he won for him the war but the President failed to capitalise on it and win the peace."
- Rediff
because you know 'peace' is sold right next to 'winning war' at Murugan stores located at the corner of 2nd avenue and 12th main road, so hello, how could you miss it?:)

Just to give a bit of context(because that is all I know - a bit), the Srilankan General who lead the war against LTTE and their President are in a big power game enough for the General to send a retirement letter and the Governement to fear a military coup to alert and seek India's help. I think somewhere along there is a mention of development to win the hearts and that is what caught my attention.

By Kashmiri's own admission in their blogs India has done that in Kashmir. But their response is we would do even better on our own without these if we were independent. And that isnt true either, again from just reading their viewpoints because it would need India and Pakistan for business.

First they said military oppression and then they say we dont need your good work either. It looks like once the separatist sentiments are instigated there is not much one can do to win. War or money. Just saying.

Also, let me clarify, Kashmir and tamil problem are not the same. In Srilanka, the whole tamil problem began because of the secondary treatment given to tamils and doesnt look like that attitude has changed. Kashmir, on the other hand, just want to separate, period.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Vengaya Sambar, cheppakezhangu roast and the RV with the boat

Mom and Dad visited us last year for the first time ever. Every weekend we were on the road. As soon as he encountered an RV or the harley davidson gumbal or a truck with a boat attached, he would sigh, "ochisinadu, bike ethunsi"(tamil: Vantutan, bike eduthundu, english: i wont attempt the translation).

This happened every weekend. At first I was laughing, okay, I was laughing till the third weekend and then it stuck me, he actually judged these people for spending their weekend outdoors. I asked him, so you think they should sit at home on a sunday, eat vengaya sambar and cheppakezhangu roast? Dad nodded. I didnt judge him.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Caught red handed

Why do people display 'Live Traffic feed'? I feel like I have been caught red handed trying to snoop!

Monday, November 9, 2009

A stage. Few people on it, lot of people before the stage. The ones on the ground complain about the ones on the stage. Crib Crib. dub dub. After much complaining, a man is elected and sent to the stage. With a lot of promises to be kept, the man stands out, but soon merges in.

The people on the ground go back to cribbing.

- whatever I could remember from a stage play I read in Kalki when I was in 6th std.

Update: The play reflected politics.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Racist, seriously?

** This was in the drafts folder for a long time MORE THAN 3 YEARS. **
There were way too many things going in my head that day. For starters, I was finally in a position where I was accepting resumes instead of doling out them. In an highly reputed institution, if I may add. Rest of group from my company were non-technical folks. Since most of the engineering students typically seek technical position(unaware of the real world company power structure which places the technical engineer at the lowest strata of power), they were all being referred to me.

Doctorates, students working with top of the line Professors were doling out their sales pitches while my awestruck eyeballs wouldn't even move out of their impressive resumes, wondering why they would want to join the positions we had. In short, I was relishing every moment.

And then there was this guy(Indian) standing in the stall opposite me. Initial I had thought he was good looking but on a little intense look, the rotund frame became obvious. Still, incidents in the opposite stall were interesting enough. There was another Indian girl in the stall. Every few moments, the girl would try striking a conversation with the guy. The guy would reply and return to continue his stare on the road.

The girl, not too charming, not too eager but from the distance I could still see the intentions. Except the guy was oblivious to all that.

With all this drama, the conversation that I was having with D, hardly made a impression.
" Oh Sorry S, we would have send all these technical resumes your way."
" I don't think I am qualified enough to evaluate some of these resumes."
"Oh, that's fine. I am sure you would know what we were looking for."
" Some of them even though highly qualified, are not good matches."
......
" Oh my girl friend should be here soon. I don't where she is..."
" She works for xxx. She just returned form yy today morning, haven't seen her in two weeks"
" You and A are close friends, right?"
" Are you dating him?"
This time, I got out of stupor, nodded my head in an Indian no way. I am such a schmuck, I couldn't even get to say, I don;t date.
..........
" You don't like me"
"No, I like you, you ride a bike"
Uwww.. can I really get a lamer answer? If I rate all the lame answers, that would be the lamest but the truth is, I couldn't really think of anything else about him.

Then he said those words, " You are a racist S."
"!!!!".
" I am just kidding."
Then the conversation drifted off to the something else.

Everything else blurred off after then.
It sounded absurd at first. Me, a racist? I wasn't harassing anybody due to their race. I wasn't harassing anybody period. But then all my friends are Indians ever since I moved to this place. I don't even find a necessity to talk to people from other countries.

I came to this country to earn money. I entered first for studying but let's face it, studies really didn't draw me. The fact that if I could find funding I would earn twice the money as a student than what the best jobs in India offered for a newbie like me did.

Of course, I fell in love with subject after I came here with all the opportunities, exposure to cutting edge technology, the fine professors, facilities, it was hard not to.

Again the first time I ever heard about coming to USA for the experiencing the multi-cultural environment was from the roommates. Before that it didnt cross my mind.

The place I went to grad school was 95% Caucasians. So, interactions were inevitable.

The place I have moved to after that has a minimum 30% Indians. A home away from home. Mini-India and so on. The necessity to develop friendships with Non-Indians just vanished. I always spoke to them. But never looked at them for long enduring friendships. Not that the incident changed my life or that I have removed the mental block from my head.

It still exists. I still don't consider my behavior racist. I talk to all my colleagues across races. I talk to anybody who talks with me. But deep friendships form on their own. Just to avoid a tag, you couldn't really develop fake friendships!

I am not discriminating, right?

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Parrot beats Rahul Gandhi

In a study conducted by center for seemingly irrelevant but might be relevant or irrelevant topics, a Parrot trained along with Rahul Gandhi started making more intelligent conversation than Rahul Gandhi.

When contacted, Rahul Gandhi said this isnt his topic to comment on. Politics, Perhaps - suggested the helpful parrot from the non-Nehru family. Another reporter questioned Rahul on a topic on Kerala which Rahul said will be answered by the Kerala congress. When asked about naxals, he said it will be answered by the Government experts on naxalites.
*** What he is saying is these are out of syllabus questions, suggested the Parrot from the non-Nehru family.****

The reporter who was desparate for an answer, any answer, asked what he can answer on? At this point Rahul launched on some irrelevant and not even seemingly relevant topic called youth congress. He reported Tamil nadu has more than 1 million youth congress members. Reporter knew better than to point out that Tamil Nadu congress doesnt have that many members, heck it didnt even gather as many votes in the elections.

After 10 minutes, The Parrot from the Nehru family finished doling out its prepared speech. The video was uploaded in youtube, and 123abcd commented that Rahul Gandhi is a great thinker and should become the Prime Minister.

Parrot from non-Nehru family thinks it can become a Prime Minister too, guess it isnt that intelligent, huh?