A peep into Uncle Sam

I happened to visit the blog of a friend who has bookmarked my blog and it said "Updated 4 months ago"! "AGO" - Gosh! Not the word ago! Atleast a softer tone like "back" could have been better. The word "ago" sounds like aeons have passed since my last blog. This is an open insult to my blog and I take vengeance... eeerr.... by posting this blog.... :-)

This is a long due post. Everytime I have returned to this blog, there is something new to add. I started this sometime mid-jan but challenge my ever procrastinating nature.  Anyways here I am writing about my life in US post marriage and the heart-wrenching longing for home.... :-(

 

First of all wish you a very happy new year 2009...... I know its late but swalpa adjust maadi.... :-)

Hmm, so to cut the long story short..... for the past six months my life was on the fast forward mode - wedding, in-laws' place, visa interview, flight to US, new friends, new life and a new house in which I get to be the "lady of the house"......... Whoa! thats yet to sink in!!! And now that I'm little settled in the new house and new surroundings, the big question haunts me "What next?"

Its been two months in US now and I feel like running for cover when I hear these two obvious questions 

"How is married life?" 

"How did you like US?"

Well, to talk about married life....  everyday, there is something new I learn about Harsha that it makes me feel like am on some discovery voyage... :-)  

And about US, well, Harsha says I'm ill-qualified to judge US but still I put forth my observations of US and its life.

Welcome to the new world, where almost everything works opposite of the rest of the world. Right-hand traffic, anticlockwise locks, the upside down keys, the upturned electric switches and even the water taps operate the reverse direction! If Americans had the power to change the rules of nature then American sun would have risen in west and set in the east. Thankfully mother nature is consistent. 

I was exported from the local silicon valley to the global silicon valley. Yes, Bay area is where I stay. A favourite of our "desi" janta. Fremont, a small suburb is a concentration of residential complexes. Its a horizontally spread city, I bet you to find a building with more than 5 storeys. So basically people travel to the downtown(IT hub) for work consequently for major part of the day the city is dominated by my-type of housewives. One look at the city and man! Indians seem to be ubiquitious. Many sari-clad women go for morning-evening walks. The air in my apartment corridor is heavy with Indian spices. Stores like India cash n carry, Bharat Bazar, Dhana Bazar has got a whole range of Indian goods. No wonder why our desi janta is comfortably settled in here. With such Indian acquaintances, I personally little felt that this was the USA - The United States of America. On the contrary, I felt like am either in Delhi or Chandigarh or some such posh city in India. Wondering what kinda comparison is that? Well, wait and watch, I justify this statement later in the post. 

Continuing on the thread of Indians in US, I could classify the US-Indians into broadly three categories. 

Number one - These folks live the exact life as they would have in India. This category follows the traditions, rituals and festivals more diligently than people back in India!

Number two - The clan of totally Americanized Indians, desi look is the sole Indian-ness in them.

Number three - the people mid-way between Desi-ism and American-ism, confused lot....!

Two common factors among these groups - There is definitely a little bit of patriotism still persisting in them and all their children (category-no bar) are ABCDs.

I read this wonderful article about NRIs in US remigrating back to India.

 http://www.indiacurrents.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=97ee3d27ba2bd11f5fc07dc09c42c894

It has a power-packed caption

NRIs are trading in their non-resident status for a chance at the new Indian dream. But can they compete in the booming India of the 21st century?

NRIs having to compete in India.... wow! What a compliment to India! The article talks about the remigrated couple Swathi and Ramesh Ramanathan of the Bangalore Janagraha fame. A person comments in the article "Every year I visit India, I see old theatres make way for malls giving a very posh look to the city. Gurgaon, now looks like a mini Las Vegas". Now thats what is apple to apple comparison folks. Hence justified the corollary Fremont looks like a posh Indian city. My instincts were not wrong after all. 

I did find a couple of hypocrites too lured by the dollar dreams, well times are not far when rupee dream will lure you back to originality, so watch out buddy.  But these are the people who have missed out the actual fun of watching India grow in leaps. Well... I feel sorry for myself too since am currently missing the fun. That reminds me of the kannada movie CIRCUS I watched last weekend starring namma golden star Ganesh.  In one of the scenes I caught a glimpse of the trademark gulmohar trees of blore over ulsoor lake..... God did i miss home or wat? Suddenly some of my best moments at home swarmed me. The feeling of homesickness I went through then is indescribable. I miss those early morning sounds of blore.... the vegetable sellers, the sound of school bus horns, the morning walkers chatter.......... I miss it all, I miss home and all the things revolving around it but nothing much can I do other than blog and crib.....!

But between all these, there are some strong postivies about Uncle Sam.  Americans are logically common-sensed folks who live life by the uncomplicated KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) model. Impeccable submission to traffic rules awed me. (Ok.... here I go again about traffic... well thats me obessesed with driving!) Between its awesome to drive in US but anytime Autobahns are the best. The sense of freedom and dignity every US citizen has is highly appreciable. No questions asked, no pressing force, no age constraints and to top it all a well established system. This is in to contrast what I found in Europe. US is a free society which teaches children an independent attitude and to respect the concept the dignity of labour. Indians need to get there still. 

Currently am on a forced break from work. As with every Indian who lands in US, I started cooking too which occupies most of my valuable time.... :-) and I have developed a flair for the culinary delights.  And one perk of taking a break is I have no alarm clock - I get to wake-up whenever I feel like........... Do I see my working friends turning green?.....:-) 

So conclusion

First impression - I didnt like US

Impression after a week - I hate US

Current impression - Well, US is good but east beats the west. 

P.S: If you have not listened to the oscar nominated Jai Ho song from Slumdog Millionarie, do so right away. Mindblowing score by Rahman..... I wish wish wish he wins the oscar.

Bas Yaadein

I'm officially relieved from Aricent and in the true sense of the word "I'm UNEMPLOYED" as of today. And my feelings - TERRIBLY TOUCHY. In this post, I make an artless attempt to sum up the past 4 yrs of my professional world dedicating it to all my Aricent colleagues whom I'll truly miss.

My last working day in Aricent was on Monday.......... surprised why it was not on a Friday.... :). Well, the HR himself was baffled when he had to give a lone relieval letter amongst several offer letters................ :D. Anyways, the last day at work started off with an ubiquitious reaction of "Oh....! today is ur last day, senti kya?" "So, last day at work, all formalities done? Hope you are not emotional!" Did I look rather too nonchalant, that people were trying to induce some emotion on me!!! Nevertheless, the relieval procedure was smooth and my team called it a day after wrapping up with a warm farewell.

As I stayed back late evening to finish the final tit-bits of work, Prachi called for a quick cup of evening coffee before I left. Aricent campus, if not for anything can easily boast of two things, first - the view of Bangalore from the 3rd floor cafe, second - although not well maintained but the much needed green lung space in the backyard. It had been quite some time that I had been to cafe in the evening. That evening, Bangalore skyline looked scintillating from the 3rd floor cafe. A breezy evening with a twilight sky in the shades of blue and red sprinkled with clouds. As I was gazing around the lights of the high rise IT buildings and the garden in the backyard, as though by some impetuous intervention, it suddenly dawned on me how much I'm gonna miss them all!
Nostalgic images unwinded flooding my mind. The fun filled evening snacks in the cafe, the interesting lunch sessions, the relaxing post lunch talks in the garden. The annual Aricent fest -Phooljhadi fun, the gossipy coffee breaks which had topics ranging from politics, realty prices, traffic jams, new recruits, resignations, finance, plans to improve India, world.... what not!!!! I had read an article sometime which said Indian youth are awakening to the country's problems because atleast they are discussing about the country on coffee tables.... :) And our group was exemplary in that..... :) The fights for team lunchs and team outings are so cherisable now. The unforgettable weekend trips which we colleagues made religiously atleast once in a quarter. And not to forget the technical wing - irritations over the technical arguments, fretting on deadlines, sophorific and elongated meetings… and the endless carping about having to work...... :) Pushing all these thoughts aside, finally it was time for me to leave, I gave a last rueful look to my once nicely adorned desk and told myself I've to move on! The word "move on" reminds me of the fasttrack ad, nice ad !

Attrition is being nothing new in the IT field, some might wonder "Why am I making it a big deal?". But when I pose the same question to myself, I realize it was not Aricent as a company that I was attached to, it was more to the people there. As manners maketh a man, dont employees maketh a company! I cant gainsay the fact that I enjoyed my technical job profile. The work satisfaction and the confidence my job gave me is parallel to none. But apart from earning money from Aricent, I earned friends for life. And did anyone say its only in college that you make friends for life!!!!
Sri keeps saying ” You must never get emotionally attached to your job unless its your own enterprise”… well true but after spending a wonderful 4 yrs; unknowingly I've attached emotion to my job.
The most memorable moment of the day was Prachi's words for my farewell. Prachi, I can never forget that expression on your face, it conveyed more than your words. This snap of ours is definitely so memorable, Do you remember this awesome trip? We indeed were a notorious group, werent we?

As I leave behind this stage of life and move to a new one, I'm reminded of these lines from DCH movie

"Kaisa Ajab Yeh Safar Hai, Socho To Har Ik Hi Bekhabar Hai
"Usko Jaana Kidhar Hai, Jo Waqt Aaye, Jaane Kya Dikhaaye"

I write this blog as I watch the movie "SWADES", no other movie could have possibly been so apt to explain the current frame of my mind !!

People around me have been complaining that my blog is not updated, wel...... my last blog was in May, thats just 2 months back..... not a long time actually....:) For me these 2 months have just zoomed past, too many events in too little a time! I have a platter of varied experiences to share. The stream called "life" has taken yet another major turn. And my reaction to this.....PARADOXICAL!
Paradox, yes, is the right word to explain what am going through now. Adaptibility is the name of the game. Memories are being made but at the same time some old memories haunt. Sure there are new happenings now but life being a predilection seems to scream the theme of the movie BAZZIGHAR - "Kuch pane ke liye kuch khona padtha hain". I'm set to leave behind a state of clemency and embrace the uncertainity. But when has life exactly been ascertained...! My thought process is changing surprising myself at times! Cut the puerility, I react to the once cynical ideas now, although mixed.... :)


Ah! At this moment I remember the golden daffodils dancing in the zephyr and exclaiming like William Wordsworth does in his poem "Daffodils"................

"For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils"

I just felt like..........

When I scrolled back and read my own archived blogs, I realized how serious some topics were ....... so here I launch something for light reading............... :)

Nothing spectacular to blog this time around but just my weekend experience. There were two things that happened.

First, I spent some "quality time" with a friend for more than a decade now. She has been my school friend and we both had some crazy fun as school kids but as time went by, our colleges werent the same so were our workplaces, so that explains the "seldom meetings but the often phone-calls" tradition. A month back she shifted close to my place.............. ah! I luv her for that. This gave us both the privilege of meeting over the weekend. Apparently, we had loads to chatter n no idea about what. Isnt this friendship?.........even after days, we got back as though nothing had changed between the both of us.

Second, Sunday evening, 4.30PM, BTM main road, my speedometer showed a whooping 60!!!.......... for all the speed freaks out thr, I know 60 kmph does not qualify as "fast", but on BTM main road, 60 is definitely comparable to the speed of ICE train. This is one of the arterial roads connecting the IT estates to the civilian habitats of Bangalore. Translating it into a "pathetically busy road". But on that sunday, it was a like a piece of cake. It took me flat 10 mins to reach kormangala from jayadeva flyover, this includes the parking time too............... n no I'm not dreaming??? After a long time I enjoyed driving in the city limits.

Retrospect me

When my professional career had just kick started, I was a part of this retrospective meeting on a project which 'd little significance to me. As a fresher I could only think of " Now whats that supposed to mean! ".

It made sense later when there was another retrospective meeting for one of my projects. Then a thought just floated thru my mind "Y not a retrospective review of the goneby quarter century of my LIFE?". And here I start my first ever blog and I cant think of a better topic than to blog about myself.

It has been a quite a journey from a tiny tot to a kid to a teenager and now to a girl on the thresholds of a woman.

Mom says, as a tiny tot I was a well behaved kid - no nagging cries and definitely not the tarale (the naughty) types. But not the tarale types meaning not a very inquistive one... doesnt sound too good to me!

As a kid, I have had no special achievements. It was a nice life for me with my small little family. Studies wasnt all that tough, but blame it on the education system which thrives on the cramming system! Sharing a slot in the top 5 was an "achievement" then but now I rather term it as "koopamandooka". I had very limited interest in sports neither to follow it nor to play. But I had this special interest in reading... . My foray into reading started with those fairy tales with illustrations, the pictures there looked larger than life and I discovered my new world in books. And then it graded up to chandamama, tinkles, tintin, nancy drew, fictions and then as the cliche goes "rest is history".

Then came the teens bringing in its own troubles. I advanced to college, the world was all new... the so called koopamandooka found herself in a big river. There was a lack of individuality and confidence. I felt I had to scream to make myself heard.

And then the course of the life changed all of a sudden. Something unthinkable happened. Confidence levels sinked to the abyssmal level. But as the saying goes "Lifes a show, it must go on", I rose as a phoenix from the ashes. Life taught the living. I was a new me, reformed for good. As though aware of the fact that this is indeed a mortal world, there was an urge to live life in a fast lane which was so unlike me. Till date speed scares me! .

When I was stablised with my academics, my low profile dance career became important. For whatever reasons I could not devote much time to my dance during my school days and I started honing the grace from college and I saw myself "enjoying".

There is this one thing which really puzzles me, as a child I had major travel sickness but it seems like it vanished into the thin air overnight. Today I'm a fullto travel freak. Wish to travel to the world's end (PoC -- thats one of my fav movie)...:-)

Thus in the retrospective view, my life has been a rollercoaster. I'll be lying if I say I enjoyed every moment of it but yes I definitely cherish every microsecond of it... :)