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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