MY AMERICANA !!

       More than the thought of Masters degree, or having a successful career or making money, I was driven to America more by curiosity. I have always been a people person .. not as in socially active way .. but interested in observing people. Study, assess and even judge them. The way they are, talk, walk, act in public, react in situations .. everything. The curiosity of What was this other worldly nation/race like? drove me across oceans and landed me here. 

       As a student back in India, I always thought of US as a homogeneous country full of 7 foot men wearing suits like Al Gore and all women as beautiful blondes like Marilyn Monroe or  Pamela Anderson**. I always pictured it as a corruption free society and that everyone humped each other on a whim. To investigate more, I landed in the glitzy hot bed of politicians and celebrities ---- (drum roll)----  Cincinnati, OH. Yes ... that Cincinnati, OH. It was eye opening and to an extent disappointing to see normal working class Americans in a blue collar city. I realized I was the tallest guy in most rooms, ugly white women exist, and Every one is a bit better dressed in all sections of society .. that was all the difference I saw, initially.

** Back then I thought Pam was awesome, as i was too naive to even think people would be dumb enuff to go through surgery to enhance their assets :O ...

       Several of my notions have since evolved. In the past 10 yrs, I have realized that human nature, is not all that different. Culture & Customs might differ, but there is a common backbone which we all world citizens are built on. There is a common code of ethics we all live by and break, in our own way. All the kinds of characters I saw in India, The Upright, The Staunch Conservatives, The "dont care" Hippies, The Corrupt, The God fearing, The God less, The Tolerant, The Cruelly Racist - every single character I saw in Indian society had a relevant match in the American society.

      People having problems is common in both societies. The kind of problems differ. First world problems like Gay rights, Abortion, & ban on circumcision are not high on the mind of a poor guy in India desperate in search of means for his family's next meal. Corruption is opaque to the American public. Their day to day activities are not affected by corruption, so they don't care for or acknowledge it. In India, the absence of a suit clad classy middle man, makes the citizen experience brutal and downright inhuman. Of course, the population just magnifies every problem to a huge extent. Here in US the corruption is more systematic and well masked by excellent customer service.

       Under the table bribes in India, turn into "High Character & Noble" Charitable donations to Politicians' wives here. What, the shabby peon outside the registrar office greedily asks, while scratching his balls, is paid to a supermodel looking "Realtor" with a swanky office in US. A lot of folks don't even give such a thing a second thought. The head start US got after the World War (as usual, not fought in the Americas) let them setup a system so robust that all & everything corrupt could prevail without affecting the common man. Bush & Dick Cheney, who own major stakes in oil drilling companies, leading the whole country into war with a nation rich in oil, doesn't concern a US citizen as much as a DMV employee asking him a bribe for giving a driving license would !! 

        Racism in modern American Society, is just like caste system in India. Its not politically correct to talk about or discriminate against other races or lower castes in public domain. But the underlying Xenophobia, bigotry and to an extent Hatred can never be wiped out from some minds. Same case as with caste system in India. People in Urban settings like NY or Mumbai or Hyd, are more tolerant  to people of different race or caste than if you go to a undeveloped rural setting like Alabama, Bihar or MP, where all bets are off. Reservation system in India is called 'Equal employment opportunity act'..

       As in any society, the "Ignorance is Bliss" Middle class is the happiest one. They all are busy worrying about the next pool side BBQ or the upcoming festival and are rightfully happy doing so, while all the big wigs are busy getting inside information on the next super highway and are busy hoarding properties around it. What makes a person happy - A nice family meal, Your favorite team winning, Guys hanging out drinking, Girls shopping, Small successes of Kids  ... these all seem so common across the cultures. So are the annoyances like my boss complaining to me about her mother in law ... just the way my mom used to about my granny. :)

All in all it has been a great experience for the last 10 years, trying to understand a country so far but people so similar to us than I could imagine. That is MY AMERICANA !!

The Great Indian Bi -Polar Disorder

                           Ask any Indian and he would say Culture, History and Tradition are what he/she  is most proud of about his country.The sudden interest of Media regarding Rape and Women's rights in India has prompted me to think on what would cause such a thing as rape n murder so brutal ? Out of all why does this happen in the self proclaimed "CULTURED" country ?  When trying to find a reason, do understand, I don't condone what happened. I am the one who believes the culprits must have been hung by their balls right away. I know a civilized society needs them to have defense lawyers and a publicized court trial using tax payers money, But my feelings are just too raw about such a thing. I also am not finding a reason for rape , which is as obvious as as the fact that some men are dick heads and their libido wins over their humanity.

                           Getting back to the reason on why such a thing would happen on a consistent basis in a country like India, I keep going back to the rapid pace at which our economy has been growing and the impact or toll it has had over our society. This rapid pace has brought on such a vast divide among the haves and have-not's, that as a society India is starting to feel the impact. This impact is also specific to Indian society, because Rapid economic development has also brought on rapid westernization. The lower middle class and poor always have been the last to adapt to this and remained a bit more conservative than their counterparts of society. This is irrelevant to a society like Brazil, which has seen about the same pace of development,  as the entire culture is a bit more Sexually libertarian. China, which more or less mirrors our society, has dealt with it in its usual dictatorial methods of law n order.

                           The abyss that exists between these 2 classes in India is not only economic at this point but cultural too. Half of the country has moved forward with new ideologies and has left behind a confused and to an extent disgruntled section in the society. I am not pinning this epidemic entirely on poor, mind you. The conservative structure up on which Indian society is built is also a reason for this. The advent of 24 hr entertainment through media & Internet and the sleaziness just thrown around with Item songs and bikini clad women parading in the movies does not help. You watch a Bollywood movie where the so called hero's have to take a dump or a heroine licking a Ice cream cone ... It has to be shot  sleazily & stylishly either in London or NY.
                            Most Indian women, conservative as they are, do not put it out there like women of other western cultures do. Conflicting signals, the media content & women in real send is also a distress factor in this.  Imagine the psyche of a Bihari immigrant worker living in New Delhi, who comes from a conservative premise but has access to see first hand how the other half has moved along without him. He sees that men are allowed to have girlfriends and date and still be accepted society and he imagines what happens in all the cheesy Bollywood movies is real. Add cheap liquor or drugs to the mix, all reasoning is off and you end up with a Delhi rape scenario, where brutality knows no bounds. They have no discretion left and cannot accept rejection. Some rape and some throw acid. This has been happening all too often even in educated communities.

                           The Socio-economic change India has underwent over the last decade, first world nations had close to a 80 year head start to go through the same. No wonder this sudden jolt to what has been a resilient culture to outside influences, has had so many repercussions. This two faced generation will take at least a couple of decades to settle down and sink in the realities of what effects true and rapid globalization can have on Long standing conservative societies.

Culture (tradition) vs Religion

I was always a History/philosophy buff. After forcefully being moved towards sciences to become an engineer, I still feel nostalgic about the discussions I used to have with the best teacher I ever had (Late Mr Surendranath). Here is a brief synopsis of what I understand/learned of the origins of religion, A touchy subject indeed... but worth the thoughts n time.

Culture is a way of life. Its a set of rules, a society formulates for itself to get by. Religion originated as an enforcement of culture. It was the shield of fear created around these rules.

Religion is just a belief thrust upon us by our ancestors to keep us in fear of god and hence socially abiding. In short Religion is the best marketing ploy anyone in the human history has ever dreamt of.

Taking Hinduism as an example, As Aryan civilization flourished, our ancestors had pretty good grasp on how to lead a fruitful life. They mastered pottery, cultivation etc.. that they borrowed from the Mesopotamian culture. They were pretty savvy with health studies.(they invented Yoga and surgery for heavens sake :O). What to do next? How to have everyone buy into these wonderful life principles?

Back in those times the favorite (Only) pastime was story telling. The village would gather and the elders would tell stories of legends. Most of them obviously were made up. The elders used this as an excuse to pass on their knowledge in an entertaining way. But obviously there would be skeptics and to convince them, they took the easiest way.

Its the equivalent of what you would do to a kid, when u tell him dont go into the backyard alone, he obviously will not listen. But if u tell him a ghost will grab you, he will wet his shorts at the thought of backyard. What would you do to a adult? You make him believe in a entity called god, make him supernatural and put the fear that if you dont follow the laid down principles he will unleash his wrath on u. Everybody followed suit.

Around 1000 BC Vedas were written and within a few hundred years, at the height of creativity Ramayana and Mahabharata, arguably the greatest literary works in human history were written. To convince people to f*ck just one person, be monogamous and to obey your parents, Ram was made a god. Everything a man could feel or touch was made godly. They used Nature to its full extent as their accomplice, making up stories like how "Gas" god just by looking can impregnate godly whore 'kunti'.

In Parallel events Homer wrote 'Elliot' and other European epics, which by the way are very similar to ours. If you are familiar most of the religions have similar praying practices. 'Sandhya vandanam' of hindus, 'Namaz' of muslims, 'Tefillah' of jews ; all are very similar and preferred to done 5 times a day.

Every-time I order at subway when I take the 9 -grain honey oat, It gets me thinking, In 1000 B.C, 3010 years ago to be exact, when they wrote Vedas, Aryans realised eating 9 grains is healthier. If you are familiar with anything related to Hindu mythology, at every auspicious occasion we do a 'nava dhanya' pooja, which is nothing but a reminder to eat all 9 whole grains. To put it in context this was 1000 years before a certain asshole christened himself as 'Son of God' and 1600 years before a "Cant take your name" MOFO called himself messiah of god.

So the intent was served, people bought into the life principles while being entertained with great story telling. But our good hearted ancestors didn't anticipate the emotional aspect of their progeny causing side effects:

1) Hope - Instead of accepting gods as role models to follow, humans rested their hopes in a blind belief that god will take care of them if they just pray and eat prasad. This left hard-work and reason out of the equation.

2) Greed - People started cashing on others belief, by creating their own versions of myths, superstitions and practices. Gods like Sai baba who washed his own intestines instead of simply crapping like a stupid normal human being, became popular.

Brahmins all through the old ages, to Politicians and Imams of today have repeatedly used religion to gain advantage.

Weakness of human mind paved way so that these two emotions added with the geography factor, left too many religions and rival gods. From the days of startup civilizations practicing voodoo to dark middle ages of sati and witchcraft, to this day of molesting church priests, religion has done more harm than good. Of course it helped in sustaining some of the best laid principles that have helped humans grow as societies. But it has caused so much bloodshed that if it continues, the very human existence it was created to support, is at risk.

Here's hoping that good sense will prevail and that cultures and traditions will be taken further with no strings attached, making religion and god an obsolete nightmare of past.

Just another rant by a "Out of Touch" guy....

Just finished reading a Head line ""News"" Article on CNN where a 18 yr old student is suing her school as she was not let to bring her lesbian friend to school prom. Meanwhile down in the 'world section' (not so imp news) there was news of bombs ripping thru Baghdad, Kabul (surprised??) and 2 major after-shakes in Chile.....

Americans need some frickin moral awakening. Period. Freedom of speech, rights have nothing to do with what I am talking about. How in the hell a high school kid can comprehend sexual orientation?? I am not a homophobe... i could give a rats ass for like sexes humping (or do wat ever they do to each) other... but dont make kids believe that its fashionable to "think " they are gay. Outrageous of all is that they wanna get married.... why?? they would feel better only if they file joint taxes?? Next thing they might wanna adopt kids... and there will be a big debate whether its progressive enuff to let gay ppl adopt kids. If you think of the mental state of a kid who grows up in a 2 dad family and oppose it; you are labelled as "out of touch".

"Dont ask dont tell" (http://www.sldn.org/pages/about-dadt) is the policy which is getting major attention in US army than how to bring the troops back home. Just to clarify I am as liberal as anyone can get and I hate republicans who think gays are an abomination of god. Being gay is not the issue here, gay rights is the issue which I oppose. Shouldn't we be more interested in bringing Bush and Cheney to justice and trying them for war-crimes?? There are people dying in this world out of hunger, war and plain lack of education. If so called "Developed" nations engage and embroil in debates of such kind who will lead the effort to bring humanity to the forefront?? People here have way too much time on their hands where they dont have to struggle to make their ends meet. The only term i could think of is atrophy....

Common-sense of humor

Ego ~ An exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit.

Lot of cultures live by their "GUT", i.e they work hard and gauge themselves by it. We Desi's and the turka aholes live by "Pride" or "(H)onor**" . We hang on to false prestiges till death. It doesn't matter if u earn it like Mahatma Gandhi or assume it like Lalu Yadav, every one from a coolie to rajah have it. This is what messes with our funny fuse and takes away our ability to laugh at ourselves.

99% of the problems in this world will be solved if everyone just takes a break and see the laughs stored in it. Would you think a Muslim terrorist would do a ridiculous thing as blowing up himself for promised ""Virgins"" if he gives a serious thought about it???

Us desi's especially have the habit of taking everything so personally that we sugar coat it as social responsibility not to criticize or make fun of people. To be able to constructively criticize or make fun of someone to get a point across should be considered "Freedom of speech". The thin line between social responsibility and curbing the freedom of speech is frequently blurred in India.

Shekhar Suman used to host "movers & shakers" in which he butchered lalu on many things. All of a sudden the show disappeared at its peak. Also regd YSR, everyone knows he would sell his wife for making more money and that "MOFO" became a hero just for dying. While I was laughing my ass off for the way he died..no one in the press or public had the guts to say he deserved it for robbing the state, for fear of attacks. Everyone was singing his praises....

How can we call ourselves a progressive society when we dont open our minds enough for criticism or even fun? The only difference I see between Iran's autocratic regime and our politicians is that we can demonstrate and throw stones in public. But the "fear of saying the right thing" that is fabricated into the society is nonetheless the same.

**Englsh is pathetic. I will never understand why honey is honey and honor is ONOR.

Back to blogging...

After a long while (almost 3 years) am back to blogging... all my previous blogs were on http://blogs.rediff.com/scorpian/ .... lots to write bout now... just gathering my thoughts ;)