To whichever country you go, have the fruits of that country

In Odia, there is a popular saying "je deshe jaai, se phala khaai" - which means, to which ever country you go, eat the fruits of that country. One way it is logical, that you don't have to import/export a lot of things required for your daily living, is not it ? :)

Now that I am based in the USA for sometime, it makes all the sense to try eating the fruits here - and yes, for somebody like me who grew up in a far away place from the north India regions where fruits are in abundance, oh boy, happy I am to see all the different types of juicy and fresh fruits here! I believe, if I don't eat lot of fruits in USA, it is kind of an insult to being here!

Keeping the literal meaning aside, if you think about the proverb, it actually means that just gel with the local culture. USA is one of the best places on earth to gel - it welcomes all kinds of people, from all over the world, and being the richest country, it attracts so many foreigners for work. In India, I never saw so many non-indians, like the way I am seeing non-americans in america. It is definitely a much much more favourite destination to stay, and not just to visit.

However, to me, it looks like people from different cultures and ethnicity tend to form their own close groups as social circle. It might be kind of an identity crisis, an urge to hold on to your own culture as much as possible - just to have that "I am still close to home" feeling. For example, indians who would have ignored some festivals while living in India, tend to being particular about celebrating those when in USA. I wonder why that urge ... I mean, holding on to one's own culture is fine, but doing that out of a 'otherwise I am lost' feeling is not exactly healthy I guess. Over time, you are a bunch of 'desis' who just move around with desis, and even if they stay here for like 20/30 years, their complete friend circle is only desis ...

Hmmm ... may be that is a good thing to do in the long run, at least you are not exactly lost, but hold on, is it true? You are lost in India also when you go back after 30 years, and you are lost here as you never attempt to gel into the society...

It is just my observation until now, but may be this is the reason why the next generation grow up into becoming ABCDs - I wonder what happens in the second generation!

Anyway, I am also trying to have the fruits of this country, and stay close to the desi culture as well :)

Government versus voters

Amusing.

That is what I would call the recent parliament election results.

Irony is that, some news channels and analyst forums are trying to show it as 'vote for good governance'.

Good governance for last 5 years?

Has the naxalite movements being channelised to better directions?

Have we been able to stop the violent activities of the nothing-else-to-do maoists?

Did we do the right thing and the best thing after the Mumbai attacks?

Have we contributed much to the development of J&K (remember the politicising of amarnath land)?

I have nothing against the ruling UPA personally, but the way the results are being projected as 'win for good governance', I am against it.

It is as usual, vote for varied reasons, there was no single/multiple unified agenda for the parliament elections. Some regional feelings, some political dynasty emotions, some got-to-vote-for-someone and so on ...

And some analysts are calling this election as 'death of communal forces'.
What??? With 150+ MPs of NDA, and given that it is termed as the 'communal forces' by the media, would you call it as death?

... the varied reasons also include communal feelings, regional petty politics (remember the anti-northindia movement in MH?) and the Gandhi factor in UP.

Nevertheless, I have a feeling that if our PM can be more adventurous, and decide to give the home ministry to Rahul Gandhi, it will be very eventful and hopefully there will be some positive steps towards a better india. I am assuming that Rahul has no personal agenda because he is already being given everything in a platter, he should use this opportunity to actually make a difference. And with youth on his side, and some innovative thinking, he can take the governance to another level.

Have you seen this , that lists out some young MPs with famous fathers/grandfathers in politics? I would not mind them as long as they don't have a personal agenda. One way, given that they are already so privileged, they can do lot better than others who are still building their money empires from politics in their first generation.

:) Some positive thought that is!

thanks

Thanks to the ones who took the poll and I am encouraged to continue writing some other pieces of the story, will go on posting as and when they are ready.....

The post 'Rebels and results' is an excerpt from a set of stories I am planning to write based on my college life experiences. I just wanted to run it through you guys to check whether I am completely off, or at least somewhere near 'readability'...

Rebels and results

From the dark corners of the hostel corridor, Ramesh came running, panting, yelping for Hari. Opening Hari's room door with one hand, still breathing very heavily, chest thrusting up and down, sweat falling down his forehead - he cried "We have done it man! we have done it! Let us pack for home ... glee ... glee ... can't wait to attend my sister's wedding ceremony!"

Hari, as calm as ever, so very acquired characteristic of a small town boy - gave a sigh. Left his books on his bed, slowly got up and glanced at Ramesh. "So man, credit goes to you!"

And again, so very true of those small town boys, thought in his mind - 'Rascal, he has to attend a wedding, for that, the whole class has to suffer with a rescheduling of the exams! What happens to my hard work of 10 days preparatory holidays? Does somebody, the so called friends, care about it? All selfish guys, so full of themselves! What do I go and tell my mom, exams are postponed, yet again? How many times will she have to pay for my trip to village? Will Ramesh's dad pay for it? For how many of our batch mates ? Hoon... "

Aah, and there he goes again, with the outward politeness. 'Ramesh, how did you do it, it seemed so unachievable with the new discouraging principal at the helm?'

'Don't you know a thing? Come on man, don't study so much that you lose all clues about what is happening around this place. It is a long story - can't say it now.' Ramesh said, and started running ahead to other nearby rooms of his classmates to break the news.

'Go back to your bed and continue studying, you will get 5 more percentage of marks this semester with the extra time .. haaa haaaa ....' . Ramesh's voice was heard from a distance, slowly fading, from the other corner of the long hostel corridor.

Hari sighed again, even more deeply this time. Continued looking towards Ramesh's path and wondering what to do now. Neither can he concentrate on studying now, nor can he close the books and take part in the supposed-to-be-happening party in the hostel this evening. It is against his principles, he does not want to encourage anti-exams campaigns or take part in the victory celebrations. But does he have a choice? He closed his room doors and locked it from inside. Sat down noisily on the bed, forced his thought to concentrate on the chapter he had open in front of his eyes.

At the other end of the hostel, a group was slowly gathering in front of Vish's room. There was excitement everywhere, loud shouts, door bangs, running footsteps all around. Ramesh was thinking hard on what should be done to make this evening as memorable as possible. .....

Cleansing the parliament/vidhansabhas in India

Saying that our political system is a mess - is a big under-statement.

There are 1000 parties in India listed under the election commission for elections this year -> see this . What a huge list of choices with only few worthwhile candidates?

Now one more startling fact is 120 MPs have criminal record in the current parliament -> See this one .

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says that good politicians do exist, provided people are aware and can take a good decision. I think it is an impractical solution, at least in 2009 - asking for majority voters to be aware and to choose right/wise-ly.

What I wonder is, why can't we pass a bill saying that nobody can contest for MP/MLA posts if they have a criminal record? As in,
- pending case where s/he is not cleared yet.
- if there are any proven criminal record in any lower level court even though applied/pending in a higher court.


Now now, if you think about it, it also seems impractical :) no political party will like to support such a bill in parliament (check out the list of political parties fielding candidates with criminal records to support what I am trying to say here).

But then, can the election commission bureaucrats make a rule like that?

The political drama

When Orissa was going through all the turmoil in Phulbani after Sri Lakshamananand Saraswati's murder, BJP was probably seeing the golden opportunity to spread its wings in the state. So called communal feelings were at a high and the Hindu population was on a boil.

No wonder, that the BJD and BJP have parted ways in Orissa. The political drama that unfolded this week was expected. BJP would have asked for more seats and BJD can't be expected to agree after such good response in local elections.

Navin Patnaik has some guts, I must say, whether misplaced or not only time will tell. But he did the right thing for his party in Orissa by parting ways with BJP. He has been called the 'Betrayer' by some and 'a masterstroke player' by some. He is both, but he can play intelligent political games. There is no benefit to BJD from the partnership at this time, so why not break it! Nobody expects moral commitment from political leaders, not in India! BJP should have been more accommodating as it is the one who would have benefited from the partnership, they could have waited for a better opportunity to demand much more....

I get this feeling that BJP has lost its charm, Congress has the momentum and the so called 'third front' is definitely not going to get majority to form a government at the centre. So, looks like we will again have a hung parliament with Congress forming 'yet another' alliance to form a government... whatsoever, it is sad to see no single party being able to convince the population about its credibility.

In my opinion, all regional parties should be asked to contest at least from 5 or 10 states, to qualify for the parliament seat elections. That will discourage the regional sentiments and more and more political parties will be forced to look at the benefit of the country and not just for their own state or constituency. It is ridiculous to see regional agendas taking higher priority for the parliament elections.

May the citizens rise to the occasion and vote for people who have the right election agendas and not for the ones who go on distributing 100 rupee notes ...

Change in co-ordinates

Changed co-ordinates from 18°37'50"N 73°47'20"E to 40°34'59"N 74°15'52"W.

What I have immediately started missing is, as Dipti once said, the live telecast of cricket matches. I would have loved to watch - no rewards for guessing :) - the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand.

Weather is cold in this part of the world, air is dry, roads are excellent and humans are rare to find :)

Anyway, after listening to 'highest number of jobless people in USA this month' news for almost two days, I am a bit cheerful about the other bit of news 'About 2 million jobs exist even in this market'.

One can always choose to see the glass half full, and feel good even while contributing to one bit of the empty air in the other half :)