India Trip
Finally,I have found some time from the flurry of activity around me to reflect and write about my trip to home and back.I should first thank my circle of friends and colleagues who gave me a very warm and a wonderful send-off. In my head full of drama, I almost felt a script of no return being written as the farewell was so good.Despite such acute and mordant thoughts I did return back to the US. Throughout my life, I have undergone a lot of change by moving from one place to the other. My dad who was on the constant move with his job, kept having us dislodge from friends until the age of 12. My father was a pioneering technocrat in the chemical industry, which was the sunshine industry in the sixties. His work took him across the vastness of India and we often changed school and school friends. The concept of a "neighbourhood" or "my neighbourhood" was unknown to me. So, progressive times in my life, I made friends, anchored roots, participated in the community and active civic entiry and then by circumstance moved to another location.So, In the world of stereotyped Indian family of one big full house of a happy family and relatives buzzing and kids scampering ,my world was different.The earliest recollection of my childhood buddies were of my pre-primary days, celebrating my birthday in the port town of Haldia, WB, in eastern India with friends where my dad bought a cake from the legendary flurries cake shop in Kolkatta. We spent only 2 years in Bengal after which my father returned back to Maharashtra where he originally started his career.
This time around the 8 years I have spent in Wisconsin, would seem very difficult to just switch off considering the bridge I built between people who would at first seem very different than I was when I first arrived 8 years back to the United States. My cultural bridge was a difficult one and I was never the first candidate for "best Adjustment of the year". My brother scored much better than me and considering he speaks more languages than me, is more of the darwinian fitter species to survive new environments. I have been gifted with great friends throughout my life and have lost contact with them time and again. The vicious circle may continue once again of having to leave my friends and my social circle to move to a newer world and a new place.Those choices are hardly in our hands, as we live now not inside borders but far away from them and our existence and self-respect is above our control and assumption. On the basis of a simple negative or positive that your fill in your immigration paper could impact our lives and change it dramatically .No human being can easily make a choice to control this consequence and its beyond the realism of individuals.I am after all a foreigner.
Well, so later in the winter this year, I took a long arduous 14 hr journey from Atlanta to Mumbai, my home ,(my oxygen cannister for life itself) to visit family.
For the past two weeks, I have been meeting friends, acquaintances with whom I had lost touch for period of over 5 years.Since, I live on mainland..or a satellite suburb of Mumbai..eg.,NJ turnpike......a commute to the city takes about 2 hrs.....all road bottlenecks which I had seen growing up for years haven't gone away. The island Mumbai....has just grown bigger..vertically...I will take some snapshots and send it one of the days...but the smog and dust prevents taking any proper photos of the skyline.
I never thought the word slumdog could become so fashionable as it did today...India lives in its many Indias inside...and the affluent India is celebrating with pride about Slumdog's success..those lucky 3 slumkids were flown to Los Angeles..and Mumbai's biggest daily the Time of India supplements featured these kids on the cover page wearing suits..I passed Dharavi (the main slums where the movie was shot)...more than a couple of times...and still many have not made it to the altar like those lucky three...Oscars have made the 3 slumkids a page 3 celebrity ...and it is worth considering a thought as India is set to be home to the largest no of kids of that generation in the next 20 years.
I also went to a beachside bar..overlooking the arabian see...Aurus...and I saw models, actresses wearing heavy leather boots and skin tight sheepskin jackets and profusely sweating...on its outdoor patio...I will post pics..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7910843.stm
This time around the 8 years I have spent in Wisconsin, would seem very difficult to just switch off considering the bridge I built between people who would at first seem very different than I was when I first arrived 8 years back to the United States. My cultural bridge was a difficult one and I was never the first candidate for "best Adjustment of the year". My brother scored much better than me and considering he speaks more languages than me, is more of the darwinian fitter species to survive new environments. I have been gifted with great friends throughout my life and have lost contact with them time and again. The vicious circle may continue once again of having to leave my friends and my social circle to move to a newer world and a new place.Those choices are hardly in our hands, as we live now not inside borders but far away from them and our existence and self-respect is above our control and assumption. On the basis of a simple negative or positive that your fill in your immigration paper could impact our lives and change it dramatically .No human being can easily make a choice to control this consequence and its beyond the realism of individuals.I am after all a foreigner.
Well, so later in the winter this year, I took a long arduous 14 hr journey from Atlanta to Mumbai, my home ,(my oxygen cannister for life itself) to visit family.
For the past two weeks, I have been meeting friends, acquaintances with whom I had lost touch for period of over 5 years.Since, I live on mainland..or a satellite suburb of Mumbai..eg.,NJ turnpike......a commute to the city takes about 2 hrs.....all road bottlenecks which I had seen growing up for years haven't gone away. The island Mumbai....has just grown bigger..vertically...I will take some snapshots and send it one of the days...but the smog and dust prevents taking any proper photos of the skyline.
I never thought the word slumdog could become so fashionable as it did today...India lives in its many Indias inside...and the affluent India is celebrating with pride about Slumdog's success..those lucky 3 slumkids were flown to Los Angeles..and Mumbai's biggest daily the Time of India supplements featured these kids on the cover page wearing suits..I passed Dharavi (the main slums where the movie was shot)...more than a couple of times...and still many have not made it to the altar like those lucky three...Oscars have made the 3 slumkids a page 3 celebrity ...and it is worth considering a thought as India is set to be home to the largest no of kids of that generation in the next 20 years.
I also went to a beachside bar..overlooking the arabian see...Aurus...and I saw models, actresses wearing heavy leather boots and skin tight sheepskin jackets and profusely sweating...on its outdoor patio...I will post pics..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7910843.stm
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