Prologue

India vacation was a much awaited vacation. In the past I had visited home (home has become a rather overloaded term. Here I mean where I grew up) every 6 months or every year if not more often. This time it had been 1.5 years since my wedding & the last visit home and so the yearning to visit folks had grown. Phone calls saying that this was too long a gap and I was too far … and the usual stuff that nri daughters hear their parents say were coming in. Ofcourse the timing was intentional, I wanted to go to Cochin in the winter and the only choices we had with Roshan’s vacations were between summer & winter break.

The Vacation

My port of entry in India was Mumbai and the airport looked better & bigger than I remembered. My first reaction everywhere I went was why there were so many people. And why the rush. People never respected lines and queues, whether it was to pay a bill or get into a shuttle or board a plane. Not like the plane would take off without somebody or the next shuttle won’t show if this one got full. This wasn’t anything new, I see it everytime I go and I get annoyed each time. I started sampling food at airport and was extremely pleased. Next few days in Cochin I was thoroughly pampered with lots of delicious food.

Cochin has the same roads but many many more cars and so the traffic is painful. I wasn’t driving but even being driven around was stressful. After a day or 2 I got used to the honking; towards the end of my trip if I didn’t hear enough honking I’d wonder if I was still on the main road. Cochin had 1 mall the last time I visited and this time when I visited, the city was suddenly springing with malls. Apparently, India’s (or was it Asia’s?) largest mall ‘Lulu’ is coming up close to where we live in Edapally. It was still in the works when I was there. I visited Oberon mall which is relatively a new mall in Edapally, it was impressive considering its predecessors - Bay Pride, Penta menaka and GCDA. Despite 3 or 4 floors of basement parking, in the evenings parking lot is full and vehicles park outside the mall on the road many times blocking the traffic. Talk about lack of entertainment options… its like the whole city is in the mall. All this when Oberon doesn’t have a multiplex, my brain explodes when I try to imagine the crowd when it has its multiplex up & running. In the past, the only entertainment I could think of in Cochin was to watch movies.

I was impressed with the changes the city has had. I saw restaurants (in Bangalore & Chennai too) that had menu items with diet icons indicating that they were healthy options (still no calorie count – I am happy about that), restaurants that had child seats and malls with a dedicated play area. Oh and also a decorated xmas tree with fake snow. Where was all this when I was growing up!?!

While many of the hoardings there still are of gold jewellery, I saw a lot of new ads mostly related to cell phone providers or homes for sale. GCDA shops make me wonder what they did before cell phones came around. Talking about cellphones, I was quite happy with cell phone plans in India – the ease and low cost are a huge plus. With high GPRS costs, a lot of the folk don’t have data plans. SMS is pretty big, 15 min after Roshan got a new SIM he started getting spam sms-es. My siblings and even my dad text a lot more than I do.

India is a lot more expensive than it used to be a few years ago. Prices of food, clothing, and groceries are 4 times the cost they were. I was quite appalled at the costs. There were several instances when I thought US was cheaper.

After 4 or 5 days in Cochin, Roshan and I headed to Bangalore for a few days. Bangalore looked completely different from what I remembered, the last time I was there was in 2004. I couldn’t recognize MG Road at all. All the outskirts were now a part of the city and were apparently more “happening” than the “happening” parts in the past. There were new flyovers and some cool looking public transport buses that were air conditioned. Metro rail construction was in the works. More coffee shops and more restaurants and more chain stores had opened up. All super pricey which makes me believe that people’s earnings in India have also multiplied many fold in the last few years. Going from Cochin, the driving sense felt a lot better. I had some really good food in Bangalore … oh Bengaluru.

From Bangalore we left for Chennai for 2 days. Chennai city looked extremely good – very clean, wide roads, huge flyovers etc. Marina beach looked much much cleaner and well maintained than it did a few years back. We had some amazing food in Chennai. We heard about a hole in the wall authentic Sushi place in Chennai and decided to check that out. It was pretty good, while we were there we didn’t see any other Indians. The weather in Chennai & Bangalore was just perfect. Only if we had that all year round in Seattle

We got back to Cochin in time for a friend’s wedding. I have been to only 2 or 3 weddings in Kerala and 3 or 4 weddings outside Kerala. For a person my age that is an extremely low count of wedding attendance. I probably just don’t remember how it used to be, but I was a little shocked to see people rushing to get food even at the wedding. Of course they wouldn’t run out of food, it’s an Indian wedding after all . My sister said that it was pretty normal as everybody wanted to leave soon once the wedding was done.

Next day, I visited Thodupuzha and Karimanoor with Roshan and his family. Apparently after you get married the newlyweds need to meet everybody in the family. Besides my parents, my relatives are mostly in Rajasthan and northern parts of India, I am guessing we’ll visit some of them during our next trip to India. This trip we tried to cover Roshan’s side of the family. The drive through the country side is beautiful. Away from the traffic, noises and crowds I could see why I loved Kerala growing up. The lush greenery, lakes and mountains even after all these years continue to mesmerize me. Each visit during this trip left my stomach fuller and fuller. I have not eaten so much meat in such a short span of time before. (Remember I grew up in a vegetarian family). I can’t complain, everything tasted so good

We got back to Cochin and 2 days later left for Wayanad. This was a family trip. We visited Bandipur National Park in Karnataka and Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Wayanad. Both are good forests, we just had the wrong expectation that we would see some wild animals on the safari tour. We saw monkeys, deer, peacocks and chickens. Elephants too but they were chained close to the entrance and hence not exactly in the wild. Wayanad may be a good place for non-Keralites to visit but for somebody who’s grown up there, I was quite underwhelmed. Pookot lake, Sulthan Bathery Jain Temple, Sita devi Tears lake, Luv Kush temple etc were nothing out of the ordinary. The walk to Edakkal Caves and Soochipara waterfalls was fun. The caves themselves were quite good too. We ended our trip at the falls where students kept coming in batches and leaving. It looked like a popular excursion spot.

We got back to Cochin in time to celebrate New Year’s eve with friends and family. We spent the next few days eating and shopping. And before I knew the trip was over. All the plans of sitting down with my folks and having long conversations and playing the silly indoor games etc didn’t materialize. Oh well. Next time eh?

Epilogue

(Like a wise friend said) "The thing about getting married is that the no. of people you meet double, the no. of ceremionies and functions you need to attend double up but your time stays the same". I hadn't factored this in in my planning. So, I didn't end up visiting or calling people I normally would. On the brighter side I did travel within India, I did go back to Mullapanthal for the spicy food (and this time I had 2 glasses of the repulsive toddy), I did try a lot of food and many new restaurants and I travelled by air, train, bus, auto, scooter and car within India. Yay!

The last one year passed by so quick, then again so much happened in the last year. I lived in US, India, Canada and back in US. I had series of events celebrating my wedding. I ate so much food when in India that on one occasion I threw up. I lived by myself in Vancouver and have started doing the same in Seattle. Having always lived with room mates (well, never shared a room, but shared the apartment) in the past (or siblings before that), this has been an awesome experience. Having a whole house to myself – tons of storage, exclusive access to living room & dining room space, using the bathroom as & when I want to, calling friends over as I deem fit, playing loud music late into the night and err paying all utilities (no this isn’t fun) … I am loving the change. For as long as it lasts J. I had my first experience shipping a product. Had some crazy work hours when in ship mode – all worth it at the end of course.  I observed my first fasting ceremony (karwa chauth) this year  – Unlike the glorified image that I had thanks to the hindi movies, it is quite difficult. And Roshan obviously has not seen Shahrukh Khan observing. By late evening, I was raging with hunger.

I have rented an apartment in Seattle downtown. Since I didn’t want to be in a tiny studio and wanted to be in downtown and not have room mates, I have decided to make it worth the money (rent, parking, …) by making sure I have fun, I *live* in the *city*. Unlike just surviving in the boring eastside (Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland) (sorry east siders – I was you one time). I have decided to live in the less boring Seattle. So one of my resolutions is to walk & explore downtown. I am located opposite to the sculpture park and very close to the water front. Another resolution is to dine & wine at many of the cafes, restaurants, bakeries & pubs in Seattle. I have a growing list that I want to cover in the next 1 year. Lots of eating to do! I so miss Vancouver downtown!

I am ashamed of not keeping all my resolutions from last year (especially the gym one); I am going to shamelessly carry that one over. Though in my defense, the wedding & all the travel is a good excuse.

I am considering getting a XBOX for myself this year. Though I didn’t enjoy HALO, the last time I tried it for 30 minutes. Big learning curve there, esp for the impatient.

When in Vancouver, I had enrolled for Shaimak Davar’s Indi-pop (read as Bollywood) dance lessons and wasn’t too impressed by it. I am hoping to find something better in Seattle.

Here’s wishing everybody a Happy New Year!

I visited Victoria last weekend, it is a small quaint town and the capital of British Columbia state. It has a nice English town feel to it. I visited the museum which had a section dedicated to the rich cultural heritage of the state. One of the exhibits was a couple, mannequins in Indian/Punjabi clothes. Another was a grocery store setup with various items that included naan, ghee, basmati rice, etc. The museum is pretty elaborate entailing lot of detail to procure the right ambience. I could only spend only 2 hours, if you happen to go, plan to spend a few hours just there.

I think that completes list of places to go to near Vancouver in the state.

... is good!

I had the best idlys, dosas and mini-south-indian-thalis after leaving India in Vancouver. There is a Saravana Bhavan here!! Yeah! Not the best service; but hey, the food is great. I hope they start one in Seattle. The Indian food here tastes considerably better than the Indian food in Seattle area.

In fact, you feel a lot closer to India in Vancouver. Surrey which is close to Vancouver is supposed to be like a mini-India with a huge Indian population. I haven't been there yet, even then you see or hear random things in Vancouver that make you feel like you are not far from India. I guess England may me part of the reason for the sense of commonality in the two countries. The other day I was flipping channels when I stumbled upon a punjab channel, apparently this is included in the standard cable package. I guess that speaks for the Indian population here. Its awesome seeing *curries*, tandoori chicken, samosas etc in any food court.

And the Indian dvd stores sell/rent pirated dvds. I have been trying hard to find a Indian dvd store that will rent good quality dvds; no success yet.

Oh and they have hindi movies playing in more than 1 theatre

I figured why the Indian brides appear shy with their heads bowed down on their wedding day. I did too on my wedding day. Given that this wasn't an arranged marriage and that the groom wouldn't escape if he found out that I was not a traditional shy Indian bride, I had no reason to feel compelled to be *shy*. So no pressure of any sort. However, there I was ... looking & behaving like any bride I had seen. As a kid when I saw weddings I often wondered if the bride wasn't curious to lift her head up & look around, especially at the groom, after all in a typical arranged marriage you would expect high levels of anxiety. Even a kid knows that!

Nobody told me, and may be I am disturbing some layer of something somewhere in the whole Indian matrimony experience thing...by saying some of this, but here it goes. So, in my case I had to start getting dressed at 7.00 am for a 9.00 o'clock scheduled wedding that started after 10.00 am or so. Wait, I didn't have a watch on me, but that is what it felt like. I had some professionals help me with my costume, headgear etc  stuff. The first thing they told me was to visit the restroom as I would not be able to do that the rest of the day. Yeah surprise No. 1. Then the ordeal began. My hair is barely shoulder length and so they started attaching really long fake hair. This was my chance to see how I would look had I been a 18th century classical dancer. I don't know much about classical dance, and if you could tell that, it was no genius. They drilled a whole packet of hair pins & more, used thread to tie things together and pulled things left right & center to make sure things didn't fall off. A Maang Tika was also clamped on to me. The fake hair was probably as heavy as me, and I found it difficult to move my head up. It reached below my bottom, they plaited it and tied it with a parinda making the whole thing even longer. They then attached strings of fresh flowers to my hair to add to the weight and size of things. And thus I grew heavier. Oh and the chunni had to cover a part of my head , so they clipped that to my crown. And so the whole long hair thing was covered behind the chunni. Was there a point then, I thought. Then the whole series of ghagra, jewellery, bindis, safety pins etc followed one after the other and sometimes in parallel. A pull there and a push somewhere continued while I was hoping that I would emerge out of it all as a brave bride. I also had to wear a nose ring hoop with a little chain that was pinned to the side of my hair. The hair-do sort of took care of restricting the up movement, the nose ring would help in restraining the left right movement. That is a shy bride in the making. I had never worn a nose ring before, so it was awkward feeling some kind of metal inside my nostrils. I even wondered for a moment what would happen if I sneezed. Then the "being a brave bride" drive hit me and I was distracted by the photographer.

So, I looked down as I walked down the aisle balancing the weight on my head wondering why women had to work so hard on their wedding day when I lifted my head up to see the groom on stage wearing a turban and a feather standing up, a heavy sherwani, a shawl, a sword and the joothiya (uncomfortable shoes). Oh I forgot to mention it was hot on stage with the fire on and fans turned away. I walked up smiling.

"This is going to be so much fun" were my thoughts as I plunged into the whole marriage experience.

My flight from US to India was pleasant & timely. Phew, finally a change

I am loving these few days here, I cannot fathom how I will go back to the old life. Its the food that makes all the difference. This is how life is to be lived. Sleep & food, lots of it 

I am flying to India next week and am having to do a million things before the trip. Since I will fly to Canada from India I need to pack carefully. Things to take to India and then to Canada and everything else to be packed up and left somewhere. I am having to vacate my apartment which is the biggest pain of all things. I will worry about finding a place to stay when I come back to US in Oct.

For now, the one thing that keeps me excited is the thought of getting good food. I miss home food and Kerala food. Yummm.

Just 1 week

I just learnt about the concept of a wedding registry. I had heard about wish lists and seen lists of gifts that kids wanted for Christmas etc in US. Recently, I heard about a wedding registry where the couple to be married put up a list of presents they want (usually pointing to the model/color/size of products in specific stores). People pick a gift from the list and cross off that item.

Sounds terribly non-Indian, doesn’t it. That is what I thought. Ofcourse from a practical point of view, it is nice that you don’t end up getting 4 copies of Star Trek!

One of those cultural things... First you shake your head then you move along

I thought I had a clear notion of what curry meant before I left India. Now I am not sure. However, I do know that curry wrt thai, malysian, Indonesian & chinese food is different from curry wrt Indian food. I often wondered what curry powder that Indian stores sell is. I thought it was powdered curry leaves, until I picked one packet. The powder was yellowish orange in color and the leaves are green in color. Also the powder didn’t smell anything like curry leaves. It didn’t smell like any masala (spice) I had known. Then I thought curry powder was probably people’s notion of spices that go in an Indian dish [so does that mean dish == curry?]… so would that be like garam masala? Though ofcourse not all Indian dishes have garam masala. It is all very confusing.

While we are at it, I also want to point out that nan, roti, chicken curry & paneer are only a subset of Indian food. Back in India, every state has its own cuisine, dessert etc where some things overlap with some neighboring states and others are completely distinct. Kerala food for example is mainly rice based, a lot of dishes are cooked in coconut oil, curry leaves & coconut are ingredients in most dishes. I am yet to find a restaurant in Seattle area that serves Kerala style food. The closest we get to Kerala food is idlis, dosas & vadas. Which probably is more Tamilian than malayali. (I Think)

The last time I had Kerala food with my non-Indian friends, they were amazed & said they had never seen & eaten any “Indian food” like it. Many of my Indian friends back in Kerala were surprised with they were served “dal-baati-choorma” or even carrot halwa. Not to mention mom’s hurt feelings when one of them asked if the halwa was chutney (chammanthi).

And on that note, I need to get back to cooking my chicken err … curry.

The past few months have added more hindi movies to my experience as compared to the number and variety of hindi films I have seen in the past few years put together. I thought it was a good idea to write the names down, more for my reference given my bad memory with names. [Be it of books, movies or people J] And it might even help somebody with an interest to pick (what I think to be better) hindi movies. And if you are one of those who consider the previous sentence to be paradoxical, then go away. What follows is of no interest to you.

1.  Utsav – An interesting movie with two gorgeous looking women playing the lead, one as the wife & other as ‘the other woman’ as you would say in hindi. It is amusing to see Amjad Khan playing Vatsyayan, the author of Kama sutra peeping around to catch inspiration to sketch & write. Loved two songs Sanj savere & aadhi raat ko in the movie.

2.  Khosla ka ghosla – A satire on the situation with buying property in India today. Anupam Kher plays a middle class man retired from work. The story is his journey accompanied by friends & family in claiming his land as his. Quite funny with a reasonable star cast.  Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Navin Nischol & Ranvir are quite good in their roles.

3.  Life in a metro – Pretty good movie except for the annoying band that is desperate to show itself throughout the movie. The background score is not bad, but seeing those guys sing on bikes and railway terminals and everywhere else is no fun. Konkana Sen & Irfan Khan are awesome. Shilpa Shetty strangely seemed to act well too. Nafisa Ali & Dharmendra are awfully cute. Kangana Ranaut befits her role quite well, she was a major disappointment in gangster but doesn’t do much talking in this movie. Kay kay is good as usual.

4.  Salaam e Ishq – This film flopped at the box office, but I quite liked it. Its towards the long side but I think it is a reasonably decent movie to watch. Ayesha has potential, Akshay despite his occasional overacting is quite hilarious, Priyanka is quite good – I think I liked her for the first time in this movie where she is actually acting, Govinda is not bad. If I had a choice I would have completely erased John Abraham & Vidya Balan’s story from the movie. Sohail Khan is a born comedian. Hats off to whoever wrote the dialogues between the newly wed couple Sohail & Isha. Anil & Juhi do justice to their roles. The two new women are quite good too. It’s a bollywood masala movie with song sequences & dances.

5.  Traffic signal – This is about life around a Bombay traffic signal and no. of people who make a living out of those red lights that bring business. It is not the usual Madhur Bhandarkar film – at least not as strong as Page 3, Corporate (which I didn’t like) or Chandni Bar, it is more to the lighter side. If a firangi (foreigner) is going to visit India for the first time, I would recommend watching this movie.

6.  Chak de India – This is definitely a director’s movie. After Ab tak chhappan , Shimit Amin’s second movie did not fail my expectations. The annoying thing about Shahrukh Khan is that the stardom he carries obscures everything & eventually gives a superman feel to all his roles. This movie however, did not do that. The movie has 16 women; (all new comers I think) constitute a hockey team. The choice of women renders a realistic view unlike the usual pick of pretty models decked in makeup (even on a field) in a commercial bollywood movie. The language, humour & attitude reflecting the regional behaviorisms are carried out well.

7.  Honeymoon Travels – This was an okay movie. I liked the idea that people are trying different things in Bollywood. The representation of minority in mainstream hindi movies is usually as helpless or as being the laughing stock. To just see them as normal people in this movie was a pleasant change. The cast include Kay kay Menon, Shabana Azmi & Boman Irani. Also worth mentioning is that this is possibly the first Indian movie with a majority of women crew including camera person, director, asst director (3 levels deep) & choreographer.

8.  Partner – I don’t like David Dhawan, I did not like Govinda in the past and I definitely did not like Salman + David Dhawan combo:  Biwi No 1 was a little too much for me to take. However, despite all that watching the trio together (after much resistance on my part) wasn’t bad. In fact it was funny. I have a new found respect for both Govinda & Salman Khan. Both their characters could not have been played better or different by anybody in Bollywood today. Katrina Kaif looks sexy like always in the movie and Lara Dutt pretty. However, any young pretty face in Bollywood could have replaced them and the movie would have been just the same.  Of course there are some classic David Dhawan moments in this movie like a little whiz kid making a rocket that can chase its target through air, water changing course & direction. My favorite part is Salman Khan talking in “Chinese” to the bus driver in Phuket.

9.  Chini kum – Short & funny with a ~60 yr old Amitabh falling in love with 35 yr old Tabu and asking her hand in marriage to ~55 yr old Paresh Rawal (Tabu’s father). Amitabh looks very cute in his pony tail. My favorite character though is the lady who plays Amitabh’s mom. She is brilliant. Not the usual bollywood movie and so no songs & dancing around London’s eye.

10.Yun Hota Tho Kya hota – This is Naseerudin Shah’s first direction and he says the reason he made this movie is because he wanted to be able to tell the cast “Action” and “cut”. Oh well. The movie was an okay movie. It started out as a light & occasionally funny movie with a couple of separate stories and ended on a much more serious note.

11. Iqbal – I had liked Nagesh Kukunoor’s Deewarein and so I picked his next movie Iqbal. The cast is brilliant – the lead played by Shreyas Talpade, his little sister, his mother & father, his coaches Naseeruddin Shah & Girish Karnad are all great in their roles. Definitely a good movie.

12. Junoon – Roshan has a blog entry dedicated to this.

Some good but disturbing movies I watched include Maya, 15 Park Avenue (too much of a drag towards the end), Salaam Bombay, Khamosh pani aka silent waters , Water & Earth.

Wishlist includes Dor, Hey Baby (Akshay Kumar’s full monty – can’t miss it), Laaga Chunari Mein Daag among others.

Update (Sep 9): I saw Hey baby and it is bad. Hopefully that will save some prospective viewers.

I am reading some books by Kushwant Singh and came across a sher that I found very funny. The situation is that when Kushwant Singh visited his birth place Lahore he met the minister on a formal dinner and “offered him an appropriate sher (verse) for his next confrontation with orthodoxy”:

Mulla, gar asar hai dua mein

To masjid hila ke dikha!

Gar naheen to do ghoont pee

Aur masjid ko hilta dekh.

There is an english translation that I didn’t find so funny but will quote here

Mulla, if your prayer has power

Let me see you shake the mosque!

If not, take a couple of pegs of liquor

And see how the mosque shakes on its own

He then goes on to talk about the difference between Indian & Pakistani college girls saying that in India one looked at a group of girls and tried to see if there were pretty faces whereas in Pakistan it was the other way round, one tried to see if there was anybody not pretty.

While my vacation in Cochin has got prolonged I am making sure I read, eat & sleep as much as I can. In short, I am having a good time.

I got back from chennai yesterday after a great time & some adventure with shopping in the busy streets of T-nagar.

Going from Cochin, Chennai was a pleasant change. The roads are much wider and traffic controlled. Also there are some signs of night life, like the number of autos and people after 9.00 pm. Shopping was great fun, loads of variety, choices, big crowds and unbelievable amount of bargaining. Oh how I easily fit into my old shoes and enjoyed bargaining! Its quite a skill and my sisters think I am good.

I did not like Chennai because of my not-so-good ~2 months experience with the place after my undergraduation, as is indicated my my previous post. I think its a little unfair, it was the first time away from home and having to do things I had never done before all on my own with limited resources was a little overwhelming. But, now I like chennai enough to say that I would consider it over Bangalore to stay in if I were to choose between the two. The weather & water is a problem, some stretches of drives bear such fragrance that one would feel completely knocked out but the congestion in Bangalore is a bigger problem IMO.

Now I am very happy to be back home, Harry Potter & the deathly hallows is on my table and I have decided to read it slowly (i.e. as slowly as possible). It is sad that there will not be any more waiting for future Harry Potters :-(

I grew up in Kerala but never went to a local toddy bar, never had sea food in a restaurant and never had any ayurveda treatments done. Once I stepped out of Kerala, the curiosity arose and I wanted to try everything Kerala is known for. I had never tasted toddy and more importantly never seen a kallu shaap ... it was this unspoken men-only place I occasionally saw in malayalam movie clips. During my last trip to India, I asked some friends for good seafood restaurants. The recommended upscale places turned out to cater too much to non-keralites especially to the foreigners. And so the taste was far removed from authentic Kerala style seafood. The other strong recommendation was toddy bars which came with a warning "ofcourse you can't go"
 
My brother in law discovered this place called mulla (jasmine) panthal (roof) in cochin, which apparently has a website & even an orkut community dedicated to it. Before going we called up and were briefed about the place by a friendly manager who said it was fine for "families" (meaning women folk) to visit and they were given separate rooms but that it essentially was a bar. And so my sister, brother in law and I set off for lunch at this place. It was a much longer drive than we expected and stopped at several places to ask for directions and everybody just pointed ahead asking us to drive ahead further. Reminded me of the "abhi dilli (delhi) door hai" episode. Finally far from the main roads, in an alley lay our destination. Yeah it was a Harold & Kumar's white castle moment.
 
The usher helped us park the car and showed us the way in. We were seated in a room and briefed about how their toddy was made. We were then served with an earthen pot full of toddy (2 litres as we discovered later) and glasses. Toddy smells repulsive and tastes even worse, to the untrained palate such as mine. Once we settled in we ordered a whole range of dishes including karimeen (pearl spot) fry, prawns, kappa (tapioca), kokku (crane or stork from description) & duck (my first time). The food was delicious, a banquet I must say. Tears flowed profusely, sweat trickeled down our bodies but there was no stopping us from munching the super spicy prawns. Once I was done with food, I was curious to see what the rest of the bar looked like. So I asked the man in the group to accompany me, my sister was too stuffed to walk. The place looked busy & big. I suspect not all local bars are this big or spacious. The food was inexpenisve compared to any other place I have been to but some local folks say that for a kallu shaap its expensive. I am positive I will go back there atleast once more during this trip.
 
That is one more thing knocked off the to-do-before-I-die list.

My plan to visit Rajasthan had to be called off due to flooding in Gujarat & Rajasthan. Trains are being delayed & re-routed, so my folks thought it best to travel at a later date. Unfortunately that means for me, the trip wont happen this year for sure. And who knows when, if at all. I was looking forward to a scenic train trip via konkan and meeting up with people in Rajasthan. Too bad :(
 
This also means that I need to think up of some alternate journey so I make good use of my short time during this trip in India. Then again, with rains pouring as hard as they are, there are hardly any choices. I am definitely upset about this trip getting cancelled as there were so many things I had planned on doing - seeing camels, desert, peacocks, mehandi, clothes, doing shopping, trying rajasthani food, meeting lots and lots of people (family largely), taking pictures & just the different air & sand that is so unique to the state. And to think that a few weeks ago I was dreading the heat ... oh well!

Two weeks ago when I came to Cochin, I was pleasantly surprised to see that folks at home separated out plastic & trash as plastic was picked only once a week and trash on a daily basis. Last week, it was announced that plastic, metal, glass, egg shells (why?), paper & coconut fibre would be collected only on Tuesdays & remaining trash everyday. While folks are initially finding it difficult to make it a habit to separate out trash and there is ambiguity as to certain wrappers being plastic or not, I am happy about this big change. Hopefully it is a step towards a better Cochin.

Last week I travelled a bit & found Calicut railway station cleaner than any railway stations I have been to in the past [which is not a small number ] . Apparently there was a 2 week cleanliness drive with banners all over the station requesting passengers to use dust bins, not to spit tobacco etc. And for once it looked like it was working. I am not sure if in the recent years there has been this kind of drive in other parts of the country. Cochin & Shornur railway stations looked the same as they always have except for some computer kiosks installed for railway information access.

Next month I am travelling to Jaipur & I hope the railway stations on the way are cleaner than they have been years ago. My memories of travel in north India date back to at least 5 years ago & are full of extremely unclean areas in and around railway stations, for that matter most public transport locations. I also realize why as a kid I never liked travelling in India. Lack of clean toilets. Now it seems like the pay & use toilets in ladies waiting rooms in stations are kept clean. Phew. Travel aches. Disgusting topic. So moving on, I have a nice, adventurous journey planned out for july that takes me through Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Udaipur and our family place. Nice because some of these places are beautiful & I saw a few as a teenager. I am sure I will see them different now & I have a digital camera now. Yay! Adventurous because it is going to be in the scorching heat around a desert.

No, the k-series haven’t stopped. And the 3-times-repeat-scene-for-emphasis has increased (yeah, as if there was scope. Nahi nahi nahi, Kya kya kya, Maa maa maa). And the bollywood song sequences which fill a good 1/3^rd of the serial time has also increased. One of the popular k-series started in my 2nd year of engineering, I remember kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi in ~2000, guess what - it’s still running. Yeah! And the hero & heroine at different points refused to continue. As if that would hinder the continuance, the hero got replaced by some random man & the heroine ... well since she was a little more important in the show, she had to either run into an accident, get a plastic surgery to look like a totally new person or die & come back. How smart & original. All the tv serials seem to be doing exactly this. That way characters are dispensable. And story *dynamic*.

I haven’t watched a whole single episode of any serial yet, but I have watched enough clips to boldly claim a few things. The serials have several generations, earlier the only way you could tell the mother from the daughter was this streak of white hair somewhere in the mass of just-groomed hair. Now, the white hair has left the scene, so when I guess the daughter & mother & check with my mom if its correct – I am wrong. Yes. For the clothes, these are women at home – always dressed like it’s a festival or party, decked with jewellery & bright colors & layers of make-up. Yeah, most of them look good alright, but far removed from the character they play (Then, again are they?). It’s very easy to spot the bad from the good, they tend to indulge in long soliloquies making weird faces at the camera which is the director’s ingenious way of showing evil intentions. In Malayalam serials, it is even simpler to make out bad girls from good, bad ones wear jeans. Ahem. No comments on that.

The scary part is not any of this, it is the fact that many many housewives (& possibly others) watch this stuff, enjoy this stuff. Creeepy! Women I spoke to, including my mother, refused to enjoy watching it & say they watch it to kill time. Right, prefer this to anything else … is exactly my point.

As to why I am watching this stuff, I enjoy mom’s food too much and spend considerable time in front of the tv in the evenings & don’t have much jurisdiction over what plays. Moreover, its fun to see folks watch & react. Even crib & continue watching. I did that some time back but strongly believe the serials were actually well thought out & good – still remember some names buniyaad, chutki, byomkesh bakshi, malgudi days, farmaan, honi unhoni …

I am back in Cochin after 1.5 years. I left Cochin in 2002 to work but would end up visiting cochin for some major holidays atleast twice a year. Even then I’d notice changes, but now after 1.5 years it interesting to see how things are changing. More places to eat, not sure more is right, I do not see some of the old places I’d go to. Now you’ll see signs of the popular brands like café coffee day, barista, nilgiris etc. Bigger malls and a better selection of clothes, but the same old stares by men & women. Yeah! For those of you from Kerala, you know exactly what I mean. Others, well, forget subtlety & glancing, this is a straight outright stare. And you look back and it has no effect on them. It’s annoying sometimes & sometimes funny.

The traffic is just amazing. The whole scenario seems so chaotic with a 2 laner being used as a 1-5 laner and I’d feel really scared in a car when a bus was next to us ignoring the squeamish little car and headed straight on its way as though we ceased to exist. And I’d be terrified when we were sandwiched between two buses. But then once I saw a guy on a bicycle in the middle of the heavy traffic riding happily and the whole traffic appeared to adjust to his meandering around. It was just great! And then I noticed this amazing pattern in what had seemed like chaotic traffic. People didn’t really yield, they raced but just when they needed to they’d move away and get through or brake just in time to avoid  a clash. You have to be really skilled to maneuver you way through, and probably ie what the biker was up to. It’s what I call aggressive (yet safe) driving & survival of the fittest. Imagine buses, auto rickshaws, cars, motor cycle, scooters, bicycles & pedestrians – all with their urgenicies, communicating with each other using the horns in different frequencies & pitches. It’s like the whole traffic is dynamically adjusting to you and you to them. My sister isn’t aggressive enough as a driver and so gets easily left behind until somebody notices that it’s a lady driving and shows his chivalry by staying behind and honking continuously so she takes off. It works. With my dad, drives are fun. Not for him perhaps, but I am not talking about the driver’s sentiments. I wouldn’t know.

So the latest addition to my Things-to-do list is drive in cochin without fear. Some day I will.

Another thing I realized is how advantageous it is sometimes to be a woman. The lines are so much smaller when buying movie tickets for example. It’s almost unfair to the guys. But I ain’t complaining. I had forgotten how it used to be, until the help I got with my luggage on the flight to Cochin. Aw, I didn’t have to ask for help, men just helped out. My backpack was so heavy I could never lift it up by myself and would usually end up asking the gentleman/lady in the vicinity to lend a hand. And I got help. But here help came before I asked. Same at the airport. Same with my mother when she’s bought groceries at the supermarket. Same with my sisters when they are driving or parking. Oh, in the last case it’s probably more like “oh it’s a lady driving, no wonder” attitude. That’s there in US as well. So it must be one of those gender things I don’t understand.

People are very friendly & generally helpful, again something I had forgotten I guess. I’d not be worried about my car getting stuck here while driving, in US on the other hand it’s a major fear. No wonder things like AAA are such a hit there and so unpopular here. I am also amused by the curiosity of people here, I absolutely love it.

The best feature though is not any of this. It’s how practical it is here to eat great food outside. You don’t have to be a vulgarly rich person to eat every meal outside (Unless you are in Bangalore downtown, which is like mini-US anyways). And not a taco-bell, burger-king, mc-donalds, pizza, burger kinda food. I just feel better having said that.

Not sure if it is lack of sleep, too much data and a small buffer, ageing, retardation, maturity or something else… But there are enough mishaps to constitue a (blog) enumeration. So here it goes

• I realized that I never gained 15 kgs. It was a wrong pound-kilogram conversion. (Somebody calculated 100 lbs as 55 kgs & I believed it, grrr)
• Today I put clothes for laundry & the detergent in the laundry basket and the laundry card over the clothes. I went to the laundry room opposite to my apartment and started loading the clothes after pouring some detergent. At the end I had to swipe my card to start the cycle and realized I hadn’t taken the card out of the basket. I didn’t see it in the basket and took the clothes out thinking it probably fell in the washer with the clothes. But no, it wasn’t in.  I looked around thinking if it had fallen out somewhere & traced my way back carefully till my door but no luck. Now the card was missing, I had loaded two washers, clothes were in detergent, so there was no *no washing* – I had no time to waste and I was frustrated. The leasing office was open, I could take a walk and perhaps explain the story and get a new card. Sigh, anything that involves me talking to the *polite* staff in my leasing office sends this electrifying sensation in my veins. You have to be in a certain mode with all the shield of thick skin you can muster to talk to the women there. I carried the basket back to my house and was trying to get into a different mode. When I put the basket down I noticed the laundry card sticking to the vertical side! Blue card against blue basket standing up…and I had missed seeing it. Uggh. Hurray, no visit to the dreaded place.
• Few weeks back, I was cycling back home in the night. I had just begun to pedal and thought something was wrong with my back tyre. I turned behind, all looked good and I turned back to see that I was headed straight for a post. Next, I was on the grass next to the post and all I felt was embarrassment. There were probably some house parties going on in the neighbourhood, I could hear some girls in the distance discuss “Oh my God Oh my God…Look…..Oh she is moving…oh she is getting up….”, I got up and lifted my bike and pedaled away telling myself that I was wearing a helmet & a light jacket and it will all be forgotten tomorrow when the world sobered up.
• Now, I do not recall this, my sister cited the whole story to me. Apparently she called me, I took the phone and she asked if I recognized the voice. I said “no”, she then said she was Neha. There were some question answer series and my sister got upset and hung up. Apparently she waited for me to call her back and apologize. My second sister cited the story to me (& the phone records validate the story :-( )and I had to call up Neha and justify.
• In the beginning of the semester, I mailed by broadband cheque with the to and from addresses interchanged. And when I found it in my mailbox after a week+, I told myself I am not desperate to mail cheques to myself. This resulted in my broadband connection getting disconnected for 2 weeks. Life was bad then.
• I finally got an old car last weekend. I am yet to affix the license plates but I have been driving a bit. All the 3 people who have sat next to me while I was driving have been slightly uncomfortable. I know that I need to brake when they stretch out their legs involuntarily. I am having a lot of fun driving though.
• I showed some pictures of my car to my brother and he very politely said (in hindi) "Car thodi khataara nahi hai"!(I am not sure how to translate that). I laughed and replied "Thodi nahi, kaafi khataara hai".  
• I can’t help smiling when I see a stop sign, especially a 2-way, 3-way or 4-way stop sign. For those of you who don’t know, if there is a 4 way stop sign at an intersection where 4 roads meet then all vehicles stop completely at the stop sign and proceed in the order they arrived. Now, I smile when I see this because I think how this would be if it were in India. The day we follow this rule in India, lot of things would have changed. It would be very very interesting.

Aug 2005 – Sept 2006

The most

1. I saw the most no of english & foreign movies [french, spanish, italian, israeli] in the last one year compared to the movies seen in the rest of my life put together. Same goes for television series
2. I thought and thought. I probably did the most amount of constructive thinking and retrospection in the last 1 yr
3. I spent the maximum amount of money out of my pocket in the last one year – tickets to US in aug 2005, laptop in sept 2005, travel to Europe & back in aug 2006, round trip tickets to India and back
4. I gained 15 kgs (~33 pounds) of weight.
5. I missed Indian food the most in the last one yr. Also home & Diwali.
6. I cooked more than ever
7. I ate the most amount of junk food, skipping breakfast
8. Some would probably say I am very independent now, I paid an electricity bill for the first time myself last year. By mailing a check :P

The least

1. Watched the least no. of hindi movies compared to the no. every other year
2. Least amount of physical labour. No laundry, no sweeping, mopping. That explains point 4 above. way too sedentary

Achievements

1. I quit Microsoft and rejoined Microsoft as an intern last summer
2. I joined IU
3. I got a drivers license last summer
4. I cook non-veg. Chicken & pork. Tried fish & prawns once and may be the last time for a while.
5. I ate seafood. Shrimps, mussels, clams & crabs cooked in sauce. An year ago, if somebody told my future as me wearing an apron to eat steamed seafood in its shell using tools, I would have never believed it.

Realizations

1. I should have learnt Haskell or scheme as my first programming language
2. I work great as long as I stay excited. The excitement rarely lingers
3. I have a long initial warm up time. It took me 2.5 semesters in undergrad and 1^st semester in grad school.
4. I never wanted a million dollars before. In other words, I started wanting to be a millionaire starting last year.
5. I had the best summer. Seattle was great, made some new friends, kept all the old ones.
6. I feel more mature & cynical. I also get occasional pangs of “what is left in life to do”, I called it enlightenment once but Anil pointed that then in the same breath I wouldn’t crib about how life in most parts of US is built around the assumption that you have a car. Oh well, I am growing old.
7. Life in Bloomington is a lot fun-ner with a vehicle. Bike can get me to places foot won’t, but cannot get me to several places. I need a car.
8. I need to see a lot of the US – Manhattan, other parts of NY, museums of DC, the Niagra  falls(sounds so absolutely desi, J), at least I have photos at universal studios & Disney world to add to my desi profile ;)
9. I know more about the world, I understand that I don’t understand American politics very well yet. I don’t particularly want to either.
10. I always believed in multiverse, now I hope that I would either be able to go into outer space or have an alien encounter in this lifetime. No, I don’t want to do anything in this direction to make it happen. Its one of those things you just want to happen somehow. Wishful thinking huh.

Things I hope to say next year

1. I go to the gym
2. I am back into sports – play something regularly – Frisbee, squash, badminton – something
3. I am eating healthier food
4. I am thinking about getting married
5. I blog
6. Travel in India (I want to go back and see Rajasthan)
7. I have the digital photo frame among other gadgets
8. I am enjoying work
9. I have a car
10. I tried sushi [read as sashimi]

[Update: Added links to seafood]

Talking to Roshan some weeks back got us started talking about DD programs and then about some of those national intergrity songs/promos that they often played on television. Most people around my age who grew up in India will be able to relate to this. Since we couldn't switch channels then, there is no way you could watch TV and not see these. Starting from the vande mataram song in the morning to the weekly chitrahaars and 9.00 o' clock serials.

I felt very good discovering & watching mile sur mera tumhara and ek chidiya. I also stumbled upon an MIT version of mile sur mera tumhara. My favorite bit is the firang on the bike singing the part that a keralite sings on an elephant in the original song. I cannot find a video of "sun sun sun mere munne sun.." on the internet but do recall chiranjeevi, mammooty, and some bollywood folk singing supposedly to kids.

In a conversation, in order to illustrate the difference between urdu and hindi I brought up the analogy of UK English and US English. Not sure how many would agree, I think Urdu is to Hindi as UK English is to US English.

I figured I was really bad with directions & maps a couple of years ago. To be precise when I started my undergrad. That is precisely when I started traveling on my own.  By bad I mean not as good as an average Joe, really bad. And I think I think I know the reasons. Here’s a short, quick list

1. I am a girl
2. I am from India
3. And most importantly, May be I just never did anything on my own that required me to think in terms of directions. Or like some would say I don’t have the knack for it – hardwired or otherwise

Before the points above send out the wrong vibes, I will elaborate them to clarify what I mean.

1. In our family when I was growing up the women never went to places by themselves. They didn’t drive, navigate or work with maps. This is what the men did [when needed, if at all]. Either the father, brother, cousin, uncle or chauffer – all men. I grew up oblivious of what was north, south, east and west. Well that is only partly true. My mother followed some vaastu shastra and so the beds faced north south and the entrance was east or west I forget, etc. So when we had visitors and they asked about west/south we could immediately point it out in our house and then they could decipher which direction to face for their prayer and stuff. However, if I was driven to some place and asked to find my own way back I am sure I would have made more mistakes than anybody else in my place.
2. In India we rarely talk in terms of NSEW directions. If you ask for directions in India you will hear something like this: “Go straight, when you reach the junction take a left, then take the first right, then go straight for 2 kms and you will see a temple. Take the road behind the temple and ….When you get there you can ask somebody”. And then you would walk a little and ask somebody again for directions. This is not the case when you are walking only, it’s the same for people who are driving. In the US, I initially found it quite difficult to follow directions. If you ask for directions you are likely to hear “Go north 2 blocks, then east on <abc> St…” or “Oh, it is in the far South end along <xyz> Ave” or they will point it out in a map saying where you are and where the destination is. And ofcourse this is for people walking. If you are driving, you carry your own map/directions and if you get stuck your best bet is to stop at a gas station and maybe ask somebody in the store there. Actually, you carry a map whether you are driving/walking or riding a bike. People here grow with this around them, holding and working out maps all their life.
3. Nothing much to say here. May be it is a good thing that I didn’t become an architect or anybody who worked with directions, projection, proportion, dimensions & space. I understand better why I found my engineering drawing lessons so un-intuitive despite a lot of help from this man.

Finding your office room at Microsoft can be a challenge in the first few days. And this is from a returning employee. [I told you I am bad.] I bought a bike recently and have been biking around some of the trails around where I stay. I stay in Kirkland and didn’t realize that I had an amazing neighbourhood until I biked in a random direction last weekend feeling the breeze and the lingering fragrance of flowers after a light downpour. I saw some huge houses, i.e. small houses in huge areas, massive yards with thick blades of grass all over. It was beautiful. And I tried hard to recall the last time I was in a similar situation. Just looking around and looking up at the sky and smiling to myself. Saw a woman riding a horse [I stopped biking when I saw the horse, it was big. Yeah I was intimidated and she politely came close and said “don’t be afraid, he isn’t afraid of you, see”] and saw a huge stable a couple of miles away. Yeah, ‘huge’ is the key word.

In short I am having fun. Work @ Microsoft is very exciting, I should check with my mentor before I blog about it. But I can say so much, its fun writing code after a long time and fun to do so when you believe that it will be shipping soon. The interns are well taken care of, I feel too old most of the time to join in for any of the intern socials [In the past I didn’t like people who sounded like this], a good majority are undergrads. A bunch of young, enthusiastic folk. It would have been fun to have the concept of internships when I was pursuing my bachelors, I could have used the experience. Met some Indian students, i.e students studying in India and doing their internship at Microsoft Research, Redmond, its good to see interns here all the way from India.

I am also eating a lot of Indian food and will watch Fanaa tomorrow. Yeah, its almost like being in India J

And now I need to collect some mapquest printouts, yeah need to get somewhere. These maps are not difficult to read/follow. Its like an installation read me file. I'll be fine. Also, I declare myself a beans thoran expert. Made it twice, came out just the way I remember it from Kerala.

I heard from Ank last week about the status of his asianet broadband connection. Apparently some months ago, he had connected to the asianet server, looked around and found user accounts information including password information of their users in clear text. He then logged on other accounts and checked logs to discover that the accounts were being used by  other users [other than the accountholder itself]. He then chose an account with unlimited connection and used it during the hours that apparently were not being used by the account holder. This went on for 7 months after which asianet probably realised this was happening. So they called him and asked him to pay for using the unlimted connection. The funny thing is that I had heard from a friend 1.5 yrs back about a similar incident when asianet called him up during his 1st month of bandwidth stealing to warn him. And in 1+ years they seem to have done nothing about their security. Nothing far-fetched, but how difficult is to use some standard encryption to store password hashes.

Apparently, this is public information in Ank's classroom - how to get unlimited connection when you have a limited asianet connection!

Besides asianet are there any other cable internet providers in Cochin? I heard city cable is yet to come. BSNL data one seems good but their starter package is data based rather than time based: 250/- month, upto 400 mb only.  Looks like we are still a little far from fast reliable afford-able internet connections at home in India. And secure. I hope I am not violating any *rules* by blogging this.

I grew up In Trivandrum in Kerala and was introduced to some of Kerala's culture. The first house we stayed in was a rented 2 bedroom house with our landlady staying behind us. There was ammachi [hmm, I never knew her real name, guess then that wasn't important] and her son and daughter. Her son in law was in Gulf (!). Neighbours were malayalees and there were some kids, all older than us but we played games together. We [My sister and I] learnt malayalam and learnt to eat non vegetarian food thanks to the people around. Saturdays, neighbours would come home to watch the malayalam movie playing on doordarshan and we would sit with them and watch. And I think we would all cry at the end of all the movies. I also have vague memories of the movie always having Shankar, Menaka or Mohanlal/Mammooty.

In the 3 years or so time that we stayed there I learnt and spoke the best malayalam I ever did in my life so far. It was flattering to see people exclaim in wonder when they figured out that I was a north indian and yet could speak malayalam as fluently as any kid around. I remember beaming with joy everytime that would happen. We would listen to malayalam songs in our neighbours houses and would sometimes sing them without ever understanding any of the lyrics. When I was in my 2nd or 3rd grade we shifted to a bigger house [Our family was expanding] and that put an end to a lot of malayalam conversations we indulged in and a complete end to malayalam cinema. However, one of us would end up singing one of the old songs randomly [We are all big singers in my house, Mornings there would be three distinct voices from the three bathrooms in our house...] that we would have heard on chitrageetham on Thursday evenings on DD. I think the only songs that I remember today are "chembarathi poovey cholley" and "aayiram kannoomaayi" - If not every week then we saw them every other week on DD in the first house.

I end up humming those old songs sometimes even today when I am alone. So a few days back while cooking for some friends, I was singing "Aayuram kannomaan …" and a friend of mine said it is "Aayiram" and asked me if knew what it meant. And sure, I know it means thousands. He then pointed out that it is kannumaayi which means "with eyes" and suddenly the first line made complete sense. In fact its only then that it struck me that the song is so beautiful "With thousand eyes, I longed for you …" It sounds a lot nicer in malayalam and I found it kinda sad. I always thought it was a happy song, but now it comes across as a very deep and sad song. I hope I will find out what the rest of the song means.

Anil pointed me to this video where Mohanlal is bragging to Jagathy and his wife that he has been to America. I laughed endlessly watching that video; boy, these guys are so natural. I could map these characters to real people that you would come across in the country side in Kerala. Mohanlal, Srinivasan and Jagathy - All 3 with their dialogues and expressions make that clip utterly hilarious. I don’t understand some of the things they say, but its the sort of thing you so commonly hear being used, so you kind of give it this abstract meaning wrt context. May be I should have watched some of these in Kerala. But watching malayalam movies here is more fun for me, beacause I get access to subtitles and the jokes seem like jokes. We probably have malayalam dvds in video libraries in Kerala now, earlier that was not an option.

Apologies to all friends I laughed mercilessly at, when you (mis) sang hindi songs especially to the guy who sang "Chaudhari ka chaand ho".

I reached US after what seemed like a never ending flight. I had to change 5 flights and visit 7 airports to get here! Boy, the airlines should have paid me for trying this route out! I am sure not too many would. Cochin - Colombo - Bangkok - Hong Kong - LA - Chicago - Indianapolis !

Well, look at the bright side, I saw the airports of quite a few different counties :)

Bloomington is a small town, a large bulk of its population coming from Indiana university. The Indian population here is quite small.

I am getting used to some of the american jargon [egg plant, okra, pickles ...] and realising that India has its own additions to the Indian english language.

Cell phones in the US work quite differently. Believe it or not, cell phones in India are quite a blessing and the service works much more reliably. And we crib about airtel and hutch not working in caves and mountains when we go for vacations! Here cell phones are based on minutes [time], it doesn't matter whether you receive or make calls, most plans its just the same. Your usage minutes go down. And this applies for toll free numbers too. Well, the good thing in US is you could sign up for a 1 yr or 2 yr plan and get a handset free [the way our reliance phones work] and that you could change your service provider and still retain your phone number. I guess we'll get there soon.

I have my international students orientation next week. I hope to spend free time in finding an apartment to stay in and buying essential furniture if its an unfurnished place.

Today is the start of my last week in Hyderabad and I am seeing the pain of relocation for the first time, thanks to having to do it all by myself.

The moves I made in the last 3 years have an interesting pattern. I moved from Cochin [Kerala] to Chennai [Tamil nadu] to Bangalore [Karnataka] to Hyderabad [AP]. Just about covered the entire southern part of the country. Considering that I am a North Indian, its funny that I never really worked or studied in that part of the country.

I am joining Indiana university, Bloomington to do my Masters in computer science this fall. Back to school, books, assignments, tests, exams, research, blogging, poverty and student life. Sounds like fun :)

Am seeing some of the best times in Hyderabad, the weather is amazing, its like the cool breeze and the alluring smell of sand before a heavy rain. I hear that once the rain Gods make up their mind things are going to get messy, I would [happily] miss that mostly. 

Only 7 more days in Hyderabad, yikes! Wow!!

The grand canyons; Shot from a helicopter.

Shot from a boat on the Colorado river

The hazy ones are shot from a flight window

At Las Vegas

(The ceiling gives it away). The Venetian.

In full spirit for Christmas J

I have read and heard stories about accent leakages, here is some of what I experienced during my last visit out of India.

I was surprised when people asked me how my name was pronounced, I had thought that there was only one way it could be pronounced, Poo-jaa. Nope, I was wrong [Poozha, pooha are some of the *other* ways].

Poor Gijo Jose [pronounced “geejoe“ jose as in pose] [mis-pronounced hiho hosey].

My friend’s name is Anil [pronounced “Uh-neel”], he has a tough time with introductions. Most firangs are polite and ask him softly how his name is pronounced; others call out loudly, “Anal”.

Poor “Anal Joy” from Bengal [pronounced “Uh-null Joy”].

I went for a training on “working across cultural boundaries” and heard some of the participants talk about their visits to other countries. We spoke a little about cultures and traditions in some of the countries. Apparently, showing a thumbs up in Nigeria means “shove it up your ass”.

[Wonder what showing the finger means there J]

One guy spoke about his experience with conducting a training at Singapore. Apparently, there, relations are valued over everything else. The training didn’t start on time, there was just one guy in the room at the right time. Each time a trainee walked in, the entire room would stand up and go forward to greet the person who walked in. And this happened for every person that walked in. The trainer had to stop, wait for the greetings to be exchanged and then resume the training session.

The same guy conducted the training in some other Asian country [I can’t remember the name]. He cracked some joke and nobody laughed. He did that a second time and nobody laughed again. Then the interpreter stepped in and said something in the local language. People laughed. From then on every time the trainer said a joke, the interpreter would say something and the trainees would laugh. Well, the trainer later figured out during a conversation with the interpreter that the interpreter told the audience “He is going to say a joke. Please laugh when he finishes talking” !

I heard some people say that in India, pointing at somebody with your finger is considered impolite. So people point at others using their chin. Err, Is that true?

Desi – Could you please put this in your dick-ey?

Firang – Err…Sure, I can try...

Firang Interviewer – Tell us a little about your self.

Desi Interviewee – I am <xyz >, I passed out in the year 2002 from <blah blah blah >..

Interviewer – “Passed outt…….??!”

Desi guy to a firang lady at a mall – I need to buy a dress.

Firang – Sorry…

Desi – Do you have *dresses* for me?

Firang – uuh, Sure sir, come in…[disappears inside the shop].

Dude walks in to the computer lab with a new hair do and hair coloured red.
Desi lady sitting with a group of students bursts out laughing seeing him walk in and exclaims – You look like a cock!.

Cool dude – Yeah thanks…
Guy next to the lady whispers into her ear: You mean hen...?

[Desi?]

I have been in Hyderabad for about 3 weeks, so its probably too early to comment on the city. And no matter how much I tell myself, involuntarily I end up comparing it to Bangalore. And that is the entire fault. Most things seem not good enough. I work and stay in this place called Madhapur which is some distance from the main city. Everything around Madhapur is exorbitantly pricy thanks to the impression that software folks make a lot of money. Many of the local people are puzzled as to what these guys do on the computer to get paid so much and change the city completely. Hyderabad has seen a lot of growth in the last few months [and years]. The govt. seems to have done some really good work in terms of growing the city. The roads are wide and well laid out, traffic is a lot lot better than you know where, and it’s largely a beautiful city. Lot of rocks and hilly terrain in and around the place – the sort you would travel miles to reach. The people are yet to catch up with the growth though. Its like a sudden gush of activity has poured into an otherwise laid back, quiet, conservative place.

Microsoft is a fun place. A lot of smart folk around and very little time on hands. I am working on the WinFS team here. I should be talking more about this soon. Last week I went for the 6^th anniversary celebration of the India Development Centre. Kinda weird to say my first 6^th anniversary.

I have rented a flat here and am finally going to try to live independently. I haven't started cooking yet, but considering the options that I have I might as well cook :). Before I took the house, I liked the idea of opening my door/window and looking at the fields around. Now I know I see the fields and the pigs together. Sometimes buffaloes too. Hmmm.

A lot of people write about Bangalore in their blogs and now I seem to be yearning to do the same.

While on one end I am very excited about my new role, on the other end I am quite sentimental about leaving Bangalore. This has been the only place [of all the places I have been to in the country] where I could go out alone, be on my own and return home at 10.30 in the night feeling safe. Back home [cochin], being on the roads after dark [6 pm] attract suspicious stares and dirty looks as though you were committing a grave crime of the first order.

The pleasant weather [that I can compare to having centralized AC in the city] has pampered me too much. The roads and the trees also seem to be talking to me these days J. The cosmopolitan crowd, the baristas, the privacy, the groups, the friends, the pubs, the views, and ulsoor lake – where will I get all this?

Oh well…I will miss Bangalore!

This is based on some of the things I observed over the last ~15 years. Some of it may sound exaggerated and offensive, it is meant to be neither.

South paranoia

In Trivandrum, people were very concerned about what the kid would grow to be from the time the child was born. The choice was usually between a doctor and an engineer [sometimes lawyers crept in]. When the child in primary school would have exams, mother, aunt and grandparents would take an off from work to teach the child. Neighbours were requested to keep their TV and music players volumes low.

If the child didn’t get an admit in one of the colleges in Kerala, the immediate look out would be Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Next option would be to move to Dubai, Saudi, Kuwait or Muscat. I haven’t figured out the malayalees mania about going to Gulf. Every second lady I met had her husband in the gulf. The husband would come once in  2 or 3 years stay for a while and push off for work. He would be a big saar in his home town and a driver in the gulf if required, that didn’t matter.

In the hindu families, for every daughter, the parents would build a house to gift her as dowry along with gigantic amounts of gold and her husband would come over and stay there with the lady and in-laws sometimes. People didn’t believe in partying or indulging in huge celebrations, they would rather hoard up all money and savings and buy land and grow coconut trees and invest in gold.

Mallus [as malayalees are usually referred to outside Kerala] usually have great affinity for other mallus. They manage to find mallu friend(s), mallu restaurants, mallu shops and mallu barbers wherever they go. They usually hang out in groups and resort to speaking in malayalam wherever they go, whatever the crowd be. And mallus are omnipresent. The joke about Neil Armstrong finding a mallu chaiwaala when he landed on moon is a very valid one!

Mals [well, short for mallus] also displayed great affinity for medicines, they carried a bunch with them and sometimes took some in advance with the fear that they may get a head ache or something. A sneeze and they would have visited the ayurveda ashram next door, a doctor for antibiotics and a homeopathist for treatment. They lived on boiled water only and the moment they stepped out of Kerala they complained of food poisoning and required a fortnight to recover.

North paranoia

If you are a doctor or an engineer, boy you are a big man. And you got to flaunt it every which way possible. To the North Indians, back then South India meant Madhraas and Kanyakumari. Period. No concept of Kerala, Trivandrum, Kottayam [then the most literate part of the country].

If you are giving a wedding reception it ought to be bigger and grander than your neighbour’s aunts nephew’s. So what if you cant afford it. Families make plans for children based on their sex. If it’s a female child then she should be taught cooking, stitching, cleaning etc along with her education. She should be married before 22. If it’s a male child then, he should be prepared to continue his dad’s business just the way his dad took over his grand dad’s. So the idea would be to somehow take a degree [i.e. complete your graduation, BCom, BA whatever; not important] and help out the father businessman. If you flunk, (who cares), so did your dad and uncle... family business awaits you.

Play music in your houses in the volume that suits your mood and environment. If the neighbours protest, tell them it’s your house and you are free to do what you want. Pull a fight to prove you are a bigger man. Priority goes to the clothes and jewellery that you wear than to the books you need to read. In fact education is secondary to many things.

And don’t visit a doctor until you are in deep waters. After all there is very little that the doctor knows and you don’t. So try out all your intuitions and medicines [suggested by the chemist] and when things don’t work out, visit the doc.

Hmmm….

While, you can’t generalize TVM with the entire South India you can relate it to Kerala. And though things have changed over the years, some of this is present to this day J

I am starting this new category called Desi which will be more like a scrap book. It doesn’t exactly qualify to be a blog entry and will be largely centered around India. Until I figure out where exactly this fits in, I shall be writing about movies, cultures, men, women, children, festivals etc in this category.