Musings of a Wandering Mind

Monday, April 10, 2006

US Returned Indian

Last weekend,I was at home .It was late afternoon; the late hot sunshine ,filtering through my bedroom window, was sending trickles of sweat down my body,soaking the thin t-shirt that I had worn.As I lied on the bed trying to catch a wink of sleep, the doorbell rang.I got up to open the door,my mom who however reached it first,opened it.And behold!!,there stood my cousin who was recently back from the US.And,yes you heard me right US(USA -United States of America),my mother's expression changed to that of admiration-here was a person in our family who has returned from America(what an achievement!!!).My mom said "Yen paa AMERICA ka hogi bandi ?..antha yen namma na marta bitti yena?" in Kannada .It meant "You ,had been to America..so you forgot us or what ?" ,there was a special emphasis on America,it was given that special stress as if to show great importance to it.I was not shocked at my mother's bewilderment or talk .For similarly,there have been several instances of people who have returned from the US being placed on the pedestal of worship(as if they have won a war or something similar!!).For instance ,I heard my friend's mom speak to my mom saying "my son you know, is going to the US!!" ,another typical instance has been "Have you gone to the US??" -No?..then what you get is an expression of shock and disbelief!!!.Another very interesting instance that I remember,was when at a wedding(I rarely attend any, but it was good that I attended this, in the light of my thoughts on the US returned Indians),I heard the two middle aged men,besides me conversing- One said"Good for Sindhu,she is getting married into a good family",the other replied "Haa..the boy is also good..seems he had been to the US!!".I was very much bemused..and even more so when the guruji who had come to bless the couple.said that it was an honour for the people of the town as the daughter was getting married to a person who had been to the US!! man was I rolling down ?

My observation has been that ,our past generation ,considers the US to be the sky ,for the present generation though the feelings are mixed, but certainly not of honour and acheivement-for some -its a hip,for others its the heaven to earn money,for some more its the way to go!!

But have we ever thought ,is it that important to have been/visited the US, has any American considered himself great for having been in India-(bad example ,are you laughing ?!!)... lets say more developed regions like the UK,Europe etc..Certainly not ,correct me if I am wrong..but they would certainly have visited/been in these countries on a tour,business,vacation..but very remotely to earn respect and become great ,on being back to US!!.Greatness is in the deeds...we do..

I will agree that US is a great country....very superior, advanced..but it does not give me anything that can make me great..it certainly did not :)..atleast not to me in my very short visit there..I realize that it is upto us to do something that is worth being called exclusively remarkable!!Just going to the US isnt going to change you..I was still my ordinary self when I was there .. and there were no machines to change me :)

Concluding, I am pretty much sure that Americans don't consider that if a fellow American has been to India, then its an achievement.They just consider it as part of the business.
So certainly, one thing is in an onus on all of us Indians..to give each American a feeling of greatness for having been in India!!!!

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Around the priorities

Ever been at a crossroad of thoughts ,deciding what to do first,how to choose between two or more actions to do.Do one first,then the next? or start off both/all together?Ever been in this dilemma.Now one approach to this would be to start off one,go on with it till the end and then when you reach the end of one thing,start off with the next.But what after sticking to one particular thing,it ends in failure,wouldn't it be a waste of time ?,and along with it what if you get late to do the other thing ?

Or would it be better if we choose an approach like,start with lets say if you have three important things to do,then start off with each one of them,keep checkpoints to see where you are on the success line and then based on this continue or dump the objective based on where you stand relatively to success like below

The first one doesn't require lots of reckoning, only status checks for that particular objective,the second one gives more agility to your progress but requires more reckoning,more status checks..

Any takers ?

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Rules of the Game

You must know how to be happy in life or else there are enough people in this world to make you sad.The foremost and probably the only successfull rule to happiness is not to keep any expectations of anybody.The moment you expect something and the expectation isnt fruitful you brood,you fret you fume and kill yourself mentally.Take for instance the following scenario,you are very hungry..you dont want to go out alone ,you want some company.you ask your best friend he/she turns down the offer.Now if you expected your friend to surely come and banked everything on that..you would be ruined..u will feel digusted..left out.But on the other hand you had planned something like, if your friend doesnt turn up you have plan a-Order something to your seat, plan b-Go get yourself something packed and have it in your seat.You mentally decide that you will have an option ready even if your friend turns down your request,this way wont you be more happy?.Its amazing how being proactive to 'expecations falling apart' can be from 'reacting sadly' to the same.In short keep your expectations but dont live on them.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Teen Memories ,Doubling Money

I remember it vividly; I must have been around 9 then, I had these friends of mine who had heard of a banyan tree.The speciality of this tree was that if you keep any money under it,in 2 days it would double,or so, my friends had heard.So one day we kept some of our coins under it,I kept a 20 paise coin(you dont get them anymore).I thought how with the money doubled I could no longer be in want of money,I calculated ,with the double of 20 paise i could have 40 paise,I will spend some paises in it and keep the rest ,and wait for it to double again to..2 coins of 20 paise then four..8..16....i dreamed like this untill i could picture a room full of coins .I spent the two days in great unrest.And alas,what do we find after two days? No my money was not gone,it was there as it was,intact,without doubling though.We tried keeping it for some more days to see if it resulted into anything ,but of no avail.Finally weary of our folly,we gave up our efforts of doubling our money and comforted ourseves with the candys that we could buy out of our money..