Todays Subway Ride

I got into the 1 train as usual to get to work in the morning and grabbed the first seat I could find. My stop is a about 10 minutes away , but I was too lazy stand . After I sat down , a lady with a little girl and a couple of bags walked in and was standing in front of me. Immediately an old woman sitting next to me ( in the 50’s
probably) asked them to sit down and stood up instead.
I was a bit surprised and felt bad that I did not have that consideration . I should have atleast offered my seat to the lady who gave up hers ,but did not do this either immediately. And by the time all this went through my head,it was too late and too awkward.
I was feeling pretty bad so when I saw a girl get up from a seat in front of me , I moved there hoping the lady would sit in my place since the new seat was too far away but she got off at that stop.
I felt even more wierd, cos now it probably looked like the little girl was bothering me and I moved to a different seat!
Ugh this was even worse !
Well next time I will try to be a bit more proactive in helping someone out !

In Spite Of the Gods-Intro

Even though I’ve lived in America for about 4 years , I still have something in me that pulls me towards India. I have always wanted to go back to India. If you ask me, or increasingly when I ask my self-”Why?”, I never have a well defined answer. Although lately, due to some issues of finance and societal biases, I have started postponing my deadline to move back from 2009-2010 to 2012-2013. Why or how this happened and if this even is going to be a long lasting change of mind, i am not sure but nevertheless is a different topic than the current one.

Coming back to India and my connection to it, I have come to realize in the past one year, that I do not know anything about politics or economy or anything that would lead me to understand India and its issues better. I only know of the popular ideas that people(Parents , Cousins e.t.c) talk about.
Once the Obama-McCain campaign started, and specially since my clashes with my dad’s ideals and opinions surfaced, I’ve started thinking about issues a little more seriously. I think this could also be because, Indian politics is so ridden with casteism and politicians who do not seem efficient or even committed. I really do not know the difference between Chandrababu Naidu and YSR, are they two different political parties in the sense that, do they have two different idealogies, or do they have different economic policies or simply because their leaders belong to two different castes. I agree that I have no idea about the history of politics, but I do not see them doing anything different from each other. Each one in their own circumstances has just carried on work as it is, and the only thing that changes is the caste of the people ruling the government.

In a quest to learn more about India and its relevant history, I picked a book called “In Spite Of The Gods”, in want of an educated outsiders view of the political and social system of India. I wanted to read Amartya Sen’s book, but they demanded more patience and knowledge than I have right now, but will hopefully be able to read them pretty soon.

The books starts out talking about Gandhi and Nehru and a little bit of their ideology,but what struck me most about this chapter was the issue of caste based discrimination in India. A few of Ambedkars ideas or quotes were very interesting. The author says that Ambedkar thought Gandhi calling “Dalits”- “Harijans”(Children of God), was patronizing. I think I agree with him, on the fact that we must not even segregate people on this basis, why should we give them one more name, when they are no different from a person who is not a “Dalit”. Surprisingly, very few people know that “Harijan” means “Children of God”, it has come to be associated with what it is -”Segregation of people based on their birth”. Whatever you call it, it is casteism.

The author also notes that, even though lower caste sections of the society have been allowed into politics, their ambitions are just the same as upper caste sections, “To be better than the upper caste”, or “To get more reservations”.

This is not going to make anything better. Reservations based on caste should be abolished, and reservations based on economic status must be brought about. To this, people reply with the unfortunate truth, that it is hard and impossible  to determine everybody’s economical status in India.

Its funny how politics work-atleast in Andhra Pradesh,which is my where I was born and where I lived for 18 years. A couple of major parties active in AP right now are Congress, TDP,  TRS, and more recently Praja Rajyam.

The funny thing is Congress is associated with the “Reddy” caste, TDP is associated with the “Kamma” caste, Praja Rajyam with the “Kapu” caste, and these are the 3 major castes existing in AP. TRS is a party that was created by activists who feel that the “Telangana” region(Geogrophical) has been neglected. This has been an active movement since a long time, there was even a “Go Back Andhra ” movement some years back asking all the people from “Andhra ” to leave Hyderabad, which is a part of the Telangana subregion.

Again there is caste associated with this, most of Telangana is associated with “Reddys” and subcastes in “Reddys” who are either “Andhra” or “Telangana” based on their lineage.

This is only information that is popular belief,and by no means is definitive.

In these political parties, you would have noticed that there is no place for other castes, be it Brahmins or backward castes. Although i think “Kapu” is classified as “BC”, these parties seem to strongly associate themselves with power and money.

Praja Rajyam is a new party floated by one of the most popular move actors , Chiranjeevi who happens to be Kapu, due to which most people say things like “Kapu wants to get into politics and bring all kapu guys into politics”. Its funny how everything is associated with caste, the moment people talk about someone, they absolutely have to know the persons caste, not the persons academic background or his character, but they need to know exactly which caste he belongs to.

When they talk about a person, they immediately affirm his caste, which can be extremely irritating and depressing, since these “People” are educated Doctors and Engineers!

Maybe we have abolished untouchability in the metropolitans,but politics and the society is so ridden with caste based differences that its hard to believe that we have progressed!

Whiff Of Something

Read this somewhere, and it sounded really nice….

I felt a whiff of something,

something strong, something familiar

I wondered what it was, was it my perfume?

Was it something else?

It was elusive and yet comforting,

I wondered if it was yours?

I wondered if that familiar scent was yours?

I tried to dismiss it as my perfume, but couldnt.

It wasnt perfume, it was something mysterious, 

something intoxicating, it was the smell of comfort , of love, and safety.

It was a mix of perfume and something else.

I realized it was you, cos you are the only one who can make me feel that way…

I understood that it was the smell of your skin ,

that it was the feeling of happiness, and of your love for me..

I cannot wait to snuggle up to you ,

to snuggle up to you and feel that smell,

for, it is the only smell that can be felt, 

the only smell that can be full of love..

I miss you and cannot wait to see you and feel you again.

You are the only one and the only thing that can make me feel so..

that can make me forget everything..

that can create an overpowering feeling as this.

Something that contradicts itself-something that makes me feel calm and can put butterflies in my stomach…

Something I never want to lose..

You ask me why I hug you so many times, 

You wonder why I kiss your cheek so many times,

It is to bring that feeling of warmth so close to my heart, so that I never lose it..

I Love you more than anything, for loving me the way you do…..

and for being who you are…

Three Cups Of Tea

Just finished reading “Three Cups Of Tea”, and was amazed and inspired. The amazing thing about the book is that you know the general plot of the book before you read it…Its about a man who starts building schools for children all over Pakistan and some parts of afghanistan and really makes a difference. But the book is still engrossing and I could not put it down!. The tales and facts he tells through the process of building schools not only teaches you volumes about the area and terrorism but also inspires you….This is a must read.

Some links worth reading about the author:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/03/three.cups/index.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/02/16/sm_pakistan116.xml

http://gregmortenson.blogspot.com/

A Wednesday

i saw “Wednesday” starring Naseeruddin shah the other day, it was a really good movie, very different, the twist at the end was really good, although I was sort of expecting it, since Naseeruddin shah is the protagonist, and i dont think he would do a role just for the heck of it..The movie was so gripping and was really satisfying at the end, unlike most terrorist/bomb related movies like “mumbai meri jaan” which left me disturbed and even more depressed than I was. Mumbai Meri Jaan was definitely interesting, I felt like it got dragged around a bit, but was pretty good..

One good thing about the movie was Soha Ali Khan’s story, the media needs to be regulated or “censored” with regards to what they say and what they do on TV.

My Completely independant brain threads!!!

Started reading “Three Tea Cups” today, finished about 1/4th of the book, and cant wait to finish it.Its unbelievable that its based on a true story, that a man can have so much conviction and so much good in him to go to a place that is so far away and so forbidden and build schools for people from a different country. When a man with no money at all, gives up his few possessions, it just amazes me….I know there are a lot of people who bring about a change in the world, but I have not really read too much about them!..I’ve been reading this on the train and wherever I get a chance..

Talking about the train…It takes me about 11/2 hours to get to work. I used to hate the train journey and cursed it all the time, but its become a blessing to me now.

I look forward to the train everyday, I might seem a little crazed to some people, but this is one place I can sit with no one bothering me, and have the time to myself, to do whatever I want to do, and think whatever comes to my brain… For whatever reason it is, It was ironical that something that inspired irritation and curses from me has become my only salvage in life..

The world works in weird ways!!!!
Back to “Three Tea Cups”, Like I said I received my new laptop yesterday:) and was so excited to get home and open it. I love opening new things, and just love anything new:), I get bored of things pretty fast, although I dont get bored of people at all, I am a chipku(someone I know said this) when it comes to people……

Anyways, my brain was thinking in two parallel threads, one getting excited to open a brand new laptop, and one thinking about these children somewhere in the himalayas, with no money to learn , with no money for the essentials of life. But the funny thing was these two threads were living their own life, they had their own memory and looked like they were not interfering with each other, very conveniently I must say..

If I were really effected by this book, I would have canceled the laptop and used the money for a better cause, but I did not….I seem to have one part of me thinking about how amazing this mortesen guy was, and that all of us should do something for these causes, but a completely separate thread was thinking about the laptop and the material pleasure it would bring me..

My New Dell Studio 17

Yes, I bought a dell again!!!…A dell studio 17

Black , 2.1 Ghz 800MHz, 320 GB, 4GB RAM, Wireless N, Backlit keyboard….Nice config..

Love it so far:)…..

By the way, from my experience with buying a laptop and returning 3..

Sony Laptops have only mail in service, which would take approximately 5-6 days if something went wrong..

Dell laptops purchased at Best Buy will not be covered by Dells warranty , well they do provide limited warranty, but if anything goes wrong you “have” to go to bestbuy’s geeksquad, and they will deal with dell, and an extension of the warranty can only be done with geek squad, basically you have no relationship with dell…so beware!!!!

The Mango Season by amulya malladi

Read this book yesterday night, its amazing how alike parents reactions are to their daughters love marriage proposals. The same “we did so much…”, “we sent you to the US with trust unlike other parents who married off their children before they sent them…”, “you cheated us”, “how should we show our face to the society”,”you are being immature, and u are making a mistake”, “you will definitely be unhappy”…..

I was amazed…nice book btw, very fast read and interesting…:)

Anne of green gables

I have recently been using “Living Social “, an application where you can add books to your list, that you’ve read/want to read/or reading. It allows you to post comments or reviews and view other’s reviews.

I think its a really nice application, since it allows you to find books that you might be interested in from people who have read a book that you’ve read and liked e.t.c.

Anyways, I was trying to recollect books that I have read and remembered “Anne of green gables”, and wanted write a review on it, if someone who just wants a simple and sweet read for a break from afghanistan and the miseries of life , but not read a book that is completely shallow and goes on about fifth avenue, new york and the trepidations of a woman who wears the wrong shoes to a party, “Anne of Green Gables” is a nice break..

Anne of green gables is a really sweet book of an orphan girl who is moved from one place to the other, and finally lands in a place called “green gables”, due to a misunderstanding. Her character is really charming, a red haired girl, full of spirit and zeal for life, even though she’s been pushed around all her life from one cruel place to another. She looses her misery and sadness in thoughts of happy places and imagines things and see things like no other. She can be irritating and earnest at the same time and I think thats what makes you like her, for her honesty and excitement…

The five books on “Anne” follow her from a kid to being a woman as a teacher at a school.The story is simple and takes you to an ideal world that at least doesn’t exist now, and I think its a perfect read for someone in school, something different from the current novels being written…In short a classic…and surprisingly, when i re read this book after a long time, I didnt feel like it was a childish book..

If you don’t have the patience to read the book, you should give the tv mini series a try….

The Kite Runner

Finished reading “Kite Runner” yesterday, It is the first novel I’ve read after a long time. I used to read a lot of novels back in school(shallow but interesting books).

The novel was very engrossing, the story was written with so much simplicity, devoid of unnecessary drama, but just enough to make you understand the situations the protagonists are in. The novel was depressing and made me sad at a few places, but if the history of Afghanistan as related by the author is to be believed, I have learned a lot about the people there and their culture and the Taliban. Even though the main story revolves around a man and his mistakes and actions in life, it tells a story of a place that has changed over the years into something extremely formidable.

The author was so good, that its hard to believe that this is not a true story…but is a fictional story embedded within the reality of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It really brings you close to the people living there…

More Later Here