Reactions...

Ever since I landed in US I have been amazed by the diversity of the country. You can find people from all parts of the world here. By and large everyone is friendly. Whosoever we meet we are greeted with a warm smile, a friendly nod of the head, a wave or a pleasant "Hi". If you are approaching a door and someone is just passing through it then they hold it open and wait for you. These are all pleasant mannerisms which are quite alien to most of us back home.

Back home we would walk hurriedly past people without meeting anyone in the eye. If unfortunately our eyes did meet we mostly maintained a poker face. There was no system of waiting for people with doors open.. ("Well if they couldn't run to the doors why should we wait and waste time?" was our thought)

Whenever we go out (walking, shopping, to a movie, dining...) we get to see wide variety of people - Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, Indians,... List goes on. And these are the way people react:

• American meets American - The smile nod routine which may extend to a long chat.
• American meets Indian - Again the smile, nod routine.
• Indian meets Indian - This is a BIG NO NO. As soon as one guy or family spots another they either lower their heads or give the best frown or stare possible. Very rarely will the person smile at you.
  

I initially thought something must be wrong with the way I was dressed or maybe I was staring at them. But I realised nothing was wrong from my end. Soon I found from my friends that this was not my experience alone. All of them were given the cold shoulder. Upon more observation I found it to be true. Why is it that those who are capable of smiling at seeing people of a different nationality can extend their hand of friendship to them but not to people of same nationality? What was their fear? Or was it hatred? Did they dream of being the only Indian family in the entire USA?? Well I got news for them. U can't run away from fellow Indians :) The sooner they realise the more they will get to flex their happy smiley muscles. As for me I continue to smile at anyone I see. No necessity to change a good habit.

Good Old Days of Disney

Yesterday I was browsing through the favourite videos of one of my friends and as one thing leads to another on youtube I was soon way off the track from where I started.

Before I knew it I was revisiting those classic cartoons from the older Disney movies. The cartoons back then had such wonderful songs and stories. Who can forget "Hakunamatata" from Lion King or "Colours of the Wind" from Pocahontas?

Some of the videos that I enjoyed...

Hakunamatata:





Colors of the Wind:





Mulan:



Beauty & the Beast:




All these clips made me wonder why we don't get such cartoons or music any more. Somehow such imagination has become a rare thing. We don't get many good cartoons these days. Sad but I guess we have to learn to appreciate the new things. I'll definitely return to this page whenever I feel nostalgic. And keep adding to the collection of wonderful videos. Anyone remember any other great songs or cartoons?

Skyrocketing Prices

If you are a frequent visitor to the grocery store you would have noticed the steep rise in prices of goods, especially Indian goods such as dal and rice. It's amazing how quickly the prices have risen. Rice which was being sold for $8 is now $30 within a matter of 7 days. And same for dal. As usual many people have started panicking and they are stocking up on rice from all possible sources. Costco and BJs have run out of rice stock. And even ordinary shops where no one used to bother buying rice from have put notices indicating one customer can take only one bag of rice. What a turn of events.

What puzzles me the most is this - did all the rice and dal just disappear on one fine day? What stopped the suppliers from rationing the supply initially itself to stop such a steep rise and subsequent stampede of customers? Isn't the supplier playing a foul game by suddenly declaring that we have been hit by a shortage? Some where there has been a black marketing of these commodities and now we are left with the shocking prices.

The funny thing is that the governments of various countries are now doing what they do best always - Playing the blame game. They are trying to figure out which country ate into the world's supply of food instead of forming a strategy to avoid further shortage.

One thing is true though. We have been neglecting farmers for a long time and slowly forcing them into extinction. Now we are paying the price and a little heavily. Let's hope this stops soon.

Baby Shower

Late Friday afternoon Rathnam forwarded an invitation for a baby shower (his colleague's). The function was on Sunday evening so we had two days time to hunt for a proper gift. Now this happened to be the first baby shower that we were to attend. Both of usa were clueless about what to buy.

A little apprehensive, we both made our way to the baby section for the first time. Wow we were overwhelmed by the number of items there. So many varieties of toys, strollers, baby kits, car seats, shades, tin clothes and shoes... Everything was so nice. If at first we were confused now we were totally lost. Everything appealed to us. After a long time of repeated rounds around the various aisles we made a choice and bought a cute set of toys.

Next on our itinerary was selecting a card. This didn't prove to be difficult. We found a wonderful card right away. Still wanting to have a few choices we went through a few other cards but none was as good as the first one. So we completed our first baby shower shopping successfully.

The baby shower was held on Sunday. They had done it so well. Not a single detail was missed. Their house was decorated beautifully and whatever is usually done in India was done here without a flaw. Kudos to the hosts for such careful planning. The best part of the evening was we got Tirupati laddoo. It was nice to receive the blessings of the Lord right here in Boston.

Spring

The much awaited spring has arrived. With it's arrival it has brought wonderful colours into our neighbourhood. Two days ago we went for a walk and I was enchanted by the variety of colours around us. Yesterday we returned to the same path - this time camera in hand.

Few of my favourites from yesterday.