MY FIRST IMPRESSION OF USA

Millions of books are written and millions of people have visited the country and each of them has had millions of things to say at different points of time but every experience is new and every visit is unique.... I was not particularly fascinated by the USA from very long and to be honest was not particular to come here or do anything here.  Mine was a typical middle class mental block and it was one of the several ones I had . My friend SVS has been inviting me to visit him for more than a decade now .. I was not driven mentally emotionally or even at the desire level to ever visit this country .  Hence I even avoided to visit this place last 2 decades..


But our children will change everything for us ... Grusha my sweetheart changed my world view . I resisted her idea of wanting to come here ( usa) and pleaded her to study law, media, management in best of college in India but her focus, her determination , more importantly her clarity made me  fall in line with her need and ambition .    I started understanding and knowing the country better , merely be being receptive about everything in the USA.. I am happy to admit that quality of living ( not just the known comforts and communications ) and in particular the predictable and consistent systemic respect for co humans  are more authentic and comforting .  That was a key determinant change factor of perception for me. And I have no shame in admitting  all my bias was owing to lack of wanting to know . Thanks to grusha and changes in India in last in the last couple of years , I am now more open to know world outside ..

USA  as everyone knows is a tough place for the brand new comers unless of course you have a great and  caring friends like sai dinakar and Keerthi who made me feel at home and have given the best that any hosts can do. Being in Boston was more like being at a known place . Travelled on car everywhere under their guidance and advise and life was damn simple and exciting . Shopping malls was tiring but inevitable as we were virtually setting up a home for grusha. The terrific patience and care of Sai Dinakar in all matters especially shopping was not only useful but very touching . Driving down twice to Hampshire was a great boon . There is this feel and look of Europe in Boston, and may be more englandish is what I told grusha when the flight was landing and indeed there are reasons to feel so.  I loved the European influence in Boston. How can I ever describe what I felt entering , smelling and believing that I visited Harvard and MIT. It's almost like a fairy tale . But than, except just express the liking for the place , I do not have the authority and competence to talk about the life and greatness of USA.


There is this dissatisfaction and unacceptability of why there is no transport like in India ? Why is there no enough people to talk . . But aren't these questions not silly ? USA is USA and we can't expect this to be like India. But which ever place , what ever is the comfort , without few people who are our inner circle, all that will cease to have a meaning . This is Indian middle class mind set and nothing wrong though misfit in situations like here.

I am bowled over by the systems, impersonality and  how one can depend on technology here.  If you are tech savvy, and can appreciate systems, best place to live here as nothing can wrong with you . Everything is updated and dependable . People are polite but do not expect warmth . I am wondering , what right, authority or eligibility I have to say anything about the place , where I am just a week old and too in the totally protected hosts and driven around safely and beautifully including twice to Hampshire and once to Quincy market . Hampshire is like all our hill stations in India and can never go wrong on seasons.

But but after grusha is dropped to her campus and I come back, USA INDIA and all places in the world seem the same.. It's all empty, lifeless and endless.  It's the people that make the places wonderful.

my good fantastic perception about Usa .. May be each region , place has its own distinctiveness and differences .  I have hardly explored any of those . But 2 things have made feel confident about this place and in this place .  One is that , you can depend on the technology and systems .  Be it navigating thru GPS, parking lots, updated information on the net about every single thing and almost error free public systems . I did not experience the power of people on roads like policemen, or any other person... They also seem not to exist .. But power in terms of money is crucial and that determines the good living versus difficult living ... Nothing else.


I am still not qualified to write anything about this country as I am here only since a week and that too going around with the secured caring people . Just to have a sample of experience, I just took a stroll on the streets ..  God, there was only me walking around and it felt so awkward.  In fact at one point I even got scared.  I saw thecop and didn't dare to look at him.  I felt what do I answer if he asks me ... Where am I heading and why am I walking ?  In India I got scared to walk as I cannot cross the road, I get suffocated at dust, smoke, sound and unruly traffic and here I got scared at the chaotic loneliness and total contrast to India .

After that scare I just headed towards a mall and felt more settled . Sai called me just then and assured that cops don't question even I was awkwardly walking all alone as long as I am walking by the side. Then I started thinking inwards and asked myself if I can be all by myself here without depending on someone . I felt it is indeed possible if  we have money to afford a car and few friends who u can talk to and meet often ..  Suddenly some emptiness dawned on me and felt what is happening ?

It was just the off Shoot of the pain of leaving grusha behind yesterday ...  It was good as long as she was with me and now everything seems unimportant and unexciting . May be for me , it's not places but people are important and with people around, I may love places like USA which are better place to live than India ... But without inner circle people , any place is empty and with our people, village, ganji, stroll , black and white tv , bajjis are enough . Hence I am glad I got exposed to some part of USA

But my country is not giving me that support , that Honesty, that innocence, that simplicity...... It is not the place that I grew up with and not the place that this generation wants to see.    So I don't mind grusha to USA, but not the ideal situation as probably I am that simple who would miss her with single breath , every single good, bad experience and want her physical presence to see and talk to her, to hug her . Nothing is ideal in this world and changes are the reality . Grusha has the maturity, balance and clarity to adapt to new situations and hence she will rock. I will try to make the best of my holiday by spending time with my best buddy SVS at dallas. i reached this place yesterday , 27th Tuesday at 3 pm. First impressions, not beautiful, not extravagant like boston but here spending time with svs is crucial.


Once again i realized that, which ever place it is, what ever we do, the following are important..  Know ourselves from deep inside and conquer all that causes emptyness in us, accept all changes and keep sailing by keeping larger value systems in tact . Give the new generation all the needs to expereince the world , be contemporary and most importanly spread the radiance of happiness.  All it takes is wanting to be happy and not look for something to be happy.  But having said all this, I am notsure how will i miss grusha after i get back to india . Hopefully my learnings here and use of technology better, skype, viber, whatssapp and traditional calling should help.... to be contd  .

TELANGANA.. SCHUMACHER, ALVIN TOFFLER, COMMON MAN AND A THOUGHT

One of my well wisher and friend Mr Rajesh asked me to write a blog on Separation of AP...I was wondering what I can write as I did not have definite view / opinion or agreement/disagreement on the issue. I was not sure and am still uncertain of the implications that this decision will lead to. Like its happening in all aspects of life, its difficult to arrive at the absolute truth as to what is right and for whom? Why was this decision taken? Its easy perhaps to conclude but i believe in world drama and the author GOD cannot be questioned or proved wrong. How many decisions in our own life are 100% own and how many actually happened because they had to? 

2 days after the congress announced this decision, i was going in an Auto rickshaw early in the morning to attend to one of my daily practises. The journey of 4 kms was so pathetic that, i felt i actually travelled on a mountain which does not have the road. The road was orthopaedic doctor’s delight and was literal hell. Apart from my suffering, i was feeling very sad for the auto guy as he has to put up with this 12 hours a day and all his life.. How sad his life must be? Hence these decisions like telangana or united AP, will not alter their life as life goes on for the majority the same way as they were as they will continue to be poor, vulnerable and exploited. This is the scenario across india as we are witnessing acute penury of leadership and not anything else. 

Then i came back and chatted up with my watchman who is from some place in Godavari district. He was very vehement and said his life does not change as the apartment guys aren’t any way going to stop exploiting him and they will continue to pay him less. My home helper echoed the same feelings. But there is hope for many and despair for many. As of now, both hope and despair are at the perception level only.  I felt, probably the most affected people would be businessmen, government employees of all cadres immediately and about the rest, time will tell. Many of the repercussion could still be environmental and normal social changes influenced. No one can say for sure about what could happen based on this decision. It will all be hypothetical and imaginary as of now.

But i just thought about my child hood and Hyderabad and AP. The first time i ever heard about telangana movement was in mid seventies when my father said that, there was commotion and protest in one theatre of Hyderabad when a song from telugu film referred to bhagyanagaram ( Hyderabad) as the place of 3 crores Andhra people. I quite found it amusing when i was 8 year old as to why people had issues about just a song.

 Later on, may be before 80’s i remember quite a few people grumbling and complaining that, the so called original people from Hyderabad are not able to buy property locally but people from Andhra are doing it all around. Even then, i could not connect to that thinking, as for me it was people who could afford and who had opportunities versus people who did not have and nothing to do with the region. I come from a family who settled in Hyderabad for more than 6 generations and over 200 years and the essence of Hyderabad is communal harmony, love, acceptance of all cultures and laid back attitude. 

We had all communities and all languages influences in sultan bazaar, koti, esamia bazaar, kutbiguda, kachiguda area( THE CBD) and for us Chikkadpalli, Nallakunta and secunderabad was very far and crossing of chaderghat was unheard. Life in these areas of original twin cities, was uncomplicated and unassuming. We were not ambitious not wanted to have wealth. It was all about living happy and eating well. Only cricket and sometimes hockey got us the Indian feeling.  And of course, elders at home and teachers in school were always driving the patriotic fervor to keep us feel good about our country. August 15^th and 26^th January hence were great days of excitement and emotion.

Honestly until we saw tamas the television series on DD, not much was known to common general persons like me about the pain and impact of partition of India . We Hyderabadis were oblivious to most pains that the country faced. Only in 1979, we witnessed curfew and disturbance erupted owing to some freak incidents. Hyderabad welcomed all people, all cultures and all regions and accepted as one.. We still live in the same glory.

May be during early 80’s telugu movies started have telangana lingo for comedy acts and comedians and we also saw traces of such stereotypes in some places like college theatre and all that.. There were protests and objections, but never had a bigger and dominant voice to make a mark.. Life went on, until some political moves, complications, societal changes got the movement more seriousness and what it went thru is known and history now.

At the personal level, i was influenced by the book SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL” and Third Wave.. At the global level we witnessed too many changes and economic revolutions; globalization had the side effect called disintegration of joint family. People resisted and financial compulsions made everyone accept the nuclear families, with huge struggle at the individual and societal level. So i felt why not small states. My studies in MA sociology also allowed me the space to think of encouraging smaller states for better focus, attention and governance and not political reasons. But that view is nothing pertaining to any one state or region. That opinion is very theoretical in nature.

In conclusion i have this opinion.. Honestly we are all spectators and we have been only spectators on many issues in this country, in the absence of secured leadership at all levels. Bankruptcy, penury of leadership is the biggest concern and hence anyone, anywhere and for anything we can all be taken for a ride. Hence its our duty not to brood, or be pretentious or shed crocodile tears on issues where we cannot do much. WHAT WE CAN SURELY DO IS ACCEPT THE GODS DRAMA AND BE MORE TOLERANT, SHED ALL HATRED AND PAROCHIALISM OF ALL KINDS AND TREAT HUMANS AS HUMANS AND NOT ON DIVISIONS.. we didn’t have a choice as how we are born, where we are born and why we are born. But we do have choice to make our living and peoples living more peaceful, meaningful and happy. So does it matter if we are divided by boundaries, language , culture, needs? We are one and we will be one.. The spirit is important and i am not votary of any division nor am i critical if something has happened. I feel we can all be peaceful however we are or else we only waste time brooding and in negativity. At the individual level stop propagating hatred and confusion and world will be a better place to live.