Minister Jam

There have been so many times, where I have been caught stranded in the middle of the road in the traffic jam, waiting for some ministers to cross. I kind of call them "minister Jams".

But I was wondering if there is any rule which says that ministers should be given the first preferences on the road or it is just power that they use for their comfort. I do understand that ministers time is more important than my time so in a way giving some preference to him might be justified, but I always wonder the fate of those ambulances which get caught in this so called Minister Jam.

I distinctly remember that sometime back when I had done the interview of traffic policeman, he had pointed out the pain and the tension they have to undergo when ministers come. Not only they have to hear all the grumblings of people, but a single mistake is like great sin.

So thinking if there are any such rules, of clearing roads for politicians, or whatever? Tried to Google, but I dont know right terms to search for this, it gives all kinds of hits. Does anyone have any idea?

Cant think of any title

When I was about to leave for US, my boss told me that if you want to meet anyone in the US office you will have to set up a meeting with them, else they are not going to meet you. I find it very odd, and I also find it very time wasting effort of syncing up time zones and playing around with outlook calender and trying to set up meetings and then rescheduling and more rescheduling.

I keep wondering that are people in US so impolite that they would not want to chat up with someone who has come from so far off for brief fifteen minutes, what kind of work makes you so busy that you cannot even spare time for fifteen minutes, What kind of planning is that, which does not allow you to share a joke with someone. yups you can be in one of those days, but that does not happen everyday. Contrast this with the case when these people come to India, most of us are like take out time to make sure that he/she is comfortable, and I was wondering why would US folks not do the same. Did they not care?

I wonder why should we when we come from India should start behaving differently when we are in US office, why should we try to dress up, and talk like the way other people do here. I think it is ok if I dont know that freeways means roads where there are no signal, it is ok not to be able to distinguish between different coins. Not to know that coffee generally here means no milk inside, and that most people here call milk the cream, and brinjal the egg plant, and the closest thing to rotis is burritos, and that I have to press the button when I want to cross the road.

But since the time I have come here, things have been very different from what people in India told me. People are as eager to chat without calenders, people are keen to accompany you for lunch, and even sponser it for you most of the times, eager to spot you that difference between octopus, and chicken, (that day the guy told me that the stuff I eat was octopus, I did not believe him though), order the taxi for you or to drop you to the place you want to go.

The other day, I went to this mexican dance festival, it was over air amphitheater, and it was dance based on themes, and the guy was speaking everything in Spanish, but thankfully the lady next to me was Mexican (And I guess most mexicans speak Spanish) and I kept bugging her, and she kept translating each and everything from Spanish to English. I even sang her "La Bamba" for her, with which she was very impressed :).

I actually dont remember why I started writing this post, but I get irritated when people try to be what they are not and expect me to do the same, because I am what and how I am, and I cant be otherwise, else I will cease to be me.

About this Blog

If you land up on this blog for first time, then you are going to get confused for sure. This blog has no specific pattern, and I do not write about anything specific area as such. Hence you will find that this blog has everything from "small stories", to "travel Logs", to "Startups" to "Profiling of some NGOs".

Well my intention of maintaining this blogs is just to share things/events/places/thoughts that I find interesting and I guess others might like to know. And since my interests are so varied there are loads of mix masala on this blog.


Many times I thought that I should split this blog in to multiple blogs, but then I am having so much trouble maintaining this blog. Will do that sometime in future, when I have more time. But soon I will implement "tags", that would make it little easier to browse.

If you have not and if you have not, you can spend some time on "Recommended reads" and on NGOpost.

One advice for potential bloggers,
For potential bloggers, do not start a blog on blogger, changing anything is so very difficult.

Cheers.
--
Goli (Edited last in Aug 08)

Things dont change much..

"Do you want to come to the bar/disc?" asked my friend

It was 9:30PM, and I had just reached US couple of hours back, and I was supposed to be to be jet Lagged... and my eyes were already closing.

"Abey chal yaar, will show you US" he added.

And you know, I have never learnt to say No to anything..

Ten minutes later we were driving, to go to some place called Santana Square. And we entered the place called Rosie, after the big guy at the door made sure by looking at my driving license if I was above 21.

This place reminded me very much of Spin in Bangalore, crowded with all kinds of people, Music was pulling me in to plunge inside and just dance, but I was little skeptical, to venture in to that sea of people, I thought it was a bad idea to come there, wanted to go and sleep. I was standing in corner, absently looking at people, clothes, shoes, and then nothing in particular.

And out of nowhere appeared this two girls, I would not say girls, or ok maybe girls, some 30'ish types, (one of them had a great smile), and they came and were like "hi how are you?", and thats it. And next thirty minutes turned out to be my best time in US till now. I started dancing, then dancing and kept on going. And had probably Don Williams seen me he would have been happy, because as he says in one of his songs..."Dance like nobody is watching" It was Hip hop... so trying all those, ya, yo kind of dance, with all kinds of stupid gestures, and smiling and laughing all the way to glory.

It is not a great thing, and you might think what this stupid gibberish is all about. But when I was just driving back home in the car, I somehow felt very good about the whole thing, I felt very happy. Images of dim lit dance floor, couple of girls, whom probably am never going to meet again in my life, I shouting them in the ears about India, and they shouting back in my ears about their stuff about US, talking and smiling about various things, doing a big cheers with glasses in hand. These images I am going to carry back home.

More than that I started realizing that poeple are more or less same everywhere, a little smile and little bit of Ye Ye... gets things started. I thought that I had become very pessimistic about US, and started hating this place out of pre conceived notions. But I guess it has got more to do with your attitude then with the place. I can make it bleak, or I can make it happening. There are always people waiting to be touched and waiting to be talked to.

And I honestly that enthu and smiles of those two girls I have been carrying since, to my sales conference and to the first two days. Probably I could not have had a better first day at US :).

Lots more to write, about this trip, about divorces, tequilas, starbucks coffee, Karoke night, and hotel receptionist... but will do. Now to sleep.

The US dream...

As soon as I enter IIT, my dream was to head out of this country and go to US. All the fourth year students were doing the same, desperately trying to get to write SOPs, talking all the time about US. The mess tables were filled with stories about adventures and mis(s)-adventures of all desi babus in the US. Everything you heard looked great, US was great, India looked backward.

But I dont know somewhere down the line, as I finally reached my final year that urge completely died down, I did not want to go to US, and I think it was mostly because I did not want to stay away from my family, and I wanted to try myself at job first. But then bangy life since day one has been so happening that never really thought of going off to US.

But anyways, this new marketing job and I was all set to go to US for couple of weeks. So all this thoughts crossed my mind again, and yups I was set and excited to see this new country.

Nothing to write about flight and all, it was as normal and mundane as it is always, with the fake smiles of air hostesses (I really think that thier job is difficult), and small small packets of jam, sugar, and pepper really amuse me. They are much like used to have when we used to play Ghar Ghar as kids, just that they were not as elaborately packed as this ones.

Reach San Jose and there was this friend of mine who picked me up from Airport. And I was so impressed with the roads and all. And trust me he has such a lovely house, ample parking space, and a park and a golf course. I went inside and it had all the facilities, kitchen, hot water and everything. And it was so peaceful, I could sit there and read a book, could just go and heat something in micro wave and eat. All the technolgy for everything, life is as comfortable as it can ever get. I was wondering why dont I think of spending some part of my life in US. this place was fantastic...

But half and hour there, and I started missing something, I did not feel good about it, I was missing noise, and I was missing people on streets, and I was looking for some face to talk to, and it was not there. There was this whole feeling of loniliness that was creeping inside me. Nothing was looking interesting anymore. I did not want to call because I was on international roaming and further was sure most of the India was sleeping. So then I did what I could do best, open the lappy, connected to net, and was on Google Talk, and as always there were always couple of people to talk to :)

More later...
Laptop discharging and no power adapter and eyes full of sleep..