Are Indians too hard on India ?

... I think we are ...

Everytime I land in Chennai, I am inevitably one of the last people in the queue for Immigration (because I have this fixation for the emergency exit row in the back of the plane). And there is a long queue usually, because most flights to India are 747's. I am usually extremely impatient at this point and cursing India and everybody in the Bureau of Immigration. The longest its taken me is about 25 minutes.

And you know what, the shortest time immigration has taken for me in the US is 40 minutes ! And I have never ever complained about that.

I think we are too quick to criticize India and too slow to criticize the Western World.

Chinese Investments in Africa

I have been reading with interest the slew of investments China has been making in Africa recently ... This serves two purposes for China - Firstly, it gives them access to resources such as Bauxite and Copper that they lack (and desperately need). In addition, they have the opportunity to exercise their imperialistic ambitions there.

The US has always been the country that invades tiny countries and installs some friendly puppet ruler who allows them to plunder the country's resources and affords the US easy and preferential access to the country's markets. The net result usually is an economy that is completely bankrupted by large construction projects that have been foisted on the country (to the benefit of the Halliburtons of the world), and addicted desperately to the "aid" offered by the US.

What if China continued down this path ? What if the Chinese threw cheap investment yuans to these poor African countries, helped install a tyrant in power and exploited the country's resources ? Or, maybe they would use the principles of "communism" to win over the oppressed masses in Africa.

Either way, China, its money, its investments and its army are going to play a role in Africa, a very significant role. And of course, with the cost of production rising in China, Americans already believe that China is going to be hit big-time. What if China starts trying to control (literally or financially) all the places that could be cheaper than it ?

VS Rao & KE Raman

This post isnt going to make much sense for non-BITSians ...

I am sure most of you must have heard about the start of construction at the proposed BITS, Pilani - Hyderabad Center. I was surprised and very pleased to hear that my favorite professor from Pilani, Dr. VS Rao has been named Director-Designate for the Hyderabad campus.

Which got me thinking of how much politics amongst the faculty mirrors/mirrored student politics (with splits across the Illad (Tamilians), Gults (Andhraites) and Choms (North Indians)). Look at who were the three Deputy Directors during Venky's term - KE Raman, VS Rao and LK Maheswari !

And now that VS Rao has his Directorship, I am sure that the BITS, Pilani - Tamil Nadu center cannot be far behind (with KE R as the director, no doubt !)

Desi Pundit

Desipundit is definitely one of the most popular blogs with a focus on India. It is an aggregator of well-written posts from a variety of blogs.

Most of the times the posts that are featured on Desipundit are quirky, off-beat and sorta cutesy. The focus is not on well-written "regular" posts but on the quirky posts, even at the expense of literary cohesiveness.

I wonder if just like some movies are seemingly made just for the Oscars, are some posts being written purely to be featured on Desipundit ....

Millionaire

I had this goal of becoming a "self-made" millionaire by the age of 25. My 25th birthday came and went and although I am still 25, I thought that the chance that I would be a millionaire was quite remote !

But then today, I became a millionaire, in an unexpected manner ....

No, I did'nt sell my company....
I didnt win the lottery either ....

Mr. Charles Abacha, son of the former president of Nigeria, has promised me $4 Million for letting him use my bank account ... :-)

The American Point of View

Here is a list of some of the comments/questions I have been receiving from my American colleagues/friends when I have told them about my engagement or shown them the pictures from my engagement:

• Can she speak English ?
• Can she speak Tamil ?
• How many cows are you getting as dowry ;-) (This was sort of tongue in cheek)
• Is the application of kumkum powder a test for virginity ? (Wonder which crazy-ass missionary made that up !)
• Why didnt you bring her to the US with you ? (People, what part of traditional arranged marriage do you not understand ?!)
• So, I guess you must be planning a big wedding ? 250 people or so ? (Hmm, there will probably be about 500 drivers at the wedding ;-)
• Will she wear a purdah ?

Its incredible how many misconceptions still exist about Indians, and Indian society, over here. If I as much of a hot-headed Indo-chauvinist as I was in 2002, things would have been intolerable, but I take the stupider of the questions in my stride nowadays ...

One month anniversary ...

Arranged marriages - Thats the topic for the day.

For those who are unfamiliar with the process of an arranged marriage, here is how it goes. Incidentally, any similarity to our story is purely incidental and coincidental ;-)

• Boy's parents decide that its time to clip his wings and get him to produce some grand-kids. His photo (typically in front of the Taj Mahal, on the Empire State Building, at the Grand Canyon, maybe even skiing on the alps, a graduation day snap or besides his fancy car) is photoshopped to perfection. This is called the "shaadi.com snap" !
• Girl's parents are chastised by about 229 elders about the criminality of letting a girl stay unmarried beyond the age of 20. The girl is taken to a photographers, where a couple of strong arc lights extract the Madhuri Dixit in her (A few minutes before, she was just taught how to wear a sari by her mother, who will wear a perpetually harassed look for the next few months). The father drags the photographer and personally promises him about 10% of his networth if only he can erase the scowl off his daughter's face :-)
• The photographs and "bio-data" are then put into circulation. I have heard of some bio-datas that beat the Deccan Chronicle in circulation, a couple of times. And the bio-data itself, thats a work of art, nuff said.
• There is an old tamil saying that says that its quite alright to tell a thousand lies to get a marriage fixed. Most Tamil families take this quite literally, and the boy and girl are elevated to dizzying heights of perfection. The girl is a very down to earth person, very adjusting, unassuming, does not gossip much, reads a lot, is a good host, a great cook and makes the best icecreams in the world.
• Several well meaning relatives and friends suggest different alliances with varying degrees of unsuitability.
• Both sets of parents are disturbed by the lack of suitable alliances and curse a variety of things - The curliness of their daughter's hair, the fact that the son failed a unit test in Standard IX, the squint eye of a driver, the Tamil Nadu government, George Bush, Hurricane Katrina, Veerapan and then the evergreen scapegoat, the mother-in-law !
• They then immerse themselves in a variety of pujas and promise offerings of anything from hair (not their own in most cases) to pilgrimages, to a bizarre offering of a Hyundai (I am not making this up - The car was then used by the parent, with God as his "co-driver". Hmmmm.)
• Finally, the photos of our hero and heroine end up in the right places.
• Now, who will take the first step ? And who will be the messenger be ? Once these critical questions are answered, there are several delicately arranged meetings, which when negotiated lead to a level of comfort between the two families.
• Then a date is fixed for the boy and girl to meet. Both families tell their respective children that if they don't like the potential partner, they should feel free to tell them. The mothers then add in an undertone, "Yup, feel free to say no, but it might just kill me, not that you should care !". Relatives call from 6 continents (Nadars have not settled in Antarctica yet - The retail/wholesale market there isnt too hot !) to let the boy and girl know about the immense suitability of the alliance.
• The boy and girl meet and the girl has resolved that unless the boy has a fit right there and dies, she will marry him. The boy is just praying that she has two good eyes ...
• But, you know what, inevitably, the match is superb, and there is an instantaneous chemistry between the two and there is no question to answer, its obvious, they belong together

That, in my mind, is the greatness of arranged marriage - The fact that time and again, this process of networking, filtration and matching results in excellent matches. I dont know how it happens, but it does ....

PS: Lots of people have requested that I post some pics of my fiance, but the boss has put her foot down on my posting her snaps online. So, if you do wish to see a picture of the two of us, please petition her directly at shyna@ideamani.com (And if you want to know why I call her Shyna, you can ask her that as well ;-)

PS II: Its a month since I was first shown Shyna's photograph !

Candid Camera for Politicians

I was just watching an episode of the Bill Maher show on HBO. He had a couple of militant guests on this particular episode and they kept talking about how the US was being run by corporations and their political contributions, with the K Street lobbyists as their proxies. They talked about the amounts of money flowing from the corporations into the Political Action Committees run by each Senator and Congressman.

This leads to lavish dinners and expensive vacations for lawmakers being bartered for political considerations. Corruption, that is not as blatant as in India, but quite disgusting in any case.

And this got me thinking ... There are so many supermarket tabloids (Star, InStyle etc ..) that have paparazzi follow celebs to their vacations, to dinner, to hospitals etc in order to take candid pictures of them at their most glamorous and at their worst.

I wish we could have something similar for politicians, with paparazzi photographing Senators and Congressmen at their expensive junkets and their lavish dinners ...

Whats been happening (Also titled "I love Air India")

So, I am in the US now. Its mostly a marketing/client interaction trip this time. I was invited to speak at a conference in Florida on Thursday morning - I was excited about this opportunity as several of my potential clients would be attending.

So, I booked my tickets on Air India such that I would land at Newark at 4:30 PM on Wednesday, and then also got a flight ticket from Newark to Jacksonville, Florida for 7:30 PM that evening.

Sounds good, so far ?

Well, when I get to Mumbai Airport, I find that the flight to Newark is delayed by five hours, which means that I won't get to Newark until 9:30 PM. I get on the phone with Orbitz trying to reschedule my Newark-Florida flight. And I spend about 15 minutes (I kid you not) spelling my name out - Well, it does have 22 characters, but still ! Finally, I find out that there is no flight from Newark to Jacksonville after 8 PM, and there are no flights to any other airport in Florida or from any of the other New York area airports.

I am all set to rent a car and drive all night from Newark, but I realized that this still would not have helped as the drive would take atleast 15 hours ....

At this point, I was just fuming at Air India because this conference was an incredibly amazing opportunity. I strolled past the Air India counter and realized that they had a flight to Chicago that was leaving in 32 minutes. I walk about to this guy there (Nauley) and I ask him if they can put me on this flight. With all that I have heard in the past about Air India's unfriendliness, I am prepared for them to give me a bunch of dumb excuses ....

But, that did not happen ... Nauley called three of his colleagues and gave each of them an assignment - One was to re-open the Chicago flights booking system, another was to change the data they transmit to the US Immigration folks and another was to walk with me to the baggage sorting facility to pull my bag from the Newark flight.

So, I walk down to the sorting facility and I am taken to a container (which is right besides a 747, which is MASSIVE when you stand beneath it) and asked to find the suitcase. About 6 people get involved trying to find my suitcase. I tell them that its green, and they find suitcases in every shade of green, before finally finding mine. Its put on a nearby truck and moved to the Chicago flight.

I then sprint up to the terminal, where Nauley (and colleagues) are waiting with a new boarding card and a security escort who takes me through the boarding gate (which is closed by now). I board the flight and then spend about 15 minutes trying to buy a ticket from Chicago to Jacksonville (But thats another story !)

But, all in all, I was and am very pleased with the way the Air India ground staff handled the situation.

Hmm, and yeah, the Jacksonville meeting went exceptionally well :-)

Thanks Air India.

Kovil Restaurant ...

At the end of every semester at Pilani, we would pile into a Haryana Transportation buses from Pilani, bound for New Delhi's Railway Station. Our train to Chennai would usually be at 10 PM in the night, and we would invariably roam around Connaught Place between 6 and 9 PM.

Being the end of the semester, I would never have more than fifty rupees ... During other times in the semester, I would maybe have one hundred :-) And without fail, everytime, me and my friends would land up in front of a restaurant called Kovil, a South Indian restaurant. We would look at it, hungrily, knowing that our fifty rupees would not even cover half the price of a soup.

I never went in there.
I want to. Its this unfulfilled desire in my mind, to go in there and eat ... One day ...