My country India

I have been staying in the U.S. for more than 5 years now ... well yes, its not that long! but it seems like it has been a long time since I have been away from my Motherland. While growing up in India, I always thought of the U.S. as the super powerful nation, which had abundance of resources, where everyone has great opportunities ... (which is true). In me, somewhere there was a hidden dream of visting this nation atleast once in my lifetime. Even though I would deny that I wanted to come to the U.S. when confronted:). I must say, I definitely had a culture shock when I came to the US. I remember staying in an apartment for 2 years, and not knowing my neighbors. That is so different from India. If I were in India, my neighbor would have invited me for lunch or dinner, the very first day I moved into an apartment, to get aquainted. There is a sense of community in India. Another thing that appalled me was, people in the US are very concerned of their privacy. People here need space (a lot of it). Kids after the age of 18 no longer want/prefer to stay with their parents - they need privacy:). Well, it is the culture here, and it would be seen as a social stigma if one stayed with his/her parent after the age of 18. Yeah right! In India, I have stayed with my parents, till I got married:). Parents in the US do not spank their kids - it is an act of physical abuse. In India if we come up with such stupid regulations, then 9 out of 10 parents would serve life-time imprisonment:). I would not deny the fact that US is a place of free will ... yes, you can choose what you want to study - it is not just medicine or engineering (as it is case in India - large population in India prefer to major in one of these areas), but in the US, people do PhDs in music, foreign languages, etc. You see what I am saying? Americans are therefore well rounded and are somehow more creative. Also, in the US, merit is truely given credit. People with merit can go places. You might ask me how did Bush become the President of US then (and was also re-elected)? Was it his merit? Well, I am not talking about people in politics - I am talking about common people. People adhere to rules and regulations. One cannot bribe a cop and get out of the crime. Hmm ... in India, actors/actresses/wealthy clan come out clean after any offense they commit. In India, money takes you places! In the past 60 years after Independence, we have had our own tensions ... from neighboring countries, and within our own people ... riots and strikes. Inspite of all these things ... inspite of the cultural and religious diversity, inspite of the segregation between the rich and the poor, India has been one of the successful democratic nations, and is growing strong by the day. We the people, for the people, and by the people shall stand for each other, and make our country the super nation in the coming years! Amen!!

Update: I was re-reading this post and after so many years, Indian has changed so much. The India that I left is not longer the same country. Its a very advanced country, where every Indian has biometric ID card, taxations are better regularized, and a cleaner India (less bribe as well as better environmental changes which included movements like Swachcha Bharath.) There are more multiplexes, more Pizza Huts, McDonalds. There are more divorce rates, more independent females and more live-in relationships, more LGBT group coming out. Some change is for the better, but nevertheless, it is a different country now than what it was before.

US has to make strict regulations on owning guns!

Well, I am creating this post, after looking at the news reports and videos about the recent Virginia Tech shootings. News is flooded about the South Korean guy (Cho) who was a student at Virginia Tech. When asked about Cho, his fellow students, and roommates described him as a loner, a wierd guy, who hardly talked. Some said he was depressed.

Why is anyone not talking about the store or the person who sold him the guns and cartridges? In my opinion, that store person who sold him these ammunitions is to be blamed too. Couldn't he figure out to whom he was selling the guns? The ease with which anyone can own guns in the US is what freeks me out!

People in the US have been talking about the terrorist attacks since a long time now, sending soldiers to war to keep the nation safe. Is the nation really safe? This is not the first time such a shooting incident has happened ... there have been two such similar cases in the US before, this one being the deadliest. I guess, it is time, the congress really think of making the rules/regulations on owning or having acess to guns more stringent, to have a safer US.

Run Lola Run ...

I watched this movie Run Lola Run a couple of months ago. I was amazed and thrilled by this movie and felt how close it is to our lives. Whenever I come across any unfortunate incident, I remember this movie, and think to myself ... what if the clock had stopped ticking for 2 minutes or had ticked 2 minutes faster! This happened recently ... we went camping at a state park in Florida, with a bunch of other friends. We were 6 people all together. We reached there friday evening. Some of us pitched the tent, while the rest took care of fixing dinner. We had carried with us ready to eat stuff. Yummy, delicious food ... it was great! Later we all went into our tent, and played UNO and Cards. It was so much fun. Finally at about 1:00am we thought of going to bed. We said good night to each other, and went to sleep ... each one thinking about the next fun filled day. It was around 2:30am, when some of us heard a car zoom by very close to our tent. It scared some of us, but then we were relaxed as the sound faded away. After about 15 minutes, the car came very close to our tent again. This time, it was as if the car would just run over our tent. Almost everyone got up and sat upright, trying to come to their senses as quickly as possible, to understand what was happening. It seemed to us, as though the car had got caught into a ditch and the driver was trying hard to get it out. One of our friends, opened the window flap of our tent, and lo ... the car was facing us, just about 20 feet away from our tent. The car had a broken windshield. The driver had got out of the car trying to lift it from the rear end. Some of us came out of the tent, and asked him, if he required any help. May be the driver had not noticed us coming out of the tent, and looked somewhat startled, when he saw us. He quickly got into his car, and with all the energy, got his car out of the ditch, backed his car, and zoomed away insanely. While getting out his car from the ditch, it hit our car ... just a minor scratch on the bumper, which we saw after he had left. One lady from our neighboring campsite had been the witness to all this event. They called the cops, and the cops asked her and some of our friends all that had happened. They jotted down the description of the car, and the driver. 30 minutes later, another cop came, with the details about the driver. The cop said that the driver was arrested. Apparently, the driver was a hit and run case. He was in his teens, returning from the friday late night party, when he ran over a pedestrian. He had tried to escape from the scene, and had landed into the state park instead. He had hit a couple of picnic tables, after which he had finally landed into our campsite. What an unfortunate event this was ... when I think of the person who lost his life ... what if he had not been crossing that road that night? Thinking of the driver ... what if he started driving 2 minutes earlier or 2 minutes later? Who knows whats in store for all of us ... but after something like this happens ... then come questions like ... what if?