Independent India

We left Mumbai in the wee hours of Independence day. Every trip to India, especially the metros shows how rapidly the country is changing (On this trip we visited Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai).

The Mumbai we visited 3 years ago and the Mumbai today shows a marked difference. The "goshala" which was visible from the apartment window is now an 18 story building. The sunset from the 6th floor window is not an available sight anymore. There are 4 high rises between the window and the sun.

There is a 6 story mall in Chembur that beats the local mall here in Cupertino hands down. Similar stores, similar prices, same "sales" and "deals", International food courts with popular Indian food chains thrown in, movie theaters with seat reservations and reclining seats and digital projection, Cleaning crews that regularly clean the floors every 5 minutes, paid parking lots, super clean restrooms, etc. etc.

India has also caught up or gone farther than the USA on some of the bad stuff. There is a security check with two metal detectors and a guard and a frisking booth to enter a mall. Same thing for any big restaurant, public park, etc. etc. The population should have gotten used to being checked and frisked at least 4-5 times a day as part of the daily routine.

The big cities have also learnt how to segregate the poor and hide them from the eyes of visitors for the most part. In the US, you don't see poor people in the suburbs. If you go to San Francisco you see homeless folks and beggars but not in huge numbers. The last visit to Mumbai had lots of poor folks trying to make a living and lots of beggars everywhere you went, from the airport to the busy road sides. This trip we did not see beggars. It is like they have all disappeared or relocated! The poor folks trying to sell trinkets to make a living were still there.

Still this experience stood out..

5-7 years ago when I was more hot blooded and less pragmatic, there would have been a different reaction to this 5-6 year old kid selling Indian flag pins few days before Independence day on a busy road where he was risking his life to make a few bucks (in all probability for someone else). Now that I am older and more sober to the reality of the world the way it is today, was content enough to pin the flags on my little girls and watch the smile on the kids face as he took the 10 rupee note.

If the poor go out of sight, they will soon go out of mind, if it is not the situation already!

The young twenty somethings in the metros who have salaries that allow them to spend and go to malls, especially with the lifestyle of living with their parents have become "americanized", not only in how they talk, dress, eat, shop, but also with the way they seem to treat the poor as unfashionable.

In the US it is okay to wait tables, it is okay to be part of a clean up crew as a "summer job" or a means to make a few bucks. I know kids who work the local grocery store as clerks and the local movie theater here at the ticket booth whose parents are well to do. That needs to catch up in India. That way there is a respect for everyone who does any job. That would be a welcome change.

A kid like that going to school and selling trinkets as a part time job from a safe store on the sidewalk would be an equally welcome change!

More travelogs to follow...

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Happy 4th

The two of us watched the fireworks and came home a few minutes ago..

We made the mistake of sitting in front of some high school kids. This one kid kept talking non stop and tried to crack silly jokes about "America" and the fireworks and probably spoiled the experience for everyone around a 20 feet perimeter.

Here are some photographs..

Independence, freedom, democracy... sincerely hope these words bring a positive feeling and context to a lot more folks across the globe by next 4th of July.

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Happy 4th !!!

Or should we say "belated" happy 4th, since it is already past midnight!

This year, the 4th of July was celebrated at "Roaring Camp" which included a nice train ride through redwood forests.

This was followed by some activities for kids (you can see Jr. and the little one trying to do some Hula Hoops in the video.. note the little one trying a hoop with a diameter larger than her height).

Then daddy took the kids to watch Fireworks with K. while the ladies went to watch the latest Hindi Movie with ARR songs, which for some reason is sold out, playing in the local english movie theaters as well!

All said and done, a fine day.. but.. but.. but..

Daddy made the mistake of formating his CF card just before the fireworks, forgeting the fact that he never downloaded the roaring camp photos from the camera! All may not be lost as there are apparently some software out there that can retreive the formated photos, provided we buy a card reader that can show up as an external drive on the laptop!

We have our fingers crossed..

In other news, Bush and Bush Sr. of the house have mandated that daddy edit them out of the video for this blog post!

That was not easy.

1. The guide told us so many interesting things on the train and I wanted to have all that in the video.
2. The ladies planted themselves right between me, the kids and the driver and made it next to impossible to get them out of the frame!
3. I could have been that dude from the next coach taking a video of the whole thing with GWB and GWBS who is possibly posting it on youtube right now with them in the frame!

It is high time the democrats in this house came to power!

Seriously, learnt so many new things today..

a. Switchbacks and how they work
b. redwood tree seeds lay dormant for upto nine hundred years.
c. The seeds germinate only after a forest fire. A forest fire is almost a must to get the next generation of seeds to sprout. Had no idea! For some strange reason this got memories of Gavaskar and Tendulkar .. on a freaking narrow gage train up a mountain!
d. I still love cricket, somewhere in the back of my head!
e. Most of the trees we saw today were 300+ feet tall and were >1000 years old!
f. Butterflys love a steam bath or at least excess moisture. From out of nowhere a bunch of butterflies came to enjoy the steam puffs from the engine.

and much much more, like how to switch from standard to night vision in my camcorder, how to possibly retrieve images from a formatted CF card, etc. etc.

A day well spent. Here is the video....

Next years July 4th will be interesting.

A different president!
A different US of A!
A different world?
A more powerful daddy?

Only time will tell!

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Naughty Naughty Naughty

Pictures of the little one at her mischievous best during an afternoon spent at the local park!

I had just gotten out of a serious headache that afternoon. So I parked my "you know what" at the edge of the slide area and started taking pictures.

Jr., a happy go lucky kid who is always smiling, sat down on the bench for a second between her running around. For a fleeting moment I saw a serious side to her that I have never seen before. Do not know what made her so thoughtful for a few seconds. She was off and running again in no time.

Wishing all Americans a happy 4th of July! Let us hope this year brings better things for the US of A. Oil independence, an end to the war, better politics, and everything else the majority of Americans are said to want in opinion polls but somehow never happen!

Surprisingly, Jr. is being taught in school that 4th of July is America's Birthday(not Independence day!). Maybe they are trying to rewrite the history books and remove the "I" word. Maybe they dont want people to think that Independence implies a dependence at some point prior to the Independence?

Jr. came home and declared that it is America's birthday and we celebrate it with fireworks and no school for tomorrow. I did not want to explain the concept of Independence or dependence to Jr. after a long and tiring day. That can wait for some time later.

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