Interpreter of Maladies
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
I am scared of dreamsLife's unfair. Don't you and I know.
Why do we see dreams and hope to hope.
The days when we crawled to see the sky.
You held my hand and I held yours tight.
But the heavens turned their eyes aside.
We were always the loners in our empty sky.
You tell me, this world ain't meant for us
that we should run from it, far away
and I should see my dreams in your dreamless eyes
and thats how life will be every day.
I want to differ. To tell you, I am a dreamer
But no more. I am scared of dreams.
I am scared they might never turn true.
And I will lose both, the dreams, and you.
Choice isn't mine. It's not even yours.
It's his choice what he wants us as.
As puppets in his hands or birds in his sky.
I will live, if he lets you survive.
Fate is cruel. Don't you and I know.
Why do we see dreams and hope to hope.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
All hell broke looseJust when it seemed, I would be able to write a post on my happy USA stay story, it happened. I lost my passport-the night before setting off for home. All I could feel was desperation, wanted to kill myself for doing such a blunder. Just a week back, the local cleaner had lost two of my suits and the passport neatly tucked in the breast pocket of one of the suits slipped away. The flight was at 9.20 pm the other day and all that went across my mind in the morning was that I got to go home today. It was also my final day at work so there were so many bbyes to be said. After hurrying through a final evaluation, I ran to the embassy, only to find to my utter surprise that a plethora of documental and paperwork needed to be done for anything substantial to happen. I never cry in public..being the strong girl I have always thought I was. But, at that time I broke down. Nothing was happening and I felt so alone and lost in a foreign country. Missed home, missed friends and missed my country. With hours of running and hopeless crying, I was at square one even at 2 pm on the day, with not even a morsel of food in my stomach over more than 20 hours. It was then that Lehman reached out and talked to the deputy consulate general. The IIT-IIM connection sprang to action and in a moment, the consulate became extra genial to me. With most documentation taken care of, I was granted the duplicate passport at 4 pm on the same day. I was so touched by the support of a company, I was only interning for. I was also amazed at the kind of empathy an organization can show for its people and how much the IIT-IIM tag counts. I was relieved and burdened by the kindness. Running to the airport in a hurry, I was overjoyed at the prospect of seeing home in less than 48 hours.
Then, the bad luck wheel again poked its head up. I could not board the British Aairways flight bcoz it passed thorugh London and I did not have a valid transit UK visa. All I could board was a direct flight to India. Learning of this news at the nth hour..crashed me. It was so depressing that night, carrying back my luggage from the airport back home, not being sure even how will I ever reach home. I called up Lehman again, requesting them to fix a flight for me. With such a short notice, all I could get was a business class seat on Continental the only non stop flight between US and India. I wasn't crazy about travelling business class, knowing pretty well that all I earned in the last two months was being spent on this airplane seat just because I wanted to get back home ASAP. The service was excellent and the dinner was marvellous. I asked for a pinot noire Red Wine to soothe my nerves and drank a bit too much of it. Was utterly drunk in a few hours and slumped into the extendible seat. Opened my eyes, close to the time the plane landed. Being back at home was relieving and I wished my bad luck period had ended. I could not afford another round of misfortunes. What a last week !!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
The tourist in me-2Work again. And I am so not in the working mood. Its almost time to go home and I can feel the troubles of a new semester at business school knocking my head down. Between luncheons, dinners and breakfast meetings, I am slowly trying to wrap up my work and then gear up for a grilling flight back home.
Continuing the tourist update, I shan't miss talking about Niagara, the more tourist place to go. I wanted to see the falls because I had seen them in postcard photos and thought it would be great to see something so powerful and elegant by my own eyes. Niagara happens to be in New York-bet, you didn't know that-the state, I mean but it takes some 12 hours to just get to the place. Boarding the cheapest thing we could find on the internet, we finally set off on a sleepy Saturday morning. The thing that we bought on the net was a tourist tour done by a Chinese bus company-sounds shady !! I hate a bus tour simply coz it gives no time to you to o your own thing. You can't carry out your heart's will that is. But, at US of A, we did not find nething cheaper than this tour and finally succumbed to the cost benefit analysis.
The bus we boarded was full of INDIANS. Not for a moment would you feel homesick in that bus. It did have a few Chinese-the ratio would be 1:10 and even some Americans..!! The journey was a solid 12 hour haul with a break at a glass musician in the middle of nowhere. Corning Glass is the world's biggest glass making facility and the museum displayed history and facts abt glass. At best, it was okay. Didn't think twas nething great. It seemed to be more like an archway to the gift shop where Corning sells beautiful glass pieces priced in an outrageously insane fashion.
I bought a small tinkering bell. Thought it might be good just for kicks !! and a glass candle stand for a friend. I was so sleepy by the time we landed at Niagara that all I wanted was the comfort of a nice, comfy bed. But, the falls surprised me.
They are kinda the best thing I have seen in a long time. Set between a flange of mountains, the water falls from a majestic height over the rock bed on the surface. The force is so great that all one can see of the falls is a foamy mist unless you are really close. That makes picture shooting insanely tough. At night, as the sun set I heard and saw the waterfall. The noise being enough to mute one down. I saw the birds flying over the water back to the safety of their migratory hatching nests. And, then I felt homesick. :) maybe it was the birds or the fatigue, don't know.
After the night darshan of the falls, the guide did give us a comfy place to stay for the night. There, I slept like a baby. All fresh in the morning, I was famished. Ontario being a non-busy place like NY, no food joint was working at the unearthly hour of 7 am. Voila, what did we come across then. An Indian place, right in the middle of the Niagara falls hoopla. Wasn't I happy !! As me and the rest of the Indian crowd marched in, we temptingly looked up the menu and the whole Indian gourmet spread was there. Unfortunately the diner only served chola bhatura at that time.. so not much of a choice. But I think its stupid to complain. The Chinese people were fighting hard to adjust to the chola bhatura place. Some even ordered the Chola and were wondering what on earth it was supposed to be. Most of us had a good laugh at that !!!
The morning was booked for taking boat and sailing right under the falls. The MAID OF MIST as the trip the falls is fondly called is a journey to uncharted waters. Taking you directly under the American falls and then bang close the Canadian falls-it was the most awesome thing one can do. Looking at oneof nature's deightful paradises right in front of your nose was great !! Later in the evening we found out cranks and nooks to take snaps and were even able to catch glimpse of the rainbow that forms between the falls and the Canadian side. Coming back home- I was pleased. The Trip had not turned out to be as bad as I thought it will be, considering the cheap Chinatown bus and all that. And in the end I think I ended up enjoying more than I ever expected to.
Now to go back and look at some last minute stuff, reminders etc. Lets hope I don't forget anything.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
The tourist in me-1Another one week and my summer sojourn would draw to an end. I have not been much of a tourist during the last two months but the little I have explored is worth sharing. The holidays are few and far between and not all weekends qualify as holidays-therefore much less room for recreational indulgences. The two trips I made outside the city were to Atlantic City and Niagra Falls. AC and Niagara are alike and apart in many respects and are the more "conventional" to visit places for a NY resident. Also had the chance to visit the famed Museums of NY - the history museum, modern arts etc. Did the obligatory Statue of Liberty tour too. The funniest part about the trips is the mix of people I come across at these places-around 50% is Chinese and the rest is Indians. Comparing it to the fact that the BRIC countries are just experiencing the high growth rate, salaries and higher living standards, the populace is slowly climbing the ladder and going GLOBAL.
AC is a city in New Jersey. It's single claim to fame maybe around 20 years back would have been the ocean it is situated next to. Its the farthest end of the Americas next to-you guessed it right-Atlantic Ocean. The new "hep" thing about AC is the casinos. It is supposedly the poor man's Vegas or the casino land of the east-crowded with a slew of casinos. Boarding a bus that was "supposedly" to take us to the city-we got marooned somewhere in between. The bus service is only marginally better in the US(maybe in terms of cleanliness) as compared to India and Greyhound which is the oldest bus company in the US is no good at "customer service". Bored and exhausted, we finally set foot on the casino city. Through the bus tour, I had seen people flipping through guides on poker, blackjack, How to get lucky with slot machines...can you really make money in a game of pure chance..was what I asked myself.
Since I am such a big water lover, I could not wait to see the ocean. But what we saw was a sore disappointment. The beach was dirty though the sea was strong, powerful and cleaner than average water bodies in India. As I stood there, watching the waves wash on my feet and wetting me, I longed for home. Only if I could swim and cross the seas and be at the place I love the most. When my day dream got over, we set off to the farther end of the beach. It was mostly deserted and there were people selling "POT", lovers nestling with each other and the likes. There sitting on a jutting reef, I closed my eyes and heard the wind and the ocean rushing through my head. It was great. Undoubtedly tha part about AC I enjoyed the most. As the sun set, we set out for our casino round. Donald Trump, the millionaire who hosts the Apprenticeruns this pricey casino called Trump Taj Mahal which is awkwardly designed to be some kind of cross between Indian, Arabic and some grotesque architecture. I have little idea about how conscious are architects of casinos on aesthetics but what I saw before me was some golden minarets and something that looked like Indian craft. Within this TAJ MAHAL were housed thousands of slot machines, roulette tables, black jack and poker experts. I stuck to slot machines as a) they eat up money slowly and b) they seemed easier to experiemnt with for a novice. Although I spend a couple of hours fiddling with the slot machines trying to get combination that can throw up some money for me but no good. All I got was "zilch". No regrets though, I never expected much. Tired from the slot machines, in the wee hours of night we set off back to home, sleeping and yawning.
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for travel enthusiasts:
way to reach: take the Greyound from NY - best connection to AC. They also have a special ticket that covers transport as well as gives some discount for casinos too. That is a must buy.
what to do: I would recommend the beach and not the casinos. There is also an old lighthouse within the city that overlooks the ocean. Must visit.
what to eat: there are a very few vegetarian choices available but the roadside pizza stores can cook up something veg if asked. Beer is quite cheap though and can be gien a try.
what to buy: souvenirs didn't look so good. So cant recommend much.
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