I chose love over hatred

"What the hell is this?".They can't show this. I mean this is ridiculous. I wont sit to see this god damn movie. After all I am a proud Indian. As I stepped into Amherst cinema to see this movie I had no idea about the movie. Slumdog Millionaire. How could he call us the "slumdog". I made myself sit just for the heck of it because I had no way to go back home. I had to wait for my friends to drop me off. Slowly the "white" perspective of India unravelled before me. Much to the acclaim of the local residents who were awed at the kind of life people in India live. I was biased. I could not see the truth. But inside me there was a creative, an unbiased human who could see his soul soaring high in hope when he saw the excreta covered little boy filled with triumph after getting the autograph of the man who was the hope of his life. Scenes moved and background score gripped me. Extraordinarily genuine performances were making me like the movie but I was in a denial mode. A patriotic denial of which I was so proud of. Grandson of a freedom fighter who in his 23 years of small life had so much of bias inside him. The movie ended. I could definitely say that the first 2/3 of the movie was a pleasure to watch. The child artists made it possible. Still the fact that the movie was a western perspective of India. Especially a British director who was busy dramatising the poor slumdogs. I told my friends I wasn't very happy with the movie. Most of them disagreed with me.

After close to 5 months I seem to be the most happy person amongst my friends after the Slumdog Millionaire won 8 oscars. An award which I never cared about. Infact this was the first time I was seeing it. The same denial mode had kept me away from watching a western movie award. As the awards were being given one after the another on the backdrop off "Jai Ho" I could feel an adrenaline rush. The one which I last felt when India used to beat Pakistan in cricket in the mid 90's. I had lost the feeling since then. As I write this blog with Jai Ho blasting my ears I am filled with a sense of pride and humillity. A sense of immsense respect for Danny Boyle, the British director whose perspective I was so disgusted with.

This is my journey of hope. My reason to open the blog after close to 1.5 years when I thought Shawshank was a fiction and hope never existed. It was for the losers. The exploited class. Those who could neva achieve in life. Barack Obama could instill some hope in me. But his "hope" was American. Something I couldnt relate to. All I could do was to appreciate it. But that was neva mine. Probably that is why his winning the Democratic nomination and then the general elections couldnt make that adrenaline rush through me. But the personal journey I went through from the day I saw Slumdog in Amherst Cinema to the day I could see Danny Boyle take the award changed it all. It changed the face of Oscar and the face of the man inside me. I was no more a "brown". I could suddenly connect with Danny Boyle. With the jury of the Academy who gave the 8 oscars to the slumdog.

Rahman chose love over hate and so did I on that day. I dont know if the movie deserved all the acclaim over its other competitors. But I do know that the people over here and across the world feel the same way as I do. As Danny stood with the child artists and the whole cast and crew of Slumdog on the stage with "Jai Ho" reverbrating and the whole world giving them a standing ovation. I could see hope. A hope on the backdrop of an economic recession, a hope on the fissure of the racial, religous plates the world floats on. The bonding which Danny had with his multi racial crew which made him fly the child artists from one end of the world to the other. Sharing the stage with people probably their "indian idols" would have dreamt of.

The red carpet will hold the history in it. A history of a kind of bond which generations would be grateful to. An ode to a British who saw the spirit of hope in an erstwhile colonial city which his country once proudly owned. He made the other side of the world appreciate the venture with such a large heart which left a question in people's mind. How could it be possible? Probably they love seeing India as a country of slumdog. But can we as Indians ever disagree on a fact that such places and people in India do not exist? Ask yourself.(plz dont "Ask the monkey", I know there is one inside everyone).

Many people still hate the whole undue hype and acclaim given to the movie. Go on with your thoughts. But one day I hope you also make a personal journey to optimism. Now Obama's american dream and hope seem more personal to me. America seems more promising and still a land where genuinity is given preference to everything. It is indeed a land of opportunity.

But as I have always beleived , my heart is in India. I would always prefer to spend the rest of my life there. But I take with me immense optimism and a whole new journey. Lessons I will always remember.

visited 15 states (42.8%)
Create your own visited map of India or determine the next president

visited 20 states (40%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

A drive to heaven

It was 12 in the night , I had nothing to do. I got a call from my colleague working up above at Heaven Inc. His job was a human stock broker. The human stock market was at a surge with the growing number of storms and hurricanes in the United States. He told me to put his street address as 13 Body Street.Heaven.As soon as I entered the address in my Garmin GPS.The lady told me to drive 1000 miles up above. The time for arrival was 13:00 EST. I started on my journey as usual with a drive thru from nearby Dunkin Donuts. A large hot choclate was all I needed to get myself to drive the 1000 miles up above. 

I took the road straight ahead which brought me to a T-junction. The sign on the road had the left to the hell and the right to the heaven. I took the right. The road curved ahead with a steep gradient. After a mile drive, I looked down to see the world beneath me. There were people hustling and bustling as if insects crawling for food. But it was all in a disorder, the uniform roads looked confused and so did the faces of people travelling in the cars beneath. The BMW's , Merc's and Nissan's all looked the same and so did the people. I could see the Boston Skyline as well as the Du Bois tower at Amherst. As I drove up the picture got clearer, I could see the whole United States. The south the north the east and the west. All seemed to look like the American flag.But the flag did not seem as good 

As I continued I saw other countries too. Everything was the same just that I was heading east and could feel the weather changing. I then came across Europe. All the countries were clearly visible with a clear demarcation with their respective flags. It seemed strange with a different view of the world, a view I could never imagine existed ever. But how come those flags? It felt as if I was dreaming. The road was completely deserted. I parked the car on the emergency ramp and put on the hazard lights. I drank some water and noticed a man driving a pickup truck towards me. He asked me if everything was ok. I answered that I was tired and wanted some rest. He introduced himself as Sam. A local sheriff who was on duty. Sam had no police car, he had no uniform and surprisingly , he had no communication system and Colt pistol. He said he did not need them as heaven was pretty safe with occasional human disturbances. He grimly said

"Its not as bad as its down there!!". I did not realize how bad it was down there from where I came until he took me to the corner of the ramp and told me to look down.

"Get up Andy..Get up !!". The guy sprinkled some liquid which had a healing touch to it. I asked him what spray was that. "We don't need those, water works well here". He later told me that the sight beneath was so polluted,dirty and hot that I fainted. He then took me to a water station. Water station , yes you gotcha!! They had water running their cars. I was wondering if I could take those down and get the whole gas debate to a halt.. He said I could not as it would burn as soon as I approached earth. I filled up my tank and headed up. Joe bid me goodbye. I asked for his cell number but he quickly replied "just close your eyes and take my name".I was amazed at his stupid sense of humour. But he was serious, they could talk like that up there. He said its all so clear you dont need RF waves to transmit sound. The air does it for you. I headed up the curve.

After around 400 miles I could see India my country. I thought that was it but it seemed different. The map I saw in my 7th standard geography books wasnt there and neither was the flag visible. I could not see ground beneath all I could see was hazy and small people gradually moving. There were occasional sounds of small explosions as if something had burnt with a more than normal flame. I continued my journey ahead till I saw the northeast. Thas where the picture changed and I recognized it indeed was India. I could see the Himalayas. I could see the Indian flag also. I then crossed Japan and then came back to the west coast and suddenly I realized that the GPS had lost the satellite reception. 

I was lost, I guess. Or had I missed some turn? But I was sure there were no turns. I continued on the downhill road waiting for the satellites to guide me to heaven but alas had I known they would fail to do that.I was on a road to nowhere. Lost and exhausted after seeing such scenes of human disgust on the planet earth.Suddenly I could see the car dropping to a gradient down below to what seemed the Chicago skyline. The satellites suddenly sprung back and I could see the destination in other 0.4 miles. The street had come and it read " 13 Peabody Street. Haven.Illinois"

I was greeted by my friend at the entrance door. He explained me how his company Heaven Inc did the stock brokerage business with the "human touch". Thas where the human stock market came from. "What a way to market " , I grinned inside. 

I was lost in this incredible journey as my friend gave me the presentation for a new market strategy which could change the face of the earth. But deep inside, I asked myself. "Could he?"

Dedicated to all those who love thy Earth

India and the Internet-The peer analogy

Robustness is the key word that India and the Internet share..Though not the optimum performance but this country is not going to crash may wat the conditions come..The service model the country provides is of "Best Effort"-the same service model the internet provides for its users..I dont know if your services will be dlivered or not but I will do my best to get your job done..And the country is as popular and interesting to study as the Internet..Traffic, bottlenecks are a few of the challenges these peers face today..Flow control, Error control and a machinery as complex as the TCP/IP Protocol stack..With democracy serving as the Physical Layer delivering the goods..The Network Layer is as unreliable as it can be just like the internet.. And the reliabillity is provided by the millions of people who toil to make the country run..And yes the Software industry is the application layer just like the internet..India shining...And the best analogy is yet to come..Just like the internet, the upper protocol layer is completely oblivious of the way the lower level provides it with the services..It just matters whether the job is being done..Give this piece of analogy a thought and u will find a counterpart to every damn thing in the internet..Weird isnt the thought..Being an indian i am bound to think like this..Weird..Thas wat happens to a packet when it goes through the mechanism..It behaves in a weird way..

Amit this blog is for BIT MESRA

Just saw this blog by Amit in which he has listed the blogs by BITians. BIT is something which has taught me the meaning of the word "HOPE"..Thas where the name of this blog comes from. I am new to blogging but have always penned down things on pieces of paper all my life...I hope I keep this blog posted with latest updates..