Independence Day

Well I have quite a lot to write today, but I am sure that in the flow of writing .... half of them will slip out of my mind, the other half will become muddled, so the end-product will be very interesting .... :) atleast for me.

Happy Independence Day !! And this I say between an ongoing mailing list brawl, over how the national anthem was written to glorify the rulers of our country rather than our nation and hence we should stop singing it ..... etc etc. :) Amusing , yes!! Not only because I have read this forwarded email and all the arguments for and against it..... also because every Independence Day, there is somebody who happens to dig it up again and remind us of the grave mistake that we are making. Please don't get me wrong..... or attribute this to patriotic bengalism ( any comment about Saurabh Ganguly inevitably always puts me in this category) because the national anthem was written by Rabindranath Tagore, .... but honestly, what is the logic behind fighting over singing or not singing a song which we have accepted as our country's anthem, as a means of showing our respect and love and patriotism for our nation. It is the means only and not the end. (Ah !! Me and philosophy as usual do not mix. :) ) But everyone is welcome to his/her own opinion. And if you really hold on to this anti-jana-gana-mana idea dogmatically, don't sing it. Celebrate Independence Day by singing anything you wish, whatever makes you happy ... what do you want to do , translate another country's national anthem and call it our own ??? :) (I am sorry for this tirade, it should probably have been directed at the person I was angry on.)

As far as I am concerned, and I am sure it is not an effect of being in a far away country, Jana Gana Mana is what makes me feel proud. When I hear the song and stand , (when I was a kid it was more because my parents scolded me into standing than any patriotism) and when I see so many Indians stand along with me, I feel proud to be an Indian. But more than that, there is this unexplainable feeling of belonging..... and home ...... and roots. How much ever I blame it, curse its bad practices, I am still very much an Indian at heart.

But with a host of other people, I am following the so-called Indian dream !! :) Of living the Indian dream of being in a foreign country and earning big bucks to support a future life of comfort and ease. I don't know why I do it.... but it goes to say something that I still don't leave.

Today, I met up with an interesting group at lunch. One person, Jim was admonishing my friend, Prashant on having gone to India and come back without even going through the process of meeting girls. Another of my friends had told me about this a couple of days back, of how parents sort out the guys/girls and keep, and all you have to do in the 3 weeks or so of holidays that you get off..... is meet all of them, select one person and get married. Believe me, nobody has ever painted such a comical picture of our current marital situation to me. I finally was able to see a very light side of things :) and laugh whole-heartedly.

The situation is laudable, whether you agree or not, and I am just happy I am not in that exact situation right now. :)

All in all, I did do my part for Independence day, I wore a salwar kameez to work today - to everyone's amusement. :) And there was this brief nostalgic moment when I missed Oracle a lot. Maybe it was the effect of having finished reading One night @ the call center yesterday night, ( enjoyable, there are some parts you might identify with if you have worked at a software job in India, but on the whole really not that great.)

So I end the post on a lighter note than in quite some time. Hope you all celebrated being Indians.

You've got mail ...again

I watched You've got mail for the umpteenth time on a Sunday afternoon. And I ended up falling in love with it and its soundtrack all over again. Infact I am listening to it right now....and I am so in love with the quaint little shop around the corner. (This movie by the way, has been taken from an older movie of the name "The shop around the corner". :) ) Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are probably all that I could advise on a sultry afternoon. I don't know, either there is something about the characters or the story or just the idea of the books and bookstore..... that gets me.

But thats ofcourse, not all that I did. I cooked Tandoori chicken (in which the seasoning hadn't really soaked all through bcoz of not long enough marination) but it still tasted good. And I made brownies and had it with ice-cream...... I wish I had had somebody to invite over ....... no not for company sakes alone ..........also for compliments , even false ones would do. :)

Contd on Monday:

My friend(Shriram) has been pulling my leg lately about how my accent has changed. I guess thats not all thats changing, outlooks, perspectives and acceptance of a lot of things and ways of life....... Ahh , can anybody be more obtuse. :)

Its become a difficult thing of late for me, to explain what exactly is an arranged marriage. More horrifying (for me), is the apalling stares I get at the end of it...... and seeing the idea sink in, that it may be possible to get married and then fall in love. Don't get me wrong, I am not a proponent or opponent of either arranged or love marriage. We'll talk about my views on love some other day , if I ever talk about it that is. :)
Anyway, so where was I...... at this luncheon, with a bunch of girls from all over the world probably, Russia , Ghana, China, India, USA. Somehow (I gloss over details here), the question of arranged marriage and parents asking us to get married came up. My vague attempt at trying to explain arranged marriage as a means by which your parents or others set you up to meet somebody and then see if things work out, did not exactly get notes of applause. :). I also did say its an alternative for us as opposed to falling in love and getting married. To this, Rachael, the intern in our team, asked: "Wait ! Isn't that how its supposed to happen." (as in, aren't you supposed to fall in love and then get married.) My other explanations: :) (pardon my chauvinism (if I can call it that) )....... women have become very career minded and hence do not have time for relationships, hence the advent of matrimonial sites and the whole saga of express interest, accept interest and other matrimonial site jargon I am sure many people out there , (even those who ultimately went for love marriages after all ) will identify with.

From my side, I can't really see much difference. So in love, you choose someone. In arranged, you choose someone too. You did not actually blindly go for the guy or girl, you did see whether you were compatible. Well yes, so it did not actually happen to be a coincidence, he or she didn't just cross your path and you didn't exactly meet him/her and think "This is my soul-mate". Lets be real, how many people actually do fall in love? (This brilliant piece of advice is thanks to a friend :)).

I probably sound quite the cynic here, and I had thought I would omit any explanation/justifications about that. But I just couldn't brutally murder the romantic in me, just like that. :) So, just a year or so ago , I would probably have lectured you on how there is this unexplainable thing called love, how there is this one person you would want to grow old with, this one person whom you would like to share the sunsets and sunrises with, to enjoy walks on the beach, to wade into the water and leave footprints in the sand, to read books together and argue about your different views, to quarrel and make up, to tease and to love, to never look at the time when you are together, to chat about nothing and everything, about how in that one person's eyes you would feel loved and just by that, to feel on top of the world........about how in someone's eyes you would find yourself to be the most beautiful, and just by that you would be...... becoz as they say, you fall in love to rise again..... a whole new person, and its then that everything seems such a beautiful place..... about this one person with whom you would want to spend the rest of your life with. :) Sigh !! Well in my heart of hearts I still hope all this is true, but there is a lot of difference with being on the right side of 25 and the wrong side of 25. And though I have been bashed up by friends for saying this, I don't want to sound like a grandma, but yes ... there is some point where you have to look at the real side of things too. I end my soliloquy here.

So somebody please give me a good enough definition of arranged marriage which will not make it seem like some deathly evil. Its amazing how arranged marriages are looked upon here, and how love marriages are looked upon back home. :) I wonder which is more ironic !!

One fine day ....

Well this post doesn't exactly go the way the movie does. (though :) I wish it did!!).

I always wanted to build a "home"..... one which I would love to come back to and call home and one which would have that cozy comfort about it that you call indulgence. Well I am glad that today, after coming back, I could call it exactly that.

I had been to the company picnic. After a lot of thinking of not going just becoz people left and right were talking about how once was enough. And I was ready to believe that. Plus it didn't help that the bengali association of Washington, was also holding their picnic today. Well I did end up at the company picnic at North Bend.
I had been there last time and from the stalls to the games , most of everything was the same. But only that last time I did not know so many people. And this time it was fun just bumping into people, hogging on gyros, bourbon chicken, strawberry shortcakes with whipped cream..... wow . We also ended up mountain climbing and going on a hay ride. It was fun.
But the best thing was finding so many known faces around, and that within 2 months of being here. :) And the second best thing was mountain climbing , it rocks ...literally !! :) (I forget to mention that I did the easiest side.)

And then I ended up watching Bourne Ultimatum and liking the movie immensely. Long time since I watched a thriller and enjoyed it.

Anyway, a fine day as I said before and too tired to write more.