Thursday, August 07, 2008

5 years

Well, yes, like most of you who'll read this post, I am also just about to finish 5 years in this country. It's been an amazing journey of fun, courage, happy and sad moments, emotions, and above all, there are two things I would savor most out of the five years, one being the lessons in life I have learnt, and second being all the great friends and angels I have met in these 5 years.

I remember the last moment when I was about to leave my parents and cross the final line into immigration at Bombay Airport. There were a whole lot of thoughts in my mind. Will I be successful? Will I come back soon to this land? Should I just leave this flight and go back home? When will I see my parents again? Will I be able to live alone without them in a foreign land?

The only thing was, there was no one beside me to answer these questions and talk to me. No one whatsoever. And that's when it struck me. The time had come, to leave your parent's hand and go out into the world. It was time to come of age. It was time to be responsible. After a 22 hour flight ( which was full of hiccups), I landed at USC, and the feeling finally sunk in , of being in a new world.

The first few days, will be most memorable. Little things, like trying to install trillian/easymessage on the computers on Leavey to chat with your parents and friends. Like teaching Mom to use the computer while chatting on MSN, with things like 'There'll be an icon that looks like this to the left of the screen', like meeting new people like you who are roaming around in campus with a small plastic bag, a map, and the wish in everyone's eyes to 'make it'.

And then, all the firsts, the first time you got a job by yourself, the first paycheck, even if it was for 7 dollars an hour, the first raise( it was 25 cents per hour raise ;)),the first time you took a girl out for coffee (;)),the first time you celebrated a night out with friends, the first time you felt that your family hadn't called you for some days, and they are now probably used to your absence :), the first time I went to Artesia and got a taste of what good life in US might be like, the first time you borrowed a camera to take pictures of your University and send them back home.

Five years, seems unbelievable, it's the most amazing time I have had though. Thank God it happened. Thanks everyone who made my journey more memorable. All my angels, all my friends.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Whom do we support?

It was 1996. The BJP had come to power, albeit for a short time, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM. On the 12th day, he resigned before facing a vote of confidence, which would have forced him to resign anyway. But before that, he gave a speech, and a speech that made me a fan of this guy .

1998. In the middle of a coalition crisis, AB Vajpayee announces Pokharan 2. I am not sure if I am a supporter of nuclear weapons or not, but surely this was the most powerful political move I had seen till that point in my life. Finally, we had a leader who had a powerful answer to everything. The Kargil conflict, the IC-814 hijacking, and the negotiations of the nuclear weapons deal with the western world and the UN, all and all, we still supported this guy and his party. For some reason, there was something about them,maybe it was their powerful oratorship of these leaders, Vajpayee, Pramod Mahajan, Jasvant Singh or Brijesh Mishra, or maybe it was just the fact that we found these leaders to be wise and intelligent, and most importantly,they laid emphasis on things that needed it, not like . this (thanks Animesh for pointing the broken link),or maybe it was just the personna which would always make me a fan of the team which I thought would lead India into the 21st century.

But today, everyone looks useless. Be it the Congress wholesome support of reservations for SC/ST/OBC, or the BJP's vehement opposition to the nuclear deal( which I am sure they would have signed if they were in power, and the Congress would have opposed it),and of course the left, who seriously look to have no business than to threaten to bring down the government. And with events like these , the credibility of the the BJP keeps going down by the day.

Maybe it's time for some retrospection. Or to support someone like an political party started by educated people . Or maybe we need someone like this . I wish I was strong enough to do something like that. But that's what the problem is. Everyone knows that politics is a dirty gutter, but no one wants to clean it.