The longer you stay at a place, eventually you start liking it. It's more the people than the place itself that makes the difference. Why does everyone love their birth place? No matter how the town is - a quiet serene hamlet or a busy city with skyscrapers. People love the idea that their lives started from that piece of land, it's like a part of you, and it’s like a part of your family. Why do kids respect and love their Mom, it's precisely the concept.
I rave the fact that I was born and raised in a domestic environment that placed premium on values and life. Like most of our leaders and celebrities, I was born in a smaller centre :-) The size of the city really does not matter, what matters is how far did you go in life with available resources. All the successful scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs are not from IIT or IIM's (two most premier institutes of India) - you don't need to be from a metro city to achieve your goals in life. I spent a good 18-formative years in Akola, a district in Maharashtra with a population of about 1 million and counting (now). Last 12 years or so, I have been traveling to Akola - on and off. This little town has a special place in my heart.
I learnt the very basics of life, humanity, education and success here. Unlike today's kids, who spend most of their time in front of the idiot box or playing computer games, I was outdoors playing the most simple yet very athletic and inexpensive sports that are now only alive in memories. I wish I can someday maintain a detail log of these games that are getting oblivious in time. There was immense joy in sharing meals and banter with friends after long hours of playing Cricket, Gilli-Danda, Kanchas, Hide and Seek, Lock and Key, River or Mountain, Lagori, Kho Kho, Badminton :-). and so on... Roller Skating - 15 years back was considered to be the "in-thing" and I had the edge in every competition, since very few participated :-). The multitude of trophies in skating were not joy enough over losing a cricket game with another local team. Playing cricket was a second religion, first was watching it :-) Summer vacations were well spent with playing 2/3 hours of cricket in the morning, followed by various card and board games in the afternoon. The cool air from water coolers and the pleasant smell of "Khus" are still very fresh in mind and they beat hands-down the latest of air-conditioners. Evenings would compose of local games, playing Antaksharis (song contests), reading comic books - Chacha Chaudhary and Saboo, Twinkle, Raka etc. and eventually sleeping outside under the open sky and stars as the cool breeze would wrap you in its arms.
Years passed by and I remember when I took my first serious shot at studies, I was already in the 8th grade. Till then, I spent the bare minimum time with books - just enough to get myself into the next grade. Life was simple, no big ambitions, not much of a vision and no peer or sibling pressure. The farthest I dreamt was someday to be able to stand on a stage and speak fearlessly in front of my school mates. That was like "the dream". I love the fact that I was raised in an ambience where there were no unreasonable expectations; kids had time to pick fruits from the trees and enjoy dancing on the streets during the Ganpati festivals. I still feel very happy that I could spend most of my childhood doing the things I would have always loved to do. I did not even notice when life taught me the emotional quest, sportsmanship and never-give-up attitude. In today's world, it's agonizing to see the lackluster smile on a kid's face. They are torn between immense competition and trying to meet the supernatural expectations. So much so, that the years pass by and you would think - where did my childhood go?
Planning kills the curiosity of exploring a new place. I am so much for it. Well, that's like a motto for all the lazy bones :-) I hardly remember I have planned any trip in the US, big or a day-trip. Trust me even my honey-moon was impromptu, well the touring part of it ;-) Educating yourself too much about your next vacation destination blunts the beauty in uncertainty about the place. For the very reason, I would never like to have a GPS in my car. Expense is the next big reason :-) Of late, we been using just the traditional maps to travel, even google maps or mapquest steals the joy of finding the shortest distance that your navigator would constantly want to come up with. Our last trip to Toronto from NY and back was purely AAA map based. Another advantage is my wife is occupied for the most bit :-)
So far I may sound convincing, well trying to do one myself, this game plan back-fired last weekend. After playing Dandia for about 3 hours (I see it as calorie burning routine) on Friday night with legs in constant to-fro-zig motion and head and chest in fro-to-zag, it was ambitious to get up at 5 am. Well, finally we got up at 6 am and were in Madison by 8 am was in fact a courageous act in itself - on a Saturday morning! Even my weekday mornings start an hour late! Our friends who were planning to take "proper google maps" could not, Murphy's law had to set in - Internet was down. Trusting (and boasting) our past exploits with paper maps, we started our journey to Door County. It was not even half-a-mile that we realized it's not West but East we had to head. Thinking country road would be a scenic route by the lake, we confirmed how naive we were. Signals and more signals, detour, stink of cow-dung (Wisconsin is like Bihar of India) and single lane roads with dried grass and bald trees around, was certainly anything but scenic. We thanked our good deeds that we found a Taco-Bell (first snack place that we could comfortably recognize) in Sturgeon Bay. Pretty soon we realized that Door County is full of tourists - two reasons: Green Bay/Packers game on Sunday and Festival in Egg Harbor. The initial jitters of not finding a room to stay overnight soon turned into a reality. With time, intensity of searching the place to crash and clean beefed up. Three phones were constantly dialing each and every hotel in the County for almost 2 hours.
"Hi, Do you have any rooms available for today or tonight". Reply:"No, we are full" "Thank you"
I would have heard this almost 100 times, and we ran dry on luck. We decided to pass upon staying in Door County and started enjoying the festival, tid-bits, board walk and the groovy aerial view from the look-out tower in Fish Creek. Fall colors were at their best, trees were oozing rainbows all over amidst calm lake and birds were chirping, ambience was indeed relaxing. By the end of the evening, we were worn out, with just one thought, could someone let us stay here! Driving away from Door county for an hour, was still not good enough. All the hotels, motels and Inns were booked in Green Bay as well. Let's head back to Madison was the common call. We desperately hoped that Olive Garden would be open at 10:30 pm. It was a crime to even miss an exit, since we were crunch on time to make it to OG. An excellent dinner, followed next day by a poised walk on State Street by the lake side, some Jamba Juice, tour of Capitol, watching "Mariuana Activist" rally and unprecedented art of the road-side painter was far more refreshing. We sealed the Sunday evening with lots of exchange of banter, card-game and good home-cooked meal.
All in all, it was a very eventful, yet enlightening weekend. I enjoyed the uncertainty of it, as always and that's how I took it. For others, they are still holding my throat wishing had I booked things in advance!! I still very much want to go to Door County and stay there overnight. :-)
Din Dhala Raat Aayi, Aur phir Teri Yaad Aayi Dil Ne Mehsoos Kiya Us Pal Ko, Jo Churakar Tuje Mere Paas Layi Jab se Tujhe Dekha Hai, Aur Milne ki Chaah Jagi hai Is Veerane Dil Mein Bahaar Jagi hai Tere Dil Mein Sirf Meri Tasveer Ho, Aisii Umeed Karta Hun Har lamha Tujpe Kurbaan Karta Hun Kabr Mein Dafn Hun Aur Saasein Chal Rahi Hai Har Saas Teri Tasveer Banaa Rahi Hai Ek Baar Aake Choom Le Is Sang-E-Marmar Ko, Khuda Kasam... Har Aashiq Kafan Ki Dua Magega. -Pankya
"If they have no bread, then let them eat cake!" - Almost everyone of us who have done little reading, must have come across this quote from the French Queen. No wonder they say French are queer. :-) No matter how much you do or want to do for your country, you got to be physically there, you got to be one of them to really make the difference.
I love the US and I am not a strong proponent of "Migration" or "Brain-Drain" et al. To be frank, India has come up graciously out of most of our recent disasters - thanks to the NRIs. From Latur earthquake to Tsunami or Bhuj quake, tons of help in the form of money and substance has reached to the affected millions from the US, UK, Australia, Dubai and African countries. (Stay chill if I missed your country, must be insignificant :-) ) This would have been impossible, had we never allowed the go-getters to leave India.
Monetary help and sentimental condolences, can only help revive from the situation, it can never change the scenario. Problems with my country are deep rooted. They are abysmal - hard to fathom. These fundamental issues need to be purged from thoughts, philosophy and religion. These can't be solved by providing money. To make this real change, one has to be Indian first, one has to be among them.
I am not a Gandhian, well I don't think Gandhian philosophy is today's cure. Like in the world of medicine and health, not all diseases could be treated by "Ayurveda", similarly you cannot apply same old philosophy to solve modern day's issues. When you have an Heart Attack - would you go to a Homeopathy doctor? Hell no! (Unless that's your landlord :-) ) This does not mean, Ayurveda or Homeopathy cannot cure the heart disease, it can, but not at that critical moment. Similarly, if the world lived Gandhian way, may be his philosophy to tackle current affairs would have worked. Fortunately or Unfortunately World chose to live the other way. Try sitting in front of the Terrorists, doing Satyagraha or letting them wipe you off this planet, or slap you on both the cheeks - some friggin day it may change their hearts. That may be after gazillion years, the solution at that moment won't even be relevant. Today we need immediate solution to spontaneous bloodshed. To check the nail growth you got to cut them, not go on fasting! Solution to Kashmir issue is not "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram...", if we would not clean our house, who will? We have been sitting like ducks, begging it in the UN to see the obvious, praying the US intervention, holding peace talks, bi-lateral cultural and business meets, playing cricket for peace and what not. What good has it done, except losing more land and our innocent people to the rogues? They have entered as inside as Mumbai, what are we waiting for? While patience is a virtue, too much of it is cowardice.
