What's in a title?

Never had a more leisurely year when I had absolutely nothing to do and all the time in the world.

Its strange, how when I didnt have a single minute to myself, I could always think of a hundred things to do if I had the time, but now that I actually can do all those things, I dont want to do them anymore.

I had a small scribble pad which went everywhere with me, where I used to write all ideas for new blog posts. I couldnt wait for the weekend when I would expand those ideas. Now, I forget the password to my blog sometimes, dont know why I dont have ideas any more. I guess boredom kills creativity.

Although the going has been really tough, something good has come out of it after all, what doesnt kill you makes you stronger, eh?

I am always thinking about ways to occupy my mind now, so I dont think about my situation, funny isnt it?

I must have watched about half a dozen sitcoms from pilot to finale, thanks to the timed recording option that comes with Dish TV here.

I had never watched more than one movie in a single day before( the current record is 4 :)), never have I read so many volumes, read so many magazines, been more up to date on news and current events, have exercised more or tried out new recipes ( and I thought I would never be able to cook a decent meal ever :) )

Life in Firangland-Aisa hi des hai mera jaisa des hai tera!

I dont know if its the distance and unapproachability of USA from India that had made me think that it would be very different, but to my surprise, I never fail to find similarities.

Of course, the life style is bound to be different, but I am happy to see, India is catching up with the first world pretty fast.

It doesnt all look alien to me, like it would have, to people who came to settle here from India say even 5 years ago.

Most things do evoke a sense of Deja vu. Been there, done that.

US is bestowed with immense gifts from mother nature. It is a geograpically and physically diverse country. There are mighty mountains, beautiful coastline, long meandering riverbanks, vast green pastures.

I cannot help but think we have it all in India, its only magnified in scale here, given the size of US.

Then what makes US stand out as "THE" destination for the rest of the world?

Its the "Marketing", baby.

Old wine in a very attractive and sleek packaging.

You take the best of what India has to offer, clean it up thoroughly, throw in lots of facilities, lots of information centers, restrooms in the middle of nowhere, a coke vending machine at every nook and corner, super swank highways, humongous marketing efforts and lo, the concoction called "Amreeka" is at your service

At your service, hmm, not quite, as this is one thing, we Indians know better than anyone else in the civilized world. The customer care( I dont know why they even care to call it 'customer care') is non existent in most places here. Even big names falter in this aspect.

If you go to a small roadside corner shop in a tiny colony in a small city(or even village) in India, the shopkeeper would give you undivided attention, no matter how many other people he is attending to. He would have complete information about each and every product in his shack.

But if you ever happen to go to a mall here, make sure you have all the information you need, to make a purchase before hand, as the sales people will not know a thing.

But,the emergency response system here never ceases to amaze me.

There is no place that is remote, you might be miles away from civilization; cops, fire brigade and ambulance would still manage to reach you in less than 10 minutes in case of emergency.

And dont worry you Munna bhai MBBS types, they wont ask you to fill up any forms before admitting you to ER.

I wish there were a place in the world offering the best of both the worlds, now that would be Eutopia. India, you are nearly there. Good Luck.

The Story so Far

18th February , 1983- The most blessed day in my life, a little girl(that's me!) born to the most delightful family in the world.

My family being devout Shiva followers named their little bundle of joy(?(I like to believe that!!)) 'Aparna' after Goddess Parvati...but decided against it later as Punjabis have an uncanny knack of twisting hindu mythological names to certain strange sounding meaningless or mundane words(Parna in this case, that incidentaly means a rag in punjabi..).

So, all said and done, they finally decided to call me 'Aditi', the name of the eternal goddess, the mother of all devas( as the legend goes..) literally meaning unbound or infinite, figuratively, earth, sky, mother, woman, cow etc have been known as Aditi in hindu mythology.