Swades!

Sameer with his desi friends in US 10 years down the line

Everything was new for us when we first came here. We all made new friends. We all clung to each other. We watched countless movies. We even learnt to cook and throw pot luck parties where we always played Antakshari. We confess that we even smiled at those beautiful girls across the street. We all took trips to India; some annually, some less frequently. We all tracked the "sale" events at Sears and Kmart. We all went to Indian groceries, and bought rice and rotis. Most of us got married. We, went back home, searching for the love of a good woman-some found it in the old acquaintances from across the bus-stands, some found it in their parent's choice. Some of us took a gamble and married the one looking closest to Aishwarya Rai. Now what do we do? We all work in software, we go to the local temple to socialize, we attended movie screenings, and argued countless time that Honda Accord is better than Toyota Camry or vice versa.

At times, late night before falling asleep we switched on the Ipod and listened to that old Hindi melody which makes us remember the land that was ours. We recall the green grass, the muddy roads, the wet monsoons, the pretty girls that we never talked to. We hear the words speaking to us from across the oceans.


A Mother who gave sour medicine to her son, because she wanted him to recover soon, who let her son move miles apart though the thought was tearing her apart, she let him go as she wanted him to be happy and successful, who hides her agony in telling others that her son is abroad.
A Father who understands his son's ambitions and the limitation and frustration he has to overcome of in India, who would not let his voice reveal that says I'll miss you son !, I love you but am unable to express the feeling.
A brother who would miss the brotherhood, though it had often been fights and not talking terms, who can deny the fact that a brother is still a brother, a friend, who expected you to understand him as his, and when you didn't it upset but moving miles in distances has overlooked all minute failures.
A sister who would not have her adoring one to escort her to help her out of troublesome situations, who knows she has to send 'Rakhi' by post, who wishes he would turn up for her wedding, if not at least to fondle her baby that longs for a MAMA's love & affection.
A friend, who is left with mundane tasks, unable to exchange the chirpy jokes & comments, discuss various thoughts from family, friends, politics, & economics, who visits your home because he still remembers you not only on a day but everyday. Who would jump with joy on receiving a mail, who tries to keep himself free for all the days when his friend is coming back on a holiday. The girl next door, who didn't know if she had to rejoice or not when she overheard that the boy next door is moving away, who silently takes it that he has a career and would wish for his best from afar, bids goodbye with a tear in her eye.
The girl at the bus-stop, who smiled at you and suddenly finds you no longer there, who changes her route only to avoid the void which seems to be there at the same bus-stop she had been once smiling.
The girl you are married to, unable to understand why she is being sent to a far off land, waiting for her man to send VISA papers, bearing the nagging question of neighbors and relatives asking when you are leaving India.
The girl you got engaged to is waiting for you to come back and tie the wedding knot, a social and emotional security, who anxiously waits for his telephone calls and greeting cards to reassure her that you will be back as her man.

People back home
Whatever our roles, it is only to say that we still love and care for you, wherever you are, you are still dear to us. We don't know what you have to go through, we only know we have love & wishes to give for you. You might have learnt or the circumstances might have taught you to handle emotions and that time and work are more important than feelings and their expressions but we are still in India and are still the same, waiting and wishing for those who moved away from India, INDIA - a land of love, emotion & sentiments....

Foods

Not so much of a food person I was just wondering the many different cuisines I have tried out since coming to USA. American, Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Turkish and not to forget my own cooking which does not come in any of the earlier cuisines;)

American: Mainly all sorts of meat preparation. Bland and boring. Its very hard to survive as a vegetarian in USA. I sort of turned vegetarian after surviving on non-veg for three months. Maybe I just got bored. But there is a wide variety of foods available. Most preparations use cheese, lettuce, tomatoes,mayonnaise,mustard, meat and more meat

Chinese: Hunan, Yu Hisiang, Lo Mein, General Tso's, and many other difficult to pronounce names. Basically food available at the carts, cheap, consisting of either noodles, fried rice, steam rice, meat, seafood, tofu and vegetables, and at best only fills your stomach. I got fed up of having similar tasting food with different names at lunch for 6 months.

Mexican: The food closest in flavour and appearance to Indian food. They do have different names like Jalupas, Nachos, Burritos, Taco, but very simply put its mostly like the frankies back home in India. Maybe a lot of desis migrated to Mexico and introduced desi food there long back;)

Thai: Almost similar to chinese food preparation, but with even more funnier names. Pad thai noodles, noodles with different shapes and sizes, sticky rice and more rice, agian with meat, tofu or vegetables.

Indian: The influence of Indian food on the American palette is unmistakable. Of the numerous Indian joints I have been to, Americans make up the majority of the eaters. I was very surprised to see Americans enjoying spicy chicken tikka masala with biryani :)

Turkish: well I only had a sweet dish made of cashew brought by a turkish classmate.

My own food: No matter what food we have, we Indians still like the basic ghar ka khana, daal chawaal and sabji roti. Though no expert at cooking, I can boast that I can feed myself and a bunch of ravenous desi friends to the hearts content:). Oh I almost forgot today is my cooking turn. Must head home, nahi toh roommates mujhe kha jayenge :)

six months later 

on reaching USA 

Daylight Saving

April 2nd 2005, one second after 1:59:59 am the clock read 3:00:00am. I stared at the watch in disbelief. Rubbed my eyes to make it go away, but no it still showed 3am. Probably I was too tired after the show or maybe the effects of hectic preparation for the show and lack of sleep were beginning to show up. Could it be if someone had laced my pepsi with alcohol? I was at an afterparty at a club on the Philadelphia river side. But I was neither slurring nor was I seeing things blurred. Then I decided to leave that place asap and head for the comforts of home sweet home. On the way back I was still dazed about why it happened. The next day I awoke at noon and looked outside, the sun was struggling to make it to the highest point. I was still bewildered and then it struck me that these Americans want to control even the days and nights. They have a scheme called as DST, "daylight saving time", where in spring they push the clocks one hour ahead and in fall they pull the clocks one hour behind. DST was the reason for all my confusion of the previous night. The ways of life in a foreign country!!

A Capella'

"A' Capella”, does it sound familiar? Acapella means, "Without musical instruments". How can any song sound melodious without some background score? I got the opportunity to witness a performance by "PennMasala", the first south Asian acapella group in USA. I was absolutely amazed by their performance. They had people for making specific sounds, like a tabla, a drum, a guitar and various other instruments. It sounded as if the instruments were actually were being played. Check out their songs on their website http://www.pennmasala.com.
But you may be wondering why I am going on about A'Capella. Well I had a chance to be a part of "Drexel Shor", the first South Asian co-ed A'Capella group at Drexel and in Philadelphia. A group of fifteen enthusiastic people who had to face stiff opposition from various quarters within the Indian Student association and almost caused a vertical split in the organization. We started off like 15 donkeys braying together and slowly but surely we started sounding like music. After lot of deliberations we chose four songs from fifteen short listed songs. We were pretty confident until the mock rehearsal. We messed up the mock rehearsal and managed to drive the audience nuts, so much so that there were talks of "Drexel Shor" being taken off the list of performances in “NASHA”, a cultural show organized by Pragathi, Graduate Indian Student Association at Drexel University (http://www.pragathi.net). We resolved to improve our performance to the level that people say “once more”. Shrugging off the one bad day at office we came back strongly to wow the audience at the show.
Three cheers for “Drexel Shor”, sor nahi baba, Shor! Shor! Finally, alls well that ends well. I am waiting for our next performance at the Spring Festival in Drexel University.