navratri in sankalp or jersey city?

Obviously sankalp!!! I know most of you think like that. No matter how many people turn up at the Jersey City navratri function? We cannot compare it to Snakalp. Ask someone like me, who is a beginner when it comes to garba. For me I am better of at Jersey City. Last night I went for playing or dancing orrrrrrrrrr-doing garba.
It all started at around 9 pm when people start coming in tired after their jobs and a busy Friday. Most of them were students. Most of them were happy coz they were going to play garba after a year or their assignments were completed. Frankly I don’t know which one is true. What started as a short round in no time it was a group of hundreds of desis dancing coordinately. I say this, because in NJ you are not allowed to form your own group and dance with your friends only. It’s a whole big round and almost everyone has to do the same step. Funny but true. In that sense it was good for me, so at least I can join everyone. Unlike kora Kendra in boriwali there looking at people dance was the only thing I was good at. In my previous post when I said that incredible India function was the most number of desis I had seen at one place. Well I was proven wrong last night. I was not sure all of them were Indian but at least from Indian origin. Except for the security people who were like bunch of wannabe mike Tyson. While playing garba I saw so many familiar faces. Like I had seen them if not met them in person. Same concept of friend’s cousin’s brother’s neighbor’s niece. Or maybe all gujus look alike LOL!! Just a joke. Anyways it was so much of fun, at least for me because at the end of the day few people came to me and said they actually do follow me when it comes to garba steps. (Jeez those people must be really bad at garba). Before the dandiya break we had aarti and couple of speeches from the mayor and senator (he came in sleazy half pants and blue jacket) from New Jersey. I couldn’t stop laughing at the narrator’s accent when he was introducing them. Something like Iris pents and return back to Mumbai fare. What he actually meant was Irish pants and round trip to Mumbai. Then during the aarti something happened which I did not agree on. The senator was given the aarti thali for prayer. Although I am very thankful to him for giving permission for the navratri celebration but an aarti thali in the hands of a person whose lunch and dinner menu was veal chops and roast beef. I don’t I just didn’t feel right. Is this the beginning of Americanization of navratri? I don’t just didn’t feel that was right.

oh god, yeh bhagwan ko kaun samajaye

YES!! what is about our parents and so strong view about getting married to someone from other religion. isn't love enough. in my entire lifetime which has just extended to 24 years i have already seen 3 unsuccessful affairs. I mean what is it? why does a person's religion comes before his or her love. the first one is between a friend who he is very close to me now and this out of normal perfect girl. it was suppose to be perfect secret love affair which no one had a clue about . but then guess what? he was seven seas' away(saat samundar par) and she was India. that's when the hell broke on them. NO its not that they could not handle a long distance relationship but it was the girl's father , the villain had decided to get her married somewhere else. and that's it. that was a full stop for a an affair longer than a year. back here in new york if u survive an affair with someone for a year, and next next thing u know you are married .another year and you are divorced. give it 6 more months and you might be seeing yourself at your second reception. second one ,actually my friend got married and is living with the better half happily. but guess what!!! the family has no clue that their child is married. because if disclosed it would break up the sky on their head(aasman tut padega).so much for an perfect Indian family. and the third one you have to listen to this. this ones actually under scrutiny right now. the problem; different religion. who is getting married the humans or god to bhagwan. why does it matter if u go to temple every Tuesday or a church every Sunday. i know that back home we curse the western rate of divorce. but Hellooooo! at least you are not pushed into the leaky cauldron. where you have no clue who is what. I for certainly do not agree with that ritual. i might sound so American. but this not what i agree on. that is it? we have to agree that some things are better done in the western style. is it so American to get married to person you love?

Not so Proud to be Indian

somewhere walking down the Manhattan avenues you can see a touch of India here and there. for we Indians, we take a lot of pride in explaining about the clothes on display or food on menu to our foreign counterparts. and we are very proud of our country at 60th independence day. last week new york got a little more of India than usual. there was incredible India at 60 function in Bryant park and south street seaport. which i thoroughly enjoyed. although two things were disappointment. one: a statement by colonial cousins on stage in front of what i can say the most number of desis i ever saw in new york together at one place ;stating" we know that we are celebrating 60 years of Independence and all that but WHATEVER, we are in new york people cheer up". was it really necessary to use words like "whatever" and "Independence and all that" just for a few claps and hoorays. i bet they got the maximum Boos. anyways secondly for the same function at south street seaport the Indian flag was all hoisted all over a ship late till 10pm well after the sunset. its an insult to hoist the national flag after sunset in India. even the dancers were merely waving the flag on their performance on song chak de. to add the icing on the cake this function was sponsored by the government of India. and i heard last week amir khan the actor got a notice from court because he attended a showroom opening on Independence day and the owner forgot to take the flags down before sunset. do the codes for our national flag do not apply in foreign country? that's not it,I work in hotel industry in new york . last week as we all know Sonia Gandhi was in new york. she happened to stay at an luxurious hotel. as Indians we all were very happy and proud. just a day before her arrival the hotel got an email from her staff clearly specifying that there should be no staff on Indian origin around the Indian mission apparently for "PRIVACY" reason. although they preferred a Chinese butler. and i though she came to NY to represent India at UN. i would have understood if she was here to talk with the US government but she was just to celebrate Gandhi jayanti as international non violence day. its was such an embarrassment to all the Indian staff at the hotel. maybe someone should tell her practice what you preach.

Friends in America but GUYS in india.

I am sure we all notice that as soon as students come to America or even before coming here. we start looking for distant relative or a friend's cousin's sister's boss's son who is living in America. or in this case NYC. who could at least pick us up at airport and maybe give a place to live for couple of days till we find a an affordable apartment. I am very fascinated about how Indian girls change their point of view about their male counterparts as soon as the country changes. as far as i know i distinctly remember back home i have heard girls saying that late night out with GUYS "No way". or " that GUY has an habit of drinking alcohol" or" jeez that GUY smokes".however as girls land in America they r fine the same person being their room mate. please dont get me wrong I m not pointing fingers at Indian girls , at least not all of them. what is it back home? is it your parents pressure back home or you can really compromise those habits under financial pressure or you girls really think that ah those are just petty things as compared to what Americans do so it should not bother us. Or is it that you realise that back home you were being a little orthodox and now its rite time and age to act maturely on such issues.are the same "GUYS" in India are really worth making friends in America?

is it really bad to go against what our mommy taught us?

most of us when study abroad. usually have cash jobs or on campus jobs. we usually make every effort to send a lot of money back home . and do live a little economically. somewhere we are trying to balance everything. but what if we see two of our American(or any other nationalities) counterparts falling in love and have an healthy relationship. usually they go clubbing , have three meals in a week in restaurants and spend a whole lot of time and money in sending SMS(although u have free minutes to talk). what if we do that for a change. are we as Indians suppose to feel guilty that this is not our culture and we are not allowed to spend money on "USELESS" things like clubbing,taking Cab instead of a subway or for that matter of fact firstly get into a relationship with a girl? if we see our American friends all happy in life with doing all this. are we suppose to feel bad that y this is not our culture?