Happy New Year 2022

 The antonym of "Happy New Year" would be "Unhappy Old Year". Year 2021 was pretty close to that for many, though better than the previous year. 2021 paves way for the year 2022 - a new year we wish will make 2021 a forgettable one. While wishing so and stepping into it, with thousands of Nostadamus and Malika predictions from Whatsapp University circulating on social media, we don't know what lies ahead and what's in store for us. As the old man 2021 bends his spine and extends his hand to open the door to welcome the New Year, it is now time for some retrospection. 

The passing year 2021 will be forever be remembered by me for several unique reasons - Coronavirus pandemic caused by its Delta variant which killed millions across the globe and a new American President taking office. For the first time an Olympics was held in an odd, unscheduled year. And for the first time since 1993 a new President was sworn in after the defeat of an incumbent one term President who lost his reelection.

A la getting rid off old cloths for the new ones, the soul moving from one body to another as famously extolled by Lord Sri Krishna in the BHAGWAT GITA (a Hindu Scriptue), year 2022 will be reborn yet again at midnight tonight as the soul of 2021 passes away. The year dawns with the cherubic smile of a newborn, as another number is added to its age in the form of a New Year.

But hardly anything else ever changes with the arrival of the new year. For me the mundane life trudges ahead as the same shit, different day - with different color and texture. Hardly anything cataclysmically different occurs, the status quo is maintained more or less.

I don't make any New year resolutions myself, as I don't and I can't keep them anyway. Resolutions like promises are made to be broken. I simply roll over to the year ahead of me.

We may forget history but we don't forget to repeat it year after year. Similar to this starting stanza of the Kishore Kumar's song :

EK RUUT AYE, EK RUUT JAYE PHIR,
MOUSAM BADLENA, BADLE NASEEB.

"One season comes and another goes,
Seasons don't change, fate does". 

This year came and went with a mixed bag. It was all good, bad and ugly for me, with additional baggage of memories gently rolling into next year. Made new friends, revived old ones and lost a few near and dear ones, once and for all. Yet the year comes with this stark reminder - life goes downhill from here, tasks become uphill and years are numbered before we go over the hill. 

To me, almost all the New Year wishes expressed over the years have been too pleasant to makes them forgettable. The Homo Sapien species has this inherent instinct to remember the unpleasant ones. I am no exception. Remember this one from 1st January, 1982. On the first New Year after his marriage to Diana, Prince Charles wished the nosey British Paparazzi, "Have a Nasty New Year".

But I don't have to be nasty. So let me repeat the forgettable wish, as I do not forget to do at the end of every year - HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR ahead and stay blessed.

12 years of 3 Idiots

 It will forever be my all time great movie, as I could relate a lot shown in that movie to my Engineering College days. Today completes 12 Years of the iconic film ever made in India "3 IDIOTS". It is called the "Shawshank redemption" of India, a movie you can watch again and again, yet not get bored.

In a 2013 interview, iconic filmmaker Steven Spielberg had revealed that he loved Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots and has watched the film thrice. Today the movie completes 12 years of its release.

What makes the movie so great ? It is full of fun, love, sarcasm often bordering on dark humor, capturing ethos and pathos of human and student life - how parents force their children into Engineering against their will, spoiling their dream forever. As Aamir Khan has mentioned in the movie - "If Lata Mangeskar played cricket and Tendulkar made singing as his career wonder what would have happened to both" !!!

Though Aamir Khan stole the show, everyone else in that movie excelled in their performance - especially the character played by the irrefutable Chatur Ramalingam, the teacher's pet and with his South Indian accented Hindi a butt of joke of his classmates. 

Throughout the movie it pokes fun of our education system - our tendency to prefer complex solutions over simple ones, deliberate obfuscation versus common sense. At beginning of the movie when the director of Engineering College boasts in front of the students showing a pen which works in space, the pragmatic but playful Rancho played by Aamir Khan retorts back - "Why don't they use pencils in space" ? As they say in Hindi "BADI BADI KHUSIYA HEY CHHOTI CHHOTI BATON MEIN" (Big happiness lies in small talks). The audience instantly burst into laughing after Rancho's impromptu response.

Both friends of Aamir Khan feel sad as they thought their friend Rancho has failed in the final exam. And they were sadder, when they found that he topped the class. It exposes our human foible - we can very easily share some one's sorrow, but rarely someone's happiness at the same breath.

Rancho keeps telling him two closest buddies - SUCCESS KE PICHHE MAT BHAGO. KAVIL BANO. EK DIN SUCCESS TUMHARE PICHHE BHAGEGI" - "Don't chase success. Be capable. One day Success will chase you". He stood vindicated at the end.

The icing on the cake was this scene. When the Hindi speech writer told Chatur Ramalingam to understand the text of the speech before speaking in public, the later said "Don't worry, I will rote it". Then Aamir Khan as Rancho changed the word "CHAMATKAAR" to "VALATKKAR" and so on in the script. We all know what happened to Chatur who read it out loud on the stage without an idea of what he was talking about. That famous scene from the movie reminds us the perils of studying without understanding.

Chatur memorizes a SLOKA (hymn) by heart in Sanskrit meant to eulogize the Director and spits it out on the stage, without understanding a single word of it, not realizing that the original lines were altered by Aamir Khan. As Chatur on the stage was about to vomit out the Sloka, the later warns his friends to get ready to hear some sermons about Chatur's farting prowess. Chatur recites:

UTTAMAM GAD GADATA PADAM,
MADHYAM PADAM TUCHAK TUCHAK;
THUR THURIYA KANISTHAM PADAM,
SUR SURIYA PRANA GHATAKAM.

Roughly transliterated...

"Loud farts are majestically thundering;
Medium farts come along stuttering,
Small Farts arrive whisteling & sirening;
The silent ones are life threatening."

As the audience goes berserk, poor Chatur got kicked out of the stage. Rancho's dark humor teaches us another lesson in academics - Knowledge acquired through roting without understanding may earn you a degree and a job. "LEKIN AGLE 40 SAAL TERA VALATKAAR HI HOGA" (you will be screwed all the next 40 years of your life). The movie has left an indelible mark on me and I am sure on many. Even after dozen long years and watching it no less than a dozen times, I can still watch it once again.

TU, TUME and APANA

 The words TU, TUME and APANA in Odia, though all carry the same meaning are three different ways of addressing. In Hindi its counterparts are TU, TUM, AAP. The choice of words to address depends on the familiarity and strata in society of the person at the receiving end. Basically all stand of the equivalent English word "You". English language doesn't distinguish a person addressed as "you".

In Odisha it is common to address one's mother, brothers (especially the younger one in Brahmin families) and friends (on basis of familiarity), or people of the lowest strata in society with "TU". Sisters in Odia families are normally addressed as "TU" irrespective of she being older or younger than you. The next layer of addressing - TUME or TUM (in Hindi) is reserved for the more respectful uncles, spouces, boy-girl friends (depends) and people at the next level of stratum.

APANA (Odia) or AAP (Hindi) is reserved for the best, the elderly folks, teachers and those at highest strata of society. It is a way of courtesy extended to others. I am now reminded of this stanza from a song in the Hindi movie BOBBY, "JAISE Lucknow KI DO NAWABON KI GAADI PEHLE AAP PEHLE AAP KARTE NIKAL JAATE HAIN" - "as two vehicles carrying Royals of Lucknow, a place known for etiquette request each other to go first when they get into a Deadlock situation at road intersections when two drivers are stuck, requesting the other one to go first. Such courtesy extended in Lucknow is rarely extended elsewhere, certainly not on the roads of Bhubaneswar.

Sometimes a change in social status, in relationship or otherwise, changes the way of addressing. In most arranged marriages the couples address each other as TUME (TUM). In case of marriages preceded by dating (dating in India may not be exactly the American way of dating) or in the so called love marriages as known in local parlance (in most cases it's less love, more like self arranged marriages based upon convenience). During the pre marital courtship the couples are known to address themselves as TU (if they are classmates of close age) but post marriage at least the bride addresses groom as TUME (TUM). It's complicated.

Post marriage the inertia of TU addressing continues like Newton's law of motion, unless an external factor like mother-in-law forces the girl to address her son with the more respectful TUME. It is less common, though not unusual for the husband forced to switch from TU to TUME as the girl yearns for more respect.

In arranged marriage, the bride and groom usually call each other TUME or TUM, though in some cases for the husband to address his wife as TU (our's is still a male dominated society). It's not unusual for such couples to come down addressing with TU, when they fight or get down to the basic instincts, as TU is the base way of addressing.

I have seen the dilemma in some cases addressing when someone's elder sibling gets married. A person, who forever had addressed his elder brother as TU, finds it little odd to address his BHAUJA or BHAVI (brother's wife) as TUM. Eventually he or she adjusts (another ubiquitous word, we adjust a lot in our society).

Once upon a time, Bhubaneswar was filled with Cycle Rickshaws. Everybody from our generation has yelled "HEY RICKSHAW JIBU" (O' Rickshaw will you go). Now it's replaced by HE AUTO JIBA or JIBE KI ? (O' Auto, will you go). A rickshaw puller was rarely called JIBA KI (better respected expression) and Auto driver is rarely called TU or JIBU (least respected expression). Either denizens have become more respectful, or the transformation from a Rickshaw puller to Auto driver has catapulted them to the next social strata to command respect. 

In English language it's always you, you and only you. Can't resist mentioning this two liner Odia limerick from childhood :

AGYAN APANA TUME TU,
TUMA MUHARE KUKURA MUTU

Respected base(you), better (you) and the best(you),
May a dog pee on the face of you.

Odias and their food habits on days of week

 When I post pictures of food at home, I get occasional response about eating non-vegetarian food on certain avoidable dates and occasions (In American English there is nothing called non-vegetarian, either you are vegetarian or a meat, fish, poultry eater). 

In Odisha each day of the week has its own food related significance. You chose to go vegetarian or be a non-veg in local parlance.

MONDAY- Day of Lord Shiva and moon worshippers, arguably obeyed by most Odias.

TUESDAY - Day of Maa Mangala and Hanuman. In North India many go vegetarian on Tuesdays same as Odias on Mondays.

WEDNESDAY - Budhei Osha. Very few practice this though. Most devour non-vegetarian food after a hiatus of two days. Fish markets and mutton (meat) shops in Odisha are invariably crowded on Wednesdays. 

THURSDAY - Goddess Laxmi and Saint Sai Baba. Mostly women stay veggie than men on this day. Now per Hindu Lunar Calendar we got MANABASA Gurubar (Thursday), a special festival of prayers Goddess Laxmi. Hence non-veg food is a strict no no.

FRIDAY - Santoshima Brata. The devotees of the Goddess apart from avoiding non-Veg food avoid KHATTA (tangy) stuff like lemon, tomato, tamarind etc. But devotees of Santoshi Mata are a handful. Most Odias eat non- vegetarian food on Fridays.

SATURDAY - Lord Sani and Hanuman.
Lord Sani is known to have a malevolent aspect on many on their horoscope chat and his effect is most profound. So they stay vegetarian that day pacify him, so as the followers of Lord Hanuman.

SUNDAY - Lord Surya (Sun God). Not many follow through, as Goat meat features on the menu at many homes of Odias during lunch.

 Some Odias go extra yard by not only staying vegetarian on these day, they even avoiding Onion & Garlic, called TAMASHIK (titillating carnal desire) food on the above days of a week. Recently my mother scolded me for eating Egg on a special MANABASA Thursday. I teased her - "my Egg is perfectly poached. I have sprinkled a little bit of salt and black pepper on it. You won't find a trace of onion and garlic. So, it should be okay".

We have 13 festivals in 12 months in Odisha. On top of the days of the week, certain festivals override if they happen to be on days conducive for nonveg food. For example if a Ganesh Puja, Saraswati Puja or Sankranti comes on a Sunday, many resist eating any kind of non-vegetarian food on that day. Another occasion is the lunar month of KARTIKA in October - November. Many desist eating non veg for the entire month. Some who can't keep their taste buds under control obey a mini version of Kartika by going vegetarian on the last 5 days of that lunar month.

A gentleman was in quest for a pious daughter-in-law who won't be eating non-vegetarian food as well as Onion and Garlic. They found the right candidate (in Odisha a prospective bride or groom is called a candidate) - A pretty, educated girl fitting the bill. The issue was not with her food but drink. A la before hiring an employer does a background check of the prospective employee, in arranged marriages in India a background check is done on the to be bride or groom, scruiny is usually more on the bride side. After background check it was discovered that the girl was fond of alcohol.

I said to the gentleman - "It's perfectly fine. Alcohol is purely vegetarian. They are made from grapes, wheat, potato, rye, corn etc. I have not come across a single alcohol product made from onion and garlic. Technically speaking alcohol is vegetarian. Unless there is alcoholism and drunkenness involved, what's wrong with a girl getting occasionally tipsy ?" Not sure if the gentleman proceeded further on the candid candidate.

Democrats have a messaging problem

 Democrats have a problem. They need to get better at messaging. Economy is doing good. Job market is booming. Unemployment is at a record low. Wages are rising. More people are switching jobs. In such a scenario you would think the public support for the Democratic party must be growing. You are wrong. In fact it is going in the opposite direction. Even tons of free money as part of the post Covid stimulus package has done little to assuage the dour mood against the Democrats.

First of all Democratic party should shed its image of the party of the elite and their snobbish attitude towards the non College graduates. Hillary Clinton lost because she branded them as a bunch of deplorable. You may help someone, but no one likes condescending attitude. Every body deserves respect. The city living College graduates look down upon those living in the rural area without a college degree. But a rural American has one vote same as the urban College educated voter and more numerous. 

Democrats simply cannot win with the votes of just the minorities and big city college graduates. They need to expand their base by coming back their basics - the party of American middle class and blue collar workers. The general public perceives that they Democratic party has ceased to be that and have forgotten their roots.

Republicans are smart. They have mastered the art of winning elections by staying on the course of their message. Their base is strong and committed - a la all Right wing parties across the globe. So it's high time Democrats smell the coffee and wake up rather than seen as the party of "woke". American is not a left liberal country like Europe. It's much more conservative. If Democrats don't stay in course as a Center-Right party and make the middle class feel left out then welcome a Republican in the White House in 2024 - possibly Trump.

Brain drain and new Twitter CEO

 A lot of discussions going on the media - social or otherwise about the appointment of Indian origin Parag Agarwal as the CEO of Twitter. He is only 37 years old. The achievement of the IIT Bombay Alumnus and Stanford PhD holder is definitely praiseworthy, though many have used terms like "divorcing", "ditching" his motherland for greener pastures for him. In the jungle of social media everyone is entitled for his or her opinion. Not to be left out here is mine.

Years back, an Odia officer from IFS (Indian Foreign Service) was posted in America in one of the several Indian Consulates. During an interaction with him, the gentleman narrated to me an interesting episode of his own. 

Per the Foreign Ministry rules, he was entitled to bring a Domestic help - an euphemism for servant from India to the United States. So he brought this semi-educated, married young man with his family back in his village in Cuttack, thinking he would be least likely to elope or escape with the thought of his family back home in back of his mind. Or so he thought.

The officer, a bachelor, spent long days and evenings at work, often eating outside and attending diplomatic parties. Having nothing to do at home in America, getting bored watching TV in those days sans cell phones and social media, his "helping hand", popularly known as CHAKARA TOKA in Odia helped himself by going around the city.

Slowly he started getting a taste of the American life and got hooked to it. One fine morning he simply absconded without informing his employer. Our IFS Babu (Officer) anticipated that his fellow Odia must have melted away, gobbled by the gargantuan city as an undocumented illegal immigrant, doing some odd jobs.

His suspicion turned out to be true. One evening he was in an Indian Restaurant where he saw his ex-helping hand  mopping the floor. No sooner their eyes met than the later turned away and fled. Our officer bro chased him for a while, calling his name at top of his voice, that he is going to forgive him and his folks in Cuttack are now a worried lot. 

It had no effect on the CHAKARA TOKA, as he vanished into the labyrinth of the parked vehicles. If the officer wanted he could have followed up with the local authorities to trace him out. But he let him go, allowing his co-villager pursue his American dream. He walked back gasping like the Cheetah on National Geographic Channel after failed chase.  

The Odia escapist may never have gone back to see his family ever again. Due to expiry of his Visa and lack of proper document, he could have forever settled down here as one of the estimated 12 million illegal undocumented workers in America, about half a million those are of Indian origin. No question he fell to the desire to stay in the Coke land by hook or crook. Thus ended the story of the Officer and the Gentleman from Cuttack.

That was the saga of an illegal immigrant. But there are a lot of legal and successful Indian diaspora all over the globe doing well in Technology and Business fields at different level. Brain drain will continue as long as there are wrong people in wrong places (an IT Minister of Odisha didn't know what Microsoft is), a huge population, caste based reservations, nepotism, reward of mediocrity, ignoring meritocracy, lack of growth and opportunity. Adding lure of more money, a sense of adventure and accomplishment by going abroad will continue to drive the brain drain.

The tribe of the likes of Parag Agarwal (CEO of Twitter), Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google) and Satya Nedula (CEO of Microsoft) is bound to grow. It will only keep on growing irrespective of what people think, say, comment or troll about them on social media. As more and more such folks are trolled more often, it will keep me reminding Kishore Kumar's iconic song from the movie AMAR PREM - "KUCHH TO LOG KAHENGE, LOGON KA KAAM HAI KEHNA " (People will always say something, there job is to say).