The short lived Indo-Pak war

 I haven't written a single blog about the recently concluded short but not sweet war between India and its belligerent neighbor Pakistan. With so much blogs, reels, articles short and long flooding the social media, not to be left behind, I scribbled something for the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) factor. 

Truth is the first casualty of war. Now as the dust settles down after the 3 day skirmish where the foot soldiers of both nations stayed within the limit, both warring sides started taking credit for outright victory. Pakistan lied to its teeth claiming to have downed multiple Indian fighter jets, including India's famed Rafael which costs nearly $250 million a piece. Indian media went to the extent of announcing India's occupation of POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir), followed by collapse of Lahore and Rawalpindi while our Naval ships were busy bombing the hell out of Karachi. The Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir shat in his pants and was deposed. The social media amplified it. For a moment I thought it was true and Indian soldiers have reached Iran border, until a few hours later I found out that these were fabricated lies. 

I am sure the same was happening on the Pakistani side of the house. This gave fodder to Western media, mostly liberal, which has its share of bias against India to hyphenate India - Pakistan. These liberal media reeking with double standards still cling to their traditional narrative of calling terrorists who attack Israel as terrorists, but those who kill innocents in India as gunmen. The West in general and America is particular still loves to equate between India and Pakistan as equals, treating them two recalcitrant kids who fight. We, both India and Pakistan spectacularly fall in line as a la the Headmaster of Elimentary School chastises two fighting students to fall in the line, or else.... 

Unfortunately, not a single country came to the rescue of India or took it sides, whereas China, Turkey and Azerbaijan (does its support matter ?) came out openly in  support of Pakistan, rest preferring to stay neutral because of their geopolitical compulsions. Turkey supplied Pakistan a ship filled with drones whereas China tested its weapons given to its vassal country. China, not known to speak truth went to the extent of celebrating its Air to Air missile from the J - Series Fighter planes it has sold to Pakistan successfully downing at least one of India's prized Rafael Fighter jets. Chinese TikTok reels flooded social media poking fun at India. The truth only God knows. 

But the truth is America was able to broker a ceasefire between Delhi and Islamabad in a short time. Ideally India should have taught Pakistan a lesson rather than agreeing to the ceasefire too fast, too soon. America on the other hand, in spite of Modi holding the hands of "my Fraand Doland", uttering loudly "Ab Ki Baar Trump Sarkar" (next time it's Trump's government) in much published "Howdy Modi" in Texas, followed by showering Trump with hundreds of thousands of flower petals in Ahmedabad, refused to side with India. Rather it stayed neutral and worked in the background to bring the ceasefire between the battling nations. Typical of Trump, before the ceasefire was confirmed by either India or Pakistan, he twitted in Truth Social taking credit for the ceasefire which went viral in quick seconds. Many in India came to know about the American mediated ceasefire from Trump's tweet before it was officially announced by GOI (Government of India). 

Now we see lull after the storm with every political party worth its salt is trying to make the most political capital out of it and factions on social media boxing with each other. This ceasefire is very fragile. Another terror attack on Indian soil will definitely lead to a more vigorous and devastating attack by India on Pakistan. And it could get ugly, really ugly the next time.

Americanized Odia names

What's in a name ? "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet. 

Shakespeare was so ahead of time when he mentioned it in the 16th century. The personality of a person is entirely personal, with his or her name hardly playing any role in it. I know an untruthful guy named SATYABRATA who came out as a congenial liar to the core, a plain looking girl named "TRIPURA SUNDARI (Universal Beauty)". A Beggar was named as KUBERA (the Hindu God of wealth), a man dying at an early age bore the name JEEVAK (Long life). A person with the name SUBUDHI (Good thoughts) should have ideally be named DURBUDHI (Bad thoughts) - his name proved to be a misnomer as his mind was filled with filth. 

Back home in India, we grew up in a collective society where our identity is often qualified by our lineage, village, caste, community etc etc. Names got influence by it. Most South Indians and many Punjabis have their villages tagged to their names. For example, for a P. Ravi Kumar, P could be the first initial of his native village somewhere in South India. A Sikh Jagjit Singh TALWANDI, the last part being the name of his PIND - village. We, as an individual entity always come last. 

Most South Indian Hindus from my generation have at least a God or Goddess's name embedded in their own. There is hardly a name without Ram, Laksman, Lakshmi, Parvati, Krishna, Gopal, Shiva, Srinivas, Ganesh, Karthik, Murugappan or a combination of some of these. Some have all Gods in one name, e.g, Laxman Shivaramakrishnan.

During one monsoon, no sooner my flight took off from Calcutta than violent air turbulence engulfed it. The agnostic in me now remembered God instantly and came up the name of the cricketer "Laxman Shiva Ramkrishnan" to my mind. The nervous passenger in me started chanting his name which comes with all premier Gods name in a Combo package. Before I could finish uttering my chant 108 times, the flight was preparing for its descent at the  Bhubaneswar Airport.

In olden days, half of the kids used to die before they reached the age of 5 in an age when there was no vaccination to kill harmful micro bugs before they kill you. If one of these diseases Tetanus, Polio, Whooping Couph, Diptheria, Malaria, Flue won't get you, the dreaded Cholera or Small Pox would. In Odisha it was superstitiously believed that Lord Yama, the Hindu God of death ignores the kids with mundane names as he prefers to take children with catchy, fancy, attractive names. So parents used to give avoidable names as AINTHA (Miss Messy Food-Leftover), GOBARAA (Mr. Cow Dung), BALUNGA (Mr. Weed), POCHARA (Mr. Dirty Rotten) and so on. Not sure if Lord Yama obliged.

Time flew and many Odias developed wings to fly to faraway lands as Europe, Australia and of course the farthest and most attractive destination for immigration - The United States of America. But they never imagined their names would go through distortion which Lord Yama would yet again love to ignore.

Here is a list of such names along with their American / Anglicized ones which the westerners find hard to pronounce. 

Pitambara - Pitt
Nityananda - Nit
HarishChandra - Harry
Dhananjay - Dan
Dinabandhu - Dean
Krupasindhu - Krip
Narayana - Nora
Nabaghana - Nab
Nilamadhab - Neel
Pradipta Kumar - PK
Satyajit - Satty
Debasis - Dave
Krishnamurthy - Krish
Radhakrushna - Reed
Jagannath - Jaggs
Nikunja - Nick
Markandeswar - Mark
Bichitrananda Patnaik - Did'nt want to go with the shortened version of his first name "Bitch", preferring a shortened form of his last name Pat, thankfully not by a truncated version of his first name.

Dambarudhara Patra - Similar situation here Prefers to be called Pat, not Damb, which sounds like dumb.

So, what's in a name ?

 
 
 

Return to US - India trip 2025

 More than twelve percent of all commercial pilots in India are women, highest percentage in the world. This is credible because the number of commercial aircraft and pilots in India is substantial. 

On my flight from Bhubaneswar to Delhi I met a lady passenger whose final destination like me wasn't Delhi, she was travelling enroute to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, Africa. Sitting next to me she asked in Hindi if I am an Odia. I replied - "MU SOLA ANA ODIA" (I am a 24 carat Odia). She was travelling with her little girl as she was visiting home for summer holidays. Her husband works as a Chartered Accountant in the African nation of Tanzania. 

The lady asked me where I live and what I do for a living. I replied - "I live in USA and work in IT (Information Technology)". "Wow", she said. It seems I initially raised her curiosity, now suddenly got her attention. "APANA TA HELE SETHI SERVICE KARANTI, "So you work over there ! (In Odia the term service is often synonymous with job"), she continued. "Yes", was my response. 

Our tete a tete continued. I have encountered many NROs (Non Resident Odias) who live in North America, Middle East, Far East and Australia, never one from Africa. It was my turn to ask questions. I asked her how many Odias live in Tanzania. "A very small community. Unlike a large number of Gujjus (Gujaratis) who live there, only about 60 odd Odia families are there in Dar-es-Salaam, the capital of Tanzania". I asked - "With such a small community the Odias over there must be an united bunch". No, she laughed. We are a divided house, split rightly in the middle into two groups. My husband who is a Chartered Accountant Odia caught the guy in the leadership position of local Odia association red handed swindling money, exposing the misappropriation of money at the local Sri Jagannath temple. Though Rath Yatra is held every year, last year it was a damp squib due to persistent internal bickering amongst Odias. In America the Odias are educated lots. They must be united and not involved in dirty politics like the Odias in Tanzania. 

"Yes and No", I chucked back. Yes, most Odias in America are educated with degrees from cherished institutes in India and abroad. No, because the politics amongst them can put others to shame, even in Temples across the United States which should be free from mean, nefarious activities are citadels of nasty politics. The Odia society in Tanzania is split into two. That's not too bad, considering the Odias in USA are divided into 2 or even more than 2 in city in America - big or small. There are goodnumber of groups and subgroup in certain states, large enough to organize a cricket match. My last sentence made her laugh. 

She continued talking about Tanzania. You know, it's a wonderful country with salubrious climate. The weather is neither hot nor cold all throughout the year, though of late it is starting to get hotter. I said - "that's probably because the politics amongst Odias there is getting hotter, impacting the weather there". She laughed again and commented - "You have a good sense of humor". When two Odias talk there is invariably discussion about good. She continued - "All kinds of Indian vegetables are available in Tanzania except "POTALA" (Parval or Pointed Gourd), a popular Odia vegetable. However the scarcity of POTALA is compensated abundance of another Odia favorite "Mutton" or Goat meat which is cheaper than chicken as goats are raised aplenty in that African nation. The Odias over there do an Utkal Diwas and Rath Yatra program, followed by a picnic on sea beach once in a year, I said - "We Odias in America apart from what you do, we do Saraswati and Ganesh Puja, Holi and Diwali in addition". "Hun... that's a whole lot of event", she responded. "Well, the more the events, more seeds of groupism it sown and spread, as familiarity breeds contempt" - I replied impromptu. She nodded in agreement. 

A sudden burst of air turbulence shook the flight. The announcement came on air asking passengers to fasten their seat belts. A few recalcitrant ones stood up, tiptoeing through the narrow aisle in between the seats trying to keep themseves steady. The Airhostess politely checked the lady's little daughter who was fast asleep and told her mom to fasten the kid's seatbelt. But she wasn't very polite to these errand passengers still loitering around. In a soft yet firm voice she told them to go back to their seats.

It didn't take very long before the short flight from Bhubaneswar to Delhi was over. As the flight descended, the houses looked like a colony of fireflies dispersed in a large concrete jungle. The string of cars on roadways looked like yellowish red Lava flowing from an actively erupting volcano. I bid adieu to the lady and her little daughter as I headed to pickup my luggage from the baggage claim area and proceed to the International gate. 

In life such encounters in train, plane and automobiles rarely last long. It reminds me of a passage from our epic Hindu scripture BHAGVAT GEETA - two logs floating in the middle of Ocean collide with each other, to get separated forever, never ever to meet again. Back of my mind I knew, the same awaits me after the rendezvous with many of whom I am sure I am destined not to meet them ever again. 

The Doha to Atlanta flight on Qatar Airways was 14 hour long. The food was good, but the seats in cattle class (economy class) were crammy. To make the situation worse, I was in a window seat, the other two adjacent seats were occupied by two Amazonian women. It was an herculean talks for them to get up and let me go whenever I needed a break during the 14 hour long flight. I decided to watch movies and take a nap, using this opportunity to take a detox break cut off from social media.

Back in Georgia to a cool and breezy, late evening temperature of 80°F (27°Centigrade). It would be early morning in India. Already miss the humming of mosquitoes and brutally clapping them to death, the yodelling of mongrels in middle of night. The crispy air of Georgia felt refreshingly fresh as I stepped out of the Airport. It felt odd not to hear a single vehicle honking on my 100 miles (160 km) road trip from Atlanta to Columbus. Miss the din and bustle, crowd and the continous kickee...kickkee..kickee...of bikes yonking horn and slicing their way through the traffic - the ubiquitous jerk on the road and the bumpy rides, the roads being too smooth for comfort to my back here. No place under sun can match India in the richness of flora, fauna, chaos and characters to write about. Often chaos and disorder brings the fun and frolic out of life rather than orderly tidiness. 

Traveled nearly 15,000 miles toing and froing between my family in United States and India. Felt sad to bid adieu to ndia, happy to get back to my family, the daily grind in Georgia. Left India with Jai Jagannath in mind, back with "Georgia in my mind" - to echo the famous song by Ray Charles. I have two hearts, India and USA, separated by 7 seas and 13 rivers, united by the bond of love. Rooted strongly in both, I am rooting for both. Though I love United States, my adopted home, like first love in life India is and always will be close to my heart. Thus concludes my travelog to India this year.