India 2.0: Identity Crisis

I heard of this term Identity crisis, from one of my desi friend in office. He used to tell us hilarious incidents of his kid. He can perform a stand up comedy with all his incidents. One day he told me about his kid facing Identity crisis. Identity crisis here is about not knowing ones family language, cultural/ethnic/family values. I would not have thought of a kid learning his/her mother tongue in some coaching class rather than at home. I saw this in US. My friend used to get involved in all those so called cultural activities in community, which given an option he would not have. Think of biggest of all festivals in India ‘Diwali; for kids brought up abroad this is just another festival. After some time in US, I observed that this whole Identity Crisis thing was quite normal for Indian families settled in US or anywhere abroad. 

Not just cultural and family values, but think of all those fun that we had when we were kids. I still remember those road side games that we used to play. Pakkda Pakdi, Langdi, Kho Kho, Goti (Marbles), Chor Police, GIlli Danda, Bhawra (Top), Vish Amrut, Son sakhli etc. It was so fun. Even today with friends, we discuss all these games and memories are as fresh as it has happened just yesterday. Kids brought up abroad probably will not even hear about all these fun, forget about playing. 

This weekend I was back in bay area after my official trip to Charlotte and over the weekend had nothing much to do, other than visiting friends, watching movies, cooking and relaxing. On my visit to one of my friends, one of our other Colleague/Friend joined us for dinner with his family i.e. his wife and 2 kids (both ABCD). After some chatting we all got into cooking mode and guys thought of giving girls a break from kitchen. And then what followed with the kid’s, motivated me to write this blog. 

Kids brought up in US speak English with US accent, which amuses me a lot. Not just this, kids find themselves more comfortable expressing themselves in English rather than in their mother tongue. Now my friend’s elder daughter started communicating in English and my friend asked her to talk in Marathi, which she obviously did not like. This is when the conversation took ugly turn and out of nowhere she started asking Marathi translations for all the objects she could possibly see around her. It was like in war, enemy across border is firing bullets, throwing grenades, firing missiles and we were running helter skelter for cover. We so called Marathi by birth or up bringing, were simply taken down by her questions. We only managed to answer 5 out of 20 questions. We also gave answers like this word came from Marathi, hence no translation. 

Let me give you feel of the situation, I will put some of the translations asked by 5 yr old kid, though I do not remember all of those, try translating it in your mother tongue.

1. Table
   
2. Sofa
3. TV
4. Phone
5. Fan
6. Light

Though we did not show any sign of guilt, probably we do not realize now. I felt we faced bigger identity crisis then kids born or brought up in US. Though born and brought up in India (between our culture and people), I bet not many of us can talk in our mother tongue without using English? How many of us remember or understand all of our cultural festivals/rituals? At my home mom and dad perform puja when ever we have any festivals and till day I or brother/sister in all these years did not take much effort to learn. I won’t be surprised if in years to come these small or big festivals/rituals will be lost with time. Even today I can see the diminishing enthusiasm for the festivals like Gopala (Dahi Handi), Holi, Sankrant (Kite flying). I am sure there are many more festivals which I would have celebrated, but do not remember them now.

I do not want to make any statement by writing this blog; this is just a thought.

Namesake

Last weekend I saw Namesake, Mira Nair movie. Namesake was on my long pending list of movies for quite sometime now. I got warning from my friend about not watching this movie on Saturday evening, nothing like movie being bad or worthless, but due to its depressing nature. My friend said quote unquote “you should not see this movie after coming to US from INDIA, but to watch this before going to INDIA from US”. This kind of statement would certainly make you to reconsider your decision to watch this movie on Saturday evening. So basically 2 reasons to see this movie even after so many warnings (1) We had got this DVD from Sunnyvale library and we had to return this next day and (2) Want to finish this movie from my long pending list. 

I was little delighted to see Kal Penn in the movie because of the kind of movies that I have seen of him (Harold and Kumar) and also he remind me of one of my Good friend/colleague (Those knowing me and my office circle would know who this person is J). 

Movie started with Ashok’s (Irfan Khan) Train journey, which obviously reminded me about the wonderful experiences that every Train journey brings with it. Ashok is shown reading a novel by author called Nikhlai Gogol, and inspired by him Ashok names his kid Kal Penn, Gogol Ganguly. Instead he should have carried the name which the hospital guy suggested to put on birth certificate “Babyboy Ganguly” J. Kal Penn carries Gogol as his name till younger days only having him to blame, during his school days he had opted to be called Gogol rather than Nikhil. 

Till this point movie was quite entertaining and I was starting to wonder what depressing can happen hereafter. Till this point only daily life in New Jersey during Snow looked depressing to me. Somehow I don’t enjoy snow around me in my day to day life. I feel snow is good for a change or for vacation where you can play in snow, got out for some kind of snow activities. 

Gogol potrays perfect ABCD i.e. American born CONFUSED desi and I mean it CONFUSED DESI. Ashok and Ashima’s (Tabu) both kids move out with their separate lives. As movie progresses, Gogol is shown moved out of house, on his own with job and his American girlfriend Maxi. He starts avoiding his parents while he is involved in relationship. When Ashok dies, his wife Ashima is left alone, this sort of reunites the family and brings all of them together. Gogol returns home to support his mother and completes all the necessary rituals. 

After sometime in movie Gogol is pushed into relationship with a Bengali girl and then they get married only to find her cheating on Gogol. Meanwhile Ashima’s has decided to move on with her life and her daughter Sonia is doing well with an American guy in her life. 

At the end Sonia is shown happy with an American guy and Gogol with broken marriage. One would think, what if Gogol would have continued with his American girl friend? Ofcourse story would not have moved as it did. I am not sure if movie wants to pass this message “ABCD should marry only Americans”, just a thought but how do I care. 

I was glad to see that after Ashok’s death, Ashima carried herself well even after being miles away in different world and culture. She was not shown slipping into depression and was able to get her family back together. Overall a good movie and must watch, at least once.

Trip to Six Flags, Vallejo

Probably Six Flags, Vallejo would not bring chill of ice down one's spine (exceptions are always there), but to a person who have been anxious to even get on to the only roller coaster in Essel World, Mumbai, was obviously scary. Though while visiting Essel World I always knew about other scary and crazy rides in the world, but was never sure about me riding one of those. Now after riding craziest of rides of Six Flags, I can say things can be different or ones approach can be different when viewed from different perspective. I would say so because, if you were to visit one of these parks with a guy who is scared to death by stupidest of the rides, then you are sure to get scared and obviously miss the fun. In effect if you were to visit one of these parks with guys with lion hearts and then you can feel courage of Baajirao oozing out (though this doesn't holds true for all those fattu people).

This time I did exactly what is needed to go on and enjoy these rides. I went with my friends we call crazy/psycho because for whom enjoyment is totally proportional to the craziness, height, width and duration of the ride. By doing this I made sure that I am going to make most of every penny I have spent (though got tickets at 50% discount and even when I am writing this blog, I haven’t yet paid my contribution of the trip)

It all started with Jan 2^nd 2009; what a way to start New Year... with a bang. As we Indians always do, start anything and everything with Bhagwaan ka Aashirwad (Blessings of GOD), we all went to Sunnyvale Temple (I obviously prayed for some courage) and after an auspicious darshan headed straight to Vallejo. One could not miss the view of those huge structures as you enter the city of Vallejo, though I was expecting more spectacular view. As we kept nearing Six flags, I was getting butterflies in stomach.

My formula to successfully finish all the rides was “DO IT BEFORE LUNCH”, if you don’t want to feel dizzy and nauseatic. As we entered Six flags, we first got hold of the Map with all the various rides and their location in the park and spotted all the rides that we would ride before lunch. We kind of rated all the rides and agreed on the sequence to ride, starting with most thrilling.

Off all the rides, I found Medusa the scariest of the rides. Being still early in the day and rare view of no queue for ride, after about 10 mins wait in line we got chance. Ride starts with 65 degrees drop and a immediate round about, which scares the hell out of you. We sat in 1^st row with our feet hanging; Medusa started its way up to the top. When on top it took speed and went down 65 degree drop and an immediate round about. At this time probably you can feel the effect of drop, it was like nothing I have felt before. Everything next just followed and everybody was almost shouting at the top of their voice for next 1 min. No sooner you felt comfortable ride is over and you are left wanting for more. Same happened to us and with not much queue for the ride; we came back for the ride. This time I was really anxious to go on the ride. I had this kid sitting beside me with no sign of fear and me sitting beside him scared to hell. After first ride I knew the only scariest part was the first 65 degrees drop and rest will just follow. This time I was more balanced and composed, during the ride I was also searching for camera to pose for.

Then on our list was next best to Medusa, Kong. After 5 mins in line we were told of technical fault and had to leave without even getting on the ride. But as it came as blessing in disguise, we rushed for the Bird show which otherwise we would have missed. It was good to see how these Owls, Eagles or Vultures act on the commad of their masters but certainly was below our expectation. After bird show we just strolled around and then came across another thrill ride or I can say puke ride for me. Tazmanian devil, it swings 170 degrees horizontally and even rotates 360 degree when swinging. You can say perfect reciepe for me to throw up and as you can expect I did not ride that. But you bet, as I already mentioned, my crazy set of friends enjoyed it so much that they rode it twice.

Our next destination was Kong, which we were not able to ride earlier due to technical difficulties. Difference between Medusa and Kong is that, in Medusa you sit on the ride and in Kong you hang from ride. Kong was good but not as thrilling as Medusa. Probably by riding Medusa first we killed the thrill that other rides had.

Now our next stop was Roar, a wooden roller coaster making roaring noise due to its wooden structure and hence the name. We had to wait 30 mins in queue, due to which we decided to skip the Roar and went to next ride Big Spin. Big Spin was kind of new kind of ride to all of us. This ride was a roller coaster with you seated in a carriage which keeps spinning 360 degree the whole time. While waiting in line we were sort of observing what makes the carriage spin the most. Big Spin did not have many twists and turn and obviously after Medusa it did not seem that thrilling to all of us. Our chance came, 4 of us sat in one carriage (one of our friend opted to keep out of this and hence designated photographer) and it started climbing. When on top, it started with a drop and while dropping down our carriage started spinning. I would tell you, this ride though not as scary as Medusa; this for sure has its own excitement and is one of must ride.

With Big Spin we finished all the thrill rides and thought of having lunch. For those who have visited Six Flags, Vallejo might be thinking about other 2 other rides that I did not mention. You may say that it was my bad luck or whatever but yeah V2 Vertical Velocity and Boomrang both were closed. . Also we did not try Sky coaster, probably due to time and the extra charges.

After lunch it was time for Dolphin and Whale show. I was amazed to see the crowd that had gathered to see the show. This was my first Dolphin and Whale show and I was very much excited to see them in action. Training imparted to the dolphins and whale and the way they put the show amazes me. Without doubt it was worth watching. After both these show it was time for Christmas tree to light and Santa parade. Also we did not miss the shopping part in various shops.

By this time we were all exhausted and time to go back, but would you leave without another Medusa. NO WAY!!!

On our way to Medusa, we came across Cobra, which was meant for kids we suppose. One of us wanted to ride that as well so we went for it. It was so small that only one of us was able to sit in a car, in process we almost took 50% of the available cars. I would not say that this ride did not had any thrill, but for sure Medusa can make any other ride in Six flags, Vallejo, look dwarf .

After Cobra we all rushed to Medusa and to my surprise there were people still waiting in line to get on Medusa. It was 6:30 in the evening and another 30 mins for park to close, almost chilling weather and people waiting for their turn. We got on Medusa after 5 mins wait in queue. Don’t know why, but I had first time feeling. Medusa started and then followed the drop, round about, twists and turns and obviously screams. This time I did not miss the cameras and gave a photo finish. Guess what!!! We wanted more (as we would say in India KHATAM NAHI HUA HAI *******) and we ran for another chance and found standing in queue for next one. We took the ride one more time with the same thrill and excitement and another photo finish. YEH DIL MANGE MORE and we did it again; this time we did not even went around getting in queue for our turn. We got up and then sat again for our next ride. MAN!!! I couldn’t believe I did 3 in a row, WOW!!! After 3 times we were almost frozen and even hot water had no effect on our hands. We finished our day with a BANG… MEDUSA 3 in a row. Hoooo!!! Hoooo!!!! Hoooo!!!!! Yaaahhhooooooo!!!!!

This is journey of me from chicken heart to lion heart. It was obviously most thrilling day for me by far.