Well, I'm writing neither about the Tom Cruise starrer movie nor about the religious minorities which are discussed only during the election in our country.
Here, I’m uploading an article on a particular minority, which never gets its deserving share in any subject matter. It's written by one of the most prolific modern day writers, Aravind Adiga. Since I too belong to this category, I felt a kinda compulsion to upload this one. Hope you enjoy reading it!
Bachelor bigotry
- By Aravind Adiga
Shabana Azmi, an Indian actor, recently kicked up a stir by claiming that Muslims cannot easily buy homes in Mumbai. This may well be true: but as someone who recently looked for a place to rent in the city, I assure Azmi that there is a category of person even less wanted in this city than the Muslim. I belong to this category.
Mumbai's real-estate market suffers from a perpetual shortage of good, affordable housing. Landlords are picky. The lack of any real anti-discrimination law in the city means that the rental market is a bigot's paradise. Some landlords rent only to non-Muslims; some turn down Hindus; some permit only vegetarians in their flats. But almost none of them will gladly rent to a bachelor.
In the rest of the world, unmarried men are called by their proper, varied names – singleton, gay, divorced, celibate – but Indian society still lumps them into one Victorian-era category: the bachelor. And the landlords of Mumbai want nothing to do with this fellow. Where the bachelor lives, there the orgy follows; this is the great fear. In the landlord's imagination, half-clad women appear and disappear all day long through the bachelor's door; gasps of illicit pleasure rent the middle-class composure of the building; disgrace and scandal follow. Interestingly, the unmarried woman is not regarded as a sexually depraved type, and many landlords are prepared to rent to them. It is only the bachelor who is taboo.
Like so many of the stereotypes cherished by Indians, this one needs to go. All the unmarried men I know are hard at work – on a screenplay, a novel, or trying to find a wife. It's the fellows with the wedding rings, I notice, who get up to the debauchery. But even in India's most liberal city, old attitudes are surprisingly resilient.
I spent a week looking for places – and got told the same thing every time I liked a flat. Even if the landlord was bachelor-tolerant, he was helpless; many of Mumbai's buildings have rules that explicitly forbid unmarried men from renting or buying apartments. Especially my kind of unmarried man. Three species of bachelors inhabit Mumbai, it turns out. First comes the "company bachelor" – the fellow who works for American Express or another multinational; most landlords will take him on, grudgingly. Lower down the real-estate food chain is the "married bachelor" – who is living alone, but has a wife in Canada (or so he says). Last comes the "single bachelor" – no company job, no wife in Canada. This is me. Making things worse is that I describe myself as a "writer", a category that doesn't mean anything to the landlords of Mumbai; any young man sitting in front of a computer and typing all day must be playing games of some kind. Instead of doing solid, virtuous things like looking for a wife.
In Versova, a beach suburb in the far north of the city, I saw a second-floor sea-facing apartment with large glass windows. The waves came almost to the foot of the building. I imagined myself here, at a table, drawing energy from the ocean and hammering away on a Remington: I could turn out a hundred pages a day here – I could write a Les Miserables in a year.
"Just one question," the landlady said on the day we were to sign the lease. "When is your wife coming to join you?"
I explained; she stopped smiling.
"The last tenant was a married bachelor," she said. "He had a wife in Delhi, but he lived alone in this flat. And guess what he was doing here?"
"Tell me," I said, my heart sinking.
"He was familiar with young ladies."
"You don't say."
"And he was coolly running a brothel service. In this very flat."
The waves at Versova will never beat near my Remington. Some other writer will finish his Les Miserables in that flat – with his wife looking over his shoulder.
After two weeks of hunting, I did find a place – at a price far below what I was prepared to pay, and in a part of town with too much noise and pollution. I'd like to get out of here in a few months, but where can a bachelor go? A cousin of mine suggests that there is only one solution: marriage. Otherwise I should just pack up and move to Bangalore. He's probably right. I love Mumbai, but my time here may be drawing to an end. This city's not for bachelors.
I'm not sure whether Adiga's conclusion that Bangalore is a better city than Mumbai for bachelors is accurate or not!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Father, the Son and the Donkey!
This writing is not my original work, unlike most of my previous ones. I’m writing, in fact re-writing a story, which I learned as a lesson in one of the languages that I studied in my third grade. I’ve been a big fan of this story and I have not only led my life by the teachings of this one, but have also recommended it to many of my friends. May be if you have known me well enough, you might probably have heard this from me sometimes. Another reason I am writing this story here is because I felt it was inapt to study this lesson at that age. People would find it practically beneficial when they go past 20. So, the story goes something like this…
Once, a father and his son go to a market to buy a donkey. They reach this market walking nearly 40 miles from their hometown. Once they purchase a donkey, they decide to use the donkey as the mode of transport and start riding back home. One their way, most of the people who come across them criticize the father-son duo for treating the donkey without compassion and for overburdening it. So, after riding for 10 miles they decide, they will walk the remaining distance along with the donkey. After having walked a distance of another 10 miles, they recollect that people this time had called the duo foolish for not making appropriate use of the available resource. Then the father realizes that their earlier choices were wrong and asks his son to ride on the donkey and he decides to walk along with them. People this time criticize the son for being selfish and insensitive to father’s needs. So, another 10 miles later, now it becomes the father’s turn to ride on the donkey and the son’s turn to walk along with them. This time the father faces severe criticism for being selfish and not caring about his young son. Now they get puzzled as to what might be the appropriate combination to opt for as all the combinations, duo riding the donkey, the duo walking along with the donkey, the son riding the donkey while father walks and the father rides the donkey while the son walks, had exhausted.
It was at this point in time when they were yet to travel a distance of 6 more miles; they come across a sage and consult him for his advice. The sage listens to the entire episode and gives a quite chuckle before he speaks. He asks them, “Having tried all the options did you both avoid criticism. No! So, what you must do… is a very simple option, if you answer this question.” Eagerly the father-son duo says “Yes”. The sage asks them, “Among all the options which one did you find the most convenient?” Both of them reply in unison, “The first option, when both of us were riding on the donkey”. “Then what is the need to be confused! Just do that. But remember, you have wasted 60% of journey, by trying to avoid criticism from the public. Had you not cared about it, by now you would have reached your destination happily”
Bitter truth is that many of us continue to waste 60% of our lives bowing to criticism from the public and end up doing what is NOT convenient to us. May be all of us should follow the sage’s advice in each and every step of our life. Because the choice is simple; Put yourself in discomfort, there will be criticism. Make yourself comfortable, there will be criticism. Why not go for the second option when we are sure of not being able to avoid criticism?
Once, a father and his son go to a market to buy a donkey. They reach this market walking nearly 40 miles from their hometown. Once they purchase a donkey, they decide to use the donkey as the mode of transport and start riding back home. One their way, most of the people who come across them criticize the father-son duo for treating the donkey without compassion and for overburdening it. So, after riding for 10 miles they decide, they will walk the remaining distance along with the donkey. After having walked a distance of another 10 miles, they recollect that people this time had called the duo foolish for not making appropriate use of the available resource. Then the father realizes that their earlier choices were wrong and asks his son to ride on the donkey and he decides to walk along with them. People this time criticize the son for being selfish and insensitive to father’s needs. So, another 10 miles later, now it becomes the father’s turn to ride on the donkey and the son’s turn to walk along with them. This time the father faces severe criticism for being selfish and not caring about his young son. Now they get puzzled as to what might be the appropriate combination to opt for as all the combinations, duo riding the donkey, the duo walking along with the donkey, the son riding the donkey while father walks and the father rides the donkey while the son walks, had exhausted.
It was at this point in time when they were yet to travel a distance of 6 more miles; they come across a sage and consult him for his advice. The sage listens to the entire episode and gives a quite chuckle before he speaks. He asks them, “Having tried all the options did you both avoid criticism. No! So, what you must do… is a very simple option, if you answer this question.” Eagerly the father-son duo says “Yes”. The sage asks them, “Among all the options which one did you find the most convenient?” Both of them reply in unison, “The first option, when both of us were riding on the donkey”. “Then what is the need to be confused! Just do that. But remember, you have wasted 60% of journey, by trying to avoid criticism from the public. Had you not cared about it, by now you would have reached your destination happily”
Bitter truth is that many of us continue to waste 60% of our lives bowing to criticism from the public and end up doing what is NOT convenient to us. May be all of us should follow the sage’s advice in each and every step of our life. Because the choice is simple; Put yourself in discomfort, there will be criticism. Make yourself comfortable, there will be criticism. Why not go for the second option when we are sure of not being able to avoid criticism?
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Realization, Apology and Beyond
This write up is based on my previous article, The Great Indian Paradox. So, in case you haven’t read that one, do it before you read this one!
My previous article invited a lot of criticism from quite a few of my able readers. This forced me to re-think on it, in terms of the concept, argument and conclusion. After an earnest effort I realized some serious shortcomings in it. They were… My conclusion was based upon very specific examples, and in doing so, I contradicted a golden rule, ‘exceptions don’t prove a law’. Many other reasons were brought to my notice as to why Indians travel abroad and live there, which I had not taken into consideration. At one point I decided to scrap that entire article, but realized that a person cannot be right all the time. Mistakes do happen, but once pointed out; the following actions must be taken. Acknowledge the fact that you were wrong, apologize for it and try to fix it.
So I apologize for my previous conclusion which was based upon a half-baked idea.
Here, I would like to sight some good counter examples to my previously sighted examples and conclude just the opposite of what I had concluded earlier.
A vast majority of Indians travel abroad for more opportunities at personal as well as professional front. If our country has less opportunities (compared to the developed countries), this doesn’t make our country ordinary. Also, just living in our own country doesn’t qualify a person to be termed a patriot. Moreover if a person lives abroad and contributes to his country, directly or indirectly, it certainly is an act of patriotism.
The prominent examples of such personalities which I would sight are Jiddu Krishnamurti, Amartya Sen, and of course Aravind Adiga.
For beginners, Jiddu Krishnamurti (JK as he was popularly known), was one of the awe-inspiring writers, public speakers and philosophers of the 19th century. He came from a very poor family and could barely speak English. But, during the British raj, Annie Besant took him into her custody, recognizing his potential and leadership qualities. This gave him a good exposure to various subjects including English. Later on he travelled to Europe and America giving public speeches in English about spirituality, psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and how to enact positive change in society. He continued living in Ojai (pronounced as O-high), California, for the rest of his life and was awarded UN peace medal in 1984. He couldn’t have achieved all this, had he not travelled abroad. Also his was a fair choice to opt for travelling abroad when it had boiled down to a prosperous life, growth and opportunities at one end or live in poverty, ill-health and illiteracy, instead.
It is highly unlikely that you haven’t heard about Amartya Sen. Even in his case, had he not travelled to the UK and subsequently to the US, it would have been almost impossible for him to win a Nobel Prize. (He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998) He undertook travel, purely for his academic work and research purpose. There was more opportunity in these two countries than ours, so he could do what he did. Again would it be fair on us to expect him to have remained confined to our country and not made contributions to the economic advances of the world. I guess not!
The last, but not the least, example I would like to sight is that of Aravind Adiga, who won the 2008 Man Booker’s Prize for his book The White Tiger. Adiga, travelled to Australia along with his family at the age of 16. Later he went to the prestigious Columbia University in the US, where he obtained his degree in literature. Later, he travelled to the Oxford University on a scholarship to pursue his Masters. Now having that kinda educational background, it was only appropriate for him to take up a job opportunity in a firm which matched his standard. So, he worked for the Wall Street Journal and again undertook extensive travel. After he won the Booker Prize, in his interview, he credited his achievements to his job which provided him with extensive travel opportunities along with the people of India.
Now, would it not be appropriate for us to term these intellects as true patriots who have put us on the global map because of their contribution to the society. In deed this is true service to the nation.
All the above mentioned people achieved personal as well as professional growth by traveling abroad. So if a person wants to grow, by no means he/she becomes less patriotic towards his/her nation. A country becomes great only if its people achieve higher standards on both, personal as well as professional front.
These were just few names that I sighted, and I am sure you could find a few hundred more similar names without much efforts. Clearly the counter examples outnumber the earlier sighted examples. So, the conclusion based upon the counter examples must be definitely stronger and more accurate than the previous one drawn.
My previous article invited a lot of criticism from quite a few of my able readers. This forced me to re-think on it, in terms of the concept, argument and conclusion. After an earnest effort I realized some serious shortcomings in it. They were… My conclusion was based upon very specific examples, and in doing so, I contradicted a golden rule, ‘exceptions don’t prove a law’. Many other reasons were brought to my notice as to why Indians travel abroad and live there, which I had not taken into consideration. At one point I decided to scrap that entire article, but realized that a person cannot be right all the time. Mistakes do happen, but once pointed out; the following actions must be taken. Acknowledge the fact that you were wrong, apologize for it and try to fix it.
So I apologize for my previous conclusion which was based upon a half-baked idea.
Here, I would like to sight some good counter examples to my previously sighted examples and conclude just the opposite of what I had concluded earlier.
A vast majority of Indians travel abroad for more opportunities at personal as well as professional front. If our country has less opportunities (compared to the developed countries), this doesn’t make our country ordinary. Also, just living in our own country doesn’t qualify a person to be termed a patriot. Moreover if a person lives abroad and contributes to his country, directly or indirectly, it certainly is an act of patriotism.
The prominent examples of such personalities which I would sight are Jiddu Krishnamurti, Amartya Sen, and of course Aravind Adiga.
For beginners, Jiddu Krishnamurti (JK as he was popularly known), was one of the awe-inspiring writers, public speakers and philosophers of the 19th century. He came from a very poor family and could barely speak English. But, during the British raj, Annie Besant took him into her custody, recognizing his potential and leadership qualities. This gave him a good exposure to various subjects including English. Later on he travelled to Europe and America giving public speeches in English about spirituality, psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and how to enact positive change in society. He continued living in Ojai (pronounced as O-high), California, for the rest of his life and was awarded UN peace medal in 1984. He couldn’t have achieved all this, had he not travelled abroad. Also his was a fair choice to opt for travelling abroad when it had boiled down to a prosperous life, growth and opportunities at one end or live in poverty, ill-health and illiteracy, instead.
It is highly unlikely that you haven’t heard about Amartya Sen. Even in his case, had he not travelled to the UK and subsequently to the US, it would have been almost impossible for him to win a Nobel Prize. (He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998) He undertook travel, purely for his academic work and research purpose. There was more opportunity in these two countries than ours, so he could do what he did. Again would it be fair on us to expect him to have remained confined to our country and not made contributions to the economic advances of the world. I guess not!
The last, but not the least, example I would like to sight is that of Aravind Adiga, who won the 2008 Man Booker’s Prize for his book The White Tiger. Adiga, travelled to Australia along with his family at the age of 16. Later he went to the prestigious Columbia University in the US, where he obtained his degree in literature. Later, he travelled to the Oxford University on a scholarship to pursue his Masters. Now having that kinda educational background, it was only appropriate for him to take up a job opportunity in a firm which matched his standard. So, he worked for the Wall Street Journal and again undertook extensive travel. After he won the Booker Prize, in his interview, he credited his achievements to his job which provided him with extensive travel opportunities along with the people of India.
Now, would it not be appropriate for us to term these intellects as true patriots who have put us on the global map because of their contribution to the society. In deed this is true service to the nation.
All the above mentioned people achieved personal as well as professional growth by traveling abroad. So if a person wants to grow, by no means he/she becomes less patriotic towards his/her nation. A country becomes great only if its people achieve higher standards on both, personal as well as professional front.
These were just few names that I sighted, and I am sure you could find a few hundred more similar names without much efforts. Clearly the counter examples outnumber the earlier sighted examples. So, the conclusion based upon the counter examples must be definitely stronger and more accurate than the previous one drawn.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Great Indian Paradox
I am writing this article, after a kind of discussion or rather call it an argument. With whom? Ah! That doesn’t really matter. But I guess my observation over past few months has forced me to write on this topic. So, here I go…
My first question is, “Is India a great country?” If you are an Indian you not only answered “YES” but also would have used some swear words at me in your mind for this weird question. Now my next question is… “If India is such a great country, why are many Indians trying not only to go abroad, but also to settle down there?” Ha! Now that’s a question which doesn’t have an obvious answer. Right?
I have couple of friends from Europe, namely from France and Germany. Even they have come to the US for their higher studies. I have had conversation with both of them about their future plans. Both have similar kind of plans, complete studies and get back home for a career. But most of my Indian friends have only one aim, or rather set of aims. It goes something like this… Complete studies, find a job, get a H1B visa (work visa), stay long enough so that they can obtain a green card (permanent US residency) and ultimately settle down here.
I have also had several conversations with some American folks. I have asked them, if given a chance would they prefer to work in India for some years. Their polite answer has been, India is superb country, which is certainly worth visiting. But when it comes to working, our preference remains US and only US. There is so much of cultural difference between India and US, the food is entirely different and the weather too doesn’t suit us.
I discussed these two instances, the European guys’ one and the American guys’ one, with a friend of mine. He was not at all surprised by their respective words and reaction. This prompted me to ask him some questions… “If the European guys feel US is more advanced than their home countries but still want to return to their home countries, because they miss their own people, own language , don’t Indians miss their home country, their own people and own language?” “If Americans feel that India is too different compared to US in terms of culture, climate and food, don’t Indians feel that US is too different with respect to the same parameters.” He was silent when asked these questions to him.
The only two conclusions I could draw from the above were; One, India is not a great country, otherwise why would people be so eager to go away and never come back to it. Second one; there must be something wrong with Indian people who are more than eager to leave their own motherland, culture and people, which they feel is great. Logic says that either one of the two conclusions must be true.
My first question is, “Is India a great country?” If you are an Indian you not only answered “YES” but also would have used some swear words at me in your mind for this weird question. Now my next question is… “If India is such a great country, why are many Indians trying not only to go abroad, but also to settle down there?” Ha! Now that’s a question which doesn’t have an obvious answer. Right?
I have couple of friends from Europe, namely from France and Germany. Even they have come to the US for their higher studies. I have had conversation with both of them about their future plans. Both have similar kind of plans, complete studies and get back home for a career. But most of my Indian friends have only one aim, or rather set of aims. It goes something like this… Complete studies, find a job, get a H1B visa (work visa), stay long enough so that they can obtain a green card (permanent US residency) and ultimately settle down here.
I have also had several conversations with some American folks. I have asked them, if given a chance would they prefer to work in India for some years. Their polite answer has been, India is superb country, which is certainly worth visiting. But when it comes to working, our preference remains US and only US. There is so much of cultural difference between India and US, the food is entirely different and the weather too doesn’t suit us.
I discussed these two instances, the European guys’ one and the American guys’ one, with a friend of mine. He was not at all surprised by their respective words and reaction. This prompted me to ask him some questions… “If the European guys feel US is more advanced than their home countries but still want to return to their home countries, because they miss their own people, own language , don’t Indians miss their home country, their own people and own language?” “If Americans feel that India is too different compared to US in terms of culture, climate and food, don’t Indians feel that US is too different with respect to the same parameters.” He was silent when asked these questions to him.
The only two conclusions I could draw from the above were; One, India is not a great country, otherwise why would people be so eager to go away and never come back to it. Second one; there must be something wrong with Indian people who are more than eager to leave their own motherland, culture and people, which they feel is great. Logic says that either one of the two conclusions must be true.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Different Seasons!
I am writing here, after one complete month’s interval. That’s too long a gap to update a blog. My sincere apologies for that.
For those into serious reading, might guess where I flicked this title from… Yes, from the famous novel by the same name by one of the most prolific writers, Stephen King. To give you an insight of this book, it’s a novel that comprises of four finest stories, of which three have been made into Hollywood blockbusters. Let’s stop at this point about the book, as I am too ordinary a critique to give my review on it.
The reason for me to use the same name is the similarity between the novel and this article. Naah! I am not writing four short stories… but four incidences that occurred here in past few days.
The first one…
On March 1st, 2009 it snowed like crazy in Athens, GA. The temperatures went down from 12 degrees C a day prior to this to -8 degrees C on that day. In one week the temperature gradually got to normal and to everyone’s surprise, it touched 28 degrees C on March 8th, 2009. On this day the sun was merciless on everyone’s scalp. (Though the temperature appears to be less, it gets very hot and humid out here). And today, on March 15th, 2009 after a warm and sunny week, it rained like crazy, bringing the mercury levels down to 4 degrees C. It’s hard to believe that how the weather conditions have paradoxically changed. Three consecutive Sundays and totally different weather on all occasions. Hard to believe and even harder to explain I should say!
The second one…
Having lived here for a fairly long time now, I have seen the kinda life-style that the westerners adopt. So, informing parents about their wedding a week or two prior to it is a normal practice here. But what I saw in a restaurant is worth writing. I saw four people, of which two were elderly couple and two were young couples (appeared to be). As they were sitting right behind me, unintentionally I ended up playing an eavesdropper and happened to listen to their conversation. The elderly woman said this, “Mark, your choice is excellent. Having interacted with Briana for almost one day, I am giving you a nod to go ahead with your engagement. Initially I was apprehensive about your marriage with her, as she isn’t a Southern Bell. (A young girl from Southern part of US is referred to as Southern Bell) But she is a very nice girl. I am proud of you my son!” The youngsters were all happy after hearing these words. My conclusion that the parents don’t have any say in their children’s marriage in the western culture, proved to be wrong.
The Third one…
A few days ago, I went to a kinda deserted place. While waiting for the bus, four African-American men approached me and started demanding some money. I happened to carry a lot of money that day (extremely rare for me to do that). Fearing that they might take away all the money that I had, instead of just $10 (which they demanded), I avoided giving them money using all my verbal skills for a while and then later escaped from there without any fuzz. Later, I shared this incident with many of friends, relatives etc. A common conclusion was drawn. African-American men are very dangerous. May be their poverty or laziness was the root cause of all evil. I lived by this faith for some time. But today, when I got a ride back home in taxi, I had to re-think on it. The driver, Derrick Malcolm was an African-American, which made me feel uncomfortable while boarding the cab. On my way back home, I had a very good conversation with him. He not only seemed to be a reasonable man, but also had very good general knowledge. Later on I got to know that he was an educated man and had served in the US Navy for a while. Driving a cab was his secondary source of income. I should admit he was the friendliest cab driver I had ever travelled with. This forced me to conclude that it’s is not right to brand a community as evil, taking into consideration few people. This was contradictory to my previous conclusion.
Last, but not the least…
If you have known me for a while, you may know that I have always considered marriage as a liability and not an asset. For the just concluded vacation I visited my friend. He has been happily married for 8 months now. I saw the manner in which his wife took his care, helped him get over the stress at office and consistently supported him. My friend is really lucky to have such a wonderful wife and vice versa. He too admitted that after marriage life was much better than that in the past. The first day I got the impression that life becomes all-good after marriage. I had started to believe that my conclusion in the past about married life was wrong. But slowly I started getting complains and negative sides by the second and the third day, mostly from his wife. There were fair amount of negatives they had to deal with, but these two optimistic guys have decided to focus on positives, which is not an easy affair. So, in this case, I still uphold my previous idea.
On my way back, I saw a quote on guy’s T-Shirt, which for sure made me chuckle. It read something like this… “96% men are fools, as only 4% of them stay single”
The above four incidents were a result of my deep observation in the past few days. No wonder that my University was closed for one week on account of the Spring Break!
Wish you a very happy spring season, the best among four different seasons.
For those into serious reading, might guess where I flicked this title from… Yes, from the famous novel by the same name by one of the most prolific writers, Stephen King. To give you an insight of this book, it’s a novel that comprises of four finest stories, of which three have been made into Hollywood blockbusters. Let’s stop at this point about the book, as I am too ordinary a critique to give my review on it.
The reason for me to use the same name is the similarity between the novel and this article. Naah! I am not writing four short stories… but four incidences that occurred here in past few days.
The first one…
On March 1st, 2009 it snowed like crazy in Athens, GA. The temperatures went down from 12 degrees C a day prior to this to -8 degrees C on that day. In one week the temperature gradually got to normal and to everyone’s surprise, it touched 28 degrees C on March 8th, 2009. On this day the sun was merciless on everyone’s scalp. (Though the temperature appears to be less, it gets very hot and humid out here). And today, on March 15th, 2009 after a warm and sunny week, it rained like crazy, bringing the mercury levels down to 4 degrees C. It’s hard to believe that how the weather conditions have paradoxically changed. Three consecutive Sundays and totally different weather on all occasions. Hard to believe and even harder to explain I should say!
The second one…
Having lived here for a fairly long time now, I have seen the kinda life-style that the westerners adopt. So, informing parents about their wedding a week or two prior to it is a normal practice here. But what I saw in a restaurant is worth writing. I saw four people, of which two were elderly couple and two were young couples (appeared to be). As they were sitting right behind me, unintentionally I ended up playing an eavesdropper and happened to listen to their conversation. The elderly woman said this, “Mark, your choice is excellent. Having interacted with Briana for almost one day, I am giving you a nod to go ahead with your engagement. Initially I was apprehensive about your marriage with her, as she isn’t a Southern Bell. (A young girl from Southern part of US is referred to as Southern Bell) But she is a very nice girl. I am proud of you my son!” The youngsters were all happy after hearing these words. My conclusion that the parents don’t have any say in their children’s marriage in the western culture, proved to be wrong.
The Third one…
A few days ago, I went to a kinda deserted place. While waiting for the bus, four African-American men approached me and started demanding some money. I happened to carry a lot of money that day (extremely rare for me to do that). Fearing that they might take away all the money that I had, instead of just $10 (which they demanded), I avoided giving them money using all my verbal skills for a while and then later escaped from there without any fuzz. Later, I shared this incident with many of friends, relatives etc. A common conclusion was drawn. African-American men are very dangerous. May be their poverty or laziness was the root cause of all evil. I lived by this faith for some time. But today, when I got a ride back home in taxi, I had to re-think on it. The driver, Derrick Malcolm was an African-American, which made me feel uncomfortable while boarding the cab. On my way back home, I had a very good conversation with him. He not only seemed to be a reasonable man, but also had very good general knowledge. Later on I got to know that he was an educated man and had served in the US Navy for a while. Driving a cab was his secondary source of income. I should admit he was the friendliest cab driver I had ever travelled with. This forced me to conclude that it’s is not right to brand a community as evil, taking into consideration few people. This was contradictory to my previous conclusion.
Last, but not the least…
If you have known me for a while, you may know that I have always considered marriage as a liability and not an asset. For the just concluded vacation I visited my friend. He has been happily married for 8 months now. I saw the manner in which his wife took his care, helped him get over the stress at office and consistently supported him. My friend is really lucky to have such a wonderful wife and vice versa. He too admitted that after marriage life was much better than that in the past. The first day I got the impression that life becomes all-good after marriage. I had started to believe that my conclusion in the past about married life was wrong. But slowly I started getting complains and negative sides by the second and the third day, mostly from his wife. There were fair amount of negatives they had to deal with, but these two optimistic guys have decided to focus on positives, which is not an easy affair. So, in this case, I still uphold my previous idea.
On my way back, I saw a quote on guy’s T-Shirt, which for sure made me chuckle. It read something like this… “96% men are fools, as only 4% of them stay single”
The above four incidents were a result of my deep observation in the past few days. No wonder that my University was closed for one week on account of the Spring Break!
Wish you a very happy spring season, the best among four different seasons.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Who’s the winner?
Not very long ago, a philosopher once said, “When one standpoint gets to an extreme, sooner or later it will fall to the other extreme”. This logic didn’t make more sense to me for a while. But, with time, I realized, it works. And now, after this year’s Valentine’s Day (V-Day), I realized this logic works very well.
No matter, which part of the world you live in; you surely would have seen the visuals of some hooligans displaying their bad behavior in the city of Mangalore, Karnataka, a few days ago. Later, these hooligans made their act look and sound as a deed of bravery and protective one. Our dear media sold this news probably with little addition, subtraction, multiplication and division!
So, what was this bunch of people trying to do, on the forthcoming V-Day? What message they tried to pass down to the common people, like me and you? You don’t require a brain of Rocket Scientist to give the answer to this question… Do you? By selecting a blasphemous issue of V-Day celebration, a lot of hue and cry was created. These people made their intention of disrupting the planned celebration very clear. And what was the impact of all this on the society. Firstly, there was a divided opinion amongst people as to who was right and who was wrong! Secondly people got more determined to celebrate V-Day and visit pubs.
The impact was a big one… A fairly large number of people celebrated V-Day in their own way. Most of them celebrated it with greets and gift articles from multinational galleries, etc. Then there was the popular act of sending the “Pink Chaddis” to the people who were opposed to the celebration. As a result, the past V-Day celebration was the biggest ever in India. An American company estimated the expenses in India on account of V-Day, on gifts, restaurants, pubs, etc to approximately Rs. 50 crore. Remember, this is not the best of years to spend money, as the grey clouds of recession are existing all over the world.
Now, let’s give our brain some work out. Imagine I am entrepreneur. So, my main objective in this recession hit year would be to increase my sales. How do I do that? The main way to promote any sale is by working on human psychology (ask any MBA holder in Marketing, if you don’t trust me). If I am aware of the logic, that by pushing one stand to extreme, sooner or later it will fall to the other extreme; I can control my prospective customer’s mind. It’s simple, instead of spending money on marketing, distribute it amongst some jobless people (you see there are quite a few jobless people in our country). Ask them to do something, which makes people feel that they would not be allowed to celebrate V-Day. As a result, out of more curiosity, more people would go out and celebrate (spend money).
I guess this method works wonders and can be applied in our day to day life as well. Regarding the V-Day, I would say neither the common people nor the extremist ended up as winners. The unanimous winners for me were pub owners, gift-gallery owners, and not to forget the garment manufacturers (thanks to the Pink Chaddi campaign). And if you are one of those who considered V-Day as impious event, and didn’t end up spending big bucks, I should admit, you outsmarted a good business strategy!
No matter, which part of the world you live in; you surely would have seen the visuals of some hooligans displaying their bad behavior in the city of Mangalore, Karnataka, a few days ago. Later, these hooligans made their act look and sound as a deed of bravery and protective one. Our dear media sold this news probably with little addition, subtraction, multiplication and division!
So, what was this bunch of people trying to do, on the forthcoming V-Day? What message they tried to pass down to the common people, like me and you? You don’t require a brain of Rocket Scientist to give the answer to this question… Do you? By selecting a blasphemous issue of V-Day celebration, a lot of hue and cry was created. These people made their intention of disrupting the planned celebration very clear. And what was the impact of all this on the society. Firstly, there was a divided opinion amongst people as to who was right and who was wrong! Secondly people got more determined to celebrate V-Day and visit pubs.
The impact was a big one… A fairly large number of people celebrated V-Day in their own way. Most of them celebrated it with greets and gift articles from multinational galleries, etc. Then there was the popular act of sending the “Pink Chaddis” to the people who were opposed to the celebration. As a result, the past V-Day celebration was the biggest ever in India. An American company estimated the expenses in India on account of V-Day, on gifts, restaurants, pubs, etc to approximately Rs. 50 crore. Remember, this is not the best of years to spend money, as the grey clouds of recession are existing all over the world.
Now, let’s give our brain some work out. Imagine I am entrepreneur. So, my main objective in this recession hit year would be to increase my sales. How do I do that? The main way to promote any sale is by working on human psychology (ask any MBA holder in Marketing, if you don’t trust me). If I am aware of the logic, that by pushing one stand to extreme, sooner or later it will fall to the other extreme; I can control my prospective customer’s mind. It’s simple, instead of spending money on marketing, distribute it amongst some jobless people (you see there are quite a few jobless people in our country). Ask them to do something, which makes people feel that they would not be allowed to celebrate V-Day. As a result, out of more curiosity, more people would go out and celebrate (spend money).
I guess this method works wonders and can be applied in our day to day life as well. Regarding the V-Day, I would say neither the common people nor the extremist ended up as winners. The unanimous winners for me were pub owners, gift-gallery owners, and not to forget the garment manufacturers (thanks to the Pink Chaddi campaign). And if you are one of those who considered V-Day as impious event, and didn’t end up spending big bucks, I should admit, you outsmarted a good business strategy!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The White Tiger from a Slum of the Republic of India
If you are puzzled over the title that I have given to this post, I assure you it's not as illogical as it might perhaps sound. Here, I am writing briefly about three topics...
1) The White Tiger (The book that won last year's Booker Prize, by Aravind Adiga)
2) Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle’s latest flick, popular globally)
3) Republic of India (our country is going to celebrate 60th Republic day today)
If you haven't read "The White Tiger" (TWT), I strongly recommend you to read it. It is a good read and will serve as an eye opener. An amazing book, written in fairly simple language, with subtle sense of humor, questioning some of the fundamental practices in our country and exposing some of the dark sides. This book captures the reason for typical behavior amongst some sections of our society. No one can repent reading this book.
Slumdog Millionaire (SM), do I need to write anything about this movie. Even before it released in India, it had made a big name winning so many Oscar nominations. A well made movie, which should not be taken too seriously but should be appreciated for it's creativity and various performances.
I see a lot of similarities between TWT and SM.
Both TWT and SM deal with similar subject, from Rags to Riches. In TWT, the protagonist, Balram Halwai, a servant in Laxamangarh, who becomes a driver in Dhanbad and eventually goes on to become an entrepreneur in Bangalore. While Jamal Malik in SM, a product of a typical Mumbai slum, manages to become a Chai wala and goes on to win 20 million rupees in a game show.
Both TWT and SM invited a fair amount of criticism by many Indians. The common reason was, critiques claimed that both TWT and SM sold the poverty porn of India to the west.
I beg to differ with such critiques. Firstly, I felt that both the stories mainly focused on the hardships that the respective protagonist underwent. In this process both the stories had to show the darker sides of our country. Secondly, I ask honestly, doesn't poverty exist in India? Had India been a self-sufficient country with absolutely no issues concerning poverty and bias against the weaker sections, I would give it to the critiques. But the bitter truth of this matter is that there still exist a lot of poverty, inequality and injustice in our country. It may hurt, but that's the way it is.
The people who do not accept this, are either the top 10% of India, whose life is so deeply buried in the comforts that they cannot recognize such a sad state or those people who want to criticize everything and appreciate nothing. The weaker sections in our country still lag a lot of resources. The biggest problem in our country is un-uniform distribution of wealth. The rich of our country, when they criticize such portrayal of our country, show the same attitude as that of Marie Antoinette, the French queen in 18th century, who once said, "If you don't have bread, eat cake" Such people would want to portray India as a super rich country, which probably builds better brands for their businesses in the west.
In TWT, Aravind Adiga goes on to write something like this… “Sir, I don’t envy the rich in the US and the UK. They have not seen comforts of having a servant or anything close to it”. Having lived away from India, I totally understand what he ment by those words.
If we can't recognize wrongs, fine, at least let us not criticize the intellects, who are able do so. But it would do no harm in appreciating the merits of such artists. After all they are bringing name, fame and glory to our nation. Aren’t they?
On the 60th Republic day, I wish all my Indian brothers and sisters, a very happy Republic day. Let's hope that our country continues to develop rapidly. Proud to be an Indian. Jai Hind!
1) The White Tiger (The book that won last year's Booker Prize, by Aravind Adiga)
2) Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle’s latest flick, popular globally)
3) Republic of India (our country is going to celebrate 60th Republic day today)
If you haven't read "The White Tiger" (TWT), I strongly recommend you to read it. It is a good read and will serve as an eye opener. An amazing book, written in fairly simple language, with subtle sense of humor, questioning some of the fundamental practices in our country and exposing some of the dark sides. This book captures the reason for typical behavior amongst some sections of our society. No one can repent reading this book.
Slumdog Millionaire (SM), do I need to write anything about this movie. Even before it released in India, it had made a big name winning so many Oscar nominations. A well made movie, which should not be taken too seriously but should be appreciated for it's creativity and various performances.
I see a lot of similarities between TWT and SM.
Both TWT and SM deal with similar subject, from Rags to Riches. In TWT, the protagonist, Balram Halwai, a servant in Laxamangarh, who becomes a driver in Dhanbad and eventually goes on to become an entrepreneur in Bangalore. While Jamal Malik in SM, a product of a typical Mumbai slum, manages to become a Chai wala and goes on to win 20 million rupees in a game show.
Both TWT and SM invited a fair amount of criticism by many Indians. The common reason was, critiques claimed that both TWT and SM sold the poverty porn of India to the west.
I beg to differ with such critiques. Firstly, I felt that both the stories mainly focused on the hardships that the respective protagonist underwent. In this process both the stories had to show the darker sides of our country. Secondly, I ask honestly, doesn't poverty exist in India? Had India been a self-sufficient country with absolutely no issues concerning poverty and bias against the weaker sections, I would give it to the critiques. But the bitter truth of this matter is that there still exist a lot of poverty, inequality and injustice in our country. It may hurt, but that's the way it is.
The people who do not accept this, are either the top 10% of India, whose life is so deeply buried in the comforts that they cannot recognize such a sad state or those people who want to criticize everything and appreciate nothing. The weaker sections in our country still lag a lot of resources. The biggest problem in our country is un-uniform distribution of wealth. The rich of our country, when they criticize such portrayal of our country, show the same attitude as that of Marie Antoinette, the French queen in 18th century, who once said, "If you don't have bread, eat cake" Such people would want to portray India as a super rich country, which probably builds better brands for their businesses in the west.
In TWT, Aravind Adiga goes on to write something like this… “Sir, I don’t envy the rich in the US and the UK. They have not seen comforts of having a servant or anything close to it”. Having lived away from India, I totally understand what he ment by those words.
If we can't recognize wrongs, fine, at least let us not criticize the intellects, who are able do so. But it would do no harm in appreciating the merits of such artists. After all they are bringing name, fame and glory to our nation. Aren’t they?
On the 60th Republic day, I wish all my Indian brothers and sisters, a very happy Republic day. Let's hope that our country continues to develop rapidly. Proud to be an Indian. Jai Hind!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
From Big Peach to Big Apple and Back!
This was my most awaited vacation after a long struggle with academics. Finally there came the day, when I was supposed to go to New York City (NYC), for a vacation. For beginners, Atlanta is referred to as Big Peach while NYC is referred to as Big Apple. This might give you the hang about where I started off to where I went. If you expect me to describe about the places that I visited and the things I did over there… you would be disappointed. This piece of writing is about my experience at the Liberty International Airport, Newark, NJ.
Before going to NY, I was totally fed up with the life that I was leading here. My schedule has been packed, right from the time I have been here. I can safely say that I am jaded because of the multi-tasking that I have been doing. The fun factor has been next to zero. In NYC, it was great to meet some of my friends, visit some of the land mark places. Also one of my biggest complaints about not being able to watch any bolloywood flicks was also answered when I watched the Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini in a theater. But I had gotten so much used to complaining that I couldn’t resist complaining even about a city like NYC. I stared on by complaining to my friends about the nasty weather; the high expenses and amount of walking one needs in every part of NYC. I felt that overall the condition there too wasn’t the greatest of ones.
After the trip concluded, I was on my way back home, pretty much complaining to myself. Now, all that I needed was to return home at the earliest. To add to this, I realized that my flight was moved up 30 minutes earlier to its scheduled time. So, I had to miss this flight. I didn’t know what next???
A person on the side walk, just outside the terminal of the Airport asked me to contact the personnel at counter 6, and pointed out towards a long queue. I was kinda frustrated and tried to call my mom, unsuccessfully, because of weak signal. I knew she was nearly 10,000 miles away from me and could do nothing more, beyond sympathetic words. The very idea of being last in such a long queue and the anxiety bothered me a lot. But, there was no option. So, I joined the queue. About a couple of minutes later, I saw another young man coming and joining the queue. In a way, I felt better, as I was not last member of this long queue anymore.
I was in no mood to start the conversation, but I was eager to talk to him as even he was travelling to Atlanta by the next flight. I guess he read this eagerness on my face and started the conversation. I told him about what my condition is… how it feels to be away from home for 5 long months… what were my challenges and hardships etc. He listened to all this with great patience and timely acknowledgements. Finally I too decided to ask him about his travel plans, where he was working et al. His reply was, “I want to cancel my today’s travel tickets. I will leave tomorrow. I neither work here nor in Atlanta. From there, I have connecting flight. I was home for Christmas, nearly after one year. I know how it feels to be away from home for a long time. So, I want to spend one extra day with my family”. I felt somewhat dreadful, as I was complaining about being away from home for 5 months and here was guy who was younger than me by two years and away from home for nearly one year. Before I asked him any further questions, he told, “But you are quite lucky to be in a safe country like US. Here, you have all facilities and there must a lot of folks from your country too”. Immediately I thought, “THESE AMERICANS! Huh, they always feel that their country is good on every front”. I answered, “Not quite; this is no doubt a good place, but transport isn’t as good as it is back home. Above all our food is quite different and I get to eat our kinda meals, just about 5-6 times a week.” To this he paused… and I asked him, “So, where do you work. Don’t you get your food, transport and other facilities at your place of work”. He smiled and said, “Not quite. It wouldn’t be fair on me to expect such facilities there. I am Second Lieutenant in the US Army. From the past one year, I have been posted to Iraq. Forget about facilities that you mentioned, I even don’t know whether I will be able to meet my family again, once I am out there.” I really felt ashamed and realized that how big a difference was there in my being away from home and his being away from home.
I politely said to him, “I am really sorry, I didn’t know you were in a battle field. I am sure that the conditions out there must be miserable and you must be hating every single moment of it. I hope and pray that you get shifted some other base in US as soon as possible”
To this, the reply that he gave, futher made me feel guilty of commiting another crime. “Don’t pray for my relocation. Pray that the war ends soon. But I don’t consider the condition to be miserable. When I joined the services, I was prepared for all this. It’s my duty and I should do it with fullest commitment. In life, you can either spend your time complaining about the things you do and achieve nothing or work hard and make the difference.” While I shook hands with him, he was called to another counter and I went to counter 6. In this process, I couldn’t ask his name. Actually, his name doesn’t matter at all. But his message surely does.
So, my New Year resolution for 2009 is “Stop complaining, Start working!”
Wish all the readers a very happy New Year!!!
Before going to NY, I was totally fed up with the life that I was leading here. My schedule has been packed, right from the time I have been here. I can safely say that I am jaded because of the multi-tasking that I have been doing. The fun factor has been next to zero. In NYC, it was great to meet some of my friends, visit some of the land mark places. Also one of my biggest complaints about not being able to watch any bolloywood flicks was also answered when I watched the Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini in a theater. But I had gotten so much used to complaining that I couldn’t resist complaining even about a city like NYC. I stared on by complaining to my friends about the nasty weather; the high expenses and amount of walking one needs in every part of NYC. I felt that overall the condition there too wasn’t the greatest of ones.
After the trip concluded, I was on my way back home, pretty much complaining to myself. Now, all that I needed was to return home at the earliest. To add to this, I realized that my flight was moved up 30 minutes earlier to its scheduled time. So, I had to miss this flight. I didn’t know what next???
A person on the side walk, just outside the terminal of the Airport asked me to contact the personnel at counter 6, and pointed out towards a long queue. I was kinda frustrated and tried to call my mom, unsuccessfully, because of weak signal. I knew she was nearly 10,000 miles away from me and could do nothing more, beyond sympathetic words. The very idea of being last in such a long queue and the anxiety bothered me a lot. But, there was no option. So, I joined the queue. About a couple of minutes later, I saw another young man coming and joining the queue. In a way, I felt better, as I was not last member of this long queue anymore.
I was in no mood to start the conversation, but I was eager to talk to him as even he was travelling to Atlanta by the next flight. I guess he read this eagerness on my face and started the conversation. I told him about what my condition is… how it feels to be away from home for 5 long months… what were my challenges and hardships etc. He listened to all this with great patience and timely acknowledgements. Finally I too decided to ask him about his travel plans, where he was working et al. His reply was, “I want to cancel my today’s travel tickets. I will leave tomorrow. I neither work here nor in Atlanta. From there, I have connecting flight. I was home for Christmas, nearly after one year. I know how it feels to be away from home for a long time. So, I want to spend one extra day with my family”. I felt somewhat dreadful, as I was complaining about being away from home for 5 months and here was guy who was younger than me by two years and away from home for nearly one year. Before I asked him any further questions, he told, “But you are quite lucky to be in a safe country like US. Here, you have all facilities and there must a lot of folks from your country too”. Immediately I thought, “THESE AMERICANS! Huh, they always feel that their country is good on every front”. I answered, “Not quite; this is no doubt a good place, but transport isn’t as good as it is back home. Above all our food is quite different and I get to eat our kinda meals, just about 5-6 times a week.” To this he paused… and I asked him, “So, where do you work. Don’t you get your food, transport and other facilities at your place of work”. He smiled and said, “Not quite. It wouldn’t be fair on me to expect such facilities there. I am Second Lieutenant in the US Army. From the past one year, I have been posted to Iraq. Forget about facilities that you mentioned, I even don’t know whether I will be able to meet my family again, once I am out there.” I really felt ashamed and realized that how big a difference was there in my being away from home and his being away from home.
I politely said to him, “I am really sorry, I didn’t know you were in a battle field. I am sure that the conditions out there must be miserable and you must be hating every single moment of it. I hope and pray that you get shifted some other base in US as soon as possible”
To this, the reply that he gave, futher made me feel guilty of commiting another crime. “Don’t pray for my relocation. Pray that the war ends soon. But I don’t consider the condition to be miserable. When I joined the services, I was prepared for all this. It’s my duty and I should do it with fullest commitment. In life, you can either spend your time complaining about the things you do and achieve nothing or work hard and make the difference.” While I shook hands with him, he was called to another counter and I went to counter 6. In this process, I couldn’t ask his name. Actually, his name doesn’t matter at all. But his message surely does.
So, my New Year resolution for 2009 is “Stop complaining, Start working!”
Wish all the readers a very happy New Year!!!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Why do Ind...
It has been quite a while since I last posted here. After a hectic month with exams, projects etc, now I have some time to spare for writing!
This post is more of an exercise to you. No, I would not ask you to do some weight training... You just need to follow the instructions which I have written below. (as you are reading this article online, I assume you have a basic knowledge of internet).
Step 1: Log on to google.com (NOT google.co.in)
Step 2: Type in, "Why do Ind"
Step 3: Observe the suggestions made by Google for your search query.
Here is some insight on how Google pops the list of suggestions. Compared to so many of its innovative products, the Google Suggest isn't that great a product. It is developed on the statistical model of the machine learning technique. What happens in this model is, if a query is given multiple times from various users, it is considered as a highly relevant one. Such relevant queries are stored and sorted based upon their respective relevance!
Coming to the actual perspective of my writing, if you are an Indian, you would have been hurt by the list of suggestions that appeared, for the query that I asked you to enter. But don't conclude that the westerners have a negative bias towards Indians. Having lived here for a fair amount of time, I can safely say that they aren't bigoted.
Many people follow up the earlier exercise that I suggested by replacing "Why do Ind" with "Why do Amer". To your surprise, the suggestions that pop up now are not as awful as they were earlier. So does this mean that an average American has the tendency to stereo-type Indians?
To this, I would say, "YES". Even we Indians tend to stereo-type Americans, don't we? So, if your question is why do Americans stereo-type Indians in a negative way? Here comes my answer...
If an Indian is less educated and has little knowledge about America, he would, in all probability, not have access to the internet. So, there is no question that such a person would use Google. If an Indian has access to internet, is educated and has some knowledge about America, he/she would not enter such a query about America as he/she would have the great American dream in mind. This is also the same case with other developing countries like China, Brazil et al.
But almost 85% of Americans have the access to the internet. They have more opportunity to see Indians than Indians have the opportunity to see Americans. So, they get curious to know about our culture and tend to feed such queries. And because of the British Raj, an average Indian would have some knowledge about the western culture. The Americans who enter such queries are generally semi-literate kind of people, I would say. A truly educated person, no matter from which country he/she comes from, will never make such insensitive assumptions.
I know I have not put a full-stop the old debate about, how an average westerner feels about India: Good, Bad or Ugly. This was my perspecitve, which may or may not be correct! The choice is all yours...
This post is more of an exercise to you. No, I would not ask you to do some weight training... You just need to follow the instructions which I have written below. (as you are reading this article online, I assume you have a basic knowledge of internet).
Step 1: Log on to google.com (NOT google.co.in)
Step 2: Type in, "Why do Ind"
Step 3: Observe the suggestions made by Google for your search query.
Here is some insight on how Google pops the list of suggestions. Compared to so many of its innovative products, the Google Suggest isn't that great a product. It is developed on the statistical model of the machine learning technique. What happens in this model is, if a query is given multiple times from various users, it is considered as a highly relevant one. Such relevant queries are stored and sorted based upon their respective relevance!
Coming to the actual perspective of my writing, if you are an Indian, you would have been hurt by the list of suggestions that appeared, for the query that I asked you to enter. But don't conclude that the westerners have a negative bias towards Indians. Having lived here for a fair amount of time, I can safely say that they aren't bigoted.
Many people follow up the earlier exercise that I suggested by replacing "Why do Ind" with "Why do Amer". To your surprise, the suggestions that pop up now are not as awful as they were earlier. So does this mean that an average American has the tendency to stereo-type Indians?
To this, I would say, "YES". Even we Indians tend to stereo-type Americans, don't we? So, if your question is why do Americans stereo-type Indians in a negative way? Here comes my answer...
If an Indian is less educated and has little knowledge about America, he would, in all probability, not have access to the internet. So, there is no question that such a person would use Google. If an Indian has access to internet, is educated and has some knowledge about America, he/she would not enter such a query about America as he/she would have the great American dream in mind. This is also the same case with other developing countries like China, Brazil et al.
But almost 85% of Americans have the access to the internet. They have more opportunity to see Indians than Indians have the opportunity to see Americans. So, they get curious to know about our culture and tend to feed such queries. And because of the British Raj, an average Indian would have some knowledge about the western culture. The Americans who enter such queries are generally semi-literate kind of people, I would say. A truly educated person, no matter from which country he/she comes from, will never make such insensitive assumptions.
I know I have not put a full-stop the old debate about, how an average westerner feels about India: Good, Bad or Ugly. This was my perspecitve, which may or may not be correct! The choice is all yours...
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