Bribery and Bureaucracy

8 trips to the local Police Station, 5 trips to the Police Commissioner’s Office and 4 trips to the State Government office – all this to get my finger prints certified by the State Home Department in Karnataka.

Sitting at the Police Commissioner’s office can have strange side effects. To kill boredom I carried a novel with me everywhere I went. The book is titled ‘Business @ the speed of thought’. Business happens at the speed of bullock carts in our government offices. In this book, Bill Gates talks about a digital nervous system, a paperless office, automation etc. In every government office, I only saw mountains of paper, archaic systems, sulky faces, etc. So each time I read about process efficiency, I saw equal and opposite process inefficiency. I soon discovered that increased blood pressure and reading has a strange co-incidence, when books are read anachronistically out of context.

There were plenty of long-faced foreigners waiting for their mandatory police verification seal at the police commissioner’s office. A few rich ones bring translators or agents with them. They cling to them for dear life, like children cling to their mother’s sarees. Soon, the grumpy man at the counter calls out sternly for them, addressing them by the name of their country. This reminded me of my school days; when I would be embarrassed as hell that my roll call number was 1 and people found it easier to address me as Number 1, forgetting that I ever had a name.

Moving a paper from one desk to another used to be the major achievement for the day. Each time I went to collect something; I would inhale deeply, count from 10 to 1 and each time I exhale remind myself that patience is a virtue. In an age where even marriages are happening over the internet, there are no traces of emails. Every system and procedure is so long drawn; that it shortens your lifespan. We call ourselves an IT city, but whose duty is it to allow the beauty of IT to touch our lives?

One incident took the cake. After the average waiting period of 3 hours had passed, we got the summons. The officer simply said ‘Follow me’ in James Bond style. By now, some 5 people waiting for the same man, had befriended each other out of a common sympathy. All of us followed him like the woeful rats that followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin. We were furious rats, fuming rats and perplexed rats - allured by the hope of getting our respective papers. Finally about half a mile from the Commissioner’s Office we were handed over our papers. It felt like a priest handing over the prasaad (holy offering) after elaborate prayers after snaking our way through long queues at the Tirupati temple. Till today, I don’t understand the motive behind this bizarre behaviour. If the man expected his hands to be greased, why did he thrust the papers in our hand and run? You are better off though leaving your common sense and sensitivities at home.

I often hear horror stories of how, ‘chai pani’ (tea & water) has to be offered at each level to get work done. As much as we tried not to bribe anybody, there are times when you just cannot help it. It is either – bribe or forget about your papers till time immemorial. Innovation is seeping into our police stations as well. One police constable asked for ‘Stationery’. I had half a mind to give him a carton full of used pens and one side used paper. I realized only later that it was an innovative way of asking for a bribe.

Bureaucracy and Bribery are latching on to our country like leeches and sucking the blood out of every individual.

Starting out as a Socialist State, the Indian government initiated plenty of policies and procedures with the noble intention of ensuring equitable distribution of wealth and plugging the loopholes so that people could take not take advantage of it. But we have still not come out of these pre-historic procedures and the fossil like officials refuse to come out of their caves to see how the world outside has evolved. Bureaucracy is one of the major reasons why foreign firms shy away from investing in India. It takes 31 days to set up a business in India, and ranked 122nd in the world Doing Business Report 2009.

India is ranked as the 75th (out of 179) most corrupt nation in the world today. The amount of bribes every year at different echelons of the government is said to be a whopping INR 21,000 crores. This could be our annual education budget! The root cause of corruption is - Too many people chasing too few goods. The GDP pie is too small for a billion people. Unless this pie grows significantly a lot of fingers will try to dip into it. Corruption is said to have begun during the License Raj period. With too many regulations and processes in place, a parallel economy of black money developed. Ever since then it has got itself ingrained in our economy.

Corruption is in the roots and fruits of our country. Weeding it out, will be a long and weary war. Nevertheless, if we desire to propel India into peace and prosperity, we have to fight it out.

What can you and I do?

- Avoid bribing government officials as much as you can. Giving bribe is as bad as receiving it.

- Be patient with government officers, they are humans too.

- Invoke the Right to Information Act (http://righttoinformation.gov.in/), if you need more information. As citizens, we have a right to know how our tax money is being spent.
- Escalate matters to higher authorities when necessary.

Any more suggestions?

Love - Now & Then

‘Love Aaj Kal’ is a movie about love for regular people – not the Romeo-Juliet, Heer-Ranjha, Laila-Majnu type of people who avow to stay married for seven lives – but for the ‘aam janatha’ or the mango people. But when the mango season is over there is no reason to be gung ho about this movie.

Theme
The central theme of the movie is the classic east west dilemma of choosing between career and commitment. Hero and heroine do not believe in commitment. They want to be free but end up in a freedom struggle later in life. The major saving grace of the movie is that it lasts only for 2 hours.

The idea is to compare love between 2 eras. Love in the new millennium starts over a few drinks and has you laughing pink before you can blink. In the 60s, lovers only think or wink but don’t even express their feelings in ink.

Confusion is the driving force behind the story. At first the protagonists are confused if they should be in love, then they are confused if they should move on and after moving on they are confused as to why they have moved on. The heroine is confused if she should get married and then she is confused why she ever got married. Finally the audience is highly confused as to how this movie got a 4 star rating.

Setting
Love in the time of recession means not too many fancy locales. A few scenes were shot in London and San Francisco and the rest of them in stinky studios. However I must admit that the sets portraying Delhi and Kolkatta of the 60s were particularly authentic and added to the demureness of the plot.

Music
The music is bearable because the songs are few in number. It comprises run-of-the-Mill Punjabi bhangra beats that can drive you up the hill when played at such at ear splitting volumes. The only song that was slightly hummable was – 'Nee Twist. Let’s have some Rounak Shounak'.

Cast
Deepika and Saif play the ultra urbanized confused Hindustan leavers. All they do is party-sharty and have no idea about love-shove. The dashing Rahul Khanna is wasted in the role of Deepika’s unlucky husband. Rishi Kapoor is Saif’s agony uncle who gives him unsolicited advice about rising in love by relating his own love story of yester years.

Humour
You would have hoped atleast humour would keep you awake during the movie. But the only thing that can hopefully keep you awake is hope – hoping that a movie with a budget of INR 50 crores will deliver something. However you are soon left hoping that the movie gets over fast.

The Story
The story compares romance of the present and past in every scene.

Jai (Saif) meets Meera (Deepika) in a London pub and they develop deep friendship over time. They date each other for 2 years but are still highly confused if they are in love. Meera decides to pursue her dreams as an art restorer and moves to Delhi. Jai is waiting for his dream offer at Golden Gate, San Francisco. They consider themselves to be practical people and decide to break up and move on in life. They throw a break up party for their friends who are highly confused as to what to gift them. They happily part and discover inexpensive ways of staying in touch in a long distance relationship.

Jai sees Meera off at the airport at the behest of Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor). Veer Singh relates his own love story of the 60s where he avows to marry a girl without even speaking to her. Jai is hysterical with laughter and says Veer Singh must be conferred with the Bharat & Ratna awards for this.

Meanwhile both Jai and Meera replace their lost love with some local flavour. Both pretend to be happy for the other. Jai’s current girlfriend is a bimbette who could regularly feature in blond jokes. Meera’s love interest is in her smart and suave boss Vikram (Rahul Khanna). Vikram is the perfect lover boy cum marriage material. Jai brings his girlfriend down to see India and packs her off to see the Taj Mahal by herself. Jai and Meera decide to meet secretly for 3 days and relive old memories in inebriated style by dancing uninvited at weddings. Vikram proposes to Meera, during Jai’s India trip. Meera thinks it over and accepts the proposal. She categorically tells Jai not to keep in touch with her.

As usual, Jai is invited to his Best Friend’s Wedding. Meera’s confusion surfaces, but she still marries Vikram even after a secret rendezvous with Jai. At the honeymoon, realization conveniently dons upon her that her heart is with Jai. Poor magnanimous Vikram lets go off her in true pati parmeshwar style and even helps her in reaching out to Jai.

Jai is offered a job at Golden Gate, San Francisco. His initial enthusiasm wanes off in one year when he finds himself pining for Meera. He gives up his high flying career to look for his long lost love Meera, who is sitting on a high scaffolding chair restoring old buildings.

Thankfully the movie ends there and clears all the confusion.

Moral of the Story

The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in play, in love.

– Anne Morriss

I Believe in Angels

Have you ever seen an angel ? I have. You only see them if you believe in them.

A recent article in the Gulf News said that a taxi driver who earns AED 2000 per month returned AED 23000 to the rightful owner who accidently left it behind. It would have taken him 2 years without spending any money to earn it back. And to top it all he seemed so happy! Makes me wonder if I would do it? And I was transported back to my college days when I used to stamp my foot and hold my breath for more pocket money and was never happy with anything at all.

Complaining and cribbing about everything
I hate studying and I can’t even sing

If you ask me what I did most in college or what I was really good at, the answer is really one thing – Complaining.

The computer teacher looks like Mr. Bean !
The canteen food is really mean.

I did this for 3 years. It was probably the only ritual in my whole life that I pursued with passion and continuity.

Then by some stroke of luck I managed to complete my education and was shooed off to work in the big bad world.

From a cozy nest called home into the great city of Mumbai.

This experience made me see something I had never seen before.

My first day at work and my first time living out of home – It was the first time I had to think of my next meal. It was like the first day at kindergarten where the boss looked as scary as the headmistress with a whip and the receptionist like the matron with a baton in hand. And when I came home I realized something was wrong upon Cloud no. 9.

I had to stop relying on the world’s most reliable alarm clock a.k.a mother, get used to sulky roommates of different gigabytes and megahertz and stop insisting that the food had to be warmed up to X degree centigrade. I had started taking everything for granted. 3 meals a day, a doting family, a clean house and all other things that happen on their own when you don’t even bat an eyelid. Suddenly everything stopped. And I realized that nothing could be taken for granted anymore. Not your next meal, not your daily television program, not your landlady who wants to charge you for peeping into the headlines of her newspaper every morning.

I started seeing angels not because I soon got my first salary cheque but because when I was put under the test of fire I really saw and truly felt the smiles even in times of pain. It took me a journey from a cozy comfortable nest called home to the dog eat dog world to realize that.

You can see the angels when you see children doing homework under the street lights and when your landlord cracks silly jokes despite being terminally ill.

The angels compliment you for your efforts also give you constructive criticism.

These angels teach you that liking what you get is more important than getting what you like. The angels are within you, within your neighbor and even your boss! They are in the early morning rays, the blooming flowers and the desert sands.

They teach you that everything in life happens for a reason. They teach you that failures and setbacks cannot deter you forever. They give you hope. They teach you to get up and get going. The sun may have a sinking feeling every evening but comes up bright and shining in the morning.

See the angels around you.

Believe in them.

See the beauty in this world.

See how it changes your life forever.

Abba sings this beautifully –

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see

Bachke Rehna Ae Haseeno

After spending 3 hours watching Bachna Ae Haseeno, I had to look for reasons why I watched it.

Guys – 3 heroines for the price of one.
Girls – Ranbir Kapoor. Period.

Concept – Casanova v/s Commitment.

Screenplay – Same staid formula from the Yash Raj stables. Stunning scenery + Chocolaty romance+ Hummable music + Heroines dancing in the snow in chiffon clothes and not a hair out of place+ Heroes with pink lip gloss + Live happily ever after ending.

Cast– Highly manicured Ranbir, is a Microsoft engineer who makes geeky gaming software. You wish the real life ones are half as hunky. Pretty Deepika Padukone looks like a lamp post in her 6 inch heels as a B-schooler cum cab driver cum grocery store salesgirl. Bipasha Basu fits perfectly into the bitchy small town girl who avenges to become a top model. Minisha Lamba is the cute girl next door and was so affected by the cold that she looked like Rudolf the red nosed reindeer on the sledges of the ski slopes. Turban and kurta clad, Kunal Kapoor is wasted in his role of Mahi’s jealous husband.

Humour – You might have to tickle yourself or you might just buckle into a nap. The loudest I laughed was when I overheard a bunch of presumptuous cool dudes discussing seriously what a downright practical movie it was!

Music – Nice. Vishal and Shekhar have created magic with Khuda Jaane. Shot on the gondolas of Venice it is a soulful and intense song, though looks out of place in the prevailing scheme of things.

Locales- If not for the songs you might think you are watching Travel Discovery. Gives you a free trip to Australia, Italy, Switzerland and Greece. However after DDLJ and Dil Chahta Hain you are gripped with such a wave of nostalgia that you begin to start identifying with some of the places.

The Story Line -
Like they say behind every successful man there is a woman and behind every unsuccessful man there are two. So what happens when there are three?

The protagonist Raj has commitment phobia. He cannot live without women and cannot live with them either. His life is like a sinful triple sundae with sweet Mahi, sexy Radhika and sensible Gayathri.

18 year old Mahi is infatuated with Raj in a Eurail trip after recreating the DDLJ story. She is on a Europe trip with parents and friends and bumps into Raj all the while day dreaming about her romantic Raj of the DDLJ fame. She misses the train and he rescues her. Meanwhile he writes silly poetry, deliberately breaks down his bike and does a song dance sequence for her.

It’s all perfect until Raj tells the story adding masala in generous helpings to his friends. Mahi’s Swaroski crystal heart shatters into a million pieces. She does an about turn and runs back to her parents.

Six years later, Raj is setting up his house in Mumbai and screams his lungs out shouting at his most irritating neighbour who plays blaring music at 10 in the morning. He is tongue tied when he sees the sultry Radhika. Cupid had to strike and they quite literally hammer down the wall between them.

Problem arises when Raj is transferred to Sydney and he does not want to carry extra baggage in the form of Radhika. All his plans to dump her fail comically. Finally he lets her drench in the rain on the steps of the Marriage Registrar's office while he is soaking in the champagne and toasting his new life of freedom on his flight to Sydney.

Raj is introduced to Gayatri when she smirks at the fastest hook up and break up she has seen, in chaste Hindi. Our hero whose dil is phir bhi Hindustani is all excited to see a Made In India product. So he does his chance pe dance – uses her professional services, invites her to official parties, sings a dream sequence, lights a thousand candles and finally proposes to her only to find out that she does not want to marry him because he may not allow her to drive a cab or work in a grocery store after marriage.

Now after 2 hours of boredom, Raj finally turns over a new leaf overnight. Guilt grips him all over like a giant ogre. He sobs, abandons his job and pushes off to India to undo the damage he has done to the 2 girls in his life. Raj desperately needs to do clean up job of his conscience and the girls are forced to forgive him. From dancing in weddings to being a Personal Assistant to a ridiculously strict self obsessed super model, Raj does 6 months of salvaging his sins.

Back in Sydney a pleasant surprise awaits him. Gayatri has flooded his house with one love letter every single day. She also realizes her mistake and decides to take the jump.

Moral of the Story –True love means commitment.

I believe that a good movie either makes you laugh, cry or think. This one did neither.

Might consider being a film critic as career plan B.

Arabian Tales

Ahlan Wahsalan - Welcome to a tale of 2 cities

Kuwait

March 14-15, 2008

There was nothing stopping 2 girls from making 2 unplanned trips with 2 cheap tickets. Then 2 officers held us back at the Kuwait airport looking doubly suspiciously at our online visit VISAs, though I had confirmed the validity of the VISA twice. While my heart rate increased by 20 % thinking we might have to spend 2 nights at Kuwait International Airport we soon got out of trouble smiling at the officers who saw our return ticket of 2 days and let us go.

Ruchira and I were received by our good friend and colleague Fakhruddin who drove us into the city continuously bragging about the modernity of the city, having 10% of the world’s oil reserves for the next 100 years, being one of the world’s richest economies in terms of per capita income etc. The city ha

d good infrastructure, though not half as vibrant or glamourous as Dubai. We were glad not to be stuck in traffic jams. We reached Sunita’s house – our most wonderful host for the weekend and savoured an authentic Punjabi meal in its full glory. After the gup shup and Gulab Jamoons we donned our glares and drove into Gulf Road to see the gallons of water stored in the glorious Kuwait towers. These towers to a large extent define the landmark of the city much like the Emirates towers of Dubai, twin towers of Kuala Lampur etc. Locally known as Dasman and Sharq they are 2 spherical structures mounted on towers 79 metres high and can hold up to 4.5 million gallons of water for local use. Reading Lonely Planet helps.

Taking the elevator up may not be as enchanting as going up the Eiffel towers, however on reaching the top there is a sense of Déjà vu. The towers rotate to give you a panoramic view of the city –that once fought the Iraqis in the Gulf War not so long ago and has fought back to being a thriving economy and sustaining some 3 million people. There is a little telescope and the glass wall points out the important landmarks of the city – Telecom towers, Matrah Souq, Dasman Palace, Port Shwaikh, Seef Palace, National Science Centre etc. Looking down at the infinite Arabian Gulf the waves looked like thin white lines and large container vessels looked like paper boats that we used to sail in little puddles many monsoons ago. Looking down at the mighty ocean I was engulfed with the waves of thought of the minisculity of our existence in front of the infinite ocean pondering over the worthlessness of the insurmountable worries that we drown ourselves in. My friends soon pulled me out of the reverie since we just could not afford to miss the photo op from up there.

We soon descended into the corniche of Kuwait City. It was a pristine walkway - with the gentle drops of water lashing our face, wind running through our hair and the Sun staring down at us. All our attempts at trick photography, trying to look as tall as the towers failed miserably. Its not so much fun to be vertically and photographically challenged.

We then left to the Matrah Souq (pronounced as Soukhhhhh – with the Arabic throat gargle). The major population had deserted the other parts of the city only to make their money at this market place. The place was alive with the odour of traditional spices, fish, meat, fruits and of course the fake Rolex watches and Gucci handbags that come from India and China. We did experiment on some cutting chai at a local coffee shop, but cut our culinary adventures right there.

Next day we were off to National Science Centre, a modest attempt on the part of the government to promote something apart from trade and commerce. We did enjoy seeing the 3D movie and the discovery science centre. The aquarium was the highlight. Looking at Marine life - however little you see of it always gives a sense of how badly we need to preserve the bio diversity on this planet. The sharks, rays, alligators in captivity looked at us woefully through the looking glass.

After briefly driving through the city we landed in a shopping mall for lunch. The mall is a symbol of the Middle East. Beneath the abayas (customary black robe) most women don designer clothes, freshly done make up and grooming befitting that of a princess. I stopped wondering who buys the golden handbags, fluorescent orange sandals and parrot green eye shadow.

We took our backpacks and packed off into the packed Jazeera airlines.

Bahrain

April 4-5, 2008

We slowly understood the funda behind fast cars and decided to go watch the grand Formula 1 Grand Prix at Bahrain. Getting a VISA was easier than drawing money from a queue less ATM. Landing in Bahrain international airport we were gripped by the red of Formula 1 fever. The entire city seemed to be reeling under the speed of readying for the race.

We drove through the arid archipelago of 33 islands and into Manama old souq area where we were booked. The city boasted an impressive architecture, a well spread out and impressive skyline and good roads. After all it was the fastest growing city of the Middle East. If Dubai is the queen of the Middle East, Bahrain can well be termed the Crown Prince. The old souq area was like the Linking Road of Bandra or Avenue Road of Bangalore. It was extremely crowded, dotted with tiny little shops and abuzz with trading activity. A sharp cont

rast to the wide avenues we had left behind. The hotel was by far our worst decision –rickety old aircons that sounded like a truck, squeaky doors that can spook you after a scary movie, musty carpets over which i had a strong urge to spray my entire deodrant bottle and opening the window to hear the endless chatter of jobless men.

Ruch has still not forgiven me for taking her to Annapurna Veg. Restaurant to eat roti and dal - a golden opportunity missed at eating big black hairy lobsters.

After an afternoon siesta we walked into the central city area and headed for Seef Mall. Asking for directions from a Bangladeshi was our second worst decision. All the man glibly said was – Follow me. So we followed for miles through the super highways, jumped over fences, crouched through tunnels and scampered through some deserted desert land, surrounded by heaps of nothingness. We looked like we were practising for the world fast walking competition.

Reaching the mall after one and a half hours on foot was a huge relief. The mall is in the central part of Bahrain and our tempers were cooled off after some chocolate ice cream. We collected our tickets for the Race the following day and decided not to walk back. An evening at the corniche overlooking glitzy Manama city gave us some sound sleep in spite of all the blaring music and snoring aircons.

The following morning we took the bus to the Circuit. The Circuit was sprawled over acres of the desert land. We had to take the bus to move from one stand to another. After much ado we found our seats, we were glad to be saving money and not buying the most expensive seats and to be seated far away from the deafening sound of the race cars. The energy on the circuit was indeed definitely worth it. Work commitments only allowed us to see the practice race; however the whole experience evoked in us an interest in speed.

After the race, we decided to do some sightseeing. Neelay joined in for the sight seeing and had his share of arguing with a cab driver who decided to dump us in the desert if we did not pay up more. The first visit was to something called – Tree of Life. Now we drove hundreds of miles in the desert just to see a big Banyan tree. For all of us from tropical areas braving through the dust and nausea for many miles just to see a tree did not seem exactly exciting.However the point was that this lush tree flourished in between dry, arid climate and with no signs of water or fertility around. On the way we did spot some oil pipelines and took some pictures with scores of camels lounging around.

The Saudi - Bahrain causeway was indeed worth it. It is a highway that connects the 2 countries across the Arabian Gulf. While we had to stop at the border of Saudi Arabia we climbed the tower to see the country from the top. The best view we could get of Saudi Arabia without a burqha. A gorgeous view that remained etched in our mind's reservoir.

The dogs may bark but the caravan moves on.
- Arabic proverb

We were back to number crunching, munching and slumber in office the next day.

Our Earth - Our Responsibility

Have you ever lost sleep over Global Warming? Do you think that this problem has to be solved only by the UN or US? Why is it suddenly so cool to talk about Global Warming?

Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are the highest in 650,000 years ! Levels of atmospheric methane have risen 145%. Glaciers are melting faster than the rate of the Indian stock markets. There are so many hurricanes hitting the world that we are running out of names to name them! 6 of the hottest ever years have occurred after the year 2000.

As individuals what can you and I do about this? How can you and I measure the amount of damage or impact we have on our environment?

A very effective way is the Carbon Footprint.

What is Carbon Footprint?

A Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.

A Carbon Footprint is made up of the sum of two parts - the direct / primary footprint and the indirect / secondary footprint.

1. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane).
2. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use - those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown.

How do you calculate your carbon footprint?

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/

My Carbon Footprint is 5 tonnes with the world average is 4 tonnes and to combat climate change the target is 2 tonnes.

What is your carbon footprint?

What can you do to offset your carbon footprint?

- Recycle and Reuse
- Manage energy sources better
- Plant trees
- Think of alternative sources of energy
- Remember that our planet is our responsibility.

http://www.morganstanley.com/about/community/littlegreenebook/

Any more ideas ?

New York

Dec 3-8, 2007

I landed dreamy eyed in the Land of Dreams.

There was some rigorous passport control by the Schwarzenegger look like officers who look at you in the eye like they have done you the world’s biggest favor. I gathered my impressions about JFK airport while standing in the serpentine queue for immigration. A huge functional airport and a boring contrast to all the bling I had left behind at the Dubai airport. I guess my eyes needed some rest.

I tried to pull a trolley cart to lug my heavy bag along. It dint seem to move. Then someone enlightened me – You hafta put 3 dollas in there. 3 Dollars! Well huh – the bag wasn’t that heavy after all. A 2 hour drive where I put my jetlag of 10.5 hours behind me took me to Madison City, New Jersey.

Madison hotel where we were put up for the meetings was a cozy one and far removed from the urban din. It was a very pretty locality with pine trees kissed with flurries of snow and nestled in a thick white sheet. There were little stand alone cottages with their little gardens and shrouded in the woods. Was I still dreaming or looking at my dream home!

I soon met my colleagues and we took the train into town. The whole set up was very Europeanish. It was a charming little town with a few bars and restaurants – and too cold to be walking on the streets. We got a good feel of the place and returned to brace ourselves for the marathon meetings. We needed a good night’s sleep to keep awake the next two days.

The day started with a sumptuous American breakfast and a good round of introductions. The fruitful discussions spilled over into the fruity smelling train we took into New York that evening. We had some able American colleagues who took us straight to Times Square.

My first glance of New York City and I knew instantly why people love to hate this place. The place oozes with American dreams. It had so many sky scrapers that you lose sight of the sky. The brilliant lights, the attractive shop windows, the numerous stretch limos whizzing past, the massively lit up hoardings, the colourful tourist buses doing the rounds, cartoon characters dancing on the streets – all add character to the place.

Then we popped into a Deli for dinner. When I sheepishly asked for a vegetarian option the waitress politely told me –‘It’s a Deli darling!’ The dishes were named after famous personalities. So people derived a lot of pleasure by devouring into an Adolf Hitler or a Rudy Giuliani. The portions were in true American size – humungous enough to feed a family of four. Well they taught the world to dream big – dint they?

We continued to stroll around 5th avenue and Times Square Centre for a while after dinner and I was truly amazed by the crowds on a cold winter night at -2 deg. C. With 2 jackets, 2 pairs of gloves, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of trousers I was almost officially frozen.

Next day it was back to work in the morning followed by fun in the evening. We were taken to US office at Giralda farms followed by an evening of line dancing at a Rodeo style club. After some dancing lessons where everyone dances in a uniform style standing in a line we were drawn to the main attraction – a mechanical bull. It was mounted on a red rubber enclosure and dimmed with some red lights for the ambience. The trick lied in holding on to the bull’s horns for as long as you can before the bull yanked you off. Some strong hearted people did indeed put on their cowboy hats and tried a hand at it.

The next morning after all the goodbyes to my dear colleagues I headed into New York City again. With a splitting head ache and a cabbie that just would not refuse to stop talking I was ready to jump off the cab. Then again it was a refreshing change from the grumpy cabbies I meet back home who sometimes suggest to me to walk up the distance instead.

I reached Madhu’s house, my school friend who I met after 8 years! I was delighted to be feasting on some Indian food and reminiscing with her about the good old days. We then decided to venture into the city and meet the lady herself – Statue of Liberty. We decided to take the last ferry from Battery Park into Ellis Island only to be told that the last ferry is normally cancelled during winter. We had to be content watching her from a distance. The cold air made my nose look like a cherry and my skin as dry and flaky as fish scales.

I then decided to see the city on one of those Hop on Hop Off buses. The tour operator offered different loops. I decided to do the night loop – to see NY when it sparkled. I did get a good feel of the place when the eloquent bus guides explained and sang songs for tips. Starting from Times Square we passed by Empire State Building, Rockfeller centre and the Christmas tree there, the colourful Macy’s windows, Central Park and Manhattan Bridge. While I wasn’t all that impressed with the traffic scenario I was definitely impressed with the energy in the city.

Then I took the subway back to Madhu’s house at Queens. Following the instructions to precision I felt rather accomplished reaching home on my own. Queens is one of the five boroughs of NY – Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. And coming back to Queens from Manhattan was like coming into a different world altogether. It is a very live-able place with down to earth houses, shops and eateries. A predominantly Asian area - I even saw a saree shop!

The next day I felt like quite a veteran taking the subway back to Manhattan to complete my tour on the hop on and hop off bus. People sing songs, recite home grown poems, and play the guitar to earn a living on trains. The country takes everyone in its fold. Whether you are dressed in Armani suits or flannels nobody gives you weird looks. So everybody has a distinct identity. That’s when I realised that this county is the gateway to dreams. The differences enrich them. Hard work is well rewarded. I would imagine people to be hardnosed but to my pleasant surprise they were very polite. Every single person I asked for directions or help helped me out with a genuine smile. It did justify the tag of ‘most polite city’ given by Readers Digest.

I finished the Downtown Loop and the Brooklyn loop of the tour and managed to get a bird’s eye view of the city. From Ground Zero to Harlem, Chinatown to Greenwich Village, Wall Street to Trump Tower I did manage to get some fleeting glimpses of the important landmarks that make the big apple.

As I got off the tour bus to take the subway back flurries of snow gently perched themselves on my face. I looked up and received them with a content smile. I looked back at the glitz and looked ahead into the musty unglamorous subway station where a band was playing – ‘We built this city… We built this city on rock and roll’.