India

On May 10th, 2004, I started blogging.

I had been in New York for about six months (albeit with a horrendous travel schedule to California) and I quite disliked being in Manhattan. After the wonderfully warm weather and incredible open skies of the Bay Area, I found Manhattan claustrophobic, dirty and over-crowded. And, to be fair, I was never here long enough to establish any kind of routine to help me feel settled.

I thought a lot about my own attitude and decided to try to focus on the positives. So, I committed to blogging about the best of the city each week. Three years ago today, “My Space In A Place” with the tagline “They say loving a place is all about attitude. Let’s see, shall we?” was born.

I didn’t focus too much on the title (obviously!) or the aesthetics or the logistics (no Feedburner, no Technorati) of the blog – I had a very clear purpose – to start sampling the variety that the city offers and to document it online to make myself see the pluses of the city.

My first post included the following:

On that topic, I realized I need to give big, bad, Manhattan a chance — yes, the winter sucked, but we are past that and I hope a glorious summer will let me explore more and enjoy this city. I’ve heard that it takes about a year to fall in love with Manhattan. Which means that I have till October or to be fair, till May of 2005 (arriving in winter can’t count, can it??!!!).

So, a post a week till October and we’ll re-evaluate, shall we? 🙂

The blog lived on Blogger and I did not list it publicly. I shared the URL¹ with family and a close friend who was also adjusting to Manhattan.

With each post I wrote, I started to fall in love with Manhattan – opera, ballet – no, not just ballet, but Swan Lake with Nina Ananiashvili!!, Carnatic music, concerts in Central Park… It was a fabulous summer. Soon, I was missing NYC when I was in California on business. My experiment was working!!

I hit my goal of starting to love NYC by October of 2004. And I was having so much fun with my blog and I kept it up. Finally, in late 2006, after I had quit my commute to California and taken a little breather, I felt ready to blog publicly. That’s when this blog and my Tatvam blog appeared².

I’ve loved my three years of blogging – I’ve fallen in love with my city, made wonderful new friends and had great conversations!

To my incredible readers, thanks for making this little blog, which started out with only imaginary readers, so much fun! 🙂

1. Since that blog had so much personal information, it is now only open to invited users. ↩

2. A couple of times I’ve wondered whether I should have blogged publicly earlier. The answer is no – my earlier blog was a personal journey and one I was not ready to share with the whole world. ↩

eating an Alphonso mango!

There is no doubt about this. None.

To those who wonder what the fuss is about, the Alphonso mango is a type of mango grown in India. To say it is the best mango species in the world is a huge understatement. You have not lived until you have savored one.

Due to the US ban on importing Indian mangoes, it is virtually impossible to eat one in the United States. And given that I rarely go to India in April, May or June (mango season), I haven’t eaten an Alphonso in about 12 years. I weep at the thought of my deprivation.

But all that changed this week. A good friend very kindly gave me three Alphonso mangoes a couple of days ago. Entirely unexpected. I refused to ask how she got them – I am just happy she shared her bounty with me!

I’ve been savoring one each night. Eating an Alphonso mango late at night in the heart of Manhattan is a delight to be treasured.

When India and the US negotiated the nuclear deal, India also negotiated the export of mangoes and apparently this summer will be the first time in two decades that the Alphonso will be available in the US. I still have no clue where they will be available (if you know, let me know in the comments, please!), but I assure you that as soon as I find out, I will be first in line!

_{Photo courtesy: Kejriwal Enterprises, which retains all rights}

India is out of the world cup. They have only themselves to blame. They batted like they didn’t care, on a wicket where batting was not hard. And yes, I publish this before the game is officially over, but that’s a risk I am so willing to take!

Dhoni and Sachin are peas in a pod – can succeed only when there is no reason and always fail when they need to succeed. Bad run-outs. Agarkar playing so carelessly after his captain goes up to him and tells him to play properly. Ah… the whole team has failed pathetically. They lack the will to win. Crumble at the sign of any fight from the opposition.

The bowling… well, 27 extras. Wow. Letting them get to 254 was a mistake, but the batting made made even 150 look like a tough target.

Here’s the positive – I won’t be wasting any more time on watching. Yay! Hours and hours of free time are opening up like a vista in front of me. It’s been fun folks (well not really fun either), but it is all over.

I will say this. This team has played well in the past. When they are on fire, there is no team as fun. I’ve grown up watching some of these guys. So, for those memories, thank you. But this chapter is closed.

Good night and good luck!

Dravid said, after the loss to Bangladesh, that they are only going to worry about what’s in their control – he got his wish. The Indian team are now in control of their destiny in the World Cup. If they win on Friday against Sri Lanka, they are pretty much through. If they lose, they are out. As simple as that.

Today, Sri Lanka whipped Bangladesh. Bangladesh had a much worse day in the field, but it also showed how badly India played to lose to them. But, that’s all in the past.

Since Bangladesh has a significant negative Net Run Rate, they need to beat Bermuda by some enormous difference (350? 400? something like that). Let’s assume for a moment that that will not happen since no team has ever won by that margin.

So, all in India’s hands. Almost everyone wants them to lose –

• Sri Lanka wants to win because only if they win do they take 2 points through to the next round

• Bangladesh wants Sri Lanka to win because that’s really the only way NRR doesn’t matter and a mere win against Bermuda will put them through instead of India

• All of Pakistan probably wants Sri Lanka to win so that they are not the only big team eliminated and so that arch-rival India keeps them company on the long trip back home.

However, ALL OF INDIA wants you to win!!! So, Team India, time to step up, time to play big. It is in your control – go for it!

eBay India have gotten into the craze around the Cricket World Cup. If you check out their Cricket Craze splash page, there is a lot going on.

But the item that is getting the most coverage is the auction of saris worn by Mandira Bedi and signed by the entire Indian cricket team. Mandira Bedi is a “color commentator” and was also the first every woman commetator (as far as I know). She’s very rah-rah and somewhat annoying, but apparently the eye-candy factor more than makes up for it… Plus she says stuff like “Dravid across my chest” (meaning Indian captain Rahul Dravid happens to have signed the sari section which happens to drape across her ample bosom). Watch the video here.

Btw, eBay.in folks – the splash page is almost static now (there are only three links – two go back to the eBay India homepage and one goes to PaisaPay). Even if the auctions aren’t live yet, at the very least, put up a marketing splash page where users can learn more and see all the World Cup related auctions. That way when all the press events drive traffic to eBay, they’ll have somewhere to go.

_{[Story and video hat tip: Great Bong]}

Two pieces of information got me thinking about censorship in India — Niranjana’s post on banned books and news that the Government of India (GOI) was taking action against Neo Sports.

Let me restate – my Neo Sports post on their advertisements on the West Indies tour stated that I personally found the ads tasteless and borderline racist. I also stated that I don’t think racism was the intent behind them. And that I thought it was silly for a company to build a brand using the ad since it offended a section of their customers.

Today, Srini very kindly updated me (thanks, Srini!) that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry headed by Priya Ranjan Das Munshi has slapped a show cause notice on the channel asking it to explain itself.

What?? The way this should be moderated is by the market. If the public expresses their dissatisfaction to Neo Sports, that’s fine. If their shareholders hold them accountable, that’s fine. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is redefining its bounds by overstepping them constantly. They’ve banned the Gandhi YouTube video, they briefly banned all blogspot.com domains, and they banned AXN Channel for showing “The World’s Sexiest Ads”.

Er, hello? No one is being forced to view any of these. Hate the YouTube video? Don’t watch it. AXN is a private channel that users pay for. If they don’t like the show, they will stop subscribing. The GOI has no business being in the censorship business – if they want, they can be in the ratings business. Slap an X or R rating on things, but let the consumer choose. Repeat after me, Mr. Priya Ranjan Das Munshi – the market, the market, the market.

Here’s what I said to Niranjana –

This is hilarious!

_{Cartoon via: Michael}

Original cartoon from Russell’s Teapot

Shashi does a nice job. It takes him a couple of moments to settle down, but then he throws out a couple of zingers. Ah, Shashi, it would have been good to have you as the Secretary General!

And, no, I don’t know Shashi… but I still choose to refer to him by his first name. I find him sexier if I call him Shashi.

And Stephen, keep up the India focus – we like, we like!

_{Video via: SAJA}

I read this hilarious article in the NY Times today. The author talks about how much she abhorred her Home Ec classes in high school –

…of being in that last wave of girls, in the ’70s, who were expected to master the domestic arts in school.

Seventies? What about the mid to late eighties? When I was in high school in India, all the girls had to learn to sew. Needless to say I hated it with a passion. The stitching itself was not terrible, but they insisted that we learn to be able to cut a pattern, change the size of said pattern and other such painful things.

I remember it vividly. We had to make a Jabla (a what??). Basically it was a little, sleeveless top for a child. The sizes we made were for 3-5 year old kids. All the girls had to make one. We were graded on it. You had to get a decent grade since this fed into your national level 10th grade scores. I have no clue what the guys in my class did during this time? Soldering, perhaps?

If it is such a life skill (I agree that being able to sew on a button is definitely a life skill), how come the guys weren’t required to learn it? And why isn’t soldering a life skill I needed to learn? Who do you think knows where the fuse box even is in our house? Ha!

Anyway, after much searching, I found that a Jabla is technically an upper garment worn by Parsi children. At least now I know.

Unlike the journalist at the Times, I have not rediscovered a love for tailoring. I do what I must to survive. Maybe one day if I have a small child that needs a frock stitched for a doll…

If I had been here in early Jan and slowly been introduced to the bone-chilling cold, a few degrees at a time, it might have been bearable.

But spending day x in glorious 85 degree weather in Madras and day x+1 in 25 degree weather in New York? That’s not so great. I spent the past day wearing three layers of clothing, wool socks and freezing – all inside the house. Outside was a lot worse. I thought I was going to become an icicle.

Let’s hope the body adjusts fast – this weekend is going to be 9 degrees!! Makes me want to run back to India. But… I can keep whining or enjoy being home. Let me try the latter for a few hours and get back to you.

P.S.: Apparently this is post #50.