TamilNadu - Karnataka

OK, there was this dispute for water for many decades now, between the two states. River Cauvery originates in Karnataka and joins the ocean in Tamil Nadu. History says that the conflict between the 2 states started way back in 1804, during the British rule. TamilNadu was then known as Madras province and Karnataka as Mysore province. Its been more than 2 centuries now and the conflict still goes on strong.

The recent IPL(Indian Premier League) cricket matches within major Indian cities triggered me think about where and how it all started. I was following a forum few days back where I came across an unhealthy debate between the Tamils and Kannadigas. If the Chennai (known as Madras then) cricket team won a match, the Kannadiga forum members would end up saying 'there was a match fixing' or 'Chennai won it by luck'. To this the Tamil forum members would counter attack with wild and annoyed statements. I was very upset to read the thread.

In India, first there is this India-Pakistan dispute for the state of Kashmir. And within India there are a million disputes between states most of them unwanted and selfishly triggered by politicians. And there is this Cauvery water dispute between TamilNadu and Karnataka. And within TamilNadu there are a zillion disputes between castes. The caste separation is like a virus everywhere and more predominant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Where is India heading to.

Sometime back the dispute between the 2 states were so nasty that Tamils in Bangalore were attacked physically. And I am not very sure about the 'vise-verse' happenings. And there was this publicity stunt of the film industry people of both states fasting for the Cauvery issue. I am a big fan of Actor Rajnikanth, who is a superstar in the state of Tamil Nadu, with Karnataka as his birth-state. And during this 'fasting' issue, his name was pulled out more than anyone else unnecessarily.His opponents Actor Sathyaraj and Director BharathiRaja used their chances to the maximum, to let him down. The crux being 'How could a person from Karnataka be framed as a superstar in Tamil Film industry'. The inner crux being, 'How could a non-Tamil person be considered God of Tamil Cinema'.

Next to Kannadigas, Tamils make the maximum percentage of population in Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka. Right from Software Engineers to auto drivers to restaurant owners, most people from Chennai have migrated to Bangalore; for its pleasant weather conditions, trying to beat the heat of Chennai. Being born and brought up in the beautiful city of Chennai, I have experienced every bit of the hot weather there. Summer is long and winter is short in Chennai. That is a known truth. When it comes to growing trees and maintaining them, I must say that the government of Karnataka has taken immense measures.

Hoping to see some greenery and experience fresh air in the city of Chennai.
* In Picture - Marina Beach, Chennai

Chennai City Traffic Police

[Again, this was a post saved as a draft for almost 3 years(on 8/8/07 at 11.11 AM) now, in my Dashboard. This is about a traffic scenario in Chennai, India. Hope the situations are changed and people are enjoying hassle free commute!]
Imagining a scenario at a busy Chennai Road, everyday we see the Traffic police yelling their voices out without any racial differences. The intensity of bad words they use over the people who break the traffic rules might be funny for others, but at times creates a chaos when the concerned party starts firing against the cops.

The picture shown here is a situation at a busy place called Tambaram here in Chennai. Tambaram is a south node which joins Chennai from other places in Tamil Nadu or Tambaram can be defined as the 'Gateway of Chennai'.

Now, I need to reach point '9' from point '1' everyday while traveling back home from office. Practially, logically, mathematicaly and actually it should take 1 minute if my bus is allowed to take '1-2-7-8-9' route. But the red spot there has a problem. Thats the traffic police destination who do not allow a U-turn for vehicles at point '2'. So my bus takes the '1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8' path to reach point '9'. Crazy people and crazy traffic situations!!!

Doctors everywhere!

Consultation, diagnosis, test, report analysis, consultaion again, medication/surgery is 'to-be' done by a single doctor. If you do your consultation with doctor 1 and unfortunately had to give blood test to doctor 2 in a different place using the prescription given by doctor 1; thats the end of it!

Doctors do not have healthy relationships with their counterparts in the industry. They envy other doctors and also do not give up easily with them. A doctor will never accept something good about another doctor. Even if there is one single medicine to cure a disease that is recommended by a doctor, another one who looks at the prescription ends up saying 'who on earth gave you these medicines'. He adds up saying, 'I recommend you stop this current medication and start up fresh with what I suggest'. Damn! I pity the patients around the globe.
The same happens with 'Tests'. Blood test, urine test; no matter what is required for you to be taken there is a lot of confusion in healthcare industry. If Doctor 1 suggests, you got to give urine samples 5 times a day for a single test; Doctor 2 suggests, just 1 sample of your urine before breakfast would be sufficient for all necessary diagonosis. Crazy! Not just individual doctors, even the medications differs from country to country. With so many types of medications like Alopathy, Homeopathy, Siddha, Ayurveda; people in India are totally confused which one to stick on with; as all of them seem to cure their ailments either partially or totally.

Health care costs are sky high here in the US. General consultation costs at least $50 (roughly Rs.2500). I recently bought a pack of medicine which had 2 tablets in it and the cost of it was $40 (roughly Rs.2000); which is, a single tablet in Indian terms costs Rs.1000. There was a time when 4 people including me had buffet lunch in a star hotel in Chennai which had cost us Rs.1000. Now I understand why parents in India wanted their children to take up medicine as their career after 12Th grade. That's one field which does not have any recession!

**Don't forget to look at today's 'health tip' (right side)!

INDIRANK

Finally IndiRank is here! My IndiRank as you can see to your right reads 68 in bold and big. If you notice a little more, it says 68/100. From my childhood, I have been brought up knowing, the lesser the Rank is, the more better you are. But here, according to IndiBloggers, the more your Rank is, the more score your blog has got and the more better your blog is!
Phewww, I was a bit shocked looking at it today morning and was thinking how bad a blogger I am; blogging since 2006. Got myself cleared after having researched on it. Here are the stats about my blog:

You have a good Alexa Rank.
You update your blog frequently. Keep Blogging!
You have a good IndiRank.Keep blogging and watch it
increase!

A dumb poem, dedicated to him!

This post was lying as a draft for almost 4 years. Now when I was clearing and cleaning my blog, I came across this and dint want to trash it. Though I am a dumb poet, this one did bring in laughter at home today!

The first day you bullied me,
I was then a pure ghee;
The second day you were sarcastic,
Even today when I think of it its fantastic;

The third day you made friends with me,
Then on you behaved like a honey bee;
Few days after you got closer,
I never knew then you were my owner;

You did propose me in front of everyone,
I was happy and said within,that you are the one;
Today we are more than what we were,
I will be a good better half for sure

The City of Atlanta

Are you planning for a trip to Atlanta? I thought I could help. Here is a long pending 'to-be' posted post in my 'Edit Posts' list.

A very nice city to be in; the city of Atlanta is the capital of the state of Georgia; that falls under the south-eastern part of the United States. There is only one state that lies below Georgia and that's the state of Florida which is called the 'sunshine' state. Florida is mostly sunny all around the year. People travel to Florida for vacation anytime in the year. Well, the lifestyle in other states are purely based on the weather conditions. Georgia does not have extreme weather conditions in winter like the north-eastern states of New york, Philly etc.

Georgia is pleasant most of the times. In other means, the weather is manageable enough to go for a drive even in winter. In Atlanta, it snows for a maximum of 3-4 days in winter. In the Downtown(Atlanta) there are a number of very popular tourist attractions.

CNN - The headquarters of the CNN is located very much here in Atlanta. Its a $15 tour inside CNN that allows you to get a feel of the newsroom and the live news telecast. I got a chance to view live news reading by eminent news readers. They also take you to the HLN network. The tour starts with a briefing of how an actual 'News' telecast is broad casted; by a 5 minute video presentation. And guess what, there is much more for you. One can actually experience news reading(wearing a professional attire) which one can buy in a CD format. And the best reader wins a chance. Also we get to know about the 'weather guy' and how they actually shoot the 'weather' part of news with a blank 'green' screen that shows as hell a lot of information at the receiving end. This reminds me of my 'Doordharshan' tour in Chennai, closer to the Marina Beach, years back.

Georgia Aquarium - Considered world's largest aquarium. True beauty in itself. We get a live feeling of being under the sea. We can spot the sea animals moving right on top of our head. There are Beluga whales here. It is a huge aquarium with many attractions within, which would at least require a whole day to tour on. And it costs $35 to get in. A very predominant and most popular attraction for people visiting the city.

World of CocaCola - Another one of its kind for the city of Atlanta; the headquarters of CocaCola is also here in Atlanta. The 'Cola' preparation right from concentrate preparation to the customer enlightenment; 'the world of Coca-Cola' is a truly interesting location to give a visit. Not much does it costs to get in. For $15, apart from the tour inside , one can get a chance to actually drink gallons of 'Coke' products. I never knew there were so many varieties of Coke around the world. The 'sample tasting' section is actually divided into continents, wherein you can fetch a mug of coke according to your choice. And finally, there is a Coca-Cola shop that sells T-shirts made from recycled plastic soda bottles.

Where are the toilets!

India has more cell phones than toilets says UN. After having observed and experienced travelling in India and US, mother India is far beyond in development areas like sanitary needs.
'Rest Areas' in the US are pretty well maintained, while the ones in India; between places are not called 'Rest Areas', but 'Dirty as you go' locations; wherein there is neither individual responsibility nor government maintenance. The blame is on both sides. No use targeting the government for each and every negativeness.

Hygienic toilets or restrooms lack a place in most Indian locations. And with the ever growing population and kids no one knows how to manage the entire 'toiletry' system. There should have been a 'minister for toiletry'; only and only if there are rules and norms will people follow it. There should be fines everywhere printed on boards. 'Rs 100 fine if new toilet seat cover not used', 'Rs 50 fine if hands not washed after usage', 'Rs 500 fine if water is spilt on floor'; and to climax it up; '15 days in jail if toilets are not flushed after usage'. And to the women population, I would strictly like to add , 'Rs 1000 fine if sanitary pads not taken care of'.

Again there comes the difference of 'Indian' and 'Western' toilets. Somewhere someone says 'Indian toilet is the one on which the body of the toilet does not touch the body of the person using it'. And 'Western toilet is one on which a person haves the feel of sitting on a chair while passing stool'. And guess what, theories say that Indian toilets are best way of exercise. More precisely on my research, its better known as 'Squat Toilet' than Indian toilet, and looks like poor countries opt this method. India was once poor, not anymore!

Her body - Breast Cancer initiative

Breast Cancer is a very known and common attack on women these days. Awareness about it is not enough; at least in India. People tend to think that Breast Cancer is a disease that attacks older women. And how many men care about creating awareness about it to their fellow women.

To be more precise and accurate, studies say that, any kind of small or large lump called cysts might be a cancer cell. And I read somewhere that breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer next only to lung cancer. Hence early detection and removal of the cancerous cell might lead to a normal and healthy life in the long run.

Another of its kind called 'Fibroadenoma' is a tumor that develops when 'a small lump like' cell grows in the breast for quite some years. This is very common in adolescent women. Not many teens and young adults are aware of it. I would suggest such awareness are created right in the schools and colleges to help avoid major developments.

Indians in America

A single post would not be sufficient enough to describe about our fellow Indians in America.
Disclaimer 1 :As a disclaimer, I would try to be on safer side mentioning that I am not generalizing.
Disclaimer 2: I am born and brought up in India and I love India. JaiHind!

Major US cities are now flooded with Indians. One in every 20 people are Indians. That's my guess on the ratio. I am yet to research on the actual proportion. Indians can be easily distinguished by many factors like color, accent, attitude, attire, physic, food, kids, parents, drivers, cars, etc.

As a first note, an Indian would predominantly drive a Toyota Camry or a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic. Its is very hard to find an Indian with an American model car. Secondly, Indians are always found in groups only with other Indians. To say it more detailed, the groups are precisely based on region, religion, language, caste. Of course, looks like an extension of India by itself.

Thirdly, an Indian will never teach his kid how to behave in public places. He'd rather pinch the kid to cry more. Again my words like 'never', 'always' are meant not to generalize, in this post!Well, I might sound a bit weird and harsh here. But having observed the other kids, I am bound to compare. In a flight, or a queue, or a bus, or a train, or a shop, or a library, or a place with a 'silence please' board; a kid who screeches will 99% be of an Indian's. I don't blame the kid, but his dad!

Fourthly, some forgotten/ignorant disciplines like parking the car a little away from the given premises considering plus or minus phenomenon. Indians are brought up with Indian driving skills and a sudden change to a more disciplined driving does not seem to suit them, at least for sometime in the beginning. And our housewives, who have accompanied husbands in H4 Visa make no difference to their counterparts in India. A little difference with the 4 walls being, American. I have observed ladies peeping into other persons privacy by staring at them for a longer period of time. I would really want them to come out of this regular 'cooking-child care-husband care-cooking-sleeping-cooking.....' schedule.

Fifthly, I would like to continue later on when I experience something weird.

What is your name?

What's in a name? Why bother if it has 20 letters or too funky. Everybody has a name! Even a man who does not have a kidney would have a name. But what's in a name?

My name is 'Anuradha', it means, a 'star' says Google. I gave it as 'Anuradha Vasan' in my credentials, having my father's name next to mine, following the traditional rule. Well, its been more than a year since my marriage, and still I have not gone for a surname change. My husband has left the choice to me whether or not to change. Well, that's not the topic here. I am addressed as Ms.Vasan in most places. My father's name 'Vasan' has a history again. His original name was Vasudevan, that of lord Krishna's. Since their were two Vasudevan's with the same initials, he decided to shrink it to Vasan and thats how my surname came up. Now back to myself. Here in the United States, people who are not Indian natives call me Vasaaan; thats Va-sa-aa-an(rhymes well with Nissan of Nissan Altima). I tend to correct them in most places. Now that I have become sick of it.

My husband's surname is Krishnakumar, and again since people in US call by surname, he goes mad spelling his name over phone even for a Pizza delivery. Most times his email ID would be mis-spelt. He is pretty much having a tough time. And his first name is Ramgopal. Most people prefer calling him Ram (that used to be my most favorite name even before I knew I am going to marry a guy called Ram). But here in the US, its addressed as RAM (as in 25MB RAM (memory)). Again he got fed up correcting people, hence he got used to himself calling it RAM. Now he says, RAM as in Dodge RAM. Easy for them to follow.

In India, people say that every body's name is related to god somehow or the other. Modern Indian parents want their kids to have a traditionally-funky name. That's because the most common factor that comes in their mind while naming their child is, the revenge against their own parents. In those days parents named their children only with traditional names not knowing that their child would someday become a CEO of a multinational company. Well, I am not complaining the way they named. But I learnt from few of my friends , how dissatisfied they were with their names. A girl named 'Abhithakuchalambal' would get bullied big time at college. 'Pichai' would find it it very difficult to survive in a Tamil speaking state. And so does 'Gundu Rao'.

How about 'Champakavathi', short form should definitely be Champa. Even short names like 'Dhruthi' doesn't seem to be fluent enough. Friends of 'Godavari' would like to call her 'Goda'? or 'God'? 'Hansanandini' shrinks to 'Hansa', I know a person named Hamsa; I would definitely get confused between the two. How would 'Kamakoti' or 'Kamakshi' be called at home? I don't think either would prefer being called with a short form.

Jothika's name in the movie 'Sillunu oru Kadhal' was 'Kundhavai'. This reminds me of the Vivek's comedy in 'Sivaji' about 'Anga-vai'. I had a friend named 'Mrinalini'. At the same time I knew another girl called 'Mirnalini'. Phew!!! That was a tough time differentiating both names. American Indian, 'Vera Mindy Chockalingam' from the US TV series 'The Office' ,is better known as Mindy Kaling here in the United States. While watching the serial sometime, I heard from one of her dialogues, that her parents named her 'Rajnigandha' and she does not like it.

My very own, most common name, 'Anu' was also bullied at times. People used to say Anu's shirt, Anu's cycle, Anu's ring as Anus ring. A small apstophe would change the enitre meaning and would help my enemies bully me.

Most Indians have remodelled or even completely changed their names according to their wish. Based on numerology or even profession, people prefer others to call them with names they choose for themselves. What about film actors. Name a few who haven't gone for a name change. Rajnikanth is a magical name for Tamils or even Indians across the globe. If he was still Sivaji Rao Geakwad, it would sound like some character artists in 1950s. But that's business. People love calling him Rajni though they know he is Sivaji Rao.

I often used to tell my husband that we must be very careful while naming our child. The name should be crisp and easy to pronounce and definitely not a one which our child would want to change in future. There are parents who name their child after a very close relative of them or one of their mothers or fathers.

I came across an English name 'Cupcake' which I recently saw on TV. And I met a person called April. Another beautiful name called Melissa of a person whom I know; I used to say Melissa romba meleeesa aayita...(which means Melissa has become thin, in Tamil).Well that comes under sarcasm which cannot be helped. But lets not forget the genuine cases.There was a girl in my college whose accent and attitude stunned me. Her name was 'Paapathi'. That was the biggest shock for me. Her name was not at all related to her by any mean. But people called her 'Pops'. Now isn't that funky enough!

*Picture - Savannah, Georgia