The American lessons

The year 2014 has been kind to me. I have had the best of times. Two things have been knocked off my bucket list. One- To go on a trip with friends to a nice place. Second- To watch the divine magic of God on a tennis court with my own eyes!

And then, there was that trip to the USA. From the west coast to the east coast, it was one month full of unimaginable fun. Looking back and savoring those moments of pure joy, I consider myself to be very lucky to have such a great set of people around me. Five people will stand out for me in this trip- my ingratiating maama , my  gracious maami, my impish little cousin Aruj, my cool elder brother Ankit and my charming friend Aastha. These people made this once in a lifetime experience for me. When I had set out for airport on the 6th of March, I could not have imagined what overwhelmingly delightful times that awaited me. Neither could I have imagined that there was a whole set of new learning that this grand trip was going to give me. I am going to jot down few random things that I learned from my visit to Uncle Sam.

1.     Smile- Small things in life can make a huge difference to your day. And nowhere was it more evident than at the airport of India and US. In India, while leaving as well as coming back, I had to cross the immigration. The people sitting there give you such insinuating looks as if they have pronounced you guilty even before you hand them your passport. Their sour tones leave a bad taste in your mouth. In USA, as I approached the official, his first remark was-" Hi! How was your flight?”. It is a basic greeting, and yet coupled along with a nice smile, this gesture makes you feel welcomed. The brilliant words of Charlie Chaplin come to my mind- "You'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile.”

2.     Enthusiasm- I did a hike of about 30km at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. We went down 6000ft. and came back up in about nine hours. In the morning, my maama was not sure about it. It was going to be physically taxing and we had to reach back before it got dark and cold. On top of that, we were late in leaving too. While following the trail, we discussed the possibility of taking a short cut. I was vehemently opposed to it, but my pragmatic maama had more sense. But on our way, we met this rather nice man, who was walking much slower than us and yet he told us he was going to come back up the same day. Looking at his pace, I was sure he was not going to make it up by the evening. But he said that now they had set out, he had no choice and he would eventually complete it. He was supremely confident about completing the trek in time. When he asked us about our plans, we said we were not sure. The nearly 50 year old guy laughed and said that we would definitely be able to complete it as we were younger and fitter. The ray of enthusiasm that he conjured also changed our minds and we decided to go for the full trek. Fortunately, we made it back on time!

My whole point is that it is heartening to see the spirit of the people there. Whilst we were trekking, we came across people of all age groups, some as old as 70. Imagine a 70 yr old doing that trek! Ladies with new born kids were at it also despite the arduous task of carrying the kids on their shoulder. It is heartwarming to see such people and their attitude rubs onto you in some way or the other.

3.     Greetings- Everywhere and anywhere I went, the first thing that people do is greet each other. At the supermarket, at the ticket counters, at the restaurants, in the elevator, people always greet each other. While walking down the road, if someone is coming from the opposite side, you don’t look up and then pretend that he/she doesn’t exist, instead you greet them which most of the times leads to a conversation. While travelling across the western coast with maama, people at counters always asked us where we were from and once we told that we came from San Antonio, the conversation would inadvertently lead to San Antonio Spurs, the basketball team of the city who were in a splendid form this season and who just today crushed the Miami Heat to win the NBA. They would sometimes tell about themselves too. It may appear bagatelle, but listening to them musing about their past and their struggles is, in its own way, poignant. Not to forget that when you greet, you smile which reinforces my first point. I firmly believe that this small activity has a latent positive effect on all present and in a life where we are always under stress, this habit is worth its weight in gold

4.     Productivity- It is impressive to see how much can be done in a single day if backed by proper resources. On an average day, I saw that after coming from office, you had more than 5 hours wherein you could complete your daily chores, go out for a movie, visit the local club, and have a nice dinner before returning home. All of this, without compromising on any sleep. How is this achieved? The foremost necessity is having good infrastructure. We never realize the amount of man hours wasted on roads while driving. If somehow we could cut down on that, how much more could we do in a single day! While on the west coast, we drove about 2500 km in one week and yet we had so much time to enjoy the places we visited. On no day was the drive time more than 7 hours and it was nil on a couple of days. It would have been possible nowhere but USA. This happened simply because of the good roads and connectivity. I see myself and my friends spending hours in travelling. Hours that could be utilized in a much better way. A realm of possibility open up if we somehow manage to save that time.

5.     Value of Human Life- While at Indian Wells, I heard a distant sound of police siren whilst we were driving around the city. Immediately, all the cars on BOTH SIDE OF ROAD moved to the last lane. I was surprised seeing that the police car was from the opposite side. I was told that when a police, ambulance or a fire brigade siren is on, the cars on both sides of road have to make way, else there is legal action. This is to ensure that the emergency car has an alternative route in case one side of road is jammed. On another occasion, I was standing in the parking trying to pull something out of the car when my maama told me to move aside and close the gate of the car. Looking back, I saw a young man was waiting patiently to park his car. I was surprised, as there was a huge space behind me, despite my door being open. But the explanation was that the driver of the other car would never try to enter whilst I was standing because if by any chance I was hurt, he would be liable for that.

What I learnt from these instances was that human life has a value there. You are not just any resource that is expendable and of no worth. There is respect for you and your life. It makes you feel secure, confident and thankful to your country.

I could definitely add a few more points to the list, but if I have to recollect the five things that had the most impact on me, it would be these. It has been a great experience visiting the country and I hope I get another chance to travel there again.

An evening on Delhi roads

Delhi, I have been told, has one of the best public transport system in the country. I haven't been around the major metropolitan cities of this country to vindicate or refute this opinion. But I did set out to test it today late evening. I did not have my beloved Firebolt (that's my car) with me at my college campus this week. Hence, I would have to use public transport to get home. By early evening, I was free from my classes and could have left for my home. However, knowing the peak hour rush, I decided to be smart and leave late. So at about 8.45 pm, I slung my laptop bag over my shoulder, picked up the other rather heavy bag that I needed to carry home, and left from college.

As I walked towards the main road, I realized my first mistake. I had forgotten to carry substantial change with me. Which meant that I could only take a bus to get to the metro station. Cursing under my breath, I reached the bus stop. I sat down to wait, a wait that lasted a very long time owing to the poor service of bus at that time. I saw two-three auto wallahs come to the bus stop and drive past them at a very slow speed in anticipation that patience may have run out of the waiting passengers and they may be willing to use their vehicles instead of bus. The sheer expectation with which they looked up at every bystander made me want to take one. But due to the above mentioned reason, I was unable to. Then again, there was one guy who did get tired of waiting and finally asked the passing auto wallah to drop him to some place in Sheikh Sarai. This auto wallah was not even looking for a passenger and was driving past us without slowing down. I thought of the auto wallahs who had so wanted to find a passenger amongst the group which was sitting there, but could not. Luck, as they call it.

My luck, it seemed had run out. 10 minutes gone, and yet no sign of any bus. On some other day, four would have passed by. After waiting a while, one did come. It was the old DTC bus and obviously was very full. I climbed in, since I did not want to take a chance of waiting for the next one. One bag on the shoulder, the other one in my hand, I just about managed to squeeze myself in a corner somewhere. The bus soon reached a red light. Staring outside the window, I saw a man standing on the divider making signals to, umm, himself! As I observed on, I saw that he was actually trying to signal the traffic in different directions to move and stop as and when the lights changed. Not that anybody looked at him, but he was probably in his own world where he was the policeman manning the red light. As the car in front of me moved a little, I was startled to see that he did not have a leg. He was standing on one leg only. On the divider itself, there were sheets and quilts, and somewhere in the middle of it, lay a plastic bag, presumably containing some food. I looked back at the man. He was not making any effort to ask for money and alms. His eyes were now focussed on our red light because it was about to turn green. About a second before it turned green, the man gave his hands an almighty heave and egged the traffic of our side to move on. Try as I might, I failed to find any source of helplessness or sadness in those eyes. Not for a moment had he looked at any car driver with the expectation of any help. He was too happy in his own make believe world I guess, a world which was far better than the one in which he lived.

In about half an hour, I was in metro. It was full, so my smartness had come to nothing. I would have found the same rush an hour earlier too. Too tired of carrying the bags, I put them down in a corner, plugged in my earphones, and looked about aimlessly. I have travelled in metro frequently over the years and nothing about it seems to change. I saw an old poor couple sitting on their seats, not talking, staring around as pointlessly as me. I saw a middle aged man, screaming into his phone, so that the whole compartment knew that a shipment that he was supposed to receive some day ago  had not been received yet. All in very fluent Punjabi. There was the usual set of young teenagers or college going crowd in the mix, some on their phones, some reading their books, some listening to songs(like me!). Then, there were the  perfect stranger uncles, who were discussing how full the metro was, and how people did not know how to enter and exit the metro compartment ( always pushing, they rightly complained. Though I am sure they would have done the same while entering!). The topic of conversation veered from this to politics to sports. I saw a young couple dragging a suitcase in the metro, and then dragging it out at Chandani Chowk station. I saw an uncle wearing suit and with a suitcase right next to him,  playing some game on his Samsung phone. A little away, there was a small labourer crowd, their "gamcha" hanging on their shoulders, chatting merrily as the thought of reaching home kept up their spirits. All these under one roof. The metro definitely brings people from all parts, walks and stages of life under one common roof.

Speaking for myself, I felt very tired. It had been a journey longer than expected. But staring around, I realized that most of the people here had had a much tougher day than me. Some were middle aged man, and to return at past 10 pm to their family sounds so sad. I thought of the labourers, how despite being more tired than me, they were happily waiting to get home. I thought of the stranger uncles, how travelling like this with no space at all had become a part of their lives. I could use a car whenever I wanted. I thought of the college going crowd, how they were trying to make their future, studying even in metro so that they can get a good start to their career. Each and every person I saw during my journey seemed to be on an adventure of their own, and as I thought, most of them had a life tougher than mine.

I had never thought that travelling on the Delhi roads for a couple of hours could be so humbling!