We get such days only 10-15 times in a year, said my cousin as we negotiated our way through a choc a block Boston Central Park which was teeming with men, women and kids indulging in all kinds of activities ranging from simple sun bathing to baseball catching, dancing or just walking. Its a sunny sunny day on the North American east coast with the day temparatures hitting the late 20s and early 30s degree celsius. As an Indian i wonder what the fuss is all about, in fact the high temparatures disappoint me. I was hoping for slightly cooler climes. I am sweating in Boston in a simple tee and my jeans. Its a bit like spring temparatures back in India. Boston and North East America arent grudging their sunshine though. A cousin sister gently rebukes me not to 'lagao nazar' to this heralding of early summer.

Boston is one of North America's oldest cities. The city was founded by colonists from England way back in 1630. Part of the reason for its early growth was access to the sea and a thriving harbour, which still exists today. The harbour was also the site of the famous 'Boston Tea Party' in 1773 when American protestors dumped British tea into the water as a protest against 'taxation without representation' (why a protest was called a party was a matter of much curiousity and amusement amongst my high school pals during our class ix history class). The city was also at the forefront of the revolution - the first major battle took place just outside of the city at Bunker Hill with the British suffering heavy casualties in a phyrric victory. Boston produced several  principal figures of the revolution as well - John Adams, the cantankerous lawyer who led the push in the Continental Congress towards Declaration of Independence and went on to become America's second president;  his cousin Samuel Adams who was one of the first opposers of British rule in Boston and was also a signer to the Independence declaration; John Hancock, a principal businessman of those times who was also a close friend of George Washington; and of course Paul Revere, the man who rode at midnight sounding the warning 'the British are coming'. Boston has done well to preserve its historical heritage - there is a 'Freedom Trail' - a path outlined on the sidewalks that snakes around the old part of the town and leads visitors to important monuments, including the graves of Revere and Sam Adams.

My cousin lives in South End, which is to Boston what East Delhi is to India's capital - till now a run down place not looked too nicely upon but now enjoying a period of resurgence. South End has pockets inhabited by higher income groups which are surrounded by lower income government subsidized housing. The locality recently experienced settling in by homosexual couples (in 2004 Massachussets became the first US state to legalise same sex marriages). So the logic is that since gay/ lesbians couple cannot have children, most of their income is disposable and they like to spend it on good clothing and eating. This has seen the sprouting of many new eating joints and other commercial establishments which has improved the profile of the area - so much so that now my cousin and his wife are out hunting for a house to buy and finally settle in there. 

On the same topic, same sex marriages continue to divide America - Supreme Courts of states on the liberal North East coast have passed judgements approving these unions. Politicians have tried to veto it. In Vermont, the state legislature over ruled the Governor's veto and allowed the unions to be legalised. Some states like New Jersey offer 'union' but not marriage recognition - a convenient way to skirt the argument that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. California, the state of Harvey Milk and an early pioneer of gay rights recently had a referendum where the public rejected the legislation to legalise gay marriage. 

The influence of the strong Christian right and conservative groups can be seen in this ideological fight in the US. Its northern neighbour Canada passed a national law two years back legalising such marriages. European nations such as Belgium, Netherlands and Sweden too recognise such marriages. Even the much derided South Africa, considering its grave HIV problems legalised these unions three years back.

The riches of any town in the US is based on the value of its land, I am told. The more valuable your land, the higher taxes those inhabiting them pay and the more revenue the city council generates. Poor neighbourhoods mean poorer values and poorer cities. I am visiting the almost four hundred years old Harvard University campus. Being one of the oldest institutions of America, the university enjoys a lot of clout and a non-profit entity status - which means that it is exempt from paying taxes on the huge real estate it occupies. That has resulted in lower revenues for the council of Cambridge, the town that Harvard is officialy located in. So the neighbourhoods around Cambridge are not as affluent as the University that sits there. I am told its a great place to see and walk around only as long as you confine yourself to the campus. I have heard that line being said to young women for a few spots around my city of Delhi.

Train delays are all too common in India. We are used to our trains stopping in the middle of the countryside with passengers having no clue as to where they are and why they have stopped. On my way back to Boston, the Amtrak train looks all set to take more than its scheduled time of 4 hours. Just before New York, one of the overhead lines have tripped and the electricity has failed. We are informed over the PA system of the train that there might be an 'unspecified' delay since a diesel engine may have to be called to tow the train in case the power isnt restored. I am laughing and giggling in my seat everytime this announcement is made - Go get Laloo and learn a thing or two! A bullock cart towing an electricity train....now wudnt that be exciting.

Eventually they do fix the electricity and we move. I miss my first connecting train to New Jersey and spend another three quarters of the hour waiting for the next one. Its almost half past eleven when i reach the my suburban station. With no shuttles or cabs available i have no option but to work a sweat and walk the 2 kms to my hotel. The roads are deserted, the houses are dark and quiet and all through my walk i see only a handful of cars passing by but not a single soul on the road. I am not sure i would be lining up for more of such bravado walks. 

P.S. I am not missing the IPL too much here in the States. You dont get live streaming or TV telecast, but I did miss out on the fakeipl player blog. Read a bit of it yesterday and it is simply hilarious! Poor KKR - wat a season they are having. And SRK as Dildo?!! rotfl! They are wondering who is writing it - some speculate it is Harsha Bhogle, some say Aakash Chopra. Both are too nice and civil gentlemen to indulge in this. Given all the SRK and KKR bashing going on there my guess is its Aamir - Dildo...Bhookha Naan, BubLee, Little John, Lordie....  :D :D 

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Deep down perhaps every Indian middle class young boy harbors a dream of visiting America. It is shaped in many cases by a desire to replicate relatives in the family who have been to the land or in most others by the exposure to soft culture of Archies, Hollywood and Mcdonalds. If you are a graduate techie being turned out of those myriad engineering colleges of India, then the US of A is your ultimate onsite destination.

Unlike the previous occasion, this time my journey to the airport from my house is smooth. That’s because my flight is before the mad rush hour at midnight and beyond and also because the day is dry and there aint any rain to clog Delhi roads. Check in is slow and it takes me 15 mins for reach the counter from the end of the line. It takes another 10 for the check in counter official to weigh my baggage and get my boarding pass out between his chuckles and jokes with a colleague.  There are somethings even a swanky modern airport cannot change.

The immigration officer is interested to know what Accenture (my employer) does. By now I am tired of giving this explanation – despite the huge sums that we spend on television advertising, people still do not know us. Or well at least the average common man doesn’t. Even the urbane ones who might be watching English news channels where our advertisements are a regular feature are clueless when the name is mentioned. Neither have past full page ads in newspapers been of any help. I am also tired of referring to the firm as the one with Tiger Woods ads. No one seems to have a clue about Woods. So now, I just let it be – I politely inform the immigration officer of our scope of services. He asks whether we are still recruiting. I sense this as an inquiry of an interested father for his kid than that of a customs official. He says the outlook is improving and that things shall change in the next few months. As evidence he points to the upward movement in the ‘market’. I want to believe him, I am flying to the States – someone must be needing my services.

Emirates has an in-flight entertainment system that simply captivates me. There is a good variety to choose from amongst movies, TV shows and songs (the 13 hour flight from Dubai to JFK had about 20 new movies on the menu along with countless older ones, including Hindi classics such as ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Chupke Chupke’). There is an informative section that tells you about the movement of the flight and metrics such as altitude, speed, time at the destination and the distance travelled. What takes the cake are the two cameras installed on the exterior of the plane whose live feed can be seen on the screen by passengers – the first camera is on the nose and the second on the underbelly. It’s a treat to switch either of those on during take off and landing. I didn’t miss my window seat on both the flights courtesy the cameras.

New York is cloudy and damp when I land. The last few minutes of the flight witness my attention being captured by an engaging conversation on the seats to my right between a US national of Somali descent and an white American lady from Florida. The Somali is bemoaning the state of his nation, his inability to meet with his Syrian wife and kids and the plight of his family back home. Conversation turns then to the scourge of piracy affecting the seas of the coast of Somalia and the lack of action by the international community to correct the state of affairs in the nation. It is difficult to escape the passion of the Somali as he stresses the failures of his nation and more so of those who could have prevented them from occurring.

‘Khanna as in Vinod Khanna?’ asks the woman at the prepaid taxi service counter at JFK upon seeing my passport. She is of Thai origin and finally helps me with a reservation after two of her colleagues tell me that their cabs don’t travel to the town where I am staying (Parsipanny in Jersey, an hours’ drive from NY). She informs me that she met Shatrughan SIngha at the JFK once and is aware how actively both the above mentioned actors are involved in politics.

There is a debate going on in America after President Obama subtly switched his stand on torture investigation and stated that Justice Department officials who approved of torture techniques may be investigated. It’s the first indication that the Bush administrationmay be hauled for its brave efforts to ‘change the world’. The Republicans of course are up in indignation and Dick Cheney has issued a war cry. On my cab drive, we are listening to a radio station which is blatantly Republican. The radio jockey after interviewing a dumb bimbette who claims she made her two daughters to run up and down a mile long road on a cliff so as to stop them from fighting each other, then proceeds to take calls. A caller says that torture is not what is done to Al-Qeda but what was done to victims of 9/11, that watching people jump from burning high rises is torture. This jockey then in a grave somber tone that sounds straight out of a campaign race proceeds to tell ‘American people’ that they are not safer than they were pre 9/11, that the current President has no stomach to fight enemies of the nation and that torture is done with the aim to achieve the ultimate good of ‘extracting information’. Next morning at breakfast I watch a Fox news telecast that is debating the same – it has three panelists on the show, two of whom are blatant republicans while one tries to strike a middle ground. The anchor again reminds us that torture yields information that is essential to save the country. The President is castigated by the Republican leaning panelists of succumbing to left wing liberals while deciding to investigate tortures. Listening to this debate, you wouldn’t be surprised that Americans are so reviled in the countries which are the worst sufferers of Islamic extremism. You would also not be surprised that despite 8 years of ‘war on terror’, the US still has no clue about the root causes of the threats faced by it.

 

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