The Journey of the One

At the beginning of this year, I moved from India to the United States. Barring work projects and student exchange programs lasting a few months, I had never lived in another country. I hardly knew anyone that I had kept in touch with in New York - an old college dorm buddy, a cousin I'd met twice in life and maybe a few more like that. Yet, I was confident that this would be one of the best decisions of my life. There were some things I knew before I moved halfway around the world. The anti-incumbency factor After a while, even a place you love can become dreary. I've lived in many cities across India and realized that there's not a single one that I hated despite having had a mediocre time there. It continued to be a place where I spent a part of my life and made the most of what I could, at the time. Even Bangalore, with the comfort of home and  its amazing local food joints fatigued me just thinking of the work commutes people endure. Even Delhi, always my f...

Reminiscing takes you back to a time when things were black and white. They were simple. You were simple. And you realize you've turned older, more cynical. You realize your friends from the past are the best you ever made, the ones you meet now are merely activity partners and cringe when you have to call them friends. Your best ever vacation, humourous situation and drinking night are all in the past. The ones you have now are embellishments that you add onto your list, but they don't ever seem to reach the top.  Time passes by. And you've traveled the world, live in the greatest city on Earth and have a car and a house 99% of people can't afford. And you wonder if you were happy when you got any of it. You realize that perhaps you were happier when you had nothing more than the person next to you. Where you could slip up and it would be fine because the limelight wasn't on you 24/7, demanding a picture perfect story. And where you could shout profanit...

Our eyes had met when we were scanning thru the crowd and glanced back at each other instinctively.  Your look said it all .  For that one moment, there was a window that had opened up within you.  You were at a bar, with people you wouldn't normally meet. The judgments of strangers didn't count or gash at you as much as the ones from friends did. The fact that your life didn't end up the bed of roses that you'd proclaimed it would. Theirs didn't either, but you were always better than them. You had never said that to them, but they knew it by the way you walked with your head held high and your chin up. While they slowly tumbled like bowling pins to rules and compromises, you told them about how you were still having an amazing time. And how that day would never arrive when your life ceased to be spectacular. Exaggeration was your antidote to the truth. Your mornings started with it and the day wore you down until you couldn't get yourself to, anym...

The different genres of people one encounters.. The Deprived Indians These are the people who're the gatekeepers to anything free in the city. They know the places for cheap haircuts, the places that have free entries and everything else under the sun which can be done free or at low cost. It isn't that being Indian made them this way, it's just more pronounced because they fit the stereotype. They've often not had any freedom in India and feel like this is heaven because it's their first time experiencing it. And the thing with freedom is, when you see it for the first time you go a little nutty and overboard. Typically work in NY and stay in Jersey City or somewhere but Manhattan. And claim to love it because they love the peace! They often don't have the confidence to do anything on their own and always move around in groups. And they claim that they have traveled when all they've done is visit Western Europe on the deals flying around all ...

New York, they say, is the melting pot of world cultures. The place where diversity gets its due, and you can be whoever you want to be without inhibition or remorse. It is true, every single word of it. For many, this is the dream. If you ever belonged to a marginalized group of society or felt like you were laughed at not accepted, this place is where you want to be. You can belong here, whether you are a Southerner from Texas who struggled thru childhood not falling into any peer groups or whether you are a Russian ballerina who never really liked conforming to rules. This place makes you an equal, it gives you an identity. It promises you to entitlement just like any other world citizen in this greatest city on Earth. You can choose to be whoever you want to be, and not have to fight it. With freedom comes indifference. And oftentimes, the latter is confused for the former. And that is where confusion lurks. If you are a gay Jewish boy from Rhode Island, doe...

If you live anywhere in the democratic world, you've probably grown up listening to stories of how the United States is the flag bearer of the free market capitalistic ideology. You've probably also listened to innumerable accounts of some of the purest forms of capitalism in everyday existence. The Gordon Geckos and the Oprahs who were simple people rising to incredible fame, power and wealth with their intelligence and talent. The "Land of Opportunity" brings in hordes of dreamy-eyed immigrants from all over the world in search of this very glory. And you can't help but think that that's the place for you if you're smart, talented and can get by with your wit and charm better than the average person. The hot bed for rags to riches stories in any genre. Fast forward to 2013. New York, the greatest city on earth, the place where the high powers of the capitalist world rest. And here is where the myth shatters. Everywhere you look, people are s...

A set of characteristics that summarizes a person. It consists of their motivations, their fears, the traits they've carried from their upbringing and anything else that has shaped the person they've grown to be. And it shapes what they want out of their life, their social interactions and themselves. Some people are easier to read than others. It takes simple observation to notice that there are some dead giveaways for anyone to pick up. The subject knows it too, subconsciously. Nobody reveals more than they want to, however intoxicated, trusting or naive they are. It's more often than not a calculated risk to gain the confidence of someone new, a concerted effort to prove themselves worthy of a clique, an attempt to gain the affection of a lover. Most pick up the superficial remarks and perhaps pay little heed to the inner meanings of those seemingly innocuous statements. Parties are a great social construct where people drop their inhibitions much more tha...