June 13, 2006.
"Theory of Relativity"
Recently, I went to Chicago to enjoy the Memorial Day, long weekend with some of my friends there. The total flight duration from Phoenix to Chicago was about 3 hours and 15 minutes. I barely had a good sleep the night before so I was fully prepared to utilize those 3 hours and 15 minutes enjoying a sweet and sound sleep. I boarded the Southwest Flight #1150 to Midway Chicago Airport. Soon I was on my seat and was being accompanied by a good looking American babe. Well, she was just average by American Standards in looks as well as by attire:). She started the conversation by asking me whether I was going all the way to NYC. This led to a little bit of introduction and soon we were talking to each other comfortably. Needless to say, my plan had changed by now. Interestingly I found her to know about India and Indian stuff more than I had expected to. She told that she considers herself an Indian because she loves everything about being an Indian and hates most of the American style of life. She considers herself a true Hindu and worships Krishna and Radha and is currently reading something called "GEETA" as a part of her daily routine. This was a bit of too much for me. I asked her how this interest developed and how it went so far? She laughed and told, “This fascination has been around for the last 5 years. I was working in an Indian Restaurant in New York when this started. I got attracted to Hinduism unconsciously and now I love it. My parents know about it and they sometime object to it but now they have started accepting and respecting what I am doing”.
She discussed some stories about Ramayana and Krishna to me, which would amaze me every time. She knew about the places like Agra, Mathura, Gokul, Rishikesh, and Ayodhya etc apart from the modern temples Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore etc. She was able to pronounce my name very correctly as her pronunciations for the above places were correct as well. Then came the interesting part when she mentioned about her fascination about Indian guys and her plan to marry one of the Indians. She also told me if she gets a chance to get settled in India, she would not mind it. I was just giving a patient ear to her. Then I got a chance to ask her as to how many Indian guys she has already dated or seen, to which the answer was, “ Well, not much but should be around five”. I asked how they were to her, and she answered, “They were all good”.
Then came the topic of what we generally term as true and real India, i.e. poor country and poor people. I talked to her about these realities although not in much detail but she gave a patient ear to it. She told me that I love poor people because I am also poor. This was a topic for me to laugh. I said, "Do you really understand what being a poor means?" I told her some hard realities of being poor in India. She accepted everything but she kept telling me she is also very poor. She has to take care of her family which comprises of her brother, sister and mom. Earlier she had mentioned that her favorite time passes are listening to music on IPOD and surfing the internet, the later she does to know more and more about India basically. She probably got a little irritated by my reasoning which were forcefully trying to make her agree for not belonging to that "poor" category. So she asked me how much money I make her on a monthly basis. I told her it might be just average. She asked the exact amount of dollars. I told her about 4k. She laughed and said " Compare your 4k with mine 1k per month. This is what I get when I work 6 days a week in that Indian Restaurant and that too in a city like NYC. My Mom also makes equivalent amount of money and that is the total source of our income. We hardly have any good furniture’s in our house and we drive an old car. I was just confused. We talked for sometime and then we became quite. She went to sleep and I also tried to utilize the remaining hours as per my plan thinking upon this "Theory of relativity".
In the last few years, McDonald has been a status symbol in Indian Metropolitan cities. Every middle class Indian loves to belong to the class who is a regular visitor of McDee in India. McDonald is a status symbol in the States as well but bears different significance and meanings. I thought this analogy might help me here as well. A person who can afford an IPOD, computer and Internet and a Car, definitely has to belong to that elite class of India wherein everybody's dream lies. But the same might not be true everywhere. Being “Poor” is an absolutely relative feeling.
She discussed some stories about Ramayana and Krishna to me, which would amaze me every time. She knew about the places like Agra, Mathura, Gokul, Rishikesh, and Ayodhya etc apart from the modern temples Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore etc. She was able to pronounce my name very correctly as her pronunciations for the above places were correct as well. Then came the interesting part when she mentioned about her fascination about Indian guys and her plan to marry one of the Indians. She also told me if she gets a chance to get settled in India, she would not mind it. I was just giving a patient ear to her. Then I got a chance to ask her as to how many Indian guys she has already dated or seen, to which the answer was, “ Well, not much but should be around five”. I asked how they were to her, and she answered, “They were all good”.
Then came the topic of what we generally term as true and real India, i.e. poor country and poor people. I talked to her about these realities although not in much detail but she gave a patient ear to it. She told me that I love poor people because I am also poor. This was a topic for me to laugh. I said, "Do you really understand what being a poor means?" I told her some hard realities of being poor in India. She accepted everything but she kept telling me she is also very poor. She has to take care of her family which comprises of her brother, sister and mom. Earlier she had mentioned that her favorite time passes are listening to music on IPOD and surfing the internet, the later she does to know more and more about India basically. She probably got a little irritated by my reasoning which were forcefully trying to make her agree for not belonging to that "poor" category. So she asked me how much money I make her on a monthly basis. I told her it might be just average. She asked the exact amount of dollars. I told her about 4k. She laughed and said " Compare your 4k with mine 1k per month. This is what I get when I work 6 days a week in that Indian Restaurant and that too in a city like NYC. My Mom also makes equivalent amount of money and that is the total source of our income. We hardly have any good furniture’s in our house and we drive an old car. I was just confused. We talked for sometime and then we became quite. She went to sleep and I also tried to utilize the remaining hours as per my plan thinking upon this "Theory of relativity".
In the last few years, McDonald has been a status symbol in Indian Metropolitan cities. Every middle class Indian loves to belong to the class who is a regular visitor of McDee in India. McDonald is a status symbol in the States as well but bears different significance and meanings. I thought this analogy might help me here as well. A person who can afford an IPOD, computer and Internet and a Car, definitely has to belong to that elite class of India wherein everybody's dream lies. But the same might not be true everywhere. Being “Poor” is an absolutely relative feeling.
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