Katrina and contraflow

I am watching the news as I write this - Hurricane Katrina is expected to hit New Orleans, a port city 70% of which is supposed to be below sea level. If the current projections turn out to be true, Katrina will be the second most intense hurricane in American history. The windspeeds are currently 165mph and is a category 5 storm. Katrina made its first landfall in Florida and continued north northwest and this is the second landfall. From that time to now, it has gained enormous momentum.

The city of New Orleans is under 'mandatory evacuation'. And I am just trying to fathom how the evacuation has progressed smoothly. All freeways leading to the city have been closed since yesterday. Traffic is now being allowed in the same direction on both sides of the freeway. That for you, is contra-flow.

The US is an epitome on efficiency, when it comes to handling natural disasters, basically because of the pre- and post-mortem that has been done (for ages now) on each of these occurances. California is earthquake prone, midwest is tornado prone, New England and northern midwest is snowstorm prone and southeast is hurricane prone. I just dread to think of how we'd cope, if this were the case in India.

The aftermath of such hurricanes tends to stretch far inland, typically bringing in heavy rains. Fingers crossed for the long roadtrip coming up... More importantly, I hope the damage is less than anticipated, and there aren't any loss of lives.

Baseball and language

Baseball is a unique sport. It is the favourite pastime of the "Red Sox Nation". And its popularity has attracted professionals from far (Japan) and near (Latin America). As with other American sports, there is a high level of specialization in baseball too. You have a pitching coach, batting coach, a first base coach and of course the overall team coach. Likewise, there is an umpire at the home plate and the other bases. Any Major League Baseball (MLB) aspirant has to start young, working his way from junior leagues to university teams, to minor league to the MLB.

You may be thinking why I am ranting about baseball, but this is the background to the main theme of this post.

Sometime back, during a Little League game at Methuen, a town northeast of Lowell, my temporary home base, the first base umpire's "English only on the diamond" order roused a big controversy. The batter and his coach, emigrants from Dominican Republic spoke only Spanish and no English. Later it was found that no baseball rule mandated "English only communication" and the Little League umpire was promptly suspended.

This brought up the question in the media: Is it ok to be in the US and not know English? Is Spanish only sufficient? These questions are still open and obviously, as in any such matter, there are people on both sides of the debate. The primary argument though is, Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the US and this is the "Land of the Free" and so, people should be free to decide their language of communication.

Before proceeding, I'd like to put few things on record:
- I am not a fanatic
- The intention is not to impose my thoughts on others
- This is my point of view, and as always, others are entitled to their's

One of Bangalore's claims to fame is that its a truly "cosmopolitan" city. The exponential growth of the city's importance in the world stage is thanks largely to the world class companies IT and other fields, that have made it their base. Of course, the demand for "thought" workers meant that bright folks from all over the country flocked to this "Garden City". With the diverse set of people came diverse cultural practices, liftstyles, and, languages.

I am extremely happy to note, despite its infrastructure hiccups, Bangalore is well on its way to being one of the most important R&D centers in the world. Five years ago, when I visited the US for the first time, people mistook me to be from anywhere from Bangladesh, to the hypothetical Banglacor... not any more. The name Bangalore now stikes most people here involved in software, though not always in a favourable way (if you understand what I mean :-)

However, I am extremely sad on another, more subtle front - the ignorance of some (read 'most') "emigrants to Bangalore" towards the local culture and more importantly the local language. The common refrain I hear is: "Why should I learn Kannada?" "Kannada is of no _use_ to me, so why learn it" "Bangalore? You can live there for decades without speaking a word in Kannada, no worries".

It is not so much learning the language to be proficient in it, but atleast making an attempt. It saddens me no end that very few people even think of making an attempt. I sometimes tend to think that the friendly and accomodative nature of the "locals" is working against the language and culture to some extent.

My sincere appeal to such people: Please atleast make an attempt to learn the language and understand the local culture. It may not be "necessary", but it will definitely go a long way in being a true Bangalorean.

American "Football"

Dustin was back in Boston for a few days and was looking for someone to accompany him to a pre-season New England Patriots practice game against the New Orleans Saints, his home team. I volunteered just for the heck of seeing a live game.

Seeing a game live still din't convince my why anybody would call it "Football". The ball (which, incidentally, isn't round - its more like the one they use for rugby), is kicked maybe only once every five minutes. To me, football is soccer. Again, to each his own, I guess.

But the game itself was very enjoyable. Also, I got to see supposedly two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL - Tom Brady and Doug Flutie. The crowd was very vocal with cheers and jeers and some choiciest New England style abuses :-) I took the hour's drive time to educate myself about the game with a printout of the wiki page. What amazed me is the level of specialization they've brought into the game. Seems about 53 different players are involved form each side during the game - there is a different "kicking team", "offensive team" and a "defensive team". The game is a lot stop and go at best, lacking the silky flow of soccer.

The Pacific Northwest

Whew! After a whirlwind week-long work related tour of the Pacific northwest, I am now back to my temporary home base. All I can say about the northwest is that it is one of the most naturally endowed areas in the world. An hour to the west from Portland takes you to the Pacific Ocean shores, an hour to the north and you will be staring at an active volcano, an hour to the east and you are in a nature belt that is as green as it can get and, I was told that if you continue east for a half hour on I-84, you'll get to an area as barren as it can get. More in subsequent posts.

These...
are samples of pictures I've managed to shoot. Wait for more about the trip.

Roses!

Proof I am a post-2005 material - Most people who read this blog would understand what this is about ;-)

Barometers of progress

One of the primary barometers of a country's progress is how easy it is to get from one place to another in the country. It could be by road, rail or even air.

Take Germany for instance. They have excellent Autobahn and as also a good rail network. You may argue that Germany is a small country, compared to, say India or the US. But that takes nothing away from the modern marvels the Germans have created.

Its the same with the road infrastructure in the US, freeways and all. All you need to do is go to Google Maps or Mapquest and type in the Start and End addresses, and viola, you get a complete map of the route and distance breakups too. Just as an example, check out this route I take to office.

I have hope for India too! A lot hinges on the Golden Quadrilateral. I hope the politicians raise above their petty bickerings and ensure that this and many such projects proceed smoothly, irrespective of what Government is in power at the Center. Call it utopia... but I am an optimist.

Oh and I just read that work on the Bangalore International Airport has finally started. Yay!

Give this blog a direction?

This morning, Girish in his inimtable style, let me know that I should start focusing my writing on one theme or experiences out here.

Here are some random threads I am thinking of:

- There is something to learn from the people you meet, places you visit
- Living in a different country makes you appreciate your country and culture more than you'd do normally

If there is something you'd like me to write about, please do let me know. I'll atleast try :-)

And, this is my current wishlist:

- A telephoto lens to go with the (basic) EF-S on the Rebel
- Bose Acoustimass 5

Blogging circle :-)

Sripathi also has a blog now :-) Welcome! I must say, he has a great sense of humour.
Now, I must adhere to the tradition of macro photography. So here is my attempt. This was taken at Plainsboro's Audubon Trail.

Boston and other stories

Last saturday, Ram's brother and cousin drove up from NJ. We drove down to Boston for some sightseeing. Though I've been here for almost 5 months now, I never had visited Boston at leisure (still on my TODO list). We visited MIT - the pinnacle of Engineering institutes. Just being there, walking the corridors, is an overwhelming experience. Photos coming soon.

We planned on doing the Freedom Trail but it was almost 5pm by the time we got to Boston Common. So, we just walked down part of the trail - the old City Hall, Kings Chapel, Quincy Market. I am surely going to do the full trail sometime soon.

Things were going to plan till this point.

Later that day, we planned on having dinner at the Udupi Bhavan in Lowell. We reached just in time to be told that they closed for the day. Next door is a "Desi" store. Instead of going back home and cooking, we thought of buying some RTEs. The store lights switched off just as we reached the door :-(

So, we wandered down to a Chinese/Vietnamese/Cambodian/Thai (basically an all in one) place down the street and got some stuff "to go".

Just when we thought things could not go any worse, the power went off as soon as we got home. To top it off, the tofu "spring rolls" we ordered we just "raw" rolls, not fried.

Oh well, just the perks of living in a foreign country.