rant rant: food & travels

There's something funny I have noticed about Indians abroad (actually there's more than one thing but we'll just stick to this one for today!)

The Gold Coast attracts lots and lots and lots of Indian tourists every year and I've noticed that these tourists either go to the standard McDonalds/KFC or they just go to an Indian restaurant. Now, if I were on holiday in a different country, I would like to try a bit of the local fare. I am a bit more adventurous with food than many people but I know a lot of people aren't and that's fine. I am not saying that you should jump in and try mussels if you really don't like seafood but come on, KFC is KFC the world over so at least one day out of your 14 day holiday, wouldn't you like to try something that you've never had before?

Eating only Indian food abroad is a bit silly I think. I mean, if you've come to Australia you can actually get so many different kinds of food so why not try some of that? I mean, how about just a plain (non-Indianised) version of Chinese food even? Or how about some Italian without the Garam Masala? I know many Indians will not have a steak and to each their own, but how about even enjoying the Aussie barbecue experience and setting up a barbie on the beach or even at a park? Its not something we do in India.

Travelling to me is all about learning about the country you're visting and it's culture. Food is a very, very important part of a country's culture and in Australia's case, for lack of any authentic Australian cuisine, its just the multicultural nature of the cuisine available here.

Travelling is not just about visiting theme parks, shopping and doing the touristy things. If you're lucky enough to be able to travel, you should make the most of it by absorbing the uniqueness of each country and once again, the food is such an important part of this. Travelling is supposed to open up your mind and show you how others live in a different part of the world. If an Indian tourist told me they simply tried Vegemite (a shoe polish type looking spread which Aussies love!) I would applaud them for trying.

Why must these tourists play it so safe all the time and stick to Indian restaurants where they hope to treat the waitstaff like trash, just the way they do back in India? Maybe thats why. They like the familiarity...but then WHY go on holiday?

How do I know Indians love to eat only Indian food when they come here? Well, a close friend owns an Indian restaurant, another works at one and I worked at an Italian restaurant on a street that is packed with other restaurants and can count the number of Indians I served or spotted as there was no Indian restaurant in the vicinity.

desire..

I wrote this when I was in school (I was 17), the night before my English exam. Though I know it's no fantastic piece of poetry and even slightly childish maybe...it means a lot to me, even more because I seldom write poetry. It's one of my favourites! :-) And, btw, for the lack of a better title it's called Desire, but I really wish I could come up with something better.


I want to sit and read on top of a tree

I want to run like an animal who’s just been set free

I want to learn how to cook a French meal

I want to learn how to train a seal

I want to listen to Mozart and Pink Floyd at the same time

I want to write a good poem without a rhyme

I want to jump off a building to see if I can fly

I want to laugh so hard I begin to cry

I want to read every book ever written

I want to understand the working of the minds of men

I want to never have to apologise

I want to know the true meaning of ‘wise’

I want to write like William Shakespeare – The Bard

I want to write the invitation on my own funeral card

I want to learn to drive a bulldozing machine

I want to never step out of my teens

I want to be interviewed by a famous journalist

I want to be able to tell my life story in a gist

I want to adopt a dog, a monkey, a lion cub

I want to remember an itching nose becomes worse when you rub

I want to love like I’ve never loved before

I want to keep loving more and more

I want to travel to the north and south poles

I want to believe in the existence of souls

I want to travel abroad without a passport

I want to be old enough to vote

I want to be able to laugh at myself

I want to know what Enid Blyton meant by ‘elf’

I want to scuba dive from Kanyakumari

I want to know what its like to break your knee

I want to be brave enough to say I don’t know

I want to know what its like to be a crow

But most of all…

I want to be me.

to write or not to write?

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything and mostly because I have been sick for what seems like forever but also because I write for a living and that seems to have taken a bit of the fun out of it. I read somewhere once that if you take something you enjoy doing and turn it into a job, you will start hating it. I don’t hate writing (I could never) but because all I do all day is write, write, write… the last thing I want to do when I am home is write some more.

For a while I’ve wondered about writing stuff about work and the things I observe and learn there but I’m still not sure. The thing is, the company I work for is a pretty big international online business and my observations are obviously about their business niche. I will obviously not divulge their name or anything confidential but it’s still a toss up about whether or not I should talk about other work related things online. There are things I find funny, some true and some plain bizarre and I know it will make interesting writing because very few people work in this niche. I’d like to talk about it but I’m still trying to figure out how to do it without divulging too many details.

My employers have not placed any specific restrictions on us about discussing their work on social media but a general employment contract at every workplace will require you not to divulge confidential information. But after a major Twitter controversy, Telstra (Australia’s largest telecom provider) now has a social media company policy and I think is the first Australian company to have such a policy. It details what can or cannot be discussed by Telstra employees online.

Even without such detailed social media policies, most employees do have a basic common sense about what can or cannot be said on a public forum. Yet it’s all so subjective that I think it is impossible to have uniform guidelines for every profession, occupation and company. Obviously if you work for the Secret Service, you’d have to be good at keeping things, um well, SECRET but your boss at Maccas (McDonald’s) is probably less anal about the confidentiality angle of your job. ;)

Nevertheless, every company has secrets and as un-secret-like as they might seem to you, as employees it is important to protect and respect that confidentiality. Once again, it comes down to common sense and basically just thinking before broadcasting it to the world. For example, your Facebook status might say “I hate my boss” but if your boss is the Prime Minister of Australia, you’re obviously badmouthing your own party and everyone knows what could happen there; if your boss is the manager at the local 7/11, you’re less likely to be in trouble (unless your boss is on Facebook, in which case, you’d just be stupid!) and if your boss is the local mob boss…(need I complete this sentence?)

But, back to my original point, sometimes the boundaries are slightly blurred…so how do you know what details are okay to share? Can you ever really know for sure whether your comments have the potential to get you fired because what you think is funny might be insulting for your boss…

I might sound overtly paranoid especially considering I don’t really work for a super secret job or anything and I don’t have things like attorney-client privilege to worry about but I think it’s the journalist in me worrying about defamation, libel etc. Yes, I am studying Media Law this semester. ;-)

of memories and music

I clicked on iTunes yesterday and was momentarily shocked when there was nothing on my playlist. Shocked because I have over 12GB of music and I didn't expect to see an empty iTunes library staring at me. We got a new desktop recently and I haven't updated the music on it yet. Anyway, so while I was updating iTunes, I started listening to some songs I hadn’t heard in aaaaaaages. Some made me laugh, some made me nostalgic, some I’m not sure why they are on my playlist at all. But it got me thinking about how songs can trigger certain moods and how our brain makes certain associations with certain songs. They are not necessarily always our most favourite songs but they just stick with you anyway.

Off the top of my head, these are some of the songs that I always associate with something/ someone.

Everybody Hurts – R.E.M: This is my ultimate sad song. Whether it’s a fight with V or missing home, this song always makes me sadder yet better.

Yellow – Coldplay: This is the first Coldplay song I ever heard and I love Chris Martin. Sometimes it makes me feel romantic, at others it reminds me of school and a cousin and his car stereo where we discovered many of our favourite artists together

Leaving On A Jetplane – Janis Joplin: Between 2003 and 2006, I couldn’t listen to this song without crying. V was studying in a different city and I’d only see him once every 6 or 8 months. It also reminds me of my best friend A because we listened to this the day before I left for Aus and it’s so true… “don’t know when I’ll be back again….”

That Thing You Do – The Wonders: Again reminds me of A and my sis because ever so often we’d go a little mental and dance to this song (in the secrecy of our homes) like there was no tomorrow.

Turn Me On – Kevin Lyttle: It was such a HUGE rage a few years ago and my sister made up this little dance for my dog, where she would be flailing his little paws all over the place. It makes me laugh so much and reminds me of all the torture we put our dog through! It’s a happy-sad song now.

Romeo & Juliet – Dire Straits: It’s not exactly a love song a couple should be singing but somehow V & I both love this song and he loves to play it so it always makes me feel gooey. :)

Anything Metallica: V worships them and I started listening to them a lot more because he insisted on playing all the songs for me. I quite like them now. But I can’t listen to them all the time.

Say My Name – Destiny’s Child: Hahaha… okay, my cousins and I came up with a ridiculous harmony version of this song when it first released. It’s funnier because none of us can really sing and we did a four part harmony with seconds et al. I heard this at the sushi place the other day and I was laughing by myself. Must’ve looked a bit loopy I reckon.

Never On A Sunday – Melina Mercouri: My mum used to sing this song when she was in one of those happy moods where annoying me only made her happier!

I Want To Break Free – Queen: I went to an all-girls Catholic school and there would be days we wanted to “break free” from the sometimes archaic rules we had to follow. We even had a wooden desk beating nice percussion beat to go with the song.

Absolutely Everybody – Vanessa Amorosi: This used to be the theme song for the ads on Star World (an Indian TV channel) at one point and my sister and I were obsessed with it. We had a thing for TV & movie theme songs and would download almost all of them.

I’d really like it if some of you did this and wrote about your songs and the memories you associate with them. Its fun!

Jai Ho?

Why "?" and not "!" you ask? Well, its because this song is really, really annoying me right now.

I don't mind the original version from the movie (the one in Hindi). Its nice, I'm not sure who sings it but they are good and like I have said before A R Rahman (the music director) did a good job but this is definitely not his best. Not after Roja, Bombay or even Saathiya. Anyway, so I don't have a problem with the Hindi song or with Slumdog Millionaire. The problem is with the slutty Pussycat Dolls version.

First of all, its stupid that they say "Jai Ho" and say "You are my destiny" because that is not what “Jai Ho” translates to but it's pretty much how they sing it.

Secondly, Pussycat Dolls? Sorry, no offence if you like them, but yuck!! Double yuck!

Thirdly, every store and every radio channel seems to have this song on loop. Lucky for me (not!) that I work so close to a mall, so I end up going to the mall at least once every two days and its hard to walk past a Supre, Cotton On, Ice, City Beach store (all clothes shops, for the non-Australians) without being assaulted by the song. Notice, I said "walk past" because the song puts me off so much now I don't even want to go into the stores! Plus I was listening to the radio and the commercial channels down here play it a little too much, so I switched to online radio and I couldn't get away from ‘Jai Ho’ online either.

Ugh!

I know many Indians in India have a problem with Slumdog Millionaire, I'm not one of them. But I wonder, is ‘Jai Ho’ even half as popular in India? I think a sudden increase in the popularity of ‘Jai Ho’ could also be because the Pussycat Dolls were touring down under. But seriously, I think the world can do without their plans for “Doll Domination”.

The song isn't really that bad but when any song is played a million times, it loses its charm don't you think? I don't know what it was like in other parts of the world, but this reminds me of Celine Dion's ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from Titanic. It isn't a bad song but when the whole world and its cousin wants to request it on the radio and on TV, play it at home, in the car, at parties, at nightclubs.... it gets a bit much. That’s how it was in India circa '97. Some people tell me that they can finally like the song again, now that the hype is dead. But the charm of the song died for me the day I heard the taxi drivers and auto wallahs obsessing over it.*

*Disclaimer: No offence to taxi drivers or auto wallahs a.k.a. drivers. Its just that, in India, these are not the sort of people who wouldn normally listen to an English song (because they don't understand/speak the language) but when they did too, it just meant the song had been really, really overdone.

The Old King Is Dead, Long Live The King

I am not easily given to celebrity worship and the like. I like lots of singers but don’t care if I never see them in concert, but if there’s one concert I would give an arm and a leg to be at, it was a Michael Jackson concert.

I know people love to hate MJ but I love him and I am not ashamed to say it. Child molestation, plastic surgery, bankruptcy aside – he still made groundbreaking music and come on, when was the last time someone created their own dance style. There may be a million Macarenas and Souljah Boys but never another Thriller. How many other songs/ dances inspire something like this?



I can listen to Heal the World and Will You Be There all the time, and I do.
And even though I was blessed with two left feet, Thriller, In the Closet, Give In To Me, Remember the Time, Smooth Criminal and so many more ALWAYS make me want to dance
….
I really wanted to go for a concert in London and when I heard he’d postponed to 2010, I seriously thought about it. Sadly my life right now doesn’t let me plan much in advance because I have other things to take care of but if I didn’t, I know I’d be flying to London July 2010 ….that’s if he hadn’t died of course :( When he performed in India in the 90s, I remember begging my parents to take me but they didn’t quite get why a kid who couldn’t even dance wanted to travel halfway across the country to see Michael Jackson! :(

I know hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital and he deserves nothing less.

I hope Neverland becomes to MJ fans what Graceland is to Elvis lovers.

I hope MJ fans refuse to accept the reality of his death and even 20 years after his death, I hope there are rumours that MJ will resurface because the guy who actually died was his twin brother (or any other equally far-fetched story)

There will always be only one Michael Jackson…and I can’t believe he’s gone.

so I'm here...

Only problem though, Blogger and WordPress obviously do not like each other so I can't import blogs from one site to the other. I know it does not have too many posts and nothing that spectacular anyway, so I'll just leave them be for now and start afresh.

I love the template so much.

One day when I am really bored, I will manually copy-paste from some of the old blog and also from my first blog which I started way back in 2006 (which I ditched because it was become too personal and I couldn't stop!). I can't delete that blog, and may be some day I will go back to it... just not now. I'll stick to this one for now.

I also collect quotations like crazy. I have a pile of books on them and I want to put them up online now. So I started a new blog - My Fave Quotations, a few days ago. Some of the quotes that are currently up are ridiculous, but they made me laugh. Those are quotes I must have really enjoyed when I was 10 years old (that is when I first started collecting quotes) so I thought I would put up a few. It's still a work in progress because I can't find a template I like.

Those of you who are kind enough to drop by, sorry for all the confusion and sudden change in address. I hope you will stick around. No more flitting around, just serious thinking and writing.

should i come back?

My current blog is here - legallyalien.wordpress.com.

But I'm considering coming back to blogger, especially for the templates.

What say?

To the Indian media

What happened in Melbourne and Sydney is sad but branding a whole country racist on that basis is stupid and ignorant. The average Indian has never been to Australia and does not understand how multicultural it is so I blame the media for sensationalising the issue and blowing things out of proportion. Every Indian now suddenly has a Rang De Basanti type patriotic flame burning within them without even having a proper perspective on the issue.

Racism technically doesn’t exist in India simply because the majority of our population belongs to the same race. Saying that racism doesn’t exist because Indians are better is adopting a holier-than-thou attitude Indians have no right to. Indians discriminate on the basis of caste, creed, religion, color and wealth; so to say we are not capable of racism is a blind refusal to look at reality. Simply take a look at Bollywood movies that always have something to say about the “goras”. Yes, that is racist too so it’s time we stop pointing the finger and take a look at ourselves too and yes I think history will prove, Indians are just as capable of violence over such issues.

Race and ethnicity are common topics in a country like Australia which is made of an immigrant culture. Yes some people are racist but on the whole the 20 million people of Australia live fairly peacefully and the last time I checked, there were more riots and attacks in India as a result of some sort of discrimination.

The majority of Indian students abroad are clannish and move in packs. Yes it is natural to be more comfortable with people from your own country but making friends from a different culture is the best way to start acclimatising to a new culture. Australians don’t marginalise Indians. Indians choose to stay marginalised because of their refusal to adapt to the Australian culture. “When in Rome do as the Romans do” is obviously not something most Indians have heard of. Had they heard of it, they would quickly learn that the Australian culture is often about cracking a joke on each other. If Indians put their excessive sensitivity aside and take a healthy dose of a sense of humour once in a while, they would understand that the thousands of races in Australia are often a topic for jokes too and a joke about an Australian is appreciated just as much. This is not intended to be racist and usually isn’t.

No I am not saying we must always say the White Man is right and give in to racism. I am simply saying Indians need to adapt to the culture and understand how things work in Australia before crying foul and blame an entire nation for being racist.  If the average Australian has a wrong perception about Indians, the average Indian does not know much about an Australian either. So I think we’ve achieved a balance there. Expatriate Indians cannot expect Australians to adapt to them, they must adapt to Australia. Expecting to create a mini India wherever they go is ridiculous. If you dislike Australia so much, I don’t mean to be rude, but stay at home. Really.

As a journalist, I have always been taught that every story must represent the whole picture but the Indian media has obviously forgotten its journalistic integrity somewhere along the way. Amazingly, all the reports talk about Indians who have “suffered” in Australia. How about interviewing Indians who have done really well in this country thanks to opportunities they probably would have never received in India in the first place? How about explaining Australia’s multicultural identity? How about interviewing Indian students who actually enjoy studying here? There are plenty of each, I assure you.

Indians are not being targetted the way the Indian media would have the country believe, but may be after the burning of the Australian flag and posters of Kevin Rudd, we will be and again, I will blame the Indian media for it.

I know I will be accused of losing my Indianness because I now live in Australia. I don’t care because I don’t need to justify myself. But I do need to make a point on behalf of the thousands of Indians who are very happy in Australia. While the Indian media refuses to look at an issue objectively as journalists should, I thankfully still have my objectivity in place.

P.S. This article in the SMH makes a similar point. Thanks for sharing, Psych Babbler.