Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US on the 4th Thursday of November. Its one of the largest celebrated festivals when traditionally people from all parts of the US and possibly the world descend to their homes to partake of the Thanksgiving Meal at an annual family get together.

The fact that its the most popular US holiday is borne out by the days before and after Thanksgiving being the busiest days for air travel across the US. Interestingly most Americans believe that Thanksgiving goes back to the Pilgrims and was a celebration along with the Native Americans of a successful harvest.

This event took place in 1621. Not many are aware that Thanksgiving as is currently celebrated has been a tradition only since 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens".

Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys. JFK was the first president reported to spare the turkey given to him and Ronald Reagan was the first to grant the turkey a presidential pardon, which he jokingly presented to his 1987 turkey. Gorge Bush in 1989 continued the tradition annually when he was President. It has become a permanent annual tradition carried on by every president each year since. President Obama has a lot to be thankful for just having won his 2nd term and did his bit for the lucky bird.

You can read all about the history of Thanksgiving at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_%28United_States%29

For Reia and me it was out first Thanksgiving. For Reia it meant several holidays and a long weekend. So it quickly became here favorite holiday. It started with a half day on Wednesday and stretched all the way to Sunday. And Reia's favorite aunt had invited all of us to her place.

The main event at Thanksgiving is the Thanksgiving dinner. And for our Thanksgiving, the Chef for the main event was Frank. The preparations had started more than a week before the event where a list of ingredients to be purchased was created. The Chef traveled with his own kit that consisted of knives, spatulas and amongst several things I don't know names for, to a designer apron.

The main dish as is traditional was Turkey. And the Turkey that was to adorn our table was a huge 20 lbs bird. The process of preparing the meal was an elaborate one. And started at 11. The turkey had to be prepared, stuffing made, the turkey stuffed, stitched and then roasted with several bastings. Along side the rest of the side dishes that consisted of mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, sprouts and a fresh salad.

Frank was continuously at work with Ed and Vanitha assisting when required. Reia and I helped by staying out of the way and by playing a role I described as "diarist". This article is the result of that role.

Dinner was finally ready at around 8 p.m. A full 9 hours after the preparations began. Each person at the celebration had to say what they were thankful for. Everyone was thankful to their family, their hosts, the Chef. By then I was starved. And thankful that dinner was served.

The meal was amazing. Each dish a foodies delight. All of us stuffed ourselves. And were then told that there was dessert. Pumpkin pie, Apple pie, Chocolate Brownie. And fresh fruits for the calorie conscious. Since I had already consumed far more than my share of calories, I decided to skip the fruits. And not wanting the hosts to feel bad, gorged on each of the desserts. And they were so tasty.

All of us had a great time and an eventful Thanksgiving. Thanks to Frank for a wonderful dinner and to Vanitha for inviting us. And now I too know the secret of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is the time when you give Thanks for having Thanksgiving. Holidays. Food. Fun. Doesn't get any better.

10 things I miss most about Mumbai

Its now been 3 months since I've moved to the US. And I miss India. And this begs the question ? What exactly do I miss. So like all good things I decided to list the 10 things I miss most.

10. Taxis & Rickshaws
In Mumbai whenever I felt like not driving, which was pretty much most of the time, I just took a taxi or a rickshaw. Here the cost and availability does not leave that as an option.

9. Crowds
Mumbai is very crowded. And you are always amongst lots of people no matter where you are. Not only are there almost no people on the roads, even in public paces like malls, the crowds are relatively limited.

8. Movies
Bollywood entertains. And I was thoroughly entertained. I enjoyed movies. And seeing them in theaters. Here if I want to enjoy Bollywood, I need to buy DVD's, and that's just not as much fun.

7. Noise
Mumbai is noisy. And when you've lived in Mumbai it becomes part of you. Quiet and silence is not something you're comfortable with. And in my case, I'm actually missing the noise.

6. Night life
You could walk around at midnight and the people around would make it seem like its evening. An early dinner would mean dinner after 9. Here an early dinner is dinner at 4, and normal is 7. Most places close by 7 or 8. Even New York pales in comparison to Amchi Mumbai.

5. Weather
Mumbai is warm, sometimes even hot. And whilst you sweat a little, I felt comfortable. The cold here is something I'm not used to and definitely not comfortable. And coming from Mumbai, it makes me miss Mumbai even more.

4. Food
Indian cuisine is so good. Especially for us. And whilst Indian food is freely available, miss it on a regular basis. My mouths watering just writing and thinking about it, so lets move on.

3. My friends
Friends make life wonderful. Speaking with them. Meeting them. Going out with them. And I miss all of it. And I miss each of them.We speak often and they've threatened to visit soon. Hopefully they'll carry out their threats.

2. The Office
What I enjoyed most was going to office. And interacting with my colleagues. They made me smile. And laugh. Whilst I still work with them, the personal interaction is missing. I guess getting the smiles and laughs is that much more difficult. And makes work a little less enjoyable.

1. My wife and daughter
The only thing I enjoyed more than work was the time I spent with Ivy and Freia. And being far away I miss them. Yes, even the disagreements, since that's what made life even more exciting and interesting.

None of the above means I regret the decision to be here. It has several positives and even the above are not negatives. Its the things I miss, and in life every time you make a change there are bound to be things that you miss and new things that you start liking and finally loving. And there are several things about here that I like and a few that I've already started loving.

The US Elections - Lessons Learnt

Every 4 years on the first Tuesday of November, Americans go out to vote for a new President. This year was no different and Tuesday saw the end of more than a year of campaigning that saw each party spend far in excess of a billion dollars. The polls predicted one of the closest races in US history. By midnight it was clear that the polls were wrong. And early on Wednesday morning, Mitt Romney conceded the election and President Obama was re-elected for a second term.

The election process was very interesting and there were a few lessons that India could learn and evaluate adopting. Interestingly there are an equal number of lessons for the US to learn to improve their election process. In my opinion, the top 3 lessons to be learnt from each other.


Lessons from the US

1. Early Voting
Several states in the US allow early voting. This basically means that in several states voting for the presidential election starts several weeks before election day. This helps people who are either travelling or working on election day to go vote and have their vote counted.

2. Transparent Funding
Individuals and companies are allowed to contribute to campaign funds. All of the information is publicly available. This enables legitimate collection of funds, recognizing the fact that campaigning needs significant funding and providing legitimate and transparent means to organize the same.

3. Public Debates
Currently there are 3 presidential debates and 1 vice-presidential debate held between the 2 main candidates. The debates allow both the candidates to publicly state their policy, opinions, and how they intend to takes the country forward if elected. The debate format allow their opponent as well as the moderator to challenge as well as seek clarifications on ambiguous statements.


Lessons from India

1. Counting Process
The counting process begins only after the last ballot has been cast. This ensures 2 things. The first is that every person with an intention to vote goes out and votes and that early trends do not influence voters where voting is still in progress. The second is that the final tally is an indicator of the actual will of the complete population and not skewed because of the early trends.

2. Organizing voting on Election day
In several places people had to wait for several hours to exercise their franchise. And this has been a perpetual problem in early voting as well as in previous elections. Indian election authorities have fine tuned the art of organizing elections and in spite of having a much larger electorate with a poorer infrastructure manage to conduct it in a manner where the voter normally does not wait for more than 15 - 30 minutes.

3. Electronic Voting Machines
Across the country India mainly uses EVM's or Electronic Voting Machines. These reduce the number of controversies. And make the process of counting not only faster but far more reliable. As an example in this years elections it took several days before Florida was able to announce its results of the Presidential Elections. The fact that Obama had won without Floria made this insignificant, else it could be a repeat of 1997 election fiasco, captured brilliantly in the film, "Recount".

In conclusion the systems used by the worlds greatest democracy and the worlds largest democracy are brilliant and admirable. And if each could pick up a few lessons from each other, both would be even more amazing.

Sandy - Naturally Devastating

Sandy hit the US East Coast Monday evening. Its effect started Monday morning. We live in Connecticut and lost power Monday morning. The Tri States which consists of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The devastation was huge. More than 100 lives lost. An estimated damage of over 50 billion, a number that seems to keep rising. As of today, 6 days after the storm hit, there's no power in over 1.5 million homes, trains and the New York subway are still not fully functional and schools which were closed this week are also closed tomorrow and Tuesday.

We got power on Thursday and even today more than 25% of the people in our area don't have power. But this article is not about the devastation. A million articles have already been written. This is about Attitudes. Attitude towards Calamities. And I've now been through a major calamity in India and the US. The Mumbai Flooding in August 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

In both of these events, I'd like to compare the 4 major groups who are part of the event. The Common People, the Service Providers, the Media and the Politicians.

The common people in Mumbai came out with flying colors. They went out of their way and even took significant risks to rescue fellow citizens. They took a lot of personal hardship to reduce the hardship to people they did not know. The American people were almost as good. They behaved in a kind and understanding manner and did everything expected of a common man. While they get 10 on 10, the Mumbai common man gets a 11.

The service providers have several challenges they have to go through to make sure that everything works the way its expected to. In both cases the challenges and the expectations are relatively similar. In both cases they did a reasonable job. Could have been a lot better, but definitely competent. I would rate both as a 7 on 10.

The media in the Mumbai flooding, played an extremely negative role. They highlighted the negatives and gave little coverage to several positives. The US media seemed to focus on the positives. Even the negatives had the positive side projected. At the end of the day, the media is able to create perceptions and influence thinking. In Mumbai, all I heard was how corrupt and incompetent everyone was. Here the media as well as individuals keep talking about what a wonderful job everyone is doing. Surprising when factually, the service providers in Mumbai did as good if not a far better job than here. Indian Media - 2, US Media - 9.

And finally the politicians. The biggest difference is that in India, they visit but don't speak to the common man, either directly or through the media. Here they don't stop speaking. And communication is good. Everyone from the President to the Mayors of the affected towns were on TV. Giving updates, offering support and solutions. Indian Politician - 1, US Politician - 7.

And this seems to be true not only in unexpected events, but in day to day life. We in India want to talk about the problem and how everyone else is not doing their job. Its high time we stop criticizing and reflect on what Mahatma Gandhi wisely said,
"You must be the change you wish to see."