The pygmy

I read this story of a young man. He was from the Belgian Congo and belonged to the Mbuty tribe. His tribesmen were all short statured and dark skinned as was typical to his 'race'. His name was Benga. He was living a content life with wife and kids, until one day his fate took a drastic turn and led to a series of events culminating in his suicide at the young age of 32.

Now this happened a long time back. One day he went hunting with his buddies and returned back to find his wife and children killed by a group of foreigners. (In today’s terms we would call these guys terrorists). They then attacked him and took him in as a slave. He suffered atrocities under these guys. After some time another man named Verner came and negotiated with his captors and took Benga with him and gave him food and treated him well. Benga, who was so glad to be out of slavery, bonded with this man. Verner took Benga to a new world and Benga readily accompanied him because he trusted Verner and he was curious and excited to see this new world. On arriving at this strange beautiful and exciting place, for a while Benga enjoyed everything and aimed to please Verner. Now Verner was a missionary who had agreed to bring some vistors from far off places to a cultural expo that was held at St. Louis, MO. Benga’s short and dark appearance was a curiousity to the locals who had never seen anyone or rather ‘anything’ like him. Soon Benga posed for pictures and became sort of a performer along with other african tribesmen. He was especially popular because of his sharp pointed teeth which had been filed off when he was young as part of his tribe's tradition. He gladly grinned to show off his pointed teeth in exchange for five cents. His short stature and pointed teeth led to various unfounded speculations about him by the mob that gawked at him. People thought he was a cannibal.

As time passed Verner who himself was then trying to find a job could no longer be Benga’s guide. He passed him along to another organization that was willing to take care of him. This organization was the Bronx Zoo. That’s right the zoo took Benga in as an exhibit. He was encouraged to carry around his favorite orangutan that was named Dohong. He was put in a cage along with the monkeys as part of a display endorsing the theory of human evolution. The sign outside read :
"Ota Benga."
Age, 23 years. Height, 4 feet 11 inches. Weight, 103 pounds.
Brought from the Kasai River, Congo Free State, South
Central Africa, by Dr. Samuel P. Verner.
Ex-hibited each afternoon during September
A newspaper reported that "[he] represented the lowest form of human development."


He was eventually moved to an orphanage for ‘colored’ people. Benga tried to work and save money to return to his native soil. But the last shreds of his hope of returning to a known life were shattered when the World War I broke out. With despair eating at him, he reached the end of his rope. He shot himself with a stolen revolver and died at the age of 32.
As was reading his story I couldn’t stop my tears of anger at the people who did this and sadness for Benga. I had already known that humans are capable of extreme cruelty given the circumstances. But I had always thought of such people as aberrant and mentally disturbed; brainwashed possibly. But in Benga’s case a whole community did injustice to him. A human is a human regardless of his race, color, caste, country or creed. I innately thank God that I live in a kinder era and although even now such atrocities occur, I have been lucky to get an education and parentage that inculcated in me the basic decency of treating a human with humanity.

If you wish to see him, you can visit the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which holds a life mask and body cast of a Pygmy. The display is simply titled ‘Pygmy’ even today. It is none other than Ota Benga. Google him to see his pictures and more details about his story and pay a minute of tribute to this poor soul.

Rise in Love

Do you remember how it felt to fall in love? Those early days when your heart skips a beat whenever you saw, heard or even thought of your special someone? When you feel a delicious tingle travel up your spine and work its way all the way to the tips of your fingers and toes...when you feel gravity some how has less of a pull on you; When you feel warm and fuzzy inside and like no problem in the world is insurmountable when it feels this heavenly; When the butterflies inside you flutter about in that sweet way that the happiness is almost cloying at times...You catch yourself tearing up for no reason - well not exactly for no reason - Love, of course is the reason. Do you remember when you couldn't focus on anything, anything at all but your insecure, selfish, pocessive, all consuming love for this someone? If you do, you are probably someone just like me, someone who constantly combats the control your emotions have over you. Well not only do I remember it, I re-live it everytime I listen to some very special music. Every so often, a song comes along that I repeat over and over on my playlist, until the my ears tire of those notes. I feel incredibly lucky that my mind and phyche are so receptive to such music. Because the feelings such songs bring about, defy description. The closest analogy is the one I described above. Right now the song on 'infite repeat' is Kayya Pudi from Myna...this song refuses to let go of its hold on me. Just don't care that it's "inspired" from 'Take my hand' from "The highschool musical". I am falling in love all over again...Music is beyond Divine. This song may not be the one that stirs you. But I bet there is some number that has made you forget where you are for just a moment at the least. It's truly amazing to let the right hemisphere of your brain take over - to let go of all sanity and logic - and to let that tear roll off. Music and passion are probably perceived by areas very close to each other in the brain. Was it Kahlil Gibran who said 'I rise in Love'? Divine. Pure. Music.

Princeton Times

I wanted to pen down my memories of living in New Jersey with Lekha, while Leo was still working in IN. I am sure that in time these memories might fade away and I wanted to record them while they were still fresh in my mind.

When I first came to NJ I was excited and nervous and scared and really overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of responsibilities on my shoulder. A new job after staying at home for a year, felt like getting a job for the very first time. But I had to do it for my own sanity as well as for the financial security of our family. Lekha was an absolute trooper. She has adjusted well to all the inconveniences that came out of being in this limbo situation where I could neither give her all the comforts of home nor be able to take comfort in the confident knowledge that this was just a temporary situation. She adjusted beautifully to the new day care center and made new friends and has been a happy child. Her first teacher here was Ms. Marylynn and then she joined the bigger kids in Ms. Christine’s class. She also was taken care of by Ms. Subha and Ms. Shilpa. She would tell me the names of her buddies in class: “Julia(Chewia), Ananya(Anayya), Connor, Tyler(Tyer) 

The down side was that Lekha was missing her dad so much I could see it in her eyes. It was not an open display of tears and tantrums, rather a quiet resignation and dejected acceptance that broke my heart. She has also been a very spirited and feisty one and often, I regret to think back now, I have lost my temper and resorted to harsh disciplining and even in some worst cases giving her a sharp tap on her hand or feet. When she bursts out into tears at that, I have often felt like the worst mom in history and I just spend so much time that night kissing her and apologizing to her when she sleeps.

But I do feel that I have evolved as a much better and very patient mom and a stronger woman. I feel that this experience has given me some invaluable lessons in life. I am so proud of what I have been able to go through and I feel like the joy we look forward to now with me getting a job in IN and us being able to be together as a family, would not have been as sweet if it hadn’t been preceded by such trying times. Moreover, I cannot forget that this new job opportunity in Indiana would not have even been offered to me had I not been working at the time.

I missed my husband so much. I had my precious Lekha to hold on to, but he on the other hand was all alone by himself. It pained me to think how much he hated going back every time he visited us. There have been times when we were on the phone and Lekha would say something cute like “I love you!” at which he would just tear up and choke and would hang up ‘cause he can’t go on.

I cannot miss to mention about the inception of Sleek Fashions. Priya and I were bouncing off ideas just for the heck of it. (Who doesn’t want to be their own boss, especially after my experience in NJ) And one thing led to another and before we knew it, here we are on the verge of launching our very own business. The website is 99% ready and the shipment is (hopefully) on the way.

The last six months have certainly been a very eventful period in my life. But Lekha and I can’t wait to get back to the most awesome man in the world.

Life - what else.

Ok. I am going to try this once again. In my 30 years of life, if I have learned one thing about myslef (among many things) that I am not proud of, it’s the fact that I always have trouble sticking to something. I am full of energy and zest when I begin something new, but once the novelty wears off, my excitement fizzles and I search for the next new thing, the next big challenge, the next fun adventure which I will obsess over until it joins the rest of my past unfinished ventures. I do not want blogging to be one of them. Because, although I know that I’ve lost my initial enthusiasm for it, I do know that its cathartic effects are right up there, only second to singing. Plus it gives me the cool opportunity to use cool words like “cathartic”=)

Ok since I’ve decided to blog again, I do have to have a subject matter, so to speak, for the day. As usual it would have to be some droning on about stuff going on in my mind. Did I mention blogging is supposed to be cathartic? Well I am in New Jersey right now. I am finding myself in a familiar situation: Staying apart from Leo, getting overwhelmed by the overload of responsibilities, worrying about the possibility of a decline in my health. But wait, there’s more. This time I have Lekha! A whole person, just depending on me completely and absolutely. Now if that doesn’t put a girl in a tizzy, I don’t know what would. I try to put up a brave face but I am terrified inside. I keep imagining what would happen if I were to be disabled or unconscious or God forbid DIE! Lekha would be running around crying in the house, for hours before anyone suspected anything was wrong. I even think, I should put some cookies and stuff at her reach. (Problem with that is currently have to hide all the goodies from her, lest she gives me trouble at dinner time). Well, now that I’ve gotten that out of my head, lets move on to less scary stuff.

My work. Trial balances, chart fields, general ledger – who am I kidding- I’ve always steered clear from numbers. The main reason computers fascinated me was the fact that it seemed like a giant calculator to me in the beginning (consequence of “Addition of two numbers” being the first ever program I learned) . I liked the computers would mean I didn't have to deal with numbers anymore. Now here I am, looking at a bunch of numbers and trying to figure out why the GL won’t balance. The good part is I am kind of comfortable with the coding side of it at least. PeopleSoft is becoming less and less of an enigma to me each day. Oh by the way we just pulled off a patch upgrade last weekend and so far so good. The 12 hr work days and Leo’s whirlwind weekend trip to take care of Lekha while I was away trying to save the world….er…ok save the PeopleSoft upgrade at the client I worked for, did not go in vain.

Life is always a struggle. Or is it? Am I always trying to make lemonade with the lemons life gives me, or am I so obsessed with the lemonade, that I turn a blind eye to the fruit bounty I am offered. I wish I could have been happy with my life as a mom and stay at home wife to the best baby in the world and the sweetest guy on earth. I just had to go and make things difficult for everybody by insisting on getting back to work. Now am I happy? Well, I kind of am. I love that I am doing what I do best. I love that I am doing justice to Lekha. I know she is happy at her daycare and the little time I spend with her in the evenings is quality time. I just wish I didn’t have to sacrifice being with my husband and putting him through the anguish of missing us both. In anycase, it's a choice I made and I'm not regretting it. Just wishing things could for once be easier.

Well I think my one hr is up. I’ll be up from my couch now – boy blogging sure beats paying a therapist. Good to be back after my long hiatus. I’ll be back soon with more of my nonsense.

The NRI Dilemma

Its been a while since I posted anything here. Some truly profound things - both good and bad have been happening in my life, none of which I am inclined to write about right now. Nevertheless, I could say my experiences have made me a wiser, stronger and most importantly a more spiritual person.

Anyways - coming to the topic of the day: Almost every NRI has a dream in the some niche of their mind. The dream to go back to India some day. There is a saying in my language(Tamil)"Thiraikadal odiyum thiraviyam thedu" - Roughly translated, it means 'Go forth and venture across the oceans to find your fortunes'. This is exactly what most of us came here for. When we announced to our friends and relatives that we got visa and a job offer or the university admission from the US of A, no one asked us why we were going. It was a given that going to the US meant a better life, better financial status, better opportunities. One friend even told me when I was voicing concerns about getting an education loan for my Masters degree in the US "If you go to the US your life is settled, there is no reason for you to worry about this paltry sum of money". How wrong he was! Here I am 3 years after my graduation, still paying back my student loans and the end seems ever further away every year. Come August and it will be a full 5 years since that fateful day that I stepped on American soil. I still view this as my fortune making period, I still keep thinking that once I pay back all the loans, put away some "reasonable" savings, buy a house I should go back to India. Leo does not seem to get too worked up about this as I do. I am the one who has a constant fear that we might be stuck here.

The reason I worry is, every now and then I hear horror stories of people who endured great distress after their move back. I worry about our health, our immune system becomes so complacent that it fails to kick in and work against the assault it faces every time we go back to India on our vacations. Invariably I suffer through at least a week of throat infection, cold and fever even when we are ever careful to drink mineral water and eat home cooked food. One can only hope that eventually our body will regain its original resistance . The other main thing is inefficiency of all kinds of service providers. How many things can we get done by making a phone call in India? I am keeping up with what goes on in my parent's house in Chennai. They recently had a power outage that lasted 3 days because of a transformer failure that was never bothered to be fixed by the Electric authorities. Above all, it is very clear that you have to be financially quite well off if you expect to atleast to come three forth of the way to the lifestyle you are used to here in the US.

I fear that after going back to India I might realize that not only did I make the biggest mistake of my life by returning to India, I had spent the prime of my life looking forward to and planning for it. That being said, that's a risk that I have to take because my heart does not belong here. Unless I at least try going back I will forever live an incomplete life.

One thing I know for sure is, I cannot expect to go back to a past that I left behind. I know that going back now would be like experiencing a rip in the fabric of time. Its the same, its the land of my childhood, yet it has evolved and I was not there to watch it grow. Now after a few years it might be like searching a stranger's face for some sign of recognition. During each vacation I am taken aback by the ever larger malls, the coffee shops, the numerous ATM machines and the street vendors' cell phone. Granted, I will not say that five years back these things were unheard of - but the sheer spread and reach of them amazes me. When I return, not only would the country be a completely different place, I myself would a different person from the one that left the country half a decade ago. My mind subconsciously associates India with my youth - my exuberant college days and my blithe school days. When I go back, not only will I invariably be several pounds heavier, I will most definitely be going back with kid(s) of my own. I know that my experience living in India will not be the same way it once used to be and I know about the tremendous physical and psychological stress that I would once again have to endure. Its not going to be easy to uproot my life again...

Yet with all the odds stacked against my resolve to go back to India, my mind is like tree that may sway with the winds of doubt yet stands firm even in the face of a storm. See you soon India :-)

Pursuit of Happiness

Once again it's a movie that has stirred my spirit and has urged me to write despite my bogged schedule. I hardly know what day of th month and what day of the week it is anymore. I was caught by surprize at the "Happy Pongal" email sent by Anbuvel and Nirmal, my college time friends. Well coming to the matter at hand - pursuit of happiness - quite an experience, I should say, especially for someone like me who is forever plagued by the fear of may be never ever reaching the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. By now I have many times that in life it is better to go with the flow rather than trying to get things to go according to a premeditated and structured plan. Well, for me so far things have been going according to plan although I am way behind schedule in almost everything - be it finishing my planned level of education, finding the right guy and getting married - I have no complaints except that everything has taken more time than I anticipated. The movie "Pursuit of happiness" has been on my mind ever since a priest paraphrased a dialogue from it during the Christmas midnight service we attended. It was a time of deep depression and a sickening fear about some new changes in my life. I will prematurely finish this article since I wrote this a while back and now I am not sure where my thoughts were flowing to at the time I wrote this. It will suffice to say the movie played a major part in my rethinking my approach to spirituality and God and life itself. It gave me hope at a time of despair and fear. And most importantly, it told me that Life is mostly fair.

Plank in my eye

That morning - I had mixed feelings. I was going to meet Leo for the first time and was excited about it...but was also scared that, in person, I might not like him or worse yet, he might not like me. Our's was a typical 21st century NRI self arranged marriage. In any case, what I want to write about now has little to do with our first meeting [ I will ellaborate on that in another post :-) ]. So without deviating too much, let me get to it. That day one of the things we were talking about, to make ourselves feel less awkward, was recently watched movies. Karthik ( who was kind enough to accompany his friend) did a great job of making us both feel comfortable. And I remember he was the one who brought up the movie "Crash". For those who have not seen this movie, bluntly put, its about racial discrimination and how everyone of us (regardless of our race) are prejudiced and have pre concieved notions of people just based on the color of their skin. Leo and Karthik raved about this movie and I went and watched it the very next day. Needless to say, I loved it. However, it did not touch me or hit a spot in that special way that some movies do. I realized at the time that it was because, although I could understand the interplay of the emotions of the characters in that movie, I could identify with none of them.

A week or so back, there were notices posted on the doors of all the apartments in our complex. It was about a couple of "incidents" in a near by apartment complex - two African American males had stolen some stuff at gun point. Their descriptions were given...and the usual warnings were issued. I really did not think much of it...Untill last night that is. It was about 8.30 PM. Leo and I were in the living room watching "According to Jim" and having our dinner (Tomato biryani), when we heard a loud rap on the door. No one, I repeat, no one has ever knocked on our door at this hour before...well except when we order Pizza of course. I went to wash my hands and looked through the peep hole. The person had already knocked twice by then. I saw a very tall well built African American male - he knocked again and I could sense that he was getting a little impatient by now. Well the next part is what prompted me to write. I did not open the door. I just stood there not able to decide what to do...My brain had not formed a coherent train of thought - it was as if it was an inverse involuntary non-action...it just would not give my hands the command to open the door. At this point - Leo got up and washed his hands and went in to put on a shirt. The gentleman had knocked almost 5 times now. I literally went and hid inside the bedroom. [Jeez was I overreacting!]Leo finally opened the door and did not hide his annoyance at being interrupted during dinner. I could hear them talking and then heard Leo shut the door. I came out and asked him what all of that was about...what did he want... Leo showed me his keys with a queer expression on his face. Then explained to me that the gentleman was a neighbour and had wanted to let us know that we had left the keys on the door. He was being kind. That was it. You can imagine our embarassment...

I couldn't forget it the whole night. I felt so terrible at having passively insulted the kind neighbour. And now I could feel the powerful message that the movie "Crash" had conveyed. I kept thinking, "well, I have not been a victim of discrimination so far, so I can't really identify myself with the movie".It was like a slap on my face when I realized that I was actually on the other side of the fence last night. This verse is for me: Matthew 7:5 "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye"