Its been three years since I landed on these shores (entered at 12:30AM August 7th 2002). Can’t believe how fast time flies! “… lived through some good times, and some sad times …” but I did live it up! Met a lot of people along the way, some moved on, some stayed. So I guess its that time of the year to reminisce on hits and misses …

This is a good time to think of things I should have done or the things I could have lived without …

• Should have gone for the swimming classes when I started out instead of when I was ready to graduate.
• Should have gone for the Football(American) games the first year I was there. I used to hate football because it was called football and football was soccer! (Confused? See what I mean!)
• Should have used the gym!
• Should have started line dancing in the first year, ’cause I was intimidated by it, instead of waiting till the second year of my studies.
• Should have got the speeding ticket going at 100 mph instead of 87 mph … wait maybe not that.
• Should have made … nope … saved more money than I did
• Should not have quit ice skating

I guess I am out of ‘should haves’ and ‘shouldn’t haves’. But there were some many things that happened, I have decided to list just a few that come to the top of my mind … in no particular order

• The power of my word at home, just because I was halfway across the world. This is true even of my cousins and uncles and aunts …
• Getting a wonderful bunch of new friends at FSU through CCF and Chi Alpha.
• Getting to fight with my ‘enemy’ Swapna and getting a picture of her inside an Alcatraz cell.
• Being able to roam all over the US, in part because of having the right connections like Shelly acca in California and Srila & Sadhana acca in Detroit
• Being able to meet old long lost friends Rajesh, Nanda and Hussein
• Surrounded by a wonderful Christian family wherever I go, Specially Koshy annan and Aunty who also brovided me with a home, complete with food and transport
• Having a bunch of cookies and cards sent across the continental US so that I won’t feel alone, by Angela and the wonderful crazy people at CCF.
• Getting to go horse riding and getting to handle various shot guns and hand guns at Perry, thanks to Whitney and her family.
• Having squirrel stir fry made by Buddy and cake for my birthday with Florida and India drawn on it.
• Getting a T Shirt from Romania by Mike who also is the first friend I made at FSU. Now that he is in the Air Force, he can probably beat me in running
• Having cookies by Katie and cake by Fallon for my birthday
• Having my shirt Ironed by Meagan and who also cleaned out my kitchen with Audra
• Going to Stetsons to line dance with Amy
• Getting to drive a Benz courtesy of Sri acca who also incidentally got me a job
• Driving with a broken leg to visit John and getting struck in a hurricane
• Setting the town on fire on a 750GS with Akhilesh as Wingman
• Getting to play co-rec Football(Soccer) and American Football with Jillian, Kathy, Brian, Eamon, Erin and the rest of the gang
• Driving to Washington DC with Rhea
• Crashing at Ravi’s place and having him drive with me to St.Louis for no particular reason whatsoever
• Playing tennis in the rain and the sunshine with Adriaan
• Swimming in the pool during thunderstorms with Amit
• Taking a break in Atlanta at Katie’s house
• Getting to see Eric’s GI Joe collection and getting my first Star Trek figurine from him
• Getting birthday bums … Chris Pink and Justin I don’t forget easily
• Visiting the smoky mountains with Aarthi and Preeth and having Aarthi make a week’s supply of food for me
• Visiting with Jeba’s family and Mani in Minnesota and having Briyani there
• Having good clean fun with the house of fire youth led by Ron & Kelly
• Breaking seven cellphones and having Scott get me a 20% discount on my monthly charges
• Having Latha, Swapna and other friends visit me
• Having Thanksgiving dinner with Amber and Erin’s family
• Going to Connect with the Feagans
• Swing dancing at the FSU Swing dance club with Jaquline, Sara and the rest of the gang
• Getting a car for free from Mark and then selling it for 200$s after some repairs
• Going Sailing with Lee
• Having Thanksgiving dinner with the waers
• Driving to Canada by myself
• Getting to throw a lot of people into the fountain for their birthdays even though it was less than zero outside
• Breaking my leg playing raquetball with Jason
• Tubing down the icknetukee and breaking my watch in the process

This is definetly not an exhaustive list. I name names because I can … and am willing to take the fall for any omissions ;). Keep checking for updates to the bullet points and old memories come back 🙂

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

It was a red letter day last week at a Honda motorcycle plant in Gurgoan, India. The workers had formed a union and were protesting certain policies of their MNC employer, when all hell broke loose. The police charged and beat up the 1500 strong protestors. The lathicharge in itself would have been a non incident had it not been for the shear number of people that were grievously injured in the melee. There is no clear indication on who started the fight, but the fact was that both sides(protestors and cops) had indulged in excesses. Though at the end of the day the Police bore the brunt of the blame (which was true to an extent).

The incident speaks about the fundamental issues that are brought forth by globlisation. Had this not been an incident involving a MNC and the government going all out to attract FDI, the cops wouldn’t have been so high handed. States like Kerla and West Bengal which are governed by the communist parties in India, are know for their labour unrest and militant trade unions. With India embracing free economy and a capitalistic society, trade unions were being thought off as a thing of the past and these states are actively shedding their image as a stronghold of trade unions. It would be folly to think that, ’cause without proper legislation to govern workers benefits the trade unions(which provide for collective bargaining) are the only way to check employee exploitation.

In this incident the workers were not striking to get a better pay but to get a better work environment. More than two thirds of the employees were apprentices and trainees (who of course get paid a pittance) for the last two years. And the company instead of making them employees after the two year period decided to hire new trainees instead of the existing ones. This sounds as though it is a leaf from the book of a small scale sweat shop. And to boot the Japanese Ambassador had to go shooting his mouth off. What he doesn’t realise is this is India and not Japan.

I am not a big fan of the communist style of government, actually I hate it, but that does not give the right to big corporations to run our lives. The fact that these corporations exploit their employees and promote sweat shops with impunity speaks for the way governments take care of their citizenry. I believe that we need a balance in power between the big corporations and the small common man (whose only strength is in numbers). Given that in countries like the US and to a lesser extent India, the trade unions have been or had been taken over by the Mafia, but that is no excuse to give the power in the hands of the MNCs. India and the other developing nations should learn from their history with the British East India Company!