A feeling of success

Back in 2000, when I told my relatives and friends that I planned to move to USA, many of them expressed concerns about taking my daughters with me. “You guys will lose your touch with the Indian culture”, or “forget about the Indian values and ethics” were the most common concerns voiced openly by many of my pals. Of course, they were happy for me and the opportunity I was getting, but they were also concerned how I’d bring up my daughters in the "wild" western world.

To be honest, I was equally concerned too. I had heard quite a few wild tales about the western culture, how people especially teenagers lost out on their culture, values and the like. Indians, like folks from most other countries, only delved on what was presented in the movies. One commonly saw depictions of the “modern” society in the west and how all the depravity of materialism crept in. So, with a lot of apprehension, I landed in the US in Nov. of 2000. I still remember the girls – all of 9 years and 8 years old, shivering in the freezing air of San Francisco, waiting for the airport shuttle to come pick us up at the SFO International terminal. Somehow, I just knew that with the blessings of my elders and the affections of my friends, we’d all be fine.

My american life started with me leaving for work at 6.30 AM, after lighting a lamp in front of the shrine I created at home, and sitting in front of the gods with hands folded, eyes shut, murmuring my prayers and seeking their blessings. I returned home around 6 PM after a long day, working hard to prove myself in this new work place. My wife was a stay at home mom for about 2 years initially. She developed a lot of contacts with other families. There weren’t a lot of Indians in San Ramon back then, so we were lucky to get into a network of Indian families – all thanks to Nandita’s networking capabilities. Then in 2001, we heard about the Hindu Sangam, which was the first attempt to bring the Bay Area Indians together under the Umbrella of Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh (HSS), and they had a massive event planned in Milpitas, with Anup Jalota performing Bhajans. My daughters participated in the Ramayana play, performed by the kids from all over the Bay area. The event got all of us hooked into the local chapter of the Hindu Shakha, called as Chanakya Shakha (Shakha means branch of a tree).

I firmly believe that Shakha has been a huge help in keeping my girls firmly engaged in the activities of the Hindu community and learning about the Indian culture and values. It is free for attendees and they conduct yoga, teach Sanskrit Shlokas, and bring in subject-matter-experts to give discourses called as bouddhik (intelligent discussions). They organize events and get together to celebrate Hindu functions and festivals like Ganesh utsav, Diwali, Sankranti, India’s independence and republic days, Guru Parab (when students felicitate a teacher of their choice), Pongal and many more.  I watched as my wife and daughters got involved in the Shakha by helping plan the events, often taking part in the plays, or skits or just being the compere. They picked up the leadership skills required to control a crowd of 100-200 people. I was impressed when Shivangi, my elder daughter, facilitated a planning meeting with extreme efficiency, zero nonsense and kept nudging the participants to the topic under discussion – something I rarely see in many business meetings. And I was honestly surprised by the genuine interest both girls showed in participating in the Shakha activities. They attended their camps, both mini and the annual Sangh Shiksha Varg with enthusiasm; they built close friendships with kids from other shakhas; and were looked up to as leaders and idols by younger kids.

 

Switch forward to 2012. Shivangi turned twenty one years old in Sept. We wanted to do something for the occasion and the girls surprised my wife and I by wanting us to do a Satya Narayan katha at home. I thought they probably meant that we organize a katha and they’d sit in it on the side as attendees, while my wife and I did the pooja. No sir – they wanted to do it themselves. I wasn’t sure if the priest would consider the girls doing the pooja, so I called my regular priest and asked him about it – to my surprise he agreed to let the girls lead us in the prayer. Another surprise was in store, when both of them dressed up in Saris (see picture above) and sat patiently through the entire prayer ceremony, doing all the rituals with full concentration and dedication. The priest was delighted and said he hadn’t seen that in recent years amongst kids of that age. Needless to say that Nandita and I were thrilled.

Then just last week, Neha – my younger daughter who is studying in Saint Mary's college, a Catholic, Lasallian, liberal arts college, rooted in the life and work of Saint John Baptist de La Salle (founder of the Christian Brothers and the patron saint of teachers) – told me that her class was going to visit the Hindu temple in Livermore. Now, though her major is Biochemistry, one of her subjects is Religions of India, which she wanted to study as she thought it would help her learn more about India. I asked if I could tag along to the temple, and she agreed. So, on a Wednesday evening she and her friend, Heather, stopped by to quickly change into Indian clothes, and off we went to the temple. I promised to stay out of their way and do my own thing while they moved along with their class led by Professor Norris. Along the way to the temple, it was such a pleasure hearing Heather and Neha talk about Gita and Indian religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Islam. Even more pleasant was the way Neha conducted herself in the temple. She was the only Hindu girl in the group of students (probably about 50 kids), and she held her own there by doing everything the way it should be done in a temple. She’d enter the deity’s sanctum with her right foot, touch the feet of the idol, come out and do a parikrama and then apply the holy vermillion to her forehead. I got to see all that from a distance as I sat in a corner meditating. Her professor later told me that he was leading a group of 40 students to a tour of Indian Holy cities in January, including a trip to the Holy Prayag (I was surprised that he used that instead of commonly used Allahabad) Kumbha which happens once every 12 years and draws millions of people.

 

Seeing all this, I think I haven’t done too badly in bringing up my kids. Based on what I have seen during my recent trips to India, I feel people outside India are more Indian than many Indians back in India – who unfortunately tend to copy what the movies depict as the real American life, which is a lot different in reality. In our case, the credit goes to my wife, the volunteers in the Shakhas here (who have worked hard to keep the Hindu culture alive in US) and to our friends here who have kept us grounded to our values and culture.

I like to think I have been successful in one of my goals in life at least. Hopefully, my kids will be successful in their careers and life in general too. And above all, I pray that they become good human beings.

2020 A.D -- an article I wrote in 1988

A few weeks back, I was searching for some documents in the boxes kept in my garage and found a bunch of papers there. The stack was a set of three articles that I had written for the first ever magazine published by my engineering college, VIT (in Pune, India). My friend, Raja Ghosh and I, were part of the editorial board and I remember him and I typing this on his dad’s old typewriter (him more than me). The papers and articles brought back lot of good old memories and I thought I’d share one of those articles with you.

This one was supposed to be a comic view about what the world would probably be like in 2020 AD. Considering that this was written in 1988, when I read it now, I think it could be considered as “almost” prophetic. The idea behind the article came from something my childhood friend, Bharat Chitale, had written for my high school magazine in 1979-80. Anyways, here is that article for your reading. Enjoy:

“Good Morning. This is the All India Radio giving you the news”. 

“India’s Prime Minister, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, has warned the North eastern countries that they would pay heavily if they did not stop interfering with the internal affairs of India. The Prime Minister was talking to the reporters after the 73^rd Independence Day celebrations in Delhi. “

Shucks – when will these people ever learn? Why can’t they believe in more action and less words? His father, Rajiv Gandhi, had made a similar speech as did his grandmother, Indira Gandhi and so did his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru.

“The Prime Minister also told the reporters that India will not be exploding any more nuclear devices this year. He said that the country will now be producing fully indigenously developed aircrafts for the Air Force, tanks for the Army, and submarines for the Navy. The parade was marked with the usual gaiety and pomp, which has become associated with the ceremony over the decades. It was attended by dignitaries from the embassies, members of the cabinet, MPs and people from the various states. However, the Adivasis of the Bastar Area of M.P and the surrounding areas of Bihar, abstained from the ceremony as a mark of protest against the Government’s refusal to accept their language and to grant full statehood status to Chatthisgarha.”

When will these leaders stop playing with the minds of simple minded voters? The stupid voters never realize that they are mere playthings in the hands of these politicians, who incite the mobs to become violent, then withdraw and enjoy the ongoing drama that pursues.

“On the international front, the president of the newly independent Sindh and Baluchistan State has appealed to the public to work harder to ensure that their newly found freedom is harder is not wasted. He was speaking at a ceremony to mark the end of the week-long festivities which were organized to celebrate their independence from Pakistan. “

“In England, the Asian majority has assured the white minority that in no way will their interests be harmed. However, they have warned that no violence of any kind will be tolerated from the minorities.”

That is very amusing; it reminds me of the time when Mrs. Thatcher was the PM. The farsighted leader had foreseen this kind this kind of trouble, but was opposed by everyone. I bet she is laughing at all her detractors now and telling them “I told you so”.

“News from the war in Afghanistan is that the Chinese Army is now struggling to maintain its foothold in the mountainous regions, where the rebels have waged a gorilla war for some time. You may remember that Afghanistan was invaded by the erstwhile USSR in 1980 and then by USA in 2002. Both USSR and USA had to withdraw after a decade of occupation, that wrecked heavy economic turmoil in their homeland”.

Nobody has been able to rule the country in the last 2000 years. And that means nobody – from the inside or outside. So why do people keep trying… they should just cover that place with a glass bowl and watch the happenings from outside.

“In the news from the world of sports, the President distributed trophies to the outstanding sportsmen and sports women of the country. He praised the Indian hockey officials and players for winning the Olympic medal after nearly forty years. Some of you might remember that the Indian team last won the Olympic Gold in Men’s hockey in 1980, in Moscow. The President criticized the Indian Kabaddi teams for their dismal performance in the Olympics. As you may recollect, the men’s kabaddi team came a dismal 14^th out of 16 participants while the women’s team came a poor 5^th out of 10 teams. The gold medal in Men’s Kabaddi competition was won by American men, who narrowly beat the Japanese men. In the women’s section, Russia won the event by beating England.”

The same old story – the women always do better than the men. They should just stop sending the men to these tournaments.

“In cricket, Zimbabwe was placed very strongly against India in the third test match of the five test series. After scoring a massive five hundred and seventy two runs in the first innings, Zimbabwe shot out India for a paltry two hundred and twenty runs. Asked to follow on, the India team was in trouble again. At the end of the day, they were one hundred and thirty for five wickets. Zimbabwe has already won the first two test matches.”

Damn it – I always knew it was of no use picking these guys from Kashmir and MP in the Indian team. They might as well have chosen people from Andaman and Nicobar islands!! I miss the days when Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar used to bat!

“Meanwhile, in the West Indies, China defeated West Indies by eight wickets in the third one day international match, which was following the 25 over format. The Chinese won the series 3-0. Most of the damage to the West Indies was done by the Chinese pace bowlers, while the famous West Indian spinners could barely get any benefit from the wickets.”

Why do they even invite the Chinese to play? Everyone knows how strong that team is. They are practically invincible. The West Indies should just stop participating in International cricket for some time. They had even lost to Nigeria in their last endeavor.

“Back on the home front…….”

Kkrr – crash – screech ----- crackle  --- click…..

Oh lord!! Power shortage still persists.

2011 – Is it already over?

I thought 2010 went by fast, but to say that 2011 went by faster would be an understatement. A lot happened this year too, and since OCCUPY was the biggest word in the world events, our world was occupied by several ongoing things.

We continued reconnecting and connecting with friends and colleagues, thanks to the social media sites. It is hard to believe that the world has shrunk so much. One can literally see the person on the other side, and not just talk to them anymore. I am guessing holographic communication must be just around the corner.

People we lost in 2011

Nandita bid her final good byes to her mother, who succumbed to old age. Aai, who was nearly 86 years old, was a very remarkable lady indeed and led a full life. We had the fortune of having her spend 6 months with us in 2001 in the US, and she wrote a few pages about herself. I am using those to prepare a write up about her life, which I think is worth making into an inspirational movie.

I lost my very dear friend, Jayesh, who was my childhood buddy. I wrote about it in my previous blog (read about it here).

And of course, though I never met him, I felt sorry to see Steve Job go. Not my idol, but someone I admired for what he had achieved, and for what he sought to achieve. A remarkable man, and a remarkable visionary. If only every entrepreneur was like him (and that could never happen)!

Other noted Indian Celebrities that were lost this year include noted Gazal Singer Jagjeet Singh, Bhupen Hazarika, and the evergreen actor Dev Anand. Each of these made tremendous contribution to the Indian Entertainment world.

Major events in 2011 that made headlines, and caught my attention:

• Killing of Osama Bin Laden by Navy Seals
• Killing of M. Gaddafi of Libya by a mob
• Occupy movement made headlines all over the world.
• Bank Of America issued plans to charge a fees and then withdrew it
• Arab Spring
• Earthquake and the Tsunami that followed it cause severe damage in Japan
• Scientists claim discovery of God Particle.
• Sarah Palin and Michele Bachman decide to stand united for the US President Elections (ok, I made this one up as a joke).

The Kids

We only need to look at our daughters to realize that time really does fly. Shivangi turned 20 years old while Neha turned 19. Wow!! 20 and 19!! Has it already been that long since I held them in my hands outside the OR’s in the hospitals in Indore?

Shivangi is now a senior at Mills College, as part of her three year dual degree program. She completes her BA in Math from Mills in 2012 and will go to USC, to complete her Industrial Engineering in another 2 years. It is such a pleasure to see her talk to people now. She likes to sit with elders and can easily hold her own in a discussion. She and I flew in to LA to visit USC, and it was a great fun trip for both of us. She has continued to be very actively involved in the local chapter of the Hindu Group (called as shakha), and is now the district coordinator (Nagar Bal Pramukh Karyavahika) for the Chapters of Contra Costa County. She also drove on her own to LA and later to San Luis Obispo, as well as to Davis and Sacramento.

Neha, turned 19 on the last day of the year. She is now a sophomore in St. Mary’s college. She will major in Bio-chemistry, and is thinking about a career in medicine, genetics or pharmacology. She also continues to be involved in the local Hindu chapter and helps in running its daily activities. She moved back home from the dorm this year, and has been commuting from home. She has started opening up in her conversations and it is a pleasure to talk to her, with her detailed insight into several subjects. She continues to be the techie of the family, and loves new gadgets. Often, she can be seen helping Nandita and Shivangi (and sometime even me) with something on our phones.

Nandita and I

Nandita and I turned into the other side of 40s. We have been married for 24 years now, and have known each other a lot longer (since 1981 -- you can read about that here). It still feels like it was only yesterday that I met her and I am just happy that we have been lucky. I’d do it again in a flash, if I had to.

Our new home, where we moved in last year in Aug has had a lot of visitors. We had friends and family visit us this year. Sinhas (Mahesh, Rani and Ameya) visited us in the summers. Sharmila Dey and her husband, Dr. Alvin Sewell spent a few days with us. Rucha, Nandita’s niece, spent her winter break with us (she is doing her masters in Arizona). Also visiting us this year were our very good friends, Alica and Jeff Sandoval, with their daughter Gabby; as well as another of Nandita’s nephew Abhijit with his family. We consider ourselves very fortunate that we have been blessed with friends and family, who feel comfortable spending time with us and consider it our honor to open up our homes to them.

Our jobs

I have continued to work at the Bank Of America in the eCommerce team as a Sr. VP and am responsible for the delivery of projects. Just the other day I was looking at the work done by my team, and the numbers were mindboggling. One of my teams is the Small Projects team – and it had close to 80,000 hours of work this year with zero defects in production. Of the 65 applications that I own, many are changing the architecture to the new state of the art technology. The three initiative teams did a fabulous job again this year (over 150K hours of work), and barring for one project that stumbled due to multiple failures, everything went like well oiled machine. I am in the process of implementing some more changes that will hopefully make things even smoother and introduce the concept of agile development to the Bank.

Nandita has continued to work as a Director in the Clinical and Technical Affairs at Coagusense. The small startup company, based in Fremont company’s product was approved by FDA and the future looks bright as orders have started coming in. I had the pleasure of meeting her CEO, and they seem to be moving in the right direction.

I also helped a neighbor and close friend with a project that he was stuck on for nearly 5 years. JP, my friend, is a graduate from IIT Delhi and IIM, Ahmadabad. It turned out that his Mother on law, and my mother were childhood friends and neighbors in Roorkee, India. Anyway, he had been working on a great product but somehow got stuck in the long-winded process. I promised to help him get the Proof of concept completed, and he is now working with investors to get the product launched. See http://redbaton.net for more details, if you are interested.

The travels

I traveled to Charlotte, NC (about 6 times) on business trips. Nandita and I traveled to Boston this year, and Shivangi traveled with me to Los Angeles.

Nandita traveled to Chicago, Iowa, Michigan, Nashville, Jackson (TN), Tupelo (birthplace of Elvis in Mississippi), Vancouver (WA), Eugene (OR), Idaho, Baton Rouge (LA). Her trips are shorter and more for trials or training of a new customer.

Nandita, Shivangi and Neha also traveled with Rucha, Nandita’s niece, for a trip of Los Angeles. They visited a lot of cool spots there.

Nandita also traveled to India to attend the last rites of her mother.

Activities

The geek in me continues to strive to learn things on my own. This year, I sought to learn a few techie things like Jooma, Drupal, wanted to write a basic app in Android and iOS. I was able to complete all these, though I wish I had more time to try out a few more things in each one. I also bought a Casio CK220 keyboard and want to record some old Hindi tunes. On top of my to-do list is to play/record/share a few of my old high school prayers. I am also hoping to get to become a decent Ukulele player, and I really want to get my hands on a sitar again.

I have also been very active as the coordinator for the Contra Costa Chapter of Global Indian Technology Professionals (GITPRO). The organization is still nascent, but already has chapters all over the world. We had 10 monthly events this year in our chapter that covered various topics like preparing for an interview, planning your career, Financial and Tax Management, Cloud Technology, Innovation, and Legal aspects of starting your own Venture etc. There is a lot more planned for this in 2012. Check it out here.

We all contributed time towards the Sewa project. That is the least we can do to contribute towards the society and community here in the US. If you are not aware, the Sewa project feeds the homeless in the People’s park every third Saturday. Volunteers from the San Ramon Hindu Shakha gather together to prepare lunch packets, that are then hand delivered to the homeless that reside in people’s park. This year, we contributed towards this at the time of my dad’s birthday/death anniversary.

Nandita continues to be involved with her writer’s club. The ladies in this club meet once a month on a Friday evening at someone’s home and read the write-ups that they have prepared. I will be posting some of these on her blog soon. She is also actively involved in the Bay Area Hindu Group, and after handling the role of Women’s Lead, she is now the Chairwoman of the local San Ramon chapter. She manages all these activities along with her job as a Director of Clinical and Technical Affairs in a medical device company. She makes effort to stay connected with her High School friends with whom she has connected after nearly 30 years and is panning a reunion for those living in US in 2012.

This year I had also initiated a plan to have a reunion of sorts of my batch-mates from my Engineering college days. We had all planned to meet in Pune, India this year in December. Unfortunately; I had to drop out at the last minute due to some personal issues. However, other people (Samir Mokashi, Monica Baser Tapadia, and Varsha Karandikar deserve special mention) stepped up to the plate, picked up the ball and planned a great event. I saw the snaps recently, and it looked like everyone that attended had a lot of fun.

On the family side, my mother is doing fine in Indore. A recent CT scan revealed that she has a grown node in her chest and some more tests are being done to identify the nature of the growth A fine needle biopsy is planned for the first week of January, and will help plan the details of the next plan of action. I am praying that nothing abnormal is detected and she continues to lead her active life style.

TV shows and Movies we saw

•   Some mentionable English movies we saw – Mission Impossible 4 – Ghost protocol, Sherlock Holmes 2 – the game of Shadows, The girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the original series – all 3 movies), Captain America, Harry Potter – Deathly Hallows 2, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Green Hornet, The Social Network.
• Hindi Movies –some old Hindi movies that we saw (and recommend) – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dhobhi Ghaat, Guzaarish 
• TV Serials we followed – House MD, Covert Affairs, Rizzolli and Isles, Bones, NCIS, Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, Person Of Interest, and Necessary Roughness.

Events we celebrated – India’s world Cup Cricket Victory. 

Some good Books we read

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl that Kicked the hornet’s nest, The girl who played with Fire, A few of Patricia Cornwell’s, Saving Fish from Drowning, and Many more. 

Shivangi -- grown up and in college

This one is something that was started by my wife, Nandita, and I have added a few lines.

My elder daughter, Shivangi, started college this week.

It has made me realize how time flies. It makes me realize how limited that duration is, when we have our children to ourselves. Soon all we're left with is all those mental vignettes and snapshots of events...I feel proud to see her blossoming into a confident young woman. Of course there will be celebrations of achievements and culminations of years of hard work - but, I'd always think of her as my little daughter.

I remember the day she was born, about eighteen years ago. We were all crowded around the doors of the Operation Room in Greater Kailash Nursing Home in Indore. After a long night of pains, my wife and I finally came to the hospital. Dr. Ahilya Mukherji was the doctor and Nandita's childhood friend, Anjali, was the assistant. After several hours of wait, they finally decided to take her in the OR to do a C-section, as the baby was getting under stress. I remember the way my father-in-law sat in a corner in the room and prayed, my dad talked to other doctors in the hospital and I paced around the floor outside the OR. At about 7.20 PM, Anjali came out and announced that every thing was ok and we had a baby girl. My first question was about my wife's health and then I went in to see my wife and my baby. There she was -- all wrapped in a bundle, quiet and sleeping. I picked her up gently and clumsily and gently kissed her forehead.

I remember the anxiety when on the third day, I came to the hospital to find her with tubes and under UV light. But it was a minor hiccup. We brought her home soon and things became a blur of activities. As my wife and I had decided, the first child was to be named with the letter S and we chose the name Shivangi - after the name of Lord Shiva, based on a dream I had had (that is a write up for another blog). Shivangi soon became the hub of all activity. She demanded attention and wouldn't let me talk to anyone if she was in the room -- whether she was eating, or drinking milk from her bottle. She'd make this weird grunting noises when I started to say something to anyone else in the room. I also can't forget the countless nights I spent walking in my room with her in my arms, in the middle of the night, so that she could get some sleep. She was adored by one and all -- and was the apple of my dad's eyes. I could sense the attachment in both their eyes when they spent the time together -- so much so that for a long time, Shivangi claimed him as only her grand-dad and Neha, my younger daughter, called him as Didi's (elder sister) grand dad.

She was smart, sensitive and perceptive even as a baby. I clearly remember her first day at the informal pre-school/Day Care behind my house, where she was the only child who was crying when it was time to come home. Then she started a formal pre-school by the name of Mini Land and once again, she frolicked in without a backward glance at us. Her eagerness to go to school persisted next year when she went to Mini Heights where she continued to amaze us with her brilliance. I also remember, that she went to give her interview for the elite private school for Kindergarten. I was so apprehensive when they took her away in a different room, but she just skipped in to match the teacher's step. When they had finished testing her reading/writing and recognition skills and it was time for her to leave, she was adamant that she had not tried all the stations they had set up. We were told that we could just pay the fees at the office and not wait for the final selection list to be posted.

I believe her endearing nature made her the teacher’s pet. She excelled at everything, sports, arts, singing, studies and making friends. I also remember the time we were called by one of her teachers and told that we should not teach her ahead as she gets bored and sits staring out of the window, chair turned back to the blackboard. When we were skeptical of what she could do, the teacher asked Shivangi to write on the blackboard and she promptly did that , explaining as she did that this was so simple. The day that she boarded the school bus for the first time, is still clearly embedded in my memory. My wife stood there, visibly upset, but Shivangi was beaming as the bus conductor took her in and, by the return trip, had made friends with the driver and was already commanding the seat closest to him. She was super excited as she told us about her fantabulous day, and never once said that she missed home. She loved to go to school so much so that one day she ran out incompletely dressed and actually went to school like that.

I remember the time she visited the hospital when Neha was born -- all of 15 months old. She was awfully quiet when she walked in the room. She just sat near Nandita, looking at her and then the new baby. But she quickly adapted, and when we brought Neha home, Shivangi would often push Neha's stroller when we went for walks. They have grown up together into great friends, talking care of each other and ready to support each other. Shivangi always showed deep affection for her younger sister, she never showed any sibling jealousy and willing shared most everything. Her academic life has followed the same high achievement trajectory laced liberally with arts, music , sports and friends. Though, she has given up formal piano lessons, but I still hear her play. She has given up tennis lessons but luckily has been selected to play in her College Tennis Team. She has given up art as a subject, but just last week, she spent a long time in making an oil painting that she gifted to her piano teacher. She is now driving herself, compared to the previous modes of walking holding my hand, walking by herself, auto rikshaw, school bus, and sitting in my car. I will no longer see her waiting to be picked up by me, rather she will get out from her car and stride confidently in.

The last 4 years were devoted towards reaching this goal and now that it is here, I have several feeling. There is however, no feeling of loss, 'cause I have not lost anything. I feel thrilled to see her just the way I had dreamed her to have grown, and yet I know that this is just a beginning of a new journey. It is just end of one chapter for now. There is more to come....

Memories of Kite flying and San Ramon Art and Wind Festival

I was at the San Ramon Art and Wind Festival today. It was a joy to see the fair and the community spending some time out in the beautiful weather on the grounds of the Community Central Park.

It also reminded me of the days I spent in India flying the kites. My father never liked my flying the kite – he was worried I’d fall over from the terrace or run myself under a truck while chasing down the road to catch a kite (and believe me, I have seen this happen a few times). In India, kite flying used to be a craze!! We would have kite fights or Painch (pronounced Pain-ch), as it was called --- where one kite would “fight” another till the string of the loser were cut and then the losing kite would float away, with a whole bunch of kids chasing the floating kite, down the road.

Obviously, every kite flyer wanted to win the fight. There were two ways to fight an opponent’s kite – either you pull a string or you let the string slide.

The “kheech” or Pull was usually favored when flying with the smaller fighters because they were lighter and more maneuverable. In this form, the agility and moderate weight of the kites, and skill of the kite flyer was more important. The kite was flown to a certain distance in the sky, about 1000 feet and usually ahead of the other fighter kites. When ready to fight, the flier then began pulling on his line as quickly as possible at the same time trying to cut any kite lines that were in the path of his line. Experienced fliers could cut the opponents line from either the top or bottom, and even from the side.

‘Dheel’ or Release cutting, letting out as much line as possible, was used more often when flying the larger fighter kites. In this form, the weight of the kite and its stability were more important. Kites were flown long distances, often well over 3,000 feet. The flier needed to keep the kite stable so that it could take out more line. The kite that could release more line quickly usually had the advantage over the other fighters.

With the larger kites, there were usually two people involved in the flying of an individual kite, and both were equally busy. While one person controlled the kite, and kept it steady, the other held the spool and was responsible for the line, making sure that there was a sufficient flow of line for the kite.

Either way, the 2 kites would move so that their strings would slide against each other, in a saw like motion. The only way to win a fight was to make a stronger string. So, we all would try and “make” the strongest “maanjha” – as the string was called to fly the kite.

To make the stronger Maanjha, either we would have to make it a smooth slider thread or make it abrasive enough to slice the other Maanjha. Maanjha is the thread line, cured with a special mix of glue and ground glass. Since a lot depends on the sharpness of the string to which the kite is attached, a lot of effort is normally put in making the maanjha. A combination of herbs, glass powder, sand and glue are applied to thick ordinary string to sharpen it. Our maanjha was made by using crushed glass mixed with glue to create a razor sharp maanjha to cut the strings of the all the enemies in the sky. To make a smoother maanjha, we would use things like okra, arbi (colocasia, taro root), apart from finely crushed glass, glue, and color etc. All the boys in the neighborhood would get together on a holiday, to make the maanjha. It was a whole day event and every one was given specific tasks – mixing color, grinding glass, moving the glass or the gliding herbs over the string as some one walked with it and moved it in the air to dry it.

Then, we climbed up to our roof top and got into kite-fights against all the other kids flying their kites from their rooftops. The sky would be filled with dozens of kites in aerial dogfight. The event was fun filled and involved the entire neighborhood. But, now that I think of it that was the way the life was then – fun-filled and something to involve the community. There was no TV, no Wii or Play Station, No computer – it was all fun and games outside the house. And I loved it – so much so that it has left an indelible mark in my memory. The art and wind festival I saw today also brought the community out and people organized picnics. There were cultural dances from all cultures -- I saw the hula, the belly dance, the bharat natyam and lot of other thing -- I enjoyed it a lot, but my childhood kite fights were more fun!!!