America is Manning football again, but it’s not the end of the World!

I know, I know, the topic is two weeks old. Its time to think about NBA All Stars or the Opening day! But hey, what can you expect from a multitasking mom? I am not going to talk about the shocking turnover by Giants in the 4th Quarter ( like the guys) or talk about how hot Brady is or how cute Manning is(like the girls). I loved it when the underdogs won! That’s all I am going to say about the game!
Coming back to my original point, when asked by the reporter, Burress( the guy who made the winning touchdown) made a comment about this being a World Championship! HELLO, THIS IS NOT A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP! Its just played mainly by the US of A. Maybe a couple of teams from Canada join in! But its not the whole world! They even commit that blasphemy in baseball, calling the finals the world championship. I am all for diversity and inclusion, but including a few people from outside USA does not make it a world championship. That would make the European Football League a world championship too.
The idea of seeing the world with a set of blinders is not opening up to globalization. A well-travelled American has only visited Canada and Cancun in Mexico. Maybe Paris with its Disney Land. One of my co-workers had sent me a mail longtime back( I have lost it now) about what constitutes the world for Americans. Canada to the north and Mexico to the South, Paris Disney Land to the East and Hawaii to the west. I am not stereotyping here but am talking about the average American. I have friends who are well travelled, know the world cuisines and know the diverse cultures. But for that average American, here are a few things to know before meeting the aliens who are out of your world!

1. Curry is not a spice but gravy.
2. Sushi is not hip and happening.
3. Europe has other places to visit than the Disney land in France.
4. Football (as in soccer) came way before your version of the football.
5. Islam is not the only religion apart from Christianity.
6. My black hair does not give you the opportunity to speak Espanol with me.
7. I can eat chicken and fish but I might not eat beef or pork.
8. Not every Orient is a Chinese.
9. And yes I can speak English; in fact the Queen’s own way.
10. And finally, not every turban-wearing guy is a terrorist.

Its tough to be inclusive, but isn’t it a good thing to be assimilated in the melting bowl for the sake of fine taste. That’s what your forefathers did and that’s what I am trying to do now. So embrace my Diwali diyas just as I have embraced your holiday lighting.Let me end with the Wal-Mart Smiley, which we all can love, or hate.

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The Caste System in Corporate America

With the Iowa caucuses round the corner, the discussions are not about issues like Iraq and rising medical costs anymore. It's about "Who is the most likeable candidate?" or "Is a woman able to rule the country?" or " We have the most diverse groups of candidates". And I would like to ask "HOW DOES IT MATTER?" .If the candidate gets the job done, then how does it matter if he was a she, or if he is an African American or if he practiced an unknown form of Christianity. America is considered one of the most developed nations in the world and I see it going back to the pre-historic human roots day by day.
When I came to this country, I thought, "Wow this is the land of diversity. After all, this is the land that was formed by the immigrants. Isn't this the country, which allowed Indra Nooyi to walk in her first interview in a sari? How intolerant can these people be?" Then I joined Business School and I was told by a person in the community who went to the same school "You are fighting three odds. You are not a white, you are a woman and you don't have an American accent." And my husband still tells me, "Did you think they gave you that admission in business school because of your essays? No dear, its just based on the money you had in your bank account!!"
I realize it everyday when I see people around me how the caste system works here. The caste system, in the past drew the guidelines around people in a certain profession. The educated one was the Brahmin, the warrior the Kshatriya, the business man the Vaishya and everyone else in other profession was considered the Sudra. Don't you see it happening around you in the work culture here? The white American is the manager, the Indian or the Chinese the techie and the Mexican the blue-collar worker. When the companies take a picture of their corporation to showcase, they surely have the white CEO with an African American, a Chinese and an Indian in the background and then they add a Hispanic too to the mixture and one among them is surely a woman. "NO, NO WE ARE NOT SEXISTS AND WE BELIEVE IN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY" the picture seems to portray.
You may call me a cynic and say, "Oh c'mon, you are stereotyping now. The top 100 companies to work for are pretty diverse." Oh yes, they sure are. They will surely have some women and African Americans in the Executive Management and call themselves diverse. They come to universities and proclaim, "Oh we are pretty diverse" They will also bring one of their diverse employees with them. And you think," Wow, I should work for THIS company." No dear, you should not think about it. If you are an Indian then you have to be a finance guru or a tech genius to go up the management ladder. But still can you break the glass ceiling, I wonder.
Until you have perfected the American accent, or you can go and drink in the bar at the happy hour, you my dear, can only dream to remain the Software Architect in your company. Soft skills are important, they will tell you at business school. But can soft skills run the outsourced America? Maybe its time to think about it, along with those weakening Math and Science scores.

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I so need to have that in my closet coz its on Sale!

Look, Lorax, I said.
There's no cause for alarm.
I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm.
I'm being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed.
A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!
It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat.
But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that.
You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets!
Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!
The Lorax said,
Sir! You are crazy with greed.
There is no one on earth who would buy that fool Thneed!

I love listening to the quirky Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal He ungeeks the Wall Street into layman's terms and that's why I love him. Ok, not the romantic kind , but more like "I love the Black Forrest cake" kind. So last week he came to do a panel discussion at school and since the school sucks at catering to the working students like us, I couldn't attend the discussion on "Is Consumerism Sustainable?"
"There she goes again," the people who know me would say ."Her green blah blah blah." Why not?
Why should I not worry when crude is at record high, the dollar is going down the US economy drain and Al Gore and his cohorts won the Nobel for a powepointsy film that they created(God, he is so overrated)?
Why can't you and I buy a pair of jeans less coz they are on sale?
Why do you have to run after brands as if nothing else matters in the world( tee hee, this coming from an aspiring brand manager)?
Grrrr, why can't you recycle when you have that green bin right in your garage( it takes 10 minutes a week, the time to apply a fresh coat of polish to your manicured nails or less than the halftime in your NFL game)?
Can you keep consuming and expect that you still leave a breathable and affordable world for your grandkids?
A few things that I learnt from the marketplace report called "Consumed".

1. If everyone in the world consumed like the average American, we'd need about six Earths to sustain ourselves.
2. Today, we're consuming about 30 percent more trees, fish and fossil fuels than the planet can regenerate.
3. Nineteen percent of the children in Long Beach, which is close to the mouth of US consumerism -Rotterdam port, have been diagnosed with asthma -- that's nearly double the national rate.
4. Since we have moved from a fixable to a disposable society , the few available fix it people cost us more.
5. A University of Arizona study found that each of us throws away more than a pound of food every day: half a hamburger here, an unused container of sour cream there... so what if the children on the other side of the world are malnutritious.

Ok people, I won't sermonize further. I just leave you with the little Green Book on the fifty tips to consume a little less and leave a better footprint.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, consume and trash a little less this year. Aren't you thankful that you have breathable air? :)
Until next time.
Tania

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