A Week in Words

It's really hard for me to sum up this past week…trying to come to terms with Dada leaving us, yet still not being able to get my head around the fact that he's actually gone (I think it will only really sink in when I go home and find him missing), trying to keep up with all the demands of "normal" life – work, class, assignments, events, social interaction – with my heart not quite in any of it. This Wednesday evening I feel strangely exhausted and it's not sleep that I'm lacking.

I'm a month into the Washington experience and there are some things I am quite sure of – DC doesn't quite make it to my list of favorite cities, there are no "DCers" because no one is really from here and does not become from here within a few months of living here (which, I believe, is quite the contrary in the case of New York). The Metro is clean but expensive and under-utilized (in other words, I can deal with genetically mutated rodents and trash as long as I can ride for $2 and go anywhere, anytime). I know you think I'm just a New York snob and I'll even admit to it but I really wanted to give this city a month to redeem itself and though it has the museums and the monuments and some cool hangouts, it's the basic culture here that doesn't appeal to me.

This notion of culture is hard to define, very fluid, and transient, and has little to do with the number of cultural happenings or the amount of cultural diversity that exists here. It's something about the people, the way they walk their walk, talk their talk, and contribute their city's image as a whole, an image that is projected to the world and an impression that is left upon those who visit or move here. In the world view, New York epitomizes America, the American dream embodied by those skyscrapers that serve as headquarters to the financial bigwigs, the Statue of Liberty holding out the promise of freedom and liberty, welcoming everyone to this land of immigrants, even Times Square, the epicenter of crude commercialism and brash advertising stunts. But to a New Yorker, there is New York City and then there's the rest of the country – Times Square doesn't find a place on your mind map, the skyscrapers are just office buildings, one of them being your workplace, and the Statue of Liberty was last visited years ago when you had cousins visiting from Timbaktu. The culture of the city lies on its streets, in its filthy subway stations and on its 'pre-historic' train cars, each street corner's donuts-and-coffee man and halal chicken-and-rice cart is a vendor of the city's culture, the blank stares, the unwritten rule of don't look anyone straight in the eye, yet the feeling of security, a sense of safety when surrounded by the masses. And everyone knows how un-representative of America the masses and mentalities of NYC are.

Switch to DC – in the worldview it's the Capital of the U.S.A., home to the White House, Mr. President and his aides (the 70+ white male crew), Senators, and Congressman (and some Congresswomen too). For all its institutional strength, the city has little to offer in terms of a sense of warmth and security, the masses are missing and anyone who is even mildly economically privileged lives in Virginia or Maryland, drives a car, and scoffs at the metro system. By night, the offices are closed, the streets are deserted, and the homeless seek shelter just outside La Maison Blanche. I'll give it some points for Georgetown and Adams Morgan but those two alone cannot make up for the severe lack of life elsewhere. DC is mostly a 9-5 city that seriously lacks an all-pervasive, common, binding culture to hold it together before breakfast and after dinner.

Its time to talk about something rather interesting that I attended last Friday on The Hill. I got to work at 9 and there was an email about a Bible study class by the Chaplain of the Senate. Quite intrigued by this, I decided to attend and find out what it was like. The turnout was pretty good and the Chaplain was a charming, witty preacher and talked about how evil creeps into our lives and how we can avoid being tempted by it. We read passages from the Bible and he supported them with anecdotes from his life and the lives of others he had encountered during his career. Now, all that is well and good but I'm curious to know why there is an Office of the Chaplain of the Senate when there is supposed to be a separation of church and state? Also, if there is a Chaplian of the Senate holding Bible study classes, is there a Rabbi of the Senate or an Imam of the Senate? Food for thought…and investigation!

This evening in the House there was a performance by a Latin Grammy award-winning artist from Colombia, Petrona Martinez. I suggest you check her out on YouTube, she is 69 years old but her onstage energy is amazing and the music is a unique blend of African beats and sounds with Spanish lyrics. I went to a reception after which wasn't really memorable save the chocolate dipped strawberries!

Tomorrow I start my French class at the Alliance Française here. It's only two hours a week but I am in urgent need of it since I've been back from Paris for over a month now and have missed the language (and slowly started to lose it!) There are a bunch of great francophone events at the Alliance and around which are all on their website. I'll try my best to make it to most, and I will most certainly take advantage of the library's DVD rental department. After Oscar night, I can't wait to watch "La vie en rose," so that will be my first rental (unless someone else took it out – very likely). Anyhow, I have a long list of "Must Watch" French films that I will work with till I find one that I really, truly like. So far almost every French film I've watched has been awfully predictable, lacked originality and substance, and bordered on boring. I think I'm ready for the treasures now!

My foreign policy paper on Burma requires some serious reading, research, and interviewing – all of which I need to get to this weekend! How does life get so busy? Oh Wordsworth, you were so right –

"What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?"

In Memory

I awoke to the sound of my sister's sobs at the other end of the telephone. "Dada died this morning," she said and I could not believe what I had just heard. For both of us, sitting thousands of miles away from home, we feel helpless, overcome with grief and a terrible sense of loss. Till today we had been proud, fortunate, blessed to have all four grandparents, each of who has played such an important role in our upbringing. And then so suddenly, so unexpectedly, without any form of warning or notice, we are forced to come face to face with what we know is inevitable and are yet so ill prepared to deal with. As Dada's last rites are performed in India, I cannot help but think back on all those happy moments we spent together – learning how to putt in his front garden, resisting his "forced" second helping of everything at the dinner table but then just giving up and chowing it all down, trying to understand and share in his pride and love for that good old Fiat, grocery shopping at Jagat Singh and Punjab Stores, making fun of the Johal family sleeping syndrome, hearing "thand pai gayi" everytime we hugged, encroaching on his wardrobe, even trying to get a word in during one of Dadi Dada's infamous bickering sessions… In the midst of all these tears, this pain, and the array of emotions I seem to have no control over, my thoughts are with Dadi who has lost her companion of well over 50 years. Last month, the day before I left India, as we all lunched together on "chana-kulchas" in Dadi's bedroom, Dada looked healthy and happy, his cheeks rosy and his skin glowing in the abundant sunlight that streamed through the room's many windows. He promised to take good care of Dadi and a grand reunion was scheduled for May...when Mannat and I do come home this summer, and for all these months in-between, the memory of Dada will constantly be on our minds, and we will miss his presence deeply. May his soul rest in peace. The only consolation, if any, that we can offer ourselves at this point is that Dada lived a full life, saw his grandchildren quite grown up, and did not suffer on a hospital bed during his final days. He left us just how he would've wanted to – quickly and quietly, following his daily routine, in his own home. But that hardly numbs our pain. This past weekend, my mother's cousin passed away in New Delhi as she was undergoing treatment for a recently diagnosed cancer. Her children are only a couple of years older than me and I can't even begin to imagine how they feel having lost their mother so suddenly, and at such a young age. Her immediate family is in my thoughts too, may God give them the strength to get past this. I'm sitting in my room, watching the snow fall outside; the flakes glide to the ground, enveloping everything in a spotless, white blanket. I want to be buried under this blanket, and when I awaken, I want all this to have been an ugly nightmare that sends shivers down my spine but can be quickly forgotten over the early morning cup of tea. However, I know this is no dream, that an irreversible loss has occurred, and that when I look at the starry sky tonight I will think to myself – "Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy."

When Work and Weather act Wonky!

It is positively disgusting outside – those itsy bitsy high velocity, low intensity, party popping, never stopping raindrops that freeze when they touch down, coating every square inch, causing you to slip and fall even before you can even think – urgh! Such are the adverse conditions we are dealing with here in DC while the New Yorkers 'enjoy' mounds of crunchy white fresh fallen snow, and a white valentines!

So strange that all week I seem to have things to write on this blog but by the time I actually get down to typing it, my brain goes into 'sleep' mode. Honestly, I just want to get to the two final episodes of HBO's Rome (Season 2). Any followers of the show would know exactly how I feel at this critical juncture (for the uninitiated/not so intuitive – I feel like abandoning this blog and popping that DVD into my comp!). Before you form any impressions (i.e. he would abandon creative communication in favour of ogling at the idiot box?!) let me make it clear that I AM NOT some TV junkie, actually I DO NOT watch TV at all. Even if I really wanted to follow a show, given my extremely unpredictable schedule with its minute-to-minute changes, I never really could. Being home at the same time, two weeks in a row is quite impossible. Hence I allow my friends and family to 'gently coerce' (paradox?) me into watching the truly exceptional, usually by way of DVD. Last Christmas (Dec 2006), my darling friend Inna visited me in India, bringing me Rome Season 1 and that's when I got hooked...

Went to an excellent panel discussion yesterday titled "Re-Calculating Annapolis," and I thought the ideas thrown around by the panelists were markedly different from the usual rhetoric on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The consensus, if anything, was that time is not on our side and what is required is fast action addressing the plight of the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who are living in an "open air prison" with something like 80% unemployment and 70% dependence on aid from international organizations. A situation as hopeless as this would only breed fundamentalism, and the threat of radical action arising from this region has the potential of triggering a full scale war in the Middle East. I won't go into the specific recommendations that were discussed but I'd be happy to talk about them with anyone who's interested...I took diligent notes!

Today, however, I was assigned the cumbersome, mind-numbing task of data entry that I performed as per command but struggled to conceal my misery! Every half an hour or so, I needed a 5-10 minute breather, some food for thought, just to ensure my brain was still performing its thinking function and had not turned into some mechanical reading-typing-clicking apparatus. I made it through today but there's just another gazillion responses to log :(

One 'victory' this week – I managed to take the placement test at the Alliance Française French Institute, DC and register for a class there, starting February 25. It's been three weeks since I made that transatlantic voyage back from Paris, but I think about it every single day...from the petit café and pain au chocolat for breakfast to the sheer variety of architectural styles on display just en route from my apartment to class (I almost completely abandoned the metro after the first month...Paris is meant to be enjoyed on foot!). Well i've been feeling the need to re-kindle my relationship with France but being in DC the best I can do is Alliance. I'm hoping this will keep my language skills alive and well-exercised and possibly further my written and conversational capabilities. Goal: Achieve fluency before graduating college.

I formulated some hefty goals for my TWC Learning Objectives Statement, I think I need to print it out and stick it on the fridge just to remind myself of what i've promised to accomplish. You know what, I'm going to take them on with the greatest amount of positive energy I can muster and see where things go from there!

Hmph...I think for once in my life I'm running out of things to say (Don't you get the feeling that today is Marc Anthony's day?!). So I'm going to put my virtual pen down, only to pick it up exactly where I left off, next week, same time, same place. Hence lets cut to the chase –

Happy Valetines Day! Happy Presidents Day!

This weekend I'm off to New York City...hope you have something better in your kitty ;)

(ok this really has got to stop NOW)

Tchau Tchau Tchau








My notion of "Health Food"













Lazy Sunday leads to Busy Monday!

A Washington Week

"Why don't each of you tell me about a uniquely Washington incident you witnessed or experienced in the past week," said Professor Henderson to kick off our U.S. Foreign Policy seminar class last evening. Like all of the Professor's other questions, this one got me thinking. And I concluded that I'd had a week packed with "Washington experiences" – for one, I work in the U.S. Capitol complex (only in Washington!), I attended congressional briefings and committee hearings on issues ranging from the current electoral crisis in Kenya to threats to U.S. security, I watched Super Tuesday coverage like my life depended on it (I guess in some ways it does!), I heard social and political activist and ex-presidential candidate Ralph Nader speak at The Carnegie Institute, I discussed and debated diplomatic and military strategies for the U.S. to pursue in Pakistan (the foreign policy course again), and I gave the best condensed city tour to my friend Julie who had an 8 hour layover in DC, flying from New York City to Sao Paulo, Brazil!

Lunch time walk around work

Ready to give Julie a condensed yet comprehensive dose of D.C.

All my Ralph Nader pics came out too dark to put up but I do have this one of the Carnegie Institute's ceiling depicting the lunar cycle.

Mom made it her business to forward the link to this blog to a bunch of family all over the globe and I actually followed in her footsteps by forwarding it to some of my friends :) She also told me that my profile photo looked like it had been taken through a "special effect lens" and though i'm not quite sure what that means, knowing mother she probably just doesn't like it too much. Well, sorry to break it to ya here mommy but whatever's on now, stays. Unfortunately this isn't your conventional instantly editable, adaptable, updatable blog – it is administered through The Washington Center and although we are offered complete freedom in terms of choice of subject matter and expression, I personally have no access to my blog to make changes. I think its an interesting photo though, mostly because there's a story to go with it. It was taken less than two months ago in Fès, Morocco just a couple of hours before my flight back to Paris. I am in the courtyard of a 'medersa' or Islamic theological school where, shortly after this photo was clicked, I had an hour long conversation with a student about Islam, Christianity, religion in general, the existence of God. While I was looking around he sat there singing verses from the 'Qur'an' and when I was done and sat down for a personal, pensive moment he approached me to find out where I was from and what had brought me to that most enchanted of cities, Fès. Conversation flowed but the fast approaching moment of departure compelled me to cut short our back and forth, leaving him with only my email address. With all the action that ensued in the latter part of December and the entire month of January, this whole episode was buried deep down in my oversubscribed memory bank until just the other day when I logged myself into MSN Messenger only to discover a new friend request – one of those "magical" technology moments :)

I just received an email from one of my high school teachers, Kenyan by birth but living and working in India. He is in Kenya right now, witnessing first hand all the post election rioting and violence on the streets. He is scheduled to fly back to India soon and I hope he makes it back alright. However, I am deeply concerned about his family and friends who reside there, in the midst of all the unrest and instability. Sitting in a briefing room in DC listening to an expert sum up the conflict and suggest a course of action is quite literally a world away from living with it unfolding in your own backyard.

Last Friday as I browsed through the racks at Barnes and Noble, "Into the Wild" by Jan Krakauer caught my attention. Sean Penn's new movie with the same title is on my must-watch films list but as a general rule, its better to read the book before/instead of watching its cinematic rendition (as always there are some exceptions – "The Namesake" for one). About a 100 pages into the book I'm finding it really hard to put down. I am not going to give anything away but I feel obliged to share a snippet. In the words of 24 year old Christopher Johnson "Alex" McCandless:

I'd like to repeat the advice I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

Read his words once again.

Till next week,

Rattan

P.S. – For my local food buffs, Oyamel (http://www.oyamel.com/) at 401 7th Street NW is a must try out (I say Sunday brunch is a good time to go). This 'cocina mexicana' is a haven for everything authentically Mexican from fish tacos (Pescado Mexicano) to cactus, guacamole, and even grasshoppers!

Reflection, Expression, Transmission, Transition: Week 1 in the Capital

I just got my suitcase! After a week and a half on the phone with baggage officials at Continental Airlines, three change of addresses (Paris to New York to Washington DC), one incorrect bag being delivered to me, some shopping in moments of desperation (I had no underwear!), and losing almost all hope of being reunited with my belongings, I have today been, to say the least, pleasantly surprised. Well, the suitcase is broken and I still have an account to settle with Continental, but those things can wait till this sudden surge of positivism gets me through writing this all-important first blog.

Friends, acquaintances, adversaries, enemies, even stalkers (now I’m just flattering myself!), welcome to DC Diaries! We all made this journey to the nation’s capital looking for something. Personally I’m here because after spending six months in Europe “studying” abroad, I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting through 15 credit hours of class each week and working in an on campus office. I was looking for a transitional experience, something novel that would be different from both the study abroad experience as well as the rut of conventional college. This is where I find myself today – early to bed (midnight, 1 a.m. latest), early to rise (6:30, 7 a.m. latest), suited, booted, and seated behind a desk in a Congresswoman’s office on The Hill from 9-5. It’s been three days since this routine started and I’m already starting to doubt my capability to perform at a desk job. My system demands movement – eyes and ears (fine, I confess I can’t really move my ears, but I know someone who can!), legs and feet, even do the unique Indian headshake (a non-committal side to side wobble that could be interpreted as a yes, a no, a maybe, an I don’t know...!) So tomorrow I shall consider it my right to periodically get up, walk around the office, through the corridors of the building, and perhaps even catch some fresh air outside. I wonder if anyone ever thinks to walk through the beautiful gardens surrounding the U.S. Capitol – they’re there to be enjoyed and I plan on doing just that (Sun God willing).

This isn’t my first time in DC – I was here just over two years ago for a conference but never really got to do the sightseeing bit. I still haven’t and now that I’m here for a while, I know I won’t get to it till the very end. I’ll panic just when I’m about to return to New York without having visited the Lincoln Memorial or the National Gallery of Art and then there’ll be some whirlwind monument visiting. I have, however, observed some things with my city scanning, closet urban planning eyes. As a city, there is something inherently inorganic about Washington DC. It is a place that was identified by political leaders and developed by architects and planners to be the capital of the United States of America. Yes, it is indeed situated on the banks of a river and that may cause some of us to confuse its origins with those of the other great capitals of the world – Rome, Delhi, Paris, London, even New York City, but the creation of Washington DC is all too recent and well documented for any such ambiguity to exist. However, that certainly doesn’t mean there isn’t enough to do here, or that it lacks culture, character, or class (Dubai anyone?!). My trip to Georgetown over the weekend revealed some breathtaking houses, interesting shopping, a thriving university campus, and a wide variety of excellent culinary options.

(The jewel in Georgetown's crown...and my potential Grad school!)

(THE Exorcist Stairs--comfortably tucked behind a gas station.)

You will notice that this blog will very quickly turn into a food forum and I shall bring you my DC resto recommendations, suited to all kinds of tastes and tantrums. That stems, of course, from a personal obsession with food that seems to find its way into everything I do. I will try my best to keep it from becoming psychobabble, though oftentimes it is what we say in a thoughtless moment that is most interesting and amusing to others.

Basically, I’m hungry for comments – curses, disses, praise, criticism, appreciation, applause, expressions of boredom, disgust, or just plain frustration – any form of attention really. Need I say/ask more?

Eat to live. WRONG! Live to eat ;)