Life in US vs India - thru another set of father-son letters

Dear Baba,
I think a letter would be a better way to communicate about what is happening because it would stop the "aah" that always goes on whenever I call.

As school starts to draw to a close, the mischief at school peaks. As the books are taken up, the books covers are left. Students, including me, put the covers on our heads, stretch them into slingshots, or casts on our elbows ( I don't know how to do the cast yet.). Ms. W took care of that fast, handing out silent lunches to whomever does it. The talking level rises and teachers have trouble controlling it, so they threaten to take students out of Field Day. Besides all of the mischief, the teachers are still teaching.

Mrs. D- we finished probability, and we have started on solving algebraic equations. She is the only teacher who hasn't taken up our books yet. Ms. W - socializing for most, AR tests for me. Mrs. S - We will be doing a experiment on mentos and coke.

Mrs. B - she is making us do a play for a grade based on costumes,clarity, and interest. My group includes MF (Pink Baba's son), HP ( team leader in stock market competition), JT (school's best golf player) and DK (the biggest troublemaker in 6th grade). Our play is Three Billy Goats, which is about how three goat brothers outwit a troll in getting food.

Ms. H - we recently did a in class project on making a persuasive presentation. She divided us into groups - Mine was PD, PT, KJ. She told us that Hard Rock Cafe has chosen your group's city to build a Cafe. She said that we were the Chamber of Commerce for our city. We had to make a presentation on why Hard Rock Cafe should build a Cafe in our town. My group's town was Hershey, Pennsylvania. We did a movie for our presentation. At first PT was very hyper and and started laughing whenever we started filming, but later on he calmed down and we were able to capture it without any "tee hee hee."

We will have Field Day, Knowledge Bowl, and Semester Awards in the upcoming weeks.

Field Day- It is homeroom against homeroom in the entire 6th grade. The prize is a trophy awarded to the best homeroom. The events are soccer, basketball, volleyball, tug-of-war, obstacle course, sprint, and long distance running. I will be doing basketball, volleyball, and long distance running. Field Day will be on Wed, May 16.

Knowledge Bowl- My team is KS, JC, JCh, AS. Our team name is Mystery of Intelligence. We will be having the competition in May 17 and 18.

Semester Awards- I am trying to beat M in the AR competition. I have 1673 points while M has 1385 points. The points are due on May 18. I also have the highest GPA in Science. After me is AE and then M. These will be announced on May 21.

These are all going on in here. What is going on in India? Is there any improvement? Can you come home early? Also attach some pictures of your town, plant and your hotel.

With love,

P

　

Dear P

Yes it is indeed a better way to communicate -- as far as I recall this is my first letter to you.  When we were apart earlier, you were not "big" enough to write -- right? Time flies - isn't it? Another year in school already coming to an end -- I still remember ma's proud status update on facebook -- "my son coming from his first day at middle school" - and see in no time you are a 7th grader - ready to roll with 8th in Algebra, Geometry and who knows what else!!

Life at your school appears to be rollicking in the fun lane for the last month after TCAPs -- good, I think sometimes we tend to forget to unwind a little -- and unwinding is so much of a part of recharging your batteries for the tougher tasks ahead. So yes, enjoy your success in AR, Science and many other things thru out the year - enjoy your time off after this week with naan-dadan.

Just remember one thing - the laws of probability are true for everything in life, just like you have a 50% chance of getting a head or a tail on a coin toss - on any given day you have a 50% chance of being sad or happy; on any given competition you have a 50% chance of winning or losing. That doesn't mean you will not strive to be always winning and always happy -- that simply means that you should be ready for the opposite outcome to hit soon if you are being bombarded with one. It also means, learning to accept failures with an even kill as much as learning to deal with success - because both of them are inevitable and equally probable.

It's altogether a different story that as things tend to become complex, we "grown ups" tend to find a way to define a 3rd state of somewhere in-between -- shades of gray in between a black and a white. Those are the "ifs" and "buts" of life -- learning to deal with them is also another part of becoming "mature" or so they say. At some point of time, I think I used to describe it as "comic perception" -- good or bad is how one looks at it from one's own perspective. Here things in India plant are a perfect example - things are improving, slowly but surely, some think it is not yet as fast as expected! Those people are called "higher management" and some of those people are our customers -- but patience is a virtue that is not always as appreciated as it should be and people are running out of it left, right and center -- they think folks here have banked on it for too much for too long -- so it doesn't feel like a good day, every day - but I think I've learnt to deal with it and I am fine with it.

Otherwise life is full of characters and colors -- I tend to believe India is a land of contrasts - at every step someone somewhere tends to be trying to fit a square pole in a round hole - beauty is, almost always one of them gives in and things tend to settle in nicely. We in US learn to believe that's not possible, however nothing is impossible here -- my land of the unexpected, the land of eternal hope and the land of flexibility. Work wise that sometimes poses more challenges, but again dealing with them and making people understand the virtues of sometimes throwing out either the square pole or abandoning the round hole makes my day -- at the same time i should admit learning to deal with square poles in round holes is as much fun - nothing is standardized, not even McD's burgers!

Ph (or P-town as they call it here to make it sound classic!) is scenic by its own standards - surrounded by hills - sunsets are beautiful, and evenings almost always come with a nice soothing breeze. the main town center - "downtown" by your dictionary is a place not too far away from the hustle of my home town's taxistand. With its street vendors, small shops - sights, sounds and smells that only happen in an Indian evening in an Indian small town - very unique, hard to describe, but something I love to soak in. The "barbar salun" next to the "bear shoppy", the over fried "bada paws" or the stale "jalebis" - everything consumed with a lot of zest and vigor!

My hotel is a nice enough place - unlike what K uncle made it sound like before we came. Managed by a very sweetheart of a caretaker, who gets visibly perturbed if you ignore his requests of consuming breakfast that ranges from stale breads and onion pakodas early in the morning to more decent selections of omelettes, poha among other things. Dinners are fun with liberal doses of non-veg. There's a bar that boasts of "puking charge" of 50 bucks and a warning about "thod-phod" (breaking things) at actuals in big bold on its menu card -- making it sound like a more dangerous place than what it actually is...

Btw - I really liked your painting - keep writing and painting - a creative mind gives it an outlet that is very satisfying once you are done with a creation - Keep creating .......and all the best with your bowls and last week events -- I miss being there at your school for the awards - I am proud of all that my son achieved last year - keep it up!!
Love
Baba