My first flight
in my life was to America. I had a rough flight with many
flights missed and couple unplanned overnight layovers. I retired to a memorable
dinner of salmon on a bed of rice at a Ramada Inn near Chicago airport. My
first dinner in America. In the morning, I woke up to a view of Dunkin Donuts.
It was fascinating to know that Chinese
language is pictorial and goes top to bottom. I was taken by ancient travelers
too – eg Hiuen Tsang, a Chinese
traveler to India. Greek Mythology with so many stories enchanted me as
a kid.
The first I heard of America is through
Hiawatha, Washington Booker, San Francisco bridge stories in high school. Tom
Sawyer and Mark Twain. Later in undergrad, I read about it in Harvard Business
review. One article that is still in my mind is about the last mile problem for
postal delivery. I also learned about America through movies – Never Ending
Story, Invisible world documentary, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy as a
child. Later on weekly movies at college – The X files, Rush Hour, Dante’s
peak, whatever HBO played.
During undergad, when the library was molting
and shedding of some of its books, I bought a German and Japanese language
book.
I set sail to America to pursue Masters in
Electrical Engineering. During Masters, I interacted with a Japanese student
and a sweet Samoan girl who introduced me to baloney but couldn’t eat the
carrot halwa I made.
During an internship while pursuing
Masters, I went on a week-long trip each to Shanghai and Singapore as part of
the Corporate Leaders program. In Shanghai I bought
a book to learn Chinese. I took the bullet train, saw amazing gymnastics and
met with students from Europe, China and Singapore. We heard some lectures at a
Finance University.
Now I have an Italian and Spanish
dictionary too. I got to indulge in some reading during my first job, where I
stayed by myself – Catcher in the Rye, Great American novels, Guy Maupassant
stories.
I have been taken by Japan due to its many
management terms – Kaizen, Kanban. Ikigai.
At work, we work with colleagues from
Romania. My boss is Korean which started my interest in Korean movies.
When I travel to my home country, the
flight movies is my best way to catch up with foreign movies – French, Italian,
Japanese. I also watch travel documentaries.
I read a lot of books on different
cuisines and parenting in different cultures. In India, I had only tried
Indo-Chinese. Later, I realized that was a special cuisine from Schezuan and
that there is more to it. After coming to America, I have been introduced to
Mediterranean, Mexican, Thai, Irish and many other cuisines. Lately, I am into
fitness and love Muay Thai. I am now curious to know about how different
cultures exercise or keep fit.
I also like art. I read a lot books on
Korean, Palestinian, African arts.
For me the bigger world is a great place
of amazing literature, cuisine, arts and culture.
