Day 5

The apartment that I am holed up here has an absolutely fantastic view and I can see the San Francisco skyline pretty well. It's on Bush Street, close to the SF Market and also known as San Francisco downtown, really the happening place in terms of commercial and entertainment activities. It's one of the most expensive piece of properties. I spent time taking photographs of the apartment and the view from the apartment. Hope they come out pretty well.

 

It was very foggy,misty and cold this morning. It's great walking to office which is just 15 mins walk from here. Nice to see people rushing through all the way. It's highly colourful and well made place.

 

Had a post lunch walk with my Manager along the SF Bay, walked along Pier 3 and Pier 5. Got to see some historic buildings and landmarks. The whole place Bay was dotted with information pieces about SF History and old photographs. They certainly have a great sense of History out here. Learnt from the Manager that this city is one of the most beautiful places in US with a consistent climate right through the year. It's inhabitated by some of the richest Americans. Rich one's make it a point to own homes here and you'd get to see som simply amazing homes. The rest of the US I was told appears pretty much the same everywhere, except here where its' quite varied.

 

What I would remember of today would be the open cafe at the Pier and people having lunch with wines etc, the Pyramid building, and some amazing streets.

 

You do find cigarettes butts everywhere, it ain't as spotless as it appears in the American movies and tele-serials, but one thing that is missing is dust. The streets are dirty, there are butts,trash and oil stains, there are beggars(homeless) bunch outta here, but absolutely no place where there's accumulation of dust. There's nothing that flys onto your eyes and you have no kind of eye trouble. The only issue is the Sun which usually hits you right in the eye and you certainly need sun-glasses out here. No wonder they came up with Sun Glasses, branded them and sold them across the world, so much so that lot of people back home attaches Sun Glasses with style and their status, whereas its' just a neccesity here. Trust the Americans for branding and making things appear as if it's required for everyone. At heart these guys are amazing 'SALESMEN'

 

There are only two type of Indians outta here - condescending or desperate. (Karthikeyan and his Family are exceptions. They are amazingly down-to-earth, realistic and as Indian as it can get. It's a pleasure to realise that some people haven't changed. I hope they continue to remain that way. I have been fantastically greeted and handled by them all along.)

 

Most of the condescending ones are completely unhappy with themselves and yet believe that they are the best of the lot. These are the real suckers for Shah Rukh Khan/Karan Johar/Aditya Chopra crap movies. They absolutely do not hesistate to put themselves or their countries down and are totally bereft of any kind of esteem, and want to convert whatever Indianess they see around and identify that with the Americanness.

 

The second lot is the desperate lot here, trying to gain a foothold in the American Psyche and life. They can't seem to leave the Indiannes out of them, nor are willing to accept the American in them. They are neither here nor there. Neither they can identify themselves with the Americans nor they are proud of their heritage. Most of them seem to be desperate for US Citizenship and yet bemoan their life out here at every opportunity. These are the ones who, I guess would soon graduate to 'Condescion' ones, in due course of time.

 

Then there is the miniscule American Indians born and brought up here, for whom India is a distant land, who are surprised that there are more Airlines other than Jet Airways. They are surprised that Gandhi's are no way related to Mahatma Gandhi. They proclaim Non-Vegetarianism and are maintaining that without knowing why they are doing, who are not aware that there are 4 languages spoken in South India. They move along with other American Indians as confused as the rest of them, they are classic American accented Indians who are totally lost in life. They have nothing to go back to India as they haven't seen India and at the same time would never be accepted here. But then not many of American Indians go through this problem. Yet life goes on for them.