"Pothole-Side Exclusive"

Because I didn't post when I got back from my India trip let's all pretend I was just there yesterday ok? OK? Work with me people. This is not my real job.

I know I'm back home (not India home) when I hear three young Indian girls discuss how Rita at Seema's threading salon completely botched her eyebrow. "She was just so bad yaar."
This was the Path train. New Jersey. Love it. Doesn't make me miss home as much now does it?

India was amazing as always. Yes that's where I' ve been. Yes yes I know
the internet connection speeds have greatly improved now but I was on vacay
"yaar". Far too busy stuffing my face with mamma's cooking and "crisp butter
naans" :)

Oh where do I start? It feels like a year ago already. The pulse of India
is thumping so fast and so loud I can't keep up. No one can. You go there
expecting change, knowing it will be different than last time, different than when you lived there, different than ever.

You've heard about the new malls, the latest lounges, the
hip new restaurants...heck even sushi bars, the ever exploding and explosive traffic, spewing cars and filth into the summer sky, but you don't know anything until you're right there. Literally taking it all in. Carbon monoxide and Bipasha Basu's ever-shrinking hemlines. All in the same nano-second.

But the change is not purely a physical one. Physical change is expected of a booming, expanding economy, it is the other change that is hard to digest. The change in the minds, the mindsets, the spirits of the people. It is the change that is evident in a new generation, armed with much skill and money, power and confidence, optimism and a not just hope but certainty. This new generation knows what it takes to succeed and boy are they working hard to get it.

From the call center 'kids' to the IT 'villages' thriving with cerebral activity, India is literally bursting at the seams. In a very good way and in a very scary way. One way are the youth running on UK time or American time, UK accents or American accents, Guess jeans and Esprit watches and the other way bedraggled children, splashing about in potholes, who will never read or write but beaming none-the-less. Not to trivialize their woes but at least they'll have cell phones! Everybody in India has cellphones. Stay "tuned" for more "pothole-side exclusives". *Big Eye Roll*