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I am descended from India. A land of great mystery and charm. A land of great paradoxes where skyscrapers meet slums and cows roam around technology research labs. A land of beauty & mystery, filled with paradoxes. It does make things interesting. "East is East and West is West The twine shall never meet The worst in the West is Better than the best in the East" So sang English poet Rudyard Kipling in the last century. For him East meant India where he worked for the British Empire. Things have changed. If he visited India now, he would not have written the same again. The people who were enslaved by the British for over two centuries, who became poor because their wealth was plundered by the colonial masters, are slowly returning to the glory of the olden times. Its a great place to visit and roam. Get acquainted with India. You can take a look at the people of india, the geography of India, its rich history with numerous wars and tremendous strife and it's industries. I was born on the 8th day of September 1978 in the historic and romantic city of Agra which houses one of the seven wonders of the world. I actually didnt live too long there and moved to another historic but less romantic :) city called Gwalior in the largest state in Central India. However for most of my life I have lived in the hustle bustle of India's commercial capital Bombay. Its a lovely place right next to the Arabian Ocean and full of cool things to do. The city never sleeps. Its actually a miniature New York. I do feel right at home in New York coming from Bombay. Interestingly even Bombay consists of many islands. There is not an equivalent of Times Square yet though :(. Bombay too has an interesting history. Read it. My parents are from two different (i mean really different) places in India. My father is from the state of Assam...A small , sleepy but very beautiful state tucked away in the far east of India. Actually if you go there you do feel you have reached South East Asia due to a high Mongoloid influence in the demographics. Assam is called the land of magic because most colonists who ventured there met some calamity. The vast tropical jungles, mountains and rivers further enhanced this image of mysteriousness. The history of Assam is very fascinating and very separate fom the rest of India. This month I actually met a few members of this small community in North America in New York. Assamese in North America though small numbers in numbers, are highly educated and work in primarily scientific fields. Assamese culture is very distinctive having been influenced by the South East Asia (Mongoloid) and well as North-Central Asia (Aryan)...makes and interesting mix. Assamese is the eastern-most language of the Indo-European family of langauges. It is spoken by about twenty million people in Assam on both banks of the mighty Brahmaputra.(unfortuantely i am not one of the twenty million though i can speak to save my life). It has an illustrious written history going back almost a thousand years. The Assamese language grew out of Sanskrit, the ancient language of the Indian subcontinent. However, its vocabulary, phonology and grammar have been substantially influenced by the original inhabitants of Assam, such as the Boros and the Kacharis. I actually lived in the capital city of Assam - Guwahati for a few years. Thats the time I learnt the little of the language that I know. My mother hails from the Northern Indian State of UP. Uttar Pradesh(UP) is the most populous state of India and indeed its population seems to spill over to the rest of the country. I would call it the state of politicians. In UP, politicians grow on trees. However UP has a rich heritage. Its full of interesting temples and very varying people and languages. The culture is highly diversified. So many types of people in so many towns and cities right from the icy Himalayas to the hot indian plains. Signing off....more later
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