A Christmas in Boston

Christmas Day 2008, the Boston skies finally decided to give its citizens a break from the gloomy weather than prevailed over it for much of last week. A quick chat with Deepu ensured that the NY trip originally planned for today was thoughtfully postponed to New Year's eve and I decided to visit the Hare Krishna Temple in Boston instead.

However Lord Krishna was in no hurry to meet me today (perhaps he too wanted his day off for Christmas, I guess! :). Well, actually it was all my fault... I forgot to take the city map along with me and I presumed I will ask someone for directions to the temple once I reached Park Street. But 'Hell'Ooo!! No one told me that its Christmas eve and there will be 'no one' - absolutely NO ONE on the streets of Boston to guide me. Plus with no shops open to ask for directions, I ended up circling the blocks from Park Street to Arlington all the way to Copley Square and the Taj Hotel Boston, in a vain attempt to locate the 'Hare Krishna' temple.
Finally I found a 7-11 store run by a Indian (Bengali) family, who gladly gave me the right directions. But with an empty stomach and loads of walking around the blocks, I had run out of both patience and fuel. So, I headed back for the Marriott for a sumptuous lunch post which I cozyed myself into the extra feather bed.
By the time I woke up, the Boston sun had already bid Good Bye . Logged into my G Mail account, and there it was... a snippet from Google's Ad-sense. "Watch 'Slumdog Millionnaire' in Boston" it said. Something clicked. A quick call to the concierge for the nearest Movie theater. "1 Kendall Square Theater, Sir" came his quick reply. "Right across the Broadway, on Hampshire street, just a ten minute walk from here". In the next 15 mins I found myself zipping past Cambridge avenue just in time to catch the 7:45 PM show. And guess what, It was a House-Full! I was lucky enough to manage to get one of the last few tickets left. I expected a largely Indian crowd inside the movie hall given that it was an Indian movie and that too on a Christmas evening. But to my utter surprise the Kendall Square movie hall was full of all possible nationalities except Indians! I found myself sitting between a middle aged Korean man, a Professor at MIT on one side and a young Canadian man - a consultant with KPMG on the other. "Holy shit, This is so very funny! Where have all the Indians vanished now?" I muttered under my breath. I mean, you'll spot them literally 'everywhere' in Boston. You will find them in MIT and the Harvard Campuses as that typical bespectacled scholar, you'll find one in 7 Cambridge Center as the honest security guard, in Harvard Square as the sincere looking student, in the MBTA as an aged lady with worries clearly written over her face or in the Boston Commons Gardens as that cozy honeymoon tourist couple cuddling up on a remote bench! But they were simply not there in the theater at Kendall Square today, to appreciate a much-acclaimed Indian movie.

Anyways, I was happy I was there. To experience a thrilling cinematic experience from a filmmaker in peak form. “Slumdog Millionaire” is pure movie magic - pulsing with life, oozing authenticity and so drunk on romance that it simply has to end with an exuberant musical number. The story revolves around 18-year-old orphan Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) who is one question away from winning 20 million rupees, the top prize on India’s version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” But doubts over how he made it that far lead to his interrogation by a police Inspector (Irrfan Khan) and subsequent flashbacks to Jamal’s years as a child and adolescent in the slums of Mumbai (shot in Dharavi). In spite of the numerous flashbacks, British Director Danny Boyle has subtly ensured that the viewer does not lose focus at any point. As the movie progresses and the story unfolds, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle slowly begin to fall in place and the beauty of the movie emerges from the picutre that now stands some-what complete.

One glance at the MIT prof and the KPMG chap sitting next to me and I knew they were spell-bound by Jamal's successful journey to his destination... the love of his life, 'Latika'. And as the credits appeared, I too found myself joining the multinational, multiracial audience, giving a thunderous applause and a well-deserved standing ovation to a movie that will create impressions (both good and bad) of 'Aamchi Mumbai' like no other!

War on Mumbai

My earliest memories of the Taj Mahal Hotel are as a 6 years old on his first visit to the iconic Gateway of India. It stood there - firm and resilent, right next to the Gateway, while we enjoyed the cool Arabian sea breeze along with the Bhel Puri, a mouth-watering Indian retreat. I remember passing through its grand Ballroom years later with some of my colleagues at Capgemini. It was being decked to welcome a distinguished Russian state visitor. The Taj is a permanent association in the minds of us Mumbaikars. Last week those memories came flooding back as I watched from my Boston hotel room, and saw the iconic Taj Mahal hotel on fire.

CNN first reported that terrorists had opened fire at VT (Victoria Terminus) and I though this was just another of those 'Shoot & Run' terrorist attacks. My first response... called up my younger brother who works with a 5-Star property in Mumbai. It was later that news broke out about hostages being taken inside the Taj and Oberoi. And the rest is history... the terrorists eventually getting 'neutralized' one-by-one after a gunbattle with the elite India Commandos, in a tussle that lasted for well over 60 hours. As I followed CNN minute by minute, I was a surprised at the coverage that India and Mumbai in particular was getting all of a sudden here on the US neworks... CNN in particular. Later in the evening, when I stepped out into Harvard Sq, I saw some curious eyes around me and soon enough at the 'Market in the square' restaurant, a Japanese-American stepped up to my table and asked me with a smile "Everything fine back home"?. "Yes" I said, barely managing to smile back. I was touched by his concerns... as much as I was by the events that were still unfolding 'back home'. For they were hurting and bleeding my lovely city.

I later learnt that the attack had affected someone I remotely knew too, when we received an official mail from our alma mater that we had lost two of our alumni - juniors from the SP Jain MBA program, in the firing at Cafe Leopold. One of them I learnt, was about to get married very soon. There were many more heart rendering stories like these across all levels... from the VT Platform sweeper who died while doing his job, to the famous ET food critic who lost her life in the fires that raged on the 6th floor of the Taj.

These kinds of events though bring out the best in ordinary people. Like the brave Taj Mahal employees who risked getting shot to get guests out of harm's way. And hostages still recount stories of the bravery of their saviours, the Indian Commandos.

Post the attacks, there are clear signs tha we have reached the 'Tipping Point'. As the common man demonstrates his anger in Silent Candle lit protests, heads continue roll in the Mantralaya (the state house) in Maharashtra and politicians in New Delhi scramble for damage control policies and to come up with ways to counter this new form of Terrorism.

But we must not forget that Mumbai has the best counterterrorism policy - Resilence.

Cafe Leopold opened days after the strike and guess what it was buzzing with activity & tourists yet again. The BSE Sensex opened on Friday and closed higher. And as the American President elect Barak Obama put it in his condolence message "These terrorists who targeted innocent civilians with their hate-filled ideology will not defeat India's great democracy, nor shake the will of a global coalition to defeat them."

I have a trip to India planned soon and I will make it a definite point to visit the Taj again... just to relive those childhood memories - once again.

Long Live the Taj! Long Live India!