The small plane in which we (a group of half-sleeping, half-scared -and one puking - Japanese passengers plus me) were flying back from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas was being tossed around in the strong winds and air pockets. The tourism insights coming over the headsets talked about the difficult times faced by the initial western settlers (invading marauders would be the term most suitable here) who had to fight the natives who were hostile. This sounds like it was the fault of the natives. If only they had welcomed these guys with open arms instead of being hostile, they might not have been wiped out from all these places (like Bush says, "I won't let rogue nations hold us hostile"). The curio shops in the places I went were selling among other Native-American artefacts (probably made in China, again, like supreme-leader Bush says, "The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country"), amulets, pendants etc., designed to protect you from evil. It definitely didn't prevent the Europeans from almost running them to extinction and taking their land. Some protection!
Coming back to the airplane topic. This is a really small plane and looks like a slightly big remodelled Bajaj back engine auto-rickshaw with propellers, but with comfort levels closer to or less than a Kerala Automobile front-engine rickshaw on a pot-holed back alley in Cannanore. Before take-off, the 1st officer (which roughly corresponds to the 'Kili - the cleaner and door man' in private buses in Kerala) gives the regulation announcements smiling and looking only at me as he realised I'm the only one who could make head or tail of whatever he's blabbing. "Hello everybody, I'm your first officer. Federal regulations blah, blah, seat belt blah, blah, blah, emergency blah, blah." A few of my co-passengers replied with a hearty "Haro" and there was lot of laughing and smiling and general happiness going around. Till that time, when on the way back we hit those clouds and air pockets. Then, barring a couple of guys like me (who probably enjoy jet coasters and stuff like that) out of the 20 people on board, most were searching for something to hang on to and some were reaching for the puke bags. Anyway, our rickshaw driver and Kili managed to land safely, one wheel at a time.
Which brought us back to one of the greatest tribute to human greed for quick and easy money - Las Vegas. This place had 36 million tourists last year, of which 6 million were from outside US, has some of the world's biggest hotels and casinos and contrary to what travel brochures say, I think, bad food and probably a lot of wasted food per day which might feed a few African countries or a Kalahandi for a few months. There is an Eiffel tower, there is New York, there is a pyramid, and there is a Venice with indoor canals (that don't smell!) and gondoliers in gondolas (with motors!).
Magnificent. Magnificently fake, like the smiles on the scantily clad buxom women dispensing free drinks to people like me gambling away our petty dollars hoping greedily for that quick money.
After spending a few days and dollars in fake-land we moved to California where lot of Indian knowledge (?) workers contributing to the new economy were feeling totally at home. The richest state in the richest country in the world (California - if it had been an independent country would be the world's 5th or 6th largest economy) was experiencing Power Cuts. This, as you all know, is a phenomenon we thought happened only in places like Kerala and Karnataka. Apparently, like the great sage, the man simply known as 'The Leader' (no, not Bush nor Kim Il Sung, this time) to his legions of followers -K.Karunakaran- when asked about corruption in his government, said "Corruption is an universal phenomenon", power cuts too seems to be a universal phenomenon. A few communal clashes, a bit more filth, a few more potholed roads and bit more corruption and we can annex California as our newest state, that is, if the Mexicans don't take it before us.
Back in Tokyo, my predictions of the end of winter was a bit hasty. It snowed twice after that and it's still not warm enough to put away the jackets, even though the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. In the US, they have a day called Groundhog Day -Feb 2- when they bring out (it's supposed to come out naturally, I think) this groundhog (a hibernating rodent) and if this rodent sees its shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Maybe, I should have tried to find some hibernating rodent, but in Tokyo, where 99.9% of the land is under concrete slabs, it's a difficult proposition. Next time, I'm going in for modern means. I'll see if the metro train sees its shadow when it comes out of the underground near my station.
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