Thursday, April 1, 2010

Looking back at the early entries (Things I am going to miss in the US)

Here's a look at what I thought I'd miss in the US and what really happened.
  • Football - College and Pro. With the NBA, I'll still have access to the best part, the drama. But with football, I'll be missing a whole season.
    (This quote's been ringing in my head a lot - In "A few good men" when Tom Cruise tries to convince his client that he'll be home in six months, he says "Six months! It's nothing! It's a hockey season.")
    • This I really did miss like crazy. But then again, maybe it was best that I avoided watching the Longhorns followed by the Colts.
  • The Elections - This would have been a fun election to follow. I like both the candidates but they're so different. I'll miss the debates, the campaign ads etc. Theoretically I could catch them on the internet but it won't be the same.
    • Again, I missed this too and regretted it.
  • The multiplexing - Sure, there are multiplexes in India, but the people there are smart enough (or cheap enough) to have ushers at every screen, instead of one for the whole theatre. So no more jumping from show to show. For that matter with the low quality of movies (Bollywood, yuck!) and an almost guaranteed social life, I probably wouldn't want to do the hopping anyway. Nevertheless, I'll miss the two-fers, three-fers and the rare four-fers.
    • Even I couldn't have predicted how bad I missed this. Not only was I not allowed to pull any multiples, the tickets were expensive and the food even more so. DISLIKE!
(The following are things I assume will not be easily available in India, I could be wrong)
  1. Clean air - This is something I have gone accustomed to, so might be hard to do without.
    • Yes, the air wasn't clean. Particularly in Pune where it was full of dust and smoke.
  2. Absolute independence - Personalized transport, 24-hour stores, ability to do almost all transactions online.
    • Probably the worst. I was on the money with this prediction.
  3. Nuance - I might miss this the most of all. Nuance and subtlety in opinion, music, movies. Too much of "You're either with us or against us". On the other hand ...
    • I would have exchanged nuance for any discussion but that didn't happen either.
  4. Adherence to lines (queues) - Even as recently as two years ago this was pretty bad, with a lot of jostling and shoving. And I suppose I'll be exchanging my road rage for line rage.
    • Hmm, call me crazy but this didn't bother me too much. Maybe because I didn't let it bother me. Or maybe I'm misremembering.
Overall the bad was as bad as it could be. No surprise there at all. But I will say that the wonderful surprise was the good, which I did not see coming at all.

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