Travels through America - Deep Thoughts

Traveling through America is like sailing over an ocean of uniformity, variety, colour and prosperity. From the green fields and hundreds of lakes of the Mid West, to the warm climate and tall trees of Georgia, to the silver sands and sun drenched beaches of Florida, the visuals are breathtaking. The country, born out of a spirit of movement, is tailor-made made for easy travel. Little conveniences like cup-holders in every car to the Internet letting you plan the entire trip at home. Purchase a train tickets from Amtrak.com or book an airline seat, down to seat number and kosher-meal from travelocity.com. Or print-out the map and detailed driving instructions, from door to door, from Expedia.com. Even buy a car of your choice, new or old, from Car.com. The first 100 miles let you understand the science of interstate roads, exits and toll roads; and in next 100 miles, you become expert on camping sites, rest areas and parks. The night fall sees you parking in front of your motel room for an early morning take off. The gas stations are your oasis.

But more than just the visuals, there is something else that touches even deeply. There is an invisible, but palpable, air of freedom and fairness. Every one follows the same rules and there is a recognition; and value to human endeavor and enterprise. A young student sells his web site to ’Amazon.com’ for around a million; and Microsoft buys off Bhatia’s Hotmail.com for shares worth $400 million. May be the big city folks like New York or Chicago are a bit different – always hyped up, impatient or worldly wise; but an average American comes out as an honest straight person with an endearing simplicity and innocence. He is totally upfront and carries no surprises or hidden agendas. Everybody gives everybody else an ample personal space. Education has much to do with these niceties of culture. Schools not confining themselves to abstract capsules of knowledge but also going out to teach the simple things of real life such as making conversation, writing resume, appearing in interview or even filling out a tax return. They also impart more profound lessons like ’people are different and it is OK to be different’. A sermon more effective than most religions can be proud of. Punctuality and making queues become a way of life.

So does the traffic code. And as one cruises along the highway for some time, a distinct pattern begins to emerge. Oldies, usually a couple, driving in Continental state cars and not a mile higher than the limit. Girls are in Cavaliers and boys preferring the Sunfires. Upwardly mobile yuppies, more status conscious, in expensive Japanese Camaro or Lexus. The low budget students content with old sports or trucks, what we call pick-ups. Mothers, in and out of the Malls, in station wagons with kids and a dog. The American romance with cars is never ending. Their other great gift to the world is Hollywood. We got off the Interstate-20 to see ’The Runaway Bride’ at a small town. When the grandma explains, with a chuckle in voice and a twinkle in her eyes, that ’The Brides are scared of the one-eyed snake’, the whole hall bursts into a laughter. What is so special about Julia Roberts, I often wonder. So as we drive along, these small towns keep flashing on the wind screen like picture post cards. If you have seen one, you have seen them all. McDonald. Pizza Hut. Wall Mart. Taco Bell. And Bob Evans always having the oldies’ Continentals parked outside. You tune the FM of the approaching town and get local gossip and scandals. Shania Twain, a young girl, with a mature voice, is the latest craze. For me, it is always the country music with feelings and poetry. I liked the song where the old man pleads to his son ’Don’t go where corn don’t grow’. Delilah is the hottest DJ in the Mid West; always solving the problems of little people.

Those little people actually live a life better than most of the rest of world. Good Infrastructure and a stable economy; where the jobless or the homeless are only by choice. With essentials of life having long taken care of, the industries now provide solutions to problems like ’bad breath’ , ’hair removal’, ’pet foods’ or ’skin care’. The economic system is strong and takes over your life in a quiet subtle manner. After it demands a hard day’s work and that you pay all your taxes: in return, it offers you everything on credit. Thus begins a lifetime of paying off your mortgage, credit cards and things that you have already purchased, used or enjoyed. Only a sharp man can steer clear of the sellers and advertisers who literally drown you in an avalanche of offers, enticements and entrapments. Paradoxically, it is this very cycle that makes the economy grow. People spend and create more demand for goods. That creates more jobs. More jobs means more money to spend and the cycle continues. Only immigrants seem to beat the system. They work hard, save money, never do impulse shopping and then make outright purchases of house etc. Thus getting saved from the long and slow bleeding through interests on credit cards or leases. Every one seems to be eating and dressing up the same standard. Difference being that the rich shop in peak season while the poor get the same stuff through deals in off-season. In the final analysis, everything is negotiable.
Besides that inescapable grip of a free but a clever economic system, the culture is equally powerful and overwhelming. No matter who ends up there from which part of globe, he is soon compelled to adapt himself in the local dialect of slow deliberate English with a touch of singsong. Soon he learns the local mannerisms of small talk, and common place phrases like ’we need to talk’, ’Been there, done that’. In contrast, we Subcontinentals speak too fast. For us, it works best and is more comfortable if we remain natural and retain our oriental mystique.

In that apparent uniformity of culture, it does not take long before you begin to notice the fine shades of different classes. The top in food chain are the celebrity folks from the Hollywood. This figure-conscious class, on whom the media feeds, and the fashion industry thrives, gives prestige to the brand names. Consequently, the names like ’Tomy Hill figure’ or ’Kelvin Klein’ do not have male waist sizes beyond 36 and ladies’ beyond 6. The over-sized people are in the lower wrung of society unlike the developing societies. Weight is not a function of availability of food but of a deliberate choice. The next class is of the CEOs and the Wall Street - very dressy, fully drowned in perks like island vacations and personal jets; and with tight schedules. Surprisingly, the 1% of America, comprising the intellectuals, professors, scientist, inventors, technologists and tycoons, who actually make loads of money and chalk out ’The Plan’ for America, live in blue Jeans, white T-shirt and joggers. Politicians fall somewhere in between as the front men of the powerful interest and pressure groups. The remaining 99% of people just follow instructions and check lists and live out their little lives. Even an harmless packet of peanuts carries instructions: ’Open it and eat it’. Shoes come with a small booklet of instructions. The secret of success of the system lies in the fact that an individual, no matter how great, is only a part of the system.

The value system and level of morality are higher than many other self-righteous nations which have a very narrow definition of morality and goodness. There may be an odd deranged person going off in a shooting spree. But the state apparatus, backed by society, comes down heavily on pre-meditated group-based violence based on ethnicity or religion or corruption at high places. The society respects the ideals of human freedom, liberty and a respect for personal beliefs. Its inevitable price is in the form of a small cultural fringe, mostly confined to big cities, that has the stuff like explicit talk shows, one-night stands, lovers, hunks, studs, bimbos, hookers, XXX, etc. And that is not the reflection of the mainstream America which cherishes conservatism and tradition. The family has a pivotal place. In fact, the entire fast food concept grew out of informal family outings. Children enjoy a special place. The school bus has a traffic code that surrounds it. Then there are the weekend family BBQs, community centers, Walt Disney, grandpas and grandmas visiting.

And so our journey continues, fully immersed in all such abstract thoughts and notions, of life around us. It is so cozy and comfortable that you wish it would never end. An occasional patrol car becomes visible and the traffic suddenly steadies down further. Bridges, lakes, towns, keep sliding back. There are sunsets, rains, showers and rainbows as we snake through the mesh of highways. The 18-wheelers, sharing the same road, live in a world of their own. Rest of the world with all its problems of religious terrorism, ethnic intolerances, and over-blown nationalisms appears too distant. Finally, it was one sight that took my heart and left a lasting impression on me of the beauty and simple innocence of a human being. As we turned on Interstate-33 to a small county road, there was a little house in the wilderness with a lush green lawn, flowers, a few trees and cars parked outside. The roadside sign read ’My Father’s Place’........