Finding bliss in Miami

I just finished reading "The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World".

This is a book by a guy who was working in India and comes back to the US and decides to move to of all places…Miami. It reminded me of someone else who did something similar, though the author has since moved back to Washington D.C. The theme of the book from what I got was that if you are living in the US, you will not find bliss in Miami. Well there goes my idea for a book.

A self confessed grump, searches for bliss in various countries and continents and constantly throws up references about Miami when say coming across mad driving in Qatar or rudeness in Moldova and so on. It was more fun for me because almost every incident he talks about say in Switzerland or Moldova or Bhutan seemed like something that could happen in India. He covers that part rather nicely in the chapter on India.

Each chapter covers a country and the book is set up nicely to cover two important countries India and the USA, at the end. I had to shake my head and laugh loudly as I was there…in India dealing with the contradictions everyday and I am here…in Miami dealing with the rudeness, everyday... When I talk to friends and relatives and tell them I moved to Miami, I have to move the phone away to let them say their Oohs and Aaahs for a few minutes. What do they know…as they say “Ignorance is bliss”.

Hola from Miami

After a 4 month stint in Mumbai, I moved to Miami earlier this month. Miami is well...different from the rest of the USA. It does not even feel like you are in the States. It has been a huge shock for me. After having lived for nearly 14 years in the USA and having moved and traveled a bit all I can say is..this is different.

For starters, you hardly hear any English spoken. You walk into a gym and there are people talking in Spanish and TVs tuned to various Spanish channels. So I guess there is no debate about the debate on whether America should should adopt English as the national language. I can see this being a thorny issue in the near future. In India, most people are multi-lingual. Most of my friends could speak at least in 3 languages: English, their mother tongue (Tamil in my case) and Hindi, supposedly India's national language. Hindi was deemed the national language as maybe 40% of the people speak Hindi. This also means 60% do not speak Hindi but have it forced on them. In Tamilnadu there are anti-Hindi riots which typically involve blacking out Hindi signs in Railway Stations, damaging public property and a few deaths to defend the honor of Tamil. There is this thought in India that the nation is fragmented because there is no single national language like say the USA or UK.

Another first I encountered in Miami was the other day when I was watching the local news. As the news was coming to a close there was this ticker with important information, about where the main anchor got her dress and who did the hair for the weather person. Umm which spa in Coconut Grove does Melanie Mendez go to...oh another suicide bombing in Iraq, wait a minute where did Daisy Diaz get that pretty dress...umm gas 5 bucks a gallon...darn forgot where in SoBe Shelly Sanchez gets her hair done...

Guess I must be in Miami..