The Indians Abroad

Overseas Living: NRIs & India abroad

Archive for May, 2010

Employment Picture for US Families

May 30

Posted by admin in Business, career planning, Jobs and Occupations, Non-Resident Indian, NRI | 1 Comment

USA Employment Characteristics of Families Summary, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Release; May 27, 2010

As the country struggles with high unemployment rate, more and more families are impacted by the current economic downturn. Here are some interesting facts from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (US Department of Labor) on family level employment in USA:

  • More and more families have at least one of the family member out of work.
  • The share of families with an unemployed member rose from 7.8 percent in 2008 to 12.0 percent in 2009.
  • The proportion of families with an unemployed member in 2009 was at its highest level since the data tracking began in 1994.
  • Of the nation’s 78.4 million families, 80.4 percent had at least one employed member in 2009, down by 1.8 percentage points from 2008.
  • There were 9.4 million families with at least one unemployed member in 2009, up from 6.1 million in 2008. in 2009.

    • Read the rest of this entry »

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The Changes in India – An NRI’s View

May 25

Posted by admin in Consciousness & Awareness, India, Most Popular Stories, Non-Resident Indian, NRI | 3 Comments

An NRI’s perspective on the main changes in India

After a long time, I went back to India this summer. Everybody was warning me, “You won’t recognize your town.” … “Be prepared for a reverse culture-shock”…. “It is not the same India you left more than a decade ago.”

Even though the reason for my trip was family emergency, I was quite excited. My trip was short, only two weeks, but I was all looking forward to going places and visiting friends, families, old memories…..

Yes, I did see the new face of India; I did visit all of my old friends, all of my relatives and neighbors, even though I barely recognized half of them.

It was very hot for the month of May, but I spent everyday on the road – going places and meeting everyone I had intended to.

Not to disappoint anyone, I was not shocked or surprised after what I saw in my home-town or overall in India. May be because I was already warned. The main changes I noticed were:

Bigger houses and shopping malls everywhere: Almost every house has added one more floor/storey to their residence; or they have added adjacent rooms. That’s good, because it used to be quite crowded indoor before. It is still crowded for some reason even though there are more rooms. A lot more shops and malls add to the city life.

Traffic is crazier than ever: Once I started my Indian journey from Delhi airport, the sound of non-stop horns on the road was the first realization that I was home. The traffic is much crazier. The funny thing is that the drivers are much more aggressive, and still, they are always late to their final destination.

Everybody has two cell phones: I don’t get it, why you need two cell phones. The way my driver explained to me, “One is to talk to my family and friends, and one for others.” I still don’t get the ‘others’ part. Read the rest of this entry »

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Popular slogans on Indian vehicles

May 22

Posted by admin in India, Trivial Stuff | 8 Comments

While traveling through North India, I found this quite interesting: Below are some of the slogans I saw at the back-side of many Indian vehicles, especially trucks and buses. Some of them are common slogans or signs that basically alert the approaching vehicle, such as ‘Horn Please’ or ‘Use Dipper at night’.
However, some of these signs are quite creative. Many of these slogans are supposed to be taunting remarks from faster drivers/vehicles as they pass by the slower ones.

Please note that in North India, where I noticed these signs, many are obviously influenced by the Punjabi cultures. :)

Here are the popular ones worth mentioning:

Milega Mukaddar
Chal Rani tera Rabb Raakhaa
Hatt Pichhe, Phir MilaaN ge
Papa Jaldi Ghar aa Jaana
Buri Nazar Valeh Tera Muh Kaalaah
Hun Tu Kaun te Main Kaun
Chalo ek Baar Phir se Ajnabi ban JaayeN
Zarra Hatt ke Laadli Read the rest of this entry »

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Horn Please – the art of honking in India!

May 20

Posted by admin in India, Non-Resident Indian, NRI, Trivial Stuff | 4 Comments

If you go back to India after a few years of stay abroad, the first thing that gets your attention is the noise from constant honking of the horn on the road. Now-a-days, they have introduced musical horns with so many different tunes, if that makes you feel any better. But, the annoyance of horn noise is something that bugs anyone who visits India after a while, or for the first time.

At first, one might think that honking of the horn is an indication of impatient driving or being overly aggressive on the road. After all, most of the vehicles have the rear-view mirrors and they should be able to tell that someone is approaching them from behind to pass by, instead of being reminded with a loud horn. But after a few days of stay I realized that most of the drivers use horn for alerting the other drivers as they take-over or pass by in the narrow lanes.

In America, as you konw, honking of a horn on another driver is rare and used only when someone needs to be reminded of his/her mistakes. In India however, the use of Horn is a part of driving etiquettes. Read the rest of this entry »

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10 simple ways to improve cross culture understanding in a new country

May 14

Posted by admin in Consciousness & Awareness, Culture & Society, india abroad, Non-Resident Indian, NRI | No Comments

The social adaption varies from person to person, some people adapt faster than others. Regardless, it is very natural to have strong opinion or strong biases against a new culture or a new place.

Once we move to a new culture, we subconsciously start to get used to the new norms as time goes. And, in many cases, we don’t even realize that we are adapting to the new culture; it happens automatically. It is a natural social change – adapting to the new culture over time.

However, the social adaption happens much faster if we make a conscious effort to interact with the local culture. To improve the cross cultural understanding and learning more about the local way of life, here are a few simple but effective things that we can do:

1. Adapt to the local language: Don’t isolate yourself from the local language and the local way of speaking – the slang, the style, …. the whole nine yards. The article ‘Self-help guide to lose your accent’ goes into the details on this subject.

2. Participate in the community functions: Be a part of the local community. The social interactions help with understanding the local culture and appreciating the differences.

3. Volunteer at a local school or library: Being a volunteer at local school or library is not only a noble thing to do, but it help you equally. You learn a lot about the local way of life, the local education system and it opens many doors to the local activities.

4. Don’t be over conscious of being different: We are all different, one way or another. The world would be a boring place if we were all very similar. So don’t be self-conscious about being a minority in a local culture. Read the rest of this entry »

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Bollywood Quiz – Kishore Kumar, the legend

May 10

Posted by admin in Bollywood, Entertainment, Trivial Stuff | 4 Comments

The quiz 6 below is based on the trivial questions about the legendary Bollywood playback singer Kishore Kumar. However, if kishore Kumar is not one of your favorites, you may want to try other quizzes linked below.

Good luck! :)

Kishore Kumar's legal name was:





Kishore Kumar was famous for this style of singling that involved making a high-low-high-low sound (an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto/head register).





Kishore Kumar's son also became a Bollywood singer in 1980s, his name is





This actor was commonly supported by Kishore Kumar's voice as a playback singer in the film songs:





Kishore Kumar's second wife was the famous actress.....





During the Indian Emergency (1975–1977), Sanjay Gandhi asked Kishore Kumar to sing for a Congress rally in Mumbai, but Kishore Kumar refused. As a result, the Government put a ban on playing Kishore Kumar songs on....





Kishore Kumar won 1982 filmfare award for this famous song from Namak Halaal:







Other Quizzes:
Bollywood Quiz 7: Evergreen playback singers of Bollywood!The quiz is on the all-time popular playback singers of Bollywood!
Bollywood Quiz 5: The Idiots and a Dog is a recent quiz from January 2010.
Bollywood Quiz IV: Which Two Starsis based on movies or related Bollywood stories as of late 2009.
Bollywood Quiz III: Bollywood Quiz III-Related to Bollywood movies or stories from mid 2009.
Bollywood Quiz I:Know your Bollywood?:A Bollywood quiz about old movies of yesteryears!

Read the rest of this entry »

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Me and the Yogi inside – My experiments with Hot Yoga

May 6

Posted by admin in Entertainment, Most Popular Stories, Trivial Stuff | 1 Comment

The craze is everywhere.
May be it is a fashion for the modern day fitness fanatics.
Or may be, it is for real; after all, it is not that easy to sell snake oil now-a-days. You cannot fool so many people all over the places.

I did not know much about Hot Yoga till last week. So, I thought I should poke around to see what the whole craze is about. Well, first the boring part. It is also called Bikram Yoga – a type of yoga that Bikram Choudhury introduced many decades ago. The actual yoga techniques are based on traditional yoga that we are all familiar with.

Even though Hot Yoga has been around from the early 1970s, its popularity has grown all around the globe lately. More and more yogis are enjoying Hot Yoga over the traditional yoga. By the way, it feels good to call myself ‘yogi’ after exploring the yoga just for a few days. Perhaps I don’t qualify yet, but it is the state of mind, I am told; and in my mind I am yogi now. :)

One of my problems with Hot Yoga is that each session is supposed to last 90 minutes. Now, that is like sacrificing almost two hours of sleep. I already am starting to dislike the idea. And, on top of that, it should incorporate a series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. Oh, and that’s not all, the Yoga session requires a room heated to 105°F with a humidity of 40%.

The whole thing is too complicated for me. I was hoping that going out in the hot summer sun and sitting on my butt in the humid weather for a while would be enough.  However, that’s not what it is.
Why do everything that I want to try looks so simple, but turns out so complicated in the end?? Read the rest of this entry »

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A lesson in American History

May 2

Posted by admin in Entertainment, india abroad, Most Popular Stories, Non-Resident Indian, NRI, Short Story | 3 Comments

“Hi dad, I am home from school!” She shouted, entering her house.
“Very good! How was your day? You look tired!” He lowered the TV volume to almost mute.
“It was okay. I still don’t like America!” She said, putting her heavy school bag against the sofa.
“It’s normal Riya! Did you make any new friends?”
“Not really, all the white kids call me ‘the Indian girl’” She slumped into the sofa, next to her dad.
“That’s because they are not used to it” He said encouragingly.
“I love ‘American History’ class though. The teacher was so happy with me!” Her tone was happy again. Read the rest of this entry »

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