Namrata Acharya's blog

 Last month, soon after a visit to the Liberty and Twin Tower Memorial, I was having my favourite flat bread sandwich at Subway with my Pakistani and Argentine fellows, when a sudden march of more than a dozen New York policemen and women, gigantic by all standards, turned everyone’s head.

I come from Kolkata, and for those who do not know much about the city, I would like to tell you that the city is known for its eternal love for strikes, labour unions and shutdown.

In fact, our earlier chief minister had proudly said once that the word "Gherao", was our greatest contribution to the English language.

This blog is perhaps too late, but I think better late than never... It is more like a report based on my visit to one of the 911 commemoration ceremonies and few quotes! Just a few objective observations!

Please differ and give critical comments!

NATIONALISM or ESCAPISM

Nationalism peaked, amidst sinking economic indices, as the US mourned a decade after the terror attack.

Ten years ago, two planes took off from Boston's Logan Airport, catapulting into events that shaped the history of the decade.

In the last three weeks (which is my duration of stay in the US so far), my addiction to Internet has just quadrupled.

I am checking Facebook, Twiiter and G mail every minute, as if I work in no other place than India's prime minister's office, and if I miss some of those countless Google Alerts (which I never open), some national catastrophe is bound to happen. In extreme cases, I even check my linkedin account.

This is my third week at Minnesota, and I want to switch a pause button in my life.

I am a business journalist, based in Kolkata, a non-decrepit city for many, in the eastern part of India.

Away from traffic jams, pollution, crowd and daily news briefings, I am enjoying my stay at this pristine part of the US, visiting farms, canoeing  and meeting people, without  being bothered about story deadlines.

Recently, I had  a chance to interact with a few journalists here, and I got to know about  more about local polity and economics.

When Greece sneezed, entire Europe was diagnosed with cold.

But what happens, when the US sneezes? Probably, the entire world needs antibiotics.

So, last month when S & P downgraded the US debt, stock markets across the world had flu, with high fever. And, just like cold stubbornly stays for 72 hours, no matter how much vapour you take or pills you gobble, nothing seemed to help stem the tumbling bourses.

Today was a hot, sultry day at Minnesota. Got a chance to have lunch with Jennifer Bjorhus, a Business Reporter at Star Tribune.

That Americans love to live in style, and wage wars (against terror) is a rather well-documented fact. However, not much is known about their love for salads! And I realised it only after coming to Minneapolis.

Now, let me clarify in the beginning that I may be, and probably is, 100 per cent wrong in my observations and some fat American might strongly object to it, especially in view of the hundreds and thousands of McDonalds and KFCs in the US.