amit klein » hindi

bahut hi jaldi / too soon

amit — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:23:19 +0000

ive been meaning to write another one of these for a while, due to the raging success of my last poem. special thank you to my editors/roomates manoj and general briggs.

bahut hi jaldi

woh baag mein beti thi
jawab ki inthezar mein
“mere bina mat jao”

woh thokar khaya
dheere se hasaa
“mujhe dosh na do”

usne fal kha li thi
woh chai pee liya tha
khoobsurat… andha… krodh

translation:

too soon

she was siting in the garden
waiting for an answer
“dont go without me”

he stumbles
laughing softly
“do not blame me”

she ate the fruit
he drank the tea
beautiful… blind… anger

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3 Month Recap

amit — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:00:36 +0000

So I’ve been in Mumbai for about 3 months now. They say it takes that long to acclimate to a new job, I think the same can be said about getting used to a new place. Surprisingly, I’ve started to feel at home here. A lot of things that bothered me when I first moved here (pollution, heat, vegetarian food), I’ve pretty much gotten used to (alright I still sweat a lot a crave bacon).

Generally my life is pretty awesome. I work my ass off (today was my 19th consecutive work day), but I like my job so it’s been cool. I’ve been doing a lot of recruitment flying around the country visiting the top business schools. It’s great talking to the top students here, but grueling. We’ve done about 400 interviews in the last 2 weeks and have about 300 more in the next week. Intense. Sometime soon I’m gonna write a post on things not to do in an interview (like repeatedly emphasize your dance skills, or force your interviewer to read 3 of your poems – true story).

I’ve met a lot of really good people, and go out whenever I can. I’ve started pluggin’ into the Yahoo and Facebook Bombay expat groups though I haven’t attended any events yet. Not sure how I feel about that whole scene (seems kinda weird to come all the way to India to hang out with other “westerners”).

Sometimes I feel like a minor celebrity. I went unannounced to the bank last week, introduced myself to the branch manager, his response, “yes I know who you are.” Kinda creepy, though in my ‘hood there aren’t too many non-Indians around.

Anyone knows me knows my favorite thing is eating, followed closely by playing basketball. I’ve been playing ball a few times a week and finally made the official Andheri West YMCA team! We played in a tournament last week, where we won two games but lost in the quarter finals. My first game we won easily against the Mumbai police (though as my dad warned: “beating the police team may have it’s own dangers”). We then proceeded to get smoked by the Maharashtra Railway. Apparently these guys “work” in the sports department, are recruited to the company cause of their athletic skills and get to play ball 8 hours a day (note to self: get a job at the railway). We had a crowd of 100 or so people which was the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of. I also got heckled a bit which is awesome (I’ve always wanted to be heckled).

Though I haven’t been studying as much as I should, my hindi is getting better. I can at least pick out words in conversations and say really basic sentences (Hahm kab party jayenge? When are we going to the party?) It’s almost time for another poem… Any time I try to say anything in Hindi people get a huge kick out of it (probably cause I make at least 3 mistakes). My goal is to be able to tell a good joke and not only have people understand what I’m saying but also laugh, so far I’ve been wildly unsuccessful.

Finally I’ve decided to give back to the community and get involved in some sort of volunteer work. I met with a group Atma, and in our conversation they randomly mentioned they want to start an after school basketball program close to where I live. Perfect! I can do that. I’m meeting with some people next week to get it going.

I’ve been super busy but I think my time will free up soon. I will continue to try and write weekly. In case you don’t hear from me, you can always follow my alternate persona “the chef” at the other blog and twitter.

Till next time… main snanalay mein gatha hoon (I sing in the bathroom).

A Poem

amit — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:16:04 +0000

Yesterday I had my 3rd Hindi lesson. Combining everything I know I’ve written a poem:

Chidya udthi hei

Nadi beti hei

Ek aurat gati hei…

Unke daanth safedh hein

Unke paanv lambhe hai

Mere dil ko chot lagi hai…

Translation:

The sparrow flies

The river flows

One woman sings…

She has white teeth

Her legs are long

I have hurt my heart…

I also like saying mera nashta guhrum hai, but I couldn’t fit “my breakfast is hot” anywhere in the poem above. Next week I’m learning about food, which I’m sure will really get the creative juices flowing.

bahut hi jaldi / too soon

Every Tom, Dick and Harry…

amit — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:22:04 +0000

People here use really antiquated, ambiguously British phrases, here’s a short sampling I’ve recently heard:

When I miss a shot in basketball people yell out, hard luck! A good shot is lovely!
I’m often asked, What’s your good name sir?
When Indians refer to their hometown it’s called their native place
Older, unrelated people are often referred to as Aunty and Uncle
Fortnight is used frequently (I still have no idea what this is and refuse to look it up)
Men are referred to as gents
We have guys who take care of logistical stuff who are called office boys and peons
Saw this on a resume I recently checked out: Born on the 17^th day of July, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty
And my personal favorite: Every Tom, Dick and Harry was at the restaurant. This one especially doesn’t make sense since wherever it is they are referring to, there is undoubtedly no Tom, Dick or Harry present.

Tomorrow I’m starting Hindi lessons and very excited. Here’s a short email I got from a tutor I contacted:

Hi Amit
It seems you are an Indian.Why do you want to learn Hindi?Lets know then accordingly we will arrange.
Regards,
Sandhya