: Welcome to America, where we have lost our manners.......

I know I know........It has been a long time since yours truly ever typed anything in this page. And everytime I think of something, the only things that come to my mind are things that provoke me. Yeah, methinks I am growing into this grumpy man. You know the grumpy grandpa who is not happy with anything at all? I can see myself grow into that. I should change the way I think, otherwise, I will be a changed man. Anyways, thats a project for me to do. Lets get to why this whole post is here.

Its christmas time. It is the most wonderful time of the year. Its time to give. I do not know why, but I just love christmas time. Its not too cold here in Phoenix. Temperatures range only in the 50-60s (that is deg F). When the rest of the USA shovels snow, we here enjoy crisp sunshine, and cool nights. Not to mention, shops put on their best appearance. A lot of people are out shopping, checking out stuff, buying gifts. That is what yours truly did this past sunday. We (my wife and I) were at a "Cost Plus" world market. This is a really neat setup. They have stuff from more than 50 countries in their store. Everything from beer to chocolate to wine and gift ideas. If you are a person who finds it difficult to find gifts fof your friends, I recommend this place to you.

Anyways, here we are in Cost Plus, checking out some stuff. Oh BTW, there is a whole aisle set aside for chocolates from, yeah Cadbury!!!!! That is the section I like to hang out at. We did some window shopping, and then I got something for Sharon. We proceeded to the payment counter where it was very crowded. In shopping centres in the US, if there are more customers waiting, and the line does not move that fast, they open up another counter to help customers. So thats what they did here. And we were at the end of a waiting line, and as is usual custom, the lady at the counter offered to help. We moved on to that new counter, and nobosy said anything. But as we were getting the gifts wrapped by the lady and paying the bill, this lady behind me said "Welcom to America, where we have lost our manners". I knew it was directed at me. My wife was angered. I was a little bit disturbed by that comment. But this is not the worst I have heard here.

But as we were walking out the door, I was trying to convince my wife that there is no point in trying to correct her point of view. Its is just that she had a narrow view. But thinking more about that incident, I think I should have retaliated. But retaliating to these comments will get me nowhere, right? This is where I really feel good about the tolerant nature of us Indians. Maybe we should export some of this tolerance to the US, as the US is exporting its culture to the rest of the world. It really makes a whole lot of difference when you think of something like this in a tolerant atitude. The US has always been this culture that retaliates first and then thinks what it has done. I hope, as a melting point of different cultures, the US adopts the best of different cultures, and improve its own. That is how legacy cultures are made.

Merry Christmas to you all......have a safe Christmas.

~ciao