My first contact with Mesoamerica

We could learn just three Spanish words in our everyday struggle to communicate with the old world inhabitants of the new world.

Hola, we said to Me-hi-co which the English speaking world calls Mexico. Part of the greater Mesoamerican landscape, Mexico is organized chaos. Just like good old India! Arriving at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City at midnight was quite an experience. Free baggage trolleys to start with (feels luxurious if you have ever landed in SFO/JFK) but then paid for taxi twice and pushed our bags without the trolley anyway for the experience. Hola! said Mexico to us in return, Spanish for ‘Hello’.

Walking down the streets of Centro Historico in downtown Mexico City, I was amazed at how two countries so far separated by distance and time could be so similar.

 

If I changed the hoardings and billboards to Hindi/Marathi, it would very much feel like you are walking in Mumbai. Bustling markets, crowded streets, haggling in shops, building facades – some flashy, some dilapidated, footpaths – some well laid, some non-existent, numerous traffic police trying in vain to control the menacing vehicular population and everywhere you see there is a sea of brown skin – this is everyday India.

Amazingly, there weren’t many two-wheelers on the road (how did Bajaj and Hero get left out?) but cars and especially taxis do show off their incredible driving skills. Our taxi driver did a quick 100m reverse on a busy highway because we had missed a turn. Our hearts were in our mouth. Now that was special, I hadn’t seen something like that even in India!

As we sat down in one restaurant after another, we kept on asking for our food to be made picante which means Spicy. (My second Spanish word) But alas, the food was never very spicy to our taste. We were given a super picante salsa as a side which was ‘burn your mouth’ category but it doesn’t compensate for bland food, does it? 

Imagine bland Chicken curry or Chole in India and an extremely spicy pickle on the side. Nah!

Some context….. The American continent was populated by humans around 10,000 years ago when humans crossed the Bering Strait from present day Russia to Alaska and walked down north, central and South America. These set of people were then unknown to rest of the world until Columbus ‘discovered’ the new world in 1492. There are theories of pre-Columbian contact but most are vague and a couple of those which have some basis weren’t permanent. The point is, the indigenous American people developed their own language, culture, tools and invented everything again. The phrase ‘Reinventing the wheel’ is quite literal in this context although they didn’t put the wheel to use – to the bafflement of Europeans. America did not have Cows, Sheep, Chicken, Horse and Pigs – the 5 most important animals for mankind. Nor did it have wheat & rice, today’s staple cereals. They were thriving in spite of it.

The pyramids of Teotihuacan were thus an incredible sight. Built around 200 BC and just 40kms outside Mexico City, the pyramid of the Sun is the 3^rd largest pyramid in the world after the first 2 in Giza, Egypt but with different uses and building styles. Something must be universal about the pyramidal shape, amusing. They knew nothing of the Giza pyramids. While Chanakya was writing Arthashastra in ancient India, Tenochtitlan was a sprawling city and had built these pyramids but didn’t have a writing system.

The Aztecs were ruling this place when the Spaniards captured Mesoamerica and built modern Mexico City on top of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital near to Teotihuacan. The remains of ancient temples & palaces can be seen beneath Spanish buildings in Mexico City.

The awe inspiring Cathedral Metropolitan gonged majestically in the downtown but it was so sad to see that it was built on top of an ancient Aztec sacred site. It even used the stones of the Aztec temple beneath.

Museo Nacional de Antropología showcased this Mesoamerican history in a very detailed manner with interesting excavated artifacts and bringing this lost civilization to life.

It was interesting to know that Mesoamerica (which includes present day Mexico, Guatemala and Belize) has numerous cultures & languages and is not homogeneous. Feels like India again? BUT, although 95% of the indigenous population did not survive this civilizational collision there are still a number of them alive today and many more of mixed indigenous and European blood. But, almost all talk Spanish and almost all are catholic Christians.  Again it pained me to see how a native culture and civilization has been eradicated. It’s the good fortune of India that we didn’t get affected by Arab and European diseases (because we were already immune being part of the Eurasian landmass) and Indian civilization had reached a certain level which could help it to defend itself and survive an onslaught from outsiders.

Benito Juarez International Airport wasn’t done with us. As the departure time of our flight to Cancun neared, there was no sign of our flight number on the display boards. Frantic calls to airline customer care and Informacion counters at the airport punctuated with Hola! And Gracias! (My third spanish word which means Thank you!) finally made us understand that the flight was 3 hours late. We understood what it feels to be illiterate.

Cancun is a paradise made to earn American dollars. Beautiful beaches, turquoise blue seas and warm 30 C was a welcome change from Mexico city. 

This place too was probably an ancient Maya settlement but most died after the Spanish conquest and a tourism project by the Mexican government built Cancun to what it is today.

“Museo Maya de Cancún” gave a quick glimpse of the Maya culture but it was nothing new as most of it was covered in the Anthropology museum in Mexico City. The surrounding archaeological site around the museum is interesting though showing ruins of ancient Maya settlement.

The drive from Cancun to Chichen Itza was a 200 km smooth highway and driving in a different country was an interesting experience. Chichen Itza was a Maya city built during 600-800 AD. So when Islam was born in the Arabian peninsula, the Mayas unknown to the old world were building Chichen Itza. 

A tic-tac-toe like pattern on a wall in Chichen Itza. How incredible that human thought can be so much alike!

The Mayas were supposedly very advanced in astronomy and could predict eclipses and used the sun and the moon for time and seasons. Strikes a chord here? Jantar Mantar at Jaipur & Delhi! The ruins in Chichen Itza include places which are thought to be residential, ceremonial or temples. But most of them are so damaged that it leaves a lot to your imagination.

Coming back to the US and looking at English signs all around feels so homely and safe. We are so limited in our worldview.

What would have gone through the mind of that Mesoamerican man when he saw Spaniards wearing steel armor and sitting on horsebacks on his shores? First contact, a chilling thought.

Why are we always ticking boxes?

I love to travel. Having traveled around South East Asia and India, travel to me was always looking at sites. I always looked for famous places, cities, historical monuments, museums, beautiful cliffs or breathtaking beaches. It’s necessary to have something to see and tick a box. “Sightseeing” as it’s called in travel brochures. Once a box is ticked, it’s done. I would never ever go there again. More so because time and money is both precious and limited, and there are so many more boxes to tick!

Hordes of Indians and Chinese do this box ticking around the world. May be it’s in the Asian psyche. The endeavor to get maximum bang for the buck, whatever the bang is, real or imagined.

When I met Europeans who traveled to the same vacation spot every year, I was aghast! Mauritius may be beautiful, but 7 times! Such an incredible waste of time and money! You won’t be able to tick a lot of boxes in your lifetime, I would grin. Then I met Americans. Same incredible waste but at a lesser cost I suppose on New Jersey or Florida shores.

The other type of vacations Europeans and Americans have is ‘doing’ rather than ‘seeing’. How about a camping vacation in the mountains, a skiing trip to Japan or a fishing trip to Alaska? I get tired even thinking of these vacations but somewhere inside I feel an urge to go try it. Too expensive, I console myself although I am not too enthusiastic of a backyard barbecue as well. Too tiring for a lazy bum is putting it more correctly.

Yet another vacation I saw people take (usually non-Asian) was having a stay-cation. Just book a star hotel in your own city, enjoy the pool and food and relax by taking a few days off. But wait a minute, at what cost? (Indian mind wakes up). I could cook my own food at home and relax, for free. And then why take a leave at stay at home (such a waste), I need to save that for my box ticking in December :p

At first I thought, money was the cause and effect of all this. Rich people after ticking all their boxes just want a place to relax and hence end up going to the same places again and again. I will do that someday, so I thought. But the more boxes I tick, there are millions more I see. It struck me then that this is never going to end. When will I be able to take a month off, rent a place in Goa (for example, like the scores of foreign tourists there) and just relax on the warm beaches with fantastic seafood and dazzling festivities? Will my box ticking guilt ever allow me to do that?

Enough of idealism. These firangs don’t know what they are missing. I need to plan my Christmas box ticking.

United States of Convolution

Convolution (a coil or twist, especially one of many). Its true meaning has dawned upon me as I start settling down in the States. The United States of Convolution. The art of making simple things complex!

This rant is not one of frustration but of amusement. There are so many things great and beautiful about the US which I had read and heard umpteen number of times but I had never read or heard anything like this before. May be the people who experienced it before me solved it faster than I did or just ignored it at their own peril or I am just the one making an honest attempt!

• What better topic to discuss convolution in the US than visas and immigration! 

Anybody who has had the misfortune to be involved in the US visa process can attest to this. One of the most complicated, onerous and opaque systems in the world. If you are only a tourist, you could get away with just a 1 in 10 years pilgrimage to the consulate – and only if you are lucky to not require “Administrative Processing”. If you plan to study or work, your first assignment is to learn the alphabet soup of visas, their twists and turns, loopholes and exceptions. No immigrant to the US can be successful without a complete study of loopholes and exceptions. Just understanding the difference between a ‘visa stamp’ and ‘legal status’ can be daunting in itself. I know so many people who have not been to their home countries for years just because they dread going to the consulate to get a visa stamp. You may get denied or just be put in an administrative processing black hole! They are legal residents here with a ‘status’ but have expired visa stamps so won’t be able to re-enter in case they left. Isn’t that ridiculous?

If you are being sponsored for a ‘green card’ by your employer, you need to do masters in immigration law, your bachelors is assumed completed by the fact that you are here. There is a whole new set of convoluted subjects you need to master on how to change jobs, how to have a trip home by getting something called a ‘advanced parole’ etc. Detailed blogs are available; being an immigration attorney is a great career.

If there was a badge or a medallion in immigration law for the smartest aliens, Indians would be tops I suppose (yes non-citizens are called aliens in the US! - I remembered ET)

• Now that you made it past the borders, here’s your next convoluted challenge. Irrespective of how much money you have, what sort of job you do and whatever is your previous history of loans, credit cards, fixed deposits with banks around the world, you are an untrustworthy, subprime, ‘low credit score’ piece of s#!t. 

You aren’t eligible to get a contract phone, some rental housing is out of bounds and pay a huge deposit for the ones you are eligible, you should now get a secured credit card by putting down your own money (even if you had thousands of $ worth of credit limit earlier). Funny thing is after you have got your secured credit card (you put in say $500 to get a $500 credit limit), you should use only about 10% of that limit ($50) every month and pay it off for 6-7 months for the credit agencies to believe that you are good guy.

• You get your first pay check and there comes your next convolution challenge. Taxes. 

Yes, taxes are complicated in most countries but the US is special. At the beginning of the year you must decide whether you are going to file your taxes individually or together with your spouse. Why? The rate slabs are different and the monthly deductions (a.k.a. TDS in Indian parlance) need to be decided by your company. There is federal tax, state tax (some states have no tax) and even city taxes in some places. You need to know where you are working and where you are staying to decide what applies to you. You can save money on your commute by asking a third party to deduct some money before tax from your payroll and put it in a card. Then use that card to buy your monthly train pass. You can put aside money to use for medical care or child care before tax. If you don’t use that money, it’s forfeited so again you need to decide that at the beginning of the year. I am not even getting into deductions and exemptions here. Tax consulting is the second best profession.

• You have your first fever or your first back ache and you arrive at your next convolution challenge. Medical insurance.

Now this one is really special which to my Asian mind was unfathomable for so long. You pay for your health insurance and when you need medical care, your insurance pays full or part of it, simple? No. You will have to choose your deductible, co-insurance (co-pay), coverage and the corresponding premium options for your family at the beginning. Obviously all of the options have only one common denominator. You pay!  I am not sure how many people are able to figure this out in their first month here (that’s when you need to decide) and hence must be going with the default option.

Now the interesting part. When you visit a doctor, he/she would not tell you what their consultation charges are. You hand them over your insurance card and they will negotiate with the insurance company. You either pay your part (copay) or if you are on a high deductible plan, just wait for the bill which won’t come in for weeks! Imagine you are being X-rayed and MRI-ed and have no idea whether the next thing is going to be a heart problem after looking at your bill. I am told emergency treatment is bank wrecking, fortunately haven’t had that experience yet!

• Tired of convolution? Here’s more. You need a car in most places of the US and you need Auto insurance with that. Now that’s an interesting convoluted monster of a thing!

Unlike in India, auto insurance is FOR the driver AND the car, not only the car. So your auto policy applies to a car you rent as well as in part to a friend who drives your car. There is Bodily injury liability, Property damage liability, Basic personal injury protection, Uninsured motorist coverage, comprehensive coverage and collision coverage to name a few. Each of them covers only a specific category of loss and not the other. Studying this entire gamut of coverage, how much is required, how much is being unnecessarily sold is a vast study in itself. With numerous companies clamoring to sell you insurance at vastly different rates, the confusion only increases! And if you happen to shift your home to a different state, be prepared to repeat your study as state laws differ a lot! I am told, if you hit somebody and are sued in court for mental and physical trauma, you can get bankrupt with being made to pay up to whatever assets you have. Scary?

• Enough of duniyadari. How about shopping? Haha, convolution continues!

There is no maximum retail price (MRP) like the good old India so price of anything is anybody’s guess. Online and offline, the prices of stuff vary so much across merchants that one person could have a deal and another could get ripped on the same product at the same time. Inexpensive and deal shopping could be a favorite pastime. But it is only for the ones who can put in enough time to solve the convolution. Get those discount coupons from the Sunday newspaper, have that particular store’s credit card (every store has its own card!), go on a Thursday afternoon for a deal, outlet stores, check for discounts on account of being some company’s employee, some library’s member discount, search random websites for coupon codes, be in the overnight queue during Thanksgiving. The list is endless. Discounts are not for the lazy. Give shopping some respect! 

These are just the 6 biggest convolutions I have encountered. I am sure there must be more and I will be happy to update in case you read this till the end! Happy solving!