Coming to the US, even for a short holiday, can be loaded with stress as one worries about the complete obsession with security at the airport.

Though I am not Shah Rukh Khan and might not have been hauled out for special attention, I still remember the long queues from when I was last here a few years ago, and the slightly cold treatment during immigration. I am used to long lines at Heathrow but after a near 18-hour flight from India to New York, and still struggling with sleep and jet lag, I was dreading the reception at immigration.
But I was pleasantly surprised, as were my fellow travellers, when our plane landed at Newark. We were literally whisked through with nary a question. It is, to begin with, a much smaller airport than JFK and so I would recommend to all tired travellers.
Another interesting thing was at Brussels airport where we changed our aircraft from Delhi for the final haul to New York. A whole lot of flights from India seemed to have arrived at the same time, and the airport was full of Indians of every shape and size. I felt I was at the Chandni Chowk Metro station! Anyone who says that the fuel price hike has stopped Indians from flying is completely mistaken.

In New York for an Indian wedding, I am marvelling at how well the Indian has integrated their desi lifestyle into the Big Apple. We already have a strong line-up of all the marriage events we would have normally attended back home in India — including the mehndi at a farmhouse — and the various dance cum sangeet events. A bhangra team has been specially recruited from Columbia University to perform, while Indian chefs, mehndiwalis etcetera, locally sourced, are providing the rest of the Indian flavour. And while the rest of us in our saris and salwar-kameez started dancing to Bollywood numbers accompanied by equally enthusiastic American guests, there would have been little difference if the wedding had been performed in India. And the best bit is that it seems Indians are no longer shy about this display of culture (which was once thought to be “vulgar”) because like the British, the Americans are also enjoying our love for turning everything into a memorable, life-changing celebration. So you can take the Indians out of India… but not the India out of us.

New York right now is extremely pleasant — fabulous balmy weather, and the gardens full of summer flowers. Walking around Central Park, which I associate so strongly with early Woody Allen films, one senses that America is back on the path to recovery. People are “engaged” with a typical New Yorker’s perfectionist attitude in everything they do, whether it is jogging, dog walking or socialising. Life here is never at a standstill and the best indicator of recovery is that property prices are beginning to climb again.
There is also a keen interest right now in the New York mayoral elections, as the third-term mayor, millionaire and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg is set to step aside. For the eight million residents of this bustling metropolis, and its four million voters, the looming primaries are throwing up a varied cast of characters. The candidates are all out in full fray but, of course, none is remembered as well as the ill-fated Anthony Weiner, who is still in the race, despite having been caught “sexting” recently yet again! But even New Yorkers are not so forgiving and though Mr Weiner has now been spotted actually without his phone at many functions, it might be too late for image correction, after his serious smartphone malfunction.
Other candidates, however, are being accused of a different kind of phone addiction as many suspect these candidates
often get their answers to tough questions on the phone from their team of advisers, when participating in a live public
interaction. (I am reminded of the party spokespersons in India, who often pause to start checking their smartphones in the midst of a media briefing). Technology has now even changed the need for a high personal IQ as smartphones might actually make the contenders appear cleverer than they actually are!

But often even a clever and well-informed politician can be stymied, as the US President Barack Obama has just discovered. Though unable to persuade a significant number of other leaders at the recent G-20 Summit to pursue an interventionist policy in Syria, Mr Obama has not given up. He continues to work on the Democrats and Republicans back home to agree to what, worryingly, could be another war in West Asia.
Right now there is little appetite for it though media reports on the chemical warfare allegedly unleashed by the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government on its own people is evoking memories of the German use of chemical weapons in World War I. The resultant revulsion, in turn, had then led to the 1925 Geneva Protocol, banning the use chemical and biological weapons and then to many other international conventions.
Yet, as the media is reporting here,
Mr Obama had only managed to get 10 among the G-20 contingent to condemn Mr Assad’s use of chemical weapons. In fact, it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who appeared to have had more heft to his argument and many, including India, did not support Mr Obama on his call for intervention.
Mr Obama also continues to face an uphill task as the Americans seem war weary. Despite the daily depressing reports from Syria, the US is unlikely to plunge into an immediate airstrike, while there are still many such as US secretary of state John Kerry who are pushing for it. The US polity is torn about it, and while the Pentagon is still gearing up for possible intervention, one hopes that it is still not too late for dialogue with the misguided Syrian President Mr Assad. If not, this will no doubt be another long drawn and bloody war.

Kishwar Desai is an award-winning author. She can be an be contacted at www.kishwardesai.com