Return

Good rest, good to see old friends, and good to see Carmel finally win State. Didn’t get nearly enough homework done though; I’ll definitely pay for that this week.

Watched the film with three different groups; got different reactions from pretty much everyone involved.

Dad: Thought he had better quotes, but was mainly just happy that his batch of mostaccoli was on film. Views technology as a commodity and is happier that I’m a ‘thinker’. Agrees with my thought that Rohit wishes he was an American. Finds the fact that I’m labeled “former team captain of the football team” almost as funny as I do. If by captain, you mean “kid who sits in the back of team meetings and makes snide and sarcastic comments while the coaches are talking and being serious,” then I was the best captain that team ever saw.

Step-mom’s Step-father: Talked quite a lot, but I don’t think he really said anything. Didn’t understand what the motivation behind the film was. He’s worked for awhile in education reform and teacher-evaluation though, but I honestly can’t summarize his opinion. Mentioned numerous times that Carmel was ‘an aberration.’

Mom: Glad the house looked clean. Is proud of me. She is a teacher, but she teaches elementary kids with learning disabilities; she’s not as much worried about the competition from India and China as she is that her kids will eat inanimate objects.

Grandfather (maternal): Shared the same view as my dad; the Indian workers he had dealt with were great at technical tasks and such, but needed a lot of direction.

Most other relatives in attendance: Thought the Chinese kids had too intense of a schedule. Were slightly weirded out by the Indian girl’s mom feeding her with her hands.

(In the video, I’m briefly shown at my friend Mustafa’s birthday party. He had it this year on Friday, so we watched it there.)

Chinese girl at the party (don’t remember her name…): Was overly upset by the translation. Thought the filming of the Chinese lifestyle was very biased (I’m not sure in what way). Didn’t like the film.

Deeksha: Didn’t take kindly to us referring all of our questions about India to her, being the ‘resident Indian’ in attendance. Supposedly does not eat off of banana leaves, though this is not concrete.

Jamie: Was deeply upset that Brittany was filmed for this, even if she is a good representation of the average American girl.

Adam: Explained that the reason Americans don’t have to study as much is because of our “inherent awesomeness.” I’m not sure if he actually believes that or not, but he is rather arrogant.

The rest were divided into two groups. The first group got bored by the film and started talking before it was over. I don’t know if they were expecting car chases and explosions, or what. The second group liked the film, but wasn’t sure they agreed with the message of the film. (I myself don’t really think the film gives a definite conclusion. I don’t think showing relevant statistics is evidence of an agenda.) The reason for this is, in my opinion, that they were all from the same gifted group as I, and therefore were basing American education off of what we received, which is definitely not typical of American schools.

My friends here at Purdue are watching the film right now… it’ll be interesting to see what they think, being students from all over the country (one from Orange County, two from St. Louis, one from Plymouth, IN [where my dad grew up]). I’ll summarize their thoughts later, if they are noteworthy.

Today was the first of many eventful days.

I chatted with Suresh, the coproducer, about the film, the industry, business, and anything else that came up for awhile before he, Bob Compton and I went to a delicious Indian restaurant for lunch. We talked for awhile, mostly about the sheer multitude of people I’ll be meeting at the screening next week. I was finally able to secure a copy of the DVD (At this point, I was one of the only people who had not actually seen any version of it… even my parents had seen a rough cut. For god’s sake, even Barack Obama has seen the film, just to show how out of the loop I am.) to watch later on with my dad. So, a few thoughts of the day:

1) Barack Obama knows who I am. This alone intensified the scale of this project for me a hundredfold; Bob, of course, noted this without batting an eye, as I practically choked on my goat curry.

2) Why did no one other than my mother ever tell me to get a hair cut? (In another side note of self deprication, I wish they would’ve waited to film this for a few more months, when I decided to diet and lose 30-40 pounds… but hindsight is 20/20)

3) My dad made an interesting point of noting that at the end of the day, math, science, and engineering are as much as commodities as anything else. His experience with hiring and using Indian workers is that, as is expected, they are incredibly proficient at what they do (in his case coding and software work), but lack the creative drive and vision that we’d refer to as distinctly “American.” If you go around and ask a class of Indian or Chinese students what they want to be, you’ll more than likely hear a chorus of engineer, scientist, etc – schooling and technology-driven careers. But where are the artists, the authors, the poets, the drama teachers, etc?

4) I wish Rohit (the Indian boy in the film) could come spend some a week or so here with me in America, so I could show him what the real American life is all about. (Though, he might never want to go home…)

After the screening, I’ll probably have more thoughts, as well as further criticize the way I looked in the film. (Do I really sound that monotone?)

Well…

The documentary is released on DVD Thursday. It’s been entered into several film festivals, and will begin to be screened next month in Washington, D.C. and around the country. It might even eventually be on TV.

I’m curious as to where the conversation will begin once people see the final product, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little more curious as to people’s reaction to my life. Frankly, I’ve always been pretty confident about living my life exactly how I’d like to, so I wonder if people will see that care-free “expect to succeed” attitude as indicative of the problem or the solution. I’ve never really had my life analyzed to the degree I expect it will be. Will I even be proud of how I represented myself?

Also, though I haven’t actually seen the finished product, I do know that the scenes of my 3-on-3 basketball tournament weren’t included, which greatly disheartened me. They showed a lot about how I was rather serious in most of my life, but could really let go and be ridiculous and just have a good time in others.  I believe we only won one game, and it was against a team of girls (I do believe they have me on camera intentionally knocking a small Asian girl onto the pavement – maybe why it wasn’t included?). You see, I owe all of my success to my parents – my mother taught me that if I put my mind to it, I could do anything. My father taught me that basketball wasn’t one of them.

Dr. Beckerman

My doctor of many years passed away last week.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007711080331

He was an amazing man and the father of one of my best friends. He truly cared about each of his patients, and got to know us as individuals before treating us. When I was at the hospital earlier this year (for a rare bout with bacterial infectious colitis), he came to visit me just to check up and see how I was doing – because that’s how much he cared about each one of the people he helped.

It will be tough to find another doctor like him.

Step-It-Up Rally

Last Saturday I gave a speech at the Step-It-Up Climate rally in beautiful Broadripple park, an example of how a growing metropolitan area like Indianapolis doesn’t have to give up on the beauty of nature in favor of urban sprawl. It was well-attended (more than I anticipated) with about 100-200 people coming out throughout the ordeal, and since I was the fourth speaker most people hadn’t gotten bored and left yet. In all honesty, I’d say I was the most interesting and least informative speaker of the group; I don’t really have an expertise in anything (which was partly the focus of my speech), I’m just passionate about it. Anyway, I will probably post the contents of the speech online here at a later point.

As for how I got there in the first place, I had been in contact with a woman named Leslie Webb, who helped to coordinate speakers as well as organize environmental events. She knew I was capable of public speaking (I gave a speech at my high school graduation that left everyone doubled over with laughter) and that I was concerned about the environment (I was copresident of my school’s environmental club last year), so she asked if I would share my perspective of the responsibility my generation shares in regards to the world’s natural health and our sustainability.