My Thoughts

Making it Simple

2010-03-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

I was browsing the news and my eye caught on the article about immigration efforts in issuing a National ID card in 2010 to all working Americans or for anyone who wants to work in the U.S. It is a bipartisan effort, if passed, will require everyone to carry a biometric card with fingerprints and other personal information on it. I think that this idea is a good one to implement. With all the latest technologies we have, we should have implemented this years ago. Instead of complaining about illegal immigrants, how they take our jobs, and having to put more forces on our border security to avoid the illegal immigrants, we can start issuing these biometric cards to all workers. Whenever we seek employment, we do need to provide proof of eligibility to work in the US by showing our drivers license and/or social security card along with other required documents. If this biometric card can replace all the cards and papers that we carry, then why not implement it?

Many would argue that carrying such a card is like being treated as a criminal because we have to register with the Government. But even if it is not implemented, are we still not in a long leash with our Government? If you want to drive, you need to have a drivers license; want to work, you need workers permit; you need SSN card for other issues; if you work and not file your taxes, Uncle Sam comes after you anyways. So, to avoid all the identifying cards and to replace it with one biometric card is not all that bad. Yes, one might have to register if he or she is not registered for anything like drivers’ license or SSN card while companies and businesses have to install scanners to process the bio card to make it to work. Everything has a learning curve and once we are down the curve, we will be able to function smoothly.

With one simple card, our wallet size might go down. This card will change the face of how to identify ourselves while boarding planes, getting jobs and bank account, getting driving license or anything to do with identifying ourselves. We are doing that anyways with different cards that we carry around and if we are able to replace it all with one single intelligent card, then why not? I hope congress is successful in passing this as a law so that everyone can get one to make our lives simple. This will get our foot inside the doors in avoiding identity thefts, frauds, illegal immigrants, people who overstay their visas and much more. Most of all, this biometric card cannot be forged or altered and would be a modern common sense solution to all the problems we face with identifying ourselves.

Less Time at School

2010-03-08T10:54:00.001-05:00

When I read the news on how many schools across the nation are curtailing the school week from five to four days a week, giving Friday off, I could not help but smile. The one person who will be happy with such a change would be my son. For that matter, all kids would be happy to get a four-day week in school rather than five days. But many parents and many people around the nation feel that children are left behind and are getting less education and are considered to be of lesser priority when it comes to budget cuts and job losses. The idea behind this four-day week is to cut down on budget gaps, cut down on job losses in the Schooling industry. By having a day off during the week, schools will save on power, heating/cooling, bus services, providing meals for the children, maintenance/cleaning for that one day.

Presently, schools in Fairfax County have half-day on Mondays. Instead of the current timings, if school days from Monday to Thursday are made longer, Fridays can be off. Technically, students will be missing half day of school which can be compensated by having an hour extra on the working days. With the latest technologies we have like Internet and Blackboard, which is used in schools, students can be given homework and materials that they can read and work on, on Fridays. I have seen this at work during the snow storm we had a month ago and when schools were closed for more than a week. My son did not miss any school work during those days when schools were closed. Taking this step and making it bigger to implement on Fridays would not be a bad idea.

Before you start pointing your fingers at me to say that schools and children’s education are considered a lesser priority in these difficult economic times, think about the situation and solution for a minute. Students are not losing anything in terms of the education that they receive and it is accounted for. What they will be missing is a meal and play time on Fridays. When we have a bigger situation of closing budget gaps and staving off layoffs in schooling system, I think we can all pull this individual load of dealing with Fridays off. Many might think that they would have to deal with day cares on the day off. Nowadays many employers allow the option of working from home or working extra hours on other weekdays and taking Fridays off. If the government is making it a rule to have Fridays off for schools, then they can certainly do something about working parents working their situation out with their employers. Most European countries have four day work week and have Fridays off (making it a 3-day weekend), so it is about time that we in the USA start looking at that option.

Are Values bemused with Rights?

2010-02-24T10:28:00.001-05:00

Last month, a 13-year old, Middle School student in Germantown, Maryland, was sent to counselor’s office for refusing to stand during the pledge of Allegiance. Her parents asked the teacher to apologize for doing so. Later on, because of lawyer’s involvement on the students’ side, ACLU stepped into the matter and asked the teacher to apologize to the student. Out of political pressure, the teacher might apologize but is it not something wrong in this whole picture? While I do agree that the teacher should not have taken such extreme actions on the student and that no one can be forced to participate in a pledge of Allegiance against one’s will and in something that one does not believe in, is there not something called ‘Respect’?

Inculcating good manners should be a part of our schooling systems in addition to teaching the curriculum. Part of it is showing respect to others. While the whole class was standing and saying the pledge out of respect, the girl could have simply stood up rather than sitting. Coming from the land of values – India, I stand quietly whenever any National Anthem is played in a function or gathering. It is out of respect that one shows to their country or belief. The girl could have shown her respect for the country if she is an American and that she would have her say in the near future in a few years down the road. If not, she could have shown respect because America is giving her the opportunity to be in this country and for parting education to her to be a better person. In either case, she has the reason to show her respect for her country.

Honestly I did not comprehend the reasons behind why that student would not stand up or show respect during the pledge. Not wanting to do is one thing but when the entire class is standing up out of respect or out of fear, the one who is not is forced to stand up anyways. Out of political pressure, the teacher might be made to apologize in public but is it not life lessons for the student to show respect – no matter what? Was she trying to stand out, to say that she is cool with not doing what everybody does? Whatever the reason, it still does not warrant an excuse. It might be old fashion to show respect in public but coming from a family where respect is the prime objective, this whole scenario seems to be odd.

Name of the Game

2010-02-22T10:29:00.002-05:00

After seeing so much snow on the ground, I could not help but wonder how these Olympians (since they are participating in Winter Olympics, they become Olympians, right?) perform in such cold conditions. Even when I am watching the games with my blanket over me, I would feel the cold breeze and the chillness from the Cypress Mountain. That being said, the winter Olympics is on and is going to end in a week or so. While USA is participating and is on top of the medal counts, NBC is the only channel airing the winter Olympic Games from Vancouver. Even with that, NBC is airing the games only during primetime and not at the time that the game is actually held. Come on, I can understand why the games are aired after the fact, if the games are held in China like in 2008. But people on the West Coast are on the same time zone as Vancouver and yet they watch the games after it has happened. We on the East Coast are also watching the limited coverage that NBC is offering.

So, why all this prejudice in airing Winter Olympic Games when compared to the regular Olympics? Simple reason is that most of the games in Winter Olympics is not really followed by most viewers here and also the participants in those games are not as popular as those in regular Olympics. When I say Phelps, you know exactly who I am talking about but if I say Mancuso, you would be like man, who? Moreover, the news that is aired on TV or radio starts off with the mention of whether USA is in the lead on medal counts or whether US bagged another Gold medal versus the actual sports itself.

Many who follow the winter Olympics do complain about it. The best coverage that the NBC could offer was the accidental death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, Luger, during his trial run. NBC was airing that video quite often and news was read covering different angles and sentiments. In fact, many had complained about the video clip and NBC had to take the video off the air. But ABC took up on the news and is airing it and they have it on their official site as well. Obviously that is what is bound to happen because that is where the money is. Ever since Lindsey Vonn won the Gold in Downhill, she has been the prime focus on the slope events for women. Mancuso is all but forgotten even after her two Silver wins. Next coverage is on Apollo Ohno – how many medals is he going to bag for USA and what his total career medal count going to be? The news and coverage on television is better when the Americans are doing well and are winning medals in the events. When Shawn White won his Gold on Half Pipe, I could see the repeating news and clips being aired even after the game were over. But do we hear about other Gold medal winners from other countries? Maybe their country is airing their videos repeatedly just like we are for our winners. That is the name of the game in the Entertainment world where TRP (target rating point) is the decider of what or who gets coverage.

Snowy Frenzy

2010-02-17T10:05:00.000-05:00

Many are chanting the mantra “How long this snow is going to linger on?” We have had a week of no snow storms in the D.C. metro area but we are facing massive obstruction of mammoth snow piles everywhere on any direction that you can lay your eyes on. The two storms that hit us a week and a half ago dumped about two and a half feet of snow on an average and people are stilling plowing their way through the snow. Schools and government offices had been closed for more than a week because snow clearing had become close to impossible. Traffic has become a nightmare (or should I say daymare? Come on, I had to make that up) with the number of lanes reduced to half of what was available to commuters on a normal day. Parking lots for vehicles have become the home for snow piles where all you can see are mounds of snow taking up more than half of the parking spaces.

While the pristine snow covered grounds, trees and houses were soothing to my mind a week back when the snow was still falling and fresh, it has built in anger and frustration into many who have to deal with the aftermath of snow by hauling the snow out of their driveways and parking lots and off of streets and roads. One problem is where do we put the snow that is plowed? Result being, building heaps of snow piles along the roads and along driveways. Drivers at the intersection can hardly see the on coming traffic before making those turns leading to accidents. Now that schools are open, many students are forced to walk on snow covered pathways to get to their schools. Refreezing of melted snow is turning to ice leading to many falls for those who walk on it. Cars are getting stuck on side streets that are barely passable.

Just like the question as to ‘here to dump all this snow’ many are trying to answer the question, ‘how do I show my anger and frustration of this snow’? Case in point is the incident in Loudoun County where one neighbors’ anger pouted on to his street. In Longhouse place in Leesburg (residential street), a Good Samaritan was helping a woman to get her car into her garage while the other cars was stopping behind. A car from the back just went past all the cars that were standing, barely missing the guy who was helping the woman. The driver, Craig Vandusseldorp, would have hit the man but missed him by inches. He was charged with felony assault and reckless driving. He just could not wait a few minutes for the car that was stuck to get off the street. By acting in a haphazard manner, what did he gain? a few tickets and points on his license, marring his driving record, insurance and employment opportunities? Was that worth it?

There were also cases where people are fighting over parking spots. Some people place a chair on the spot to reserve their parking spot and some wanted others to move out of their spot and hence are slicing the tires of the cars so they would move. Why all this rage? The snow will eventually melt and everything will be back to normal in a few days. Until such time, can we not live amicably? Maybe we have to leave a few minutes early to work to beat the traffic and come home a few minutes late after finding a parking spot to park your car. Like some one says, we are one day closer to where we want to be.

Hall of Fame, as easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6...

2010-02-16T10:25:00.000-05:00

It is no surprise that old fashions and old rules become the new trend after years of disappearance. Now that Oscar best pictures nominees and other nominations were announced a while back and Oscar ballots will be counted on March 2nd and the results are to be announced/aired on March 7th, it is just a matter for the judges to vote on the different categories and have them counted for the final verdict. Where you surprised to see ten movies nominated for best picture? Till 1943, ten or twelve movies were nominated and seeing the amount of work involved in picking the best movie, they curtailed the selection to five for years to come… hm… only till now when the selection is again stretched out to ten movies. The idea behind doing so is to get a variety of movies ranging from high/low budgets, animated movies, not-so-popular ones in the horizon for people to know what other movies are in existence other than the ones that you hear of being the blockbuster hit.

Variety is always good to experience has been the theme for this years Oscar selections for best picture. Different types of food, drinks, relationships and also a different variety of movies that were produced in a year. For this year – 2010 Oscars, the ten movies that were picked has variety in them; from low budget movie on Iraq war – ‘The Hurt Locker’ to animated comedy – ‘Up’, high budget blockbuster hit ‘Avatar’ and sci-fi hit ‘District 9’, get-to-learn movies like ‘Precious’, ‘An Education’ and ‘A Serious Man’, football drama ‘Blind Side’, recession tale ‘Up in the air’ and WW II saga ‘Inglourious Basterds’. Having seen most of these movies, do I qualify to speak about the Oscar selections? Certainly not! I don’t even know how some of these movies get selected for Oscar best pictures.

I certainly did not know about most of the movies, except ‘Avatar’ and ‘Up’, thanks to my son who wanted me to send him to watch it with his friends and ‘Invictus’ (not an Oscar nominee for best picture) because it is about soccer and ‘Inglourious Basterds’, seen many ads of it, I had not heard about the other movies. Having a spectrum of movies listed in the Oscar not only gives information of other movies but also increases the number of viewers to watch Oscar presentations on television. Advertisements can be cramped during the Oscars show on television to make money as the number of viewers would have increased watching the Oscars. Do we need ten movies in the selection? If not for anything, certainly people will start renting these movies to see what had been done to get on the Oscar list. In addition to hit movies, people will see the movies that are not box office hits or never heard of movies. We will just have to wait till March 7th to see the results and make a dash to your nearest Blockbuster to rent them out.

When dreams fail to launch

2010-02-15T10:37:00.003-05:00

So the shuttles will stop flying from the USA into space starting this September after it makes its four launches that were scheduled. While I agree that going into outer space and learning about the solar systems and other systems out there will teach a lot and one can relate all of that to mankind itself, it is not about time to give a little focus on earth before you can start to look up? What do I mean by it? As a result of budget policies for the coming year, Obama had cut funds for space programs for NASA and had told NASA to work with private sectors to do any research or launching into space. There are many research divisions, for example, medical science, who do their research not waiting for government to sponsor but depend on private sectors to do the funding so that they can carry out their research, which all told is for the betterment of human kind and to learn more about human existence.

Many who are supporters of space program will argue that what Obama did by halting the funding to NASA, to stop launches will stop them from learning about space and hence the human race. I do support exploration, whether it is space program or ocean research, but when the situation here in the US has come to a point where one has to wonder where the next paycheck is going to come from to pay for the expenses to run a household and when the country is at the brink of depression, when the job losses is at the highest ever – 10%, I would want Obama to funnel all funding to improve the economy here, rather than worry about sending people to moon or further away to Mars.

Sure, the government or the private sectors will speed up the launching if they know of oil deposits or Uranium deposits in Mars, but we don’t know anything of that sort. So until such time we are better off, if everyone starts to look down instead of looking up into space. There is nothing wrong with NASA working with private sectors to help build a taxi service to ferry astronauts into outer space or depend on Russian shuttle to hitch a ride into space. There are shuttles that were built for private parties for a considerable amount just so they can travel into space. There are people out there who have the money to name a star that is being discovered in their name or their bestest. They have the money to fund such programs and NASA can sure use their help to get into outer space for the time-being until we are able to stabilize ourselves in terms of economy here.

I have read about Mars colony project and many fictional stories/books about Mars colony. Even if the U.S. astronauts succeed in going to Mars and in setting up a colony there, they will be working next on stopping other countries from getting there as if Mars is owned by the U.S. If I try to look ahead into the future of this project, all I can see are missiles showering from the heavens above (Mars) when we are fighting down below in Afghanistan or Iraq or any place for that matter. Instead of having to plan for wars from land, sea or air, we would be planning war strategies from outer space as well. In addition to this, are we forgetting that most of U.S is owned by China now? Instead of worrying that if we work with others outside of our country, we will lose the brain power of space programs, let us also work on removing ‘Owned by China’ from the U.S. soil and accept the temporary situation of depending on private sectors and collaborating with other countries for space research.

The Seesaw Effect

2010-02-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

With the massive storm that passed us last weekend and another tailing it right now as I speak (um.. write), many people are out of power, snowed in and immobilized. The snow from last week being wet and heavy had brought down many power lines cutting power from many households. Many trees have fallen down or on houses nearby or on power lines due to the weight of the snow. The new snow that is coming down today is adding to the effect. I saw in the news that thousands of people are out of power and power companies like Pepco, Dominion and NOVEC are working round the clock to restore power.

But what is frustrating people the most is the ‘not knowing’ when their power will be restored. When will people realize that the problem can be dealt with but ‘not knowing’ is the killer. They need to know when their power will be restored. They need answers, they need assurance. I saw on T.V. that the electric company trucks would go by on the streets and people would stop them and ask when their turn to be worked on is. There are families who had lost power on Saturday, this past weekend, and are still without power and heating. Some people have opened their hearts and doors of their home, literally, to friends and are allowing them to stay until their power is back.

Many are just snowed in, unable to take their cars out as the snow plows, in some cases, have piled snow on their driveways and around cars that are parked. In some cases, people have not seen plows come on to their streets for plowing. The streets are covered with snow or barely passable for driving. In some cases, neighbors are forming teams and helping each other to clear the snow and the streets so they can get out of the complex. Some are taking up this opportunity to show their good samaritan-ship by lending a helping hand to clear the snow. When I went for a walk this past Saturday, I had helped a few dig out their driveways but when I had written my blog, I didn’t mention it because I thought that that was the right thing to do to start with.

Last Friday, when the snow was starting to fall, I went to the nearby Shoppers, after work, to see how people were reacting to the snow. Many had shopped earlier on during the week or day and the store was empty of milk and bread. Of course, the salt was all gone which is understandable but to see a store like Shoppers Foodware mostly empty of groceries was quiet a view. How much were those people going to consume during the snow storm? To panic that they would be stranded for days together and hoarding on to the groceries is a bit too much. After all, with what is left in a house, can one not survive for a couple of days? Imagine what would happen – one does all that shopping to survive during the storm and the power and heating goes off, the fridge is not working anymore and all that you shopped for is a waste, only to be packed up to be thrown into the trash. Forget imagining, this is really happening to many families who have lost power now because of the storm. Does one have to shop before a storm to survive? Did we not learn anything from Bear Grylls that we cannot even endure a snow storm being in ones own home and comfort?

Want some Crib Notes with your Tea?

2010-02-09T10:26:00.002-05:00

Was it just me who got caught during school exams with my cribnotes? Guess not. We have a bigger winner here. Ms. Palin. I am sure everyone who gives a public speech that is televised or in a meeting would use teleprompters or notes that one refers to during the speech. No one would be able to memorize the speech that lasts for an hour or more. So there is nothing wrong in using notes to refer to or teleprompters to get your speech across and to be effective. But Palin had a problem with that. She was accusing Mr. Obama using a teleprompter during his speeches. She accused him as 'a charismatic guy with a Teleprompter' in her speech in the tea party convention held last week.

But take a look at the picture that is posted along with this blog. Oh ya, its Palin's hand alright! I see words "Energy", "Tax," and "Lift Americans Spirits" scribbled in ink on the palm of her hand. Gotcha! Of course, she knew the speech for the tea party convention like the back of her hand. It is during the Q&A session that she needed the answer from the front of her hand. When she was asked the question as to what should be the top three things that a Republican majority in Congree would focus on and she forgets the answer and refers to her cribnotes on her palm during the meeting. How does one forget the main belief of what she is representing? To top it off, she accuses Obama for using a teleprompter in his speeches. He uses it for speeches and she uses it even for answering a core question? There is a saying that people living in glass houses should not throw stones at others. Does this not apply to her - You betcha!

I was a little relieved when McCain-Palin team did not win the elections in 2008. But my pulse is going a little higher when I heard that she would stand in elections in 2012 and that that is the right thing to do for the nation and the Palin family. Right for the nation - No. Right for the Palins - Maybe. She can start filling up her wardrobe again. The race in 2012 is not for the fashion industry nor for who can fill in their wardrobe. So Palin, you stay out of it. You can fill up the spot for soap in Fox, right a few books, give a few speeches with your talent of seeing your notes from the palm of your hand or attend a few tea party but running a nation is not your cup of tea. (pardon my pun)

It is B-E-A-utiful

2010-02-06T18:30:00.000-05:00

No wonder the color white stands for peace in humanity. The pristine white blanket of snow everywhere calmed my mind when I went for a walk this afternoon. I woke up this morning and all I saw out my window was snow everywhere – on trees, on bushes and shrubs, on the street that I am on and on every thing that my eyes could lay it focus on. I went at 12 noon to shovel the driveway clean (hm.. these details should be on facebook? … nay… I will stick to this) and it took me two hours to clean the driveway on my van side and also to clean the snow that blocked my driveway as a result of snow plows blocking me in. At 2pm., I decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood since I was already geared up for the weather. I kept walking, one small step at a time on the icy, snowy roads, enjoying the serene beauty of the snow covered surroundings.

While walking I could not help but smile at those who were questioning about whether a snow storm this big would hit our region and questioning the reports that the weathermen gave. Wait… I am hearing something…. Maybe it is the standing ovation that those people are giving to the weather crew for being correct. Why could it not be possible? When people can expect an apology from the weathermen when a snow prediction or rather forecast does not happen the way the report said, why not the same people appreciate them when their forecast comes true? Based on the data that is gathered from the satellites, only so much can be inferred and forecast can be made. It is up to us to be prepared for a situation that the weather crew forecasts. If the weather does not turn out the way they predict, it is not their fault. Anything can happen up to the last minute. The storms can weaken in strength, the winds can shift direction, and the temperatures might not be low enough for the snow to accumulate or stick to the ground. Why is that, that we cannot take a forecast and act upon it to prevent any disasters and protect ourselves? We should be glad that we are getting any predictions at all to start with.

Based on the forecasts, airports had cancelled flights on Friday itself. Schools from all over the region had closed on Friday morning. Are all these agencies foolish to make such decisions based on simple forecasts? They all are preparing themselves in case something as big as this snow storm happens. Exactly! It is a forecast and it is a hit or miss situation. What about all those economists who worked on creating budgets for transportation department for snow preparation? Every single transportation department has already run over-budget because of all the storms that had pummeled us with snow this current fiscal year. Are they apologizing for their bad estimates? Or are they defending themselves saying that they had prepared the budget based on the data that they had and the models that they prepared. So why are they any different that the meteorologists who forecast based on whatever data that they have?

Anyways, with these thoughts cycling in my mind, I kept my pace in walking, enjoying the snow that is falling on my face. I slipped and fell down a couple of times (okay… more than five times) but even after the fall, it brought out laughs and the child within. Greeting a few that were to be seen on the roads, waving to the snow plows that passed by, watching the birds fly by in this cold weather, throwing a few snowballs at the trees, sitting for a few minutes on the snow embankment and enjoy the after noon of snow, I could not help but say to myself - ‘It is a beautiful day no matter what’.

On the Revolutionary Road

2010-02-05T10:21:00.001-05:00

I do understand that it takes a lot of courage and will power to stand up for what you believe in. I have seen people who would talk to hearts content about doing something that they strongly believe in or want it dearly to happen but when it comes to reality they drop off the matter like hot potatoes. This being my experience I was pleasantly surprised when I read the news in Washington Post about Mike Mullen’s Stand in Capitol Hill. Mullen is the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and has been with the military for 42 years earning ribbons and medals for his achievements. In a meeting with Senate Armed Services committee, Mullen had spoken up for what he believed. He said that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the army. What does ones personal practices have to do with being in the military?

‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy among military personnels have let many gays to serve in the army but in a way they are not freely accepted. While the meeting among the Senate was also to repeal this law, Mullen came forward saying that whether this law is there or not, it should not make any difference for those people to serve for the nation. It is the ability of ones self in terms of performing their duties that should matter instead of trying to find out whether one is straight or not. The ability to shoot a gun does not depend on whether a person is gay or not. “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight”

While there are many laws in different states in the United States being passed about gay marriages and gay rights, I am not saying favorably or otherwise about it in one way or another. It is ones personal preference. But when it comes to performing a job, or any job for that matter, one should be judged based on whether one is capable of performing their duties, instead of seeing what their personal preferences are. If I am interviewed for a job, I want the interviewer to find out about me in terms of my abilities to do the job and not about whether I want to stay married or stay single or stay with a partner. That has nothing to do with me writing a code for the IT Company or preparing an estimate on a project.

There is no such problem (or at least that I am aware of) in the corporate sector in employing people from such groups. Why is this an issue when it comes to military? Even when you fill out any application form for a job, I don’t remember any question that says “sexual preference”. The most I have seen is “married or single”. Why is there so much importance about something that happens behind closed doors? I really applaud Mullens’ stand on this subject. It takes a lot of determination to stand up in public for what one believes in. It gives me hope that those people who backed out from doing that something that they believed in, will some day have the courage to really stand up to face the world.

Happiness a Choice

2010-02-03T10:49:00.000-05:00

Having been told that I have no interests in anything, I was browsing around reading through some magazines and came across an article that precisely talked about the title in question for today. The article went on about saying that ‘Happiness is a choice’ and that one can choose to be happy in any given situation. While I was reading this article, my attention not being held on any topic wandered to apply the same to people who are going through the horrible disaster in Haiti. People in Haiti who have lost their family members, their homes, their every thing that they had been working on or had, would they make this choice? What would the rationale behind this choice be – that they are alive? I can understand to a certain extent that when anyone gets out of an accident or an horrible situation, and then realize that they are alive, they would be happy but when they come to know that everything else is gone or taken away from them, how long would that happiness remain?

Happiness is a state of mind and a lot of that depends on what goes on in that mind. People can be happy even if they don’t have worldly materials but what they sure need is peace and trust that their loved ones are around for them. When that trust is broken or when you come to know how loved ones stabbed your back or that your loves are not there anymore, then one cannot make that choice. Abraham Lincoln has said “A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be”. In this case, what are you going to feed your mind? Even though your trusted ones broke your trust, that everything is okay or maybe they did that for some good reason? Even when your loved ones are gone, that they are in some better place happy and that you don’t have to worry about them?

I am sure many have heard people say “Time heals” and in my earlier post on Haiti, I did mention about this phrase and I had told you all that I would bring it up later on. So here it is. Does time really heal anyone on any given situation? Take for instance, the same people in Haiti - the ones that have lost their loved ones. They don’t even have time to grieve their loss because they have to find a way to survive and find food and water for the living ones. Even after a couple of months or years later, would they be healed of this situation? Sure, they would have found a place to live in, job to work and feed themselves and some interests to work with (I am not in that list) and keep busy but that wound of losing their loved ones, will that be healed? I am sure some will say that it leaves a scar. But more than a scar, the wound is still there deep down. It is just scabbed with other worries like every day chores or another wound that is just around the corner in life.

People often have to make choices in their lives but making happiness a choice is an interesting concept. What if I am frustrated at a situation or frustrated with someone that I love and trust? I keep thinking about it to find a solution but I also do know that I am helpless to do anything about some situations. What can I do? According to what I read, I should not dwell on it once I have planned on how to deal with it. But most times, the problem is how to deal with it, what is the right course of action to deal with a situation. Once I have an answer to the situation, then it becomes easy to implement it but finding the right answer is the problem. While I know that I cannot control the circumstances, I hope that I can control my thoughts and make happiness my choice.

Where are you Mockers now?

2010-02-02T10:14:00.001-05:00

So the Groundhog has spoken today. This morning in the dawn hours, the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog club in Pennsylvania, witnessed Phil seeing his shadow after he emerged from its hiding/hibernating burrow. It has been a German tradition that if a hibernating animal sees its shadow on February 2nd, which is a Christian holiday of Candlemas, then winter would last another six weeks. If the groundhog does not see its shadow then we would call it as six weeks of early spring.

This practice has been there since 1887, when people did not have advanced forecasting methodologies or weather reporters who would rely on modern-day satellites and equipments to make the forecasts. They would decide whether to plan for their gardening and other works during early spring, based on whether the Groundhog saw its shadow or not. These days, we have minute to minute forecast on weather and devices to track storms and how the storms are developing and what route it would take, dropping how much rain or snow on us.

I have heard people talk or rather read many blogs and reports where people would ridicule and pock fun at the weather channels when they would come up with their weather reports. Times when their prediction fails to a greater extent, people would say, ‘there was no need even to carry an umbrella but they made a big booboo on the forecast of snow’ or ‘we could depend on the Groundhog more than our weather channels’. Where are those people when the weather reporters reported about the snow storm during the week of Christmas, 2009? Where are those people, when the snowfall happened this past weekend according to what the reporters had predicted?

We or rather the weather channel can only use the data that they have in hand to make such forecasts to warn us ahead of time. If they keep quiet about it, you will point the fingers at them and say that they did not warn you of any storms. If they warn you and if it does not happen, then they would hear complains about ‘all that preparation is for nothing’. It is a catch-22 situation. At least they are doing their jobs in warning us as needed. It is up to you to be prepared for it or not. Better safe than sorry.

This winter there has been so much snow that the DC area (Virginia, Maryland and D.C.) has gone over budget in prepping for the storm (putting salt/sand on roads), cleaning the roads using snowplows, making sure that the roads are safe during and after storms. They are asking help from other departments and locals to cover the costs to prepare for the storms that are lined up ahead. There are calling in for more snow this evening and on Friday. While some will say that they do not want any more snow, they will be the ones who will become Baristas at home. So have fun while it lasts.

Is our Metro system cursed?

2010-01-29T10:30:00.002-05:00

Many depend on metro system to get to work especially to get to Washington D.C. With the parking rate increase in D.C. ($2 for an hour to park including Saturdays) and the recent metro and bus fare increase by 10 cents (at least it is only a temporary rate increase till June 2010) to make up the $40 million deficit for the current year, metro riders are hesitant to use the metro. Is that the only reason? Early this weeks’ accident on the metro red line in Rockville killed two of the metro workers who were fixing the lines with control equipments. They were struck by the high rail truck while working on the lines past midnight.

Since this past June of 2009, Metro has been facing a downfall starting with the deadly accident of two trains colliding, killing 9 people including the train operator and hurting 80 people, followed by a train striking and killing a person on the red line in the same month. There have been some accidents or the other in every single month up until now. While everyone should understand that if a person voluntarily stands on the track or jumps in front of the train, (to commit suicide) than it is not the metro’s fault, it also becomes important that metro accidents of killing workers and riders brings down the confidence of people wanting to ride on the metro. To where metro is now in terms of rating, it had taken a decade for the same metro to build up its ratings in the years past.

The chances of getting yourself killed are much higher when one rides on the metro. People are scared to take the metro anymore. In addition to this, metro is not making any improvements in terms of making its system safer to travel. When the tracks are not safer, old models of cars still carrying passengers, one does not want to give up their lives for takes. The general manager of metro, Catoe has resigned for these precise reasons. He does not want to be killed on the tracks while he is doing a walk-through on the work that is being done.

To compound to the issue, metro is increasing fares, instead of increasing the safety of the metro system. On one hand, there is the deficit that metro needs to cover and on the other you need to get more metro riders so that metro can get more revenue. But that is not going to happen until people feel that it is safe to ride the metros. If metro wants more riders, increase the safety of the trains and then increase the fares if need be. You cannot take away the carrots (train safety) in front of the donkey (passengers - pun intended) and except it to walk towards you (metro revenue increase) also.

Stuck between the rock and a hard place

2010-01-28T13:01:00.001-05:00

Time and again one has to be reminded that politics exists in any nation because two or more groups have difference of opinions. Our President’s first State of the Union address last night proved just that. His portion of the speech where he mentioned about cutting taxes for 95% of working families did not enthrall the Republicans seated there. Many of the points he covered were the same as what he had said while addressing the Congress a year ago when he became the President. Many of the items that he mentioned during the first year were still not complete after his first year in office. To name a few: overhauling the health care system, enacted a market-based cap on carbon emissions blamed for climate change, imposed a new regulatory system on financial institutions, closed the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and signed a new arms control treaty with Russia. None of these were completed and still the topic of discussion for last night was health care reforms, energy and education.

To improve the economy of the country was the reason he came out with the stimulus plan. He sanctioned bailout dollars to keep the companies that were economically suffering from bankruptcy and keep the jobs open for the Americans. What were the results? The stimulus money that we got (even though a little to be even noticed in our paychecks) was used towards keeping our homes or paying the bills. Some were hoarding on to that money to be used later on in case people lost their jobs. That money was never spent to go back into the pool of growing economy of the country and keeping the businesses going. So the stimulus plan backfired.

Bailout money for banks is another story. 65% of the Americans believe that when banks got their share from the government, banks started to hold on to that money and stopped giving out loans to customers or small businesses because they knew that they will never see that money come back to them again. The idea was that the banks would give out loans to small businesses which in turn would create jobs and to keep the cycle of life flowing. To solve this problem, Obama is putting fees on banks now. He also talked about helping college students with their tuitions. Many students are waiting it out to finish their degree programs because what are they going to do after finishing their studies? Where are the jobs? Obama did not mention about how the job market is going to improve with the unemployment rate being at the highest ever – at 10% but he did mention about Recovery act to improve businesses.

Obama’s plan seemed to be fluid and we have to wait it out to see what will materialize successfully despite the fact that he mentioned about how long we have to wait to think about our future. There was also an issue about his numbers for lending to small businesses being different from when the aides previewed his speech to when the speech was actually delivered. With so many uncertainties and resistance he faces to complete anything that he had promised us to make our future better, to how we have to adjust our perception on the person we elected an year ago, one has to wonder who is stuck between the rock and a hard place – President or us?

Farewell Favre

2010-01-26T10:18:00.000-05:00

I am not an ardent football follower (nor a player). I don’t swank about knowing things that I really don’t know as the back of my hands. I have been watching football games regularly for about five years but I don’t know the player details all that well nor do I remember their history of achievements. If I am interested in a player I Google them and learn more about them to the best I can. So, in all honesty, I did not know about Favre until this season. To be candid, I was not even paying any close attention to him, until Vikings reached the playoffs.

The game this past Sunday against the Saints was a close one to have watched. Each team were playing at their best and were scoring TDs one after the other. The score at any given time was a tie between the two teams. The Saints defense was at its best and Favre was sacked a few times in this game but still the fire was there in Favre to get the Vikings to the Super Bowl. Until the third quarter, it was just like any other game but kept me at least, on the edge of my seat.. uhh… my sofa. Bobby McCray (#93) of Saints fell on him while he was sacked in the third quarter. That scene was awful just to watch leave alone the fact to go through it physically. That defensive end player was big and huge (excuse my pun) and for him to land on the back/leg of Favre was very painful.

Then came the misfortuned throw of his game. His intentions for the throw was to get closer than the 38 yards, so as to give Ryan Longwell, Vikings Kicker, a good shot at the field goal to seal the victory for the Vikings, but fate took a different turn. When that play was played, I was wondering why Favre was not running the ball to gain yardage but instead threw it. I was hoping that Vikings would catch the throw at the other end but was intercepted by the Saints. Some games are meant not to be won; no matter how hard you play, just like certain relationships are not meant to happen, no matter how hard you try to make it work. Only if he had run the ball and had Ryan make an attempt to kick it for a field goal. 35 yards attempt for a field goal had been made before and were successful (unless it was Suisham) but what’s done is done.

For a forty year old, he had done a great job as QB. Whether he will return for another game, another season with the Vikings is to be seen. He was in his first of two-year contract with the Vikings after playing for Packers in 2008 and New York Jets in 2009. When bombarded with questions as to whether he was going to retire or come back to play, he said he was going to mull it over with his family and decide on whether to come back. What is there to mull over? It is not like Vikings coach, Brad Childress, is waiting to have him back and if he does do that, Favre should just pounce on the opportunity that is knocking again (if at all) and give it a good shot to get to the Super Bowl. Who even bothers to draft players in NFL over 40 years of age? If Favre does not show up again in any of the games in NFL, playing his play, then it is ‘Farewell Favre!’

Playing Dodge Ball

2010-01-25T21:22:00.001-05:00

How many times does it happen that when you are watching the news on the television or reading up a newspaper to catch up on that day’s news that you come across something that jolts you? I was watching today’s news about a driver (a women) who was driving in Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County, Maryland, when suddenly out of nowhere a manhole cover shot into the air, striking the driver (obviously after breaking the windshield of her SUV), hurting her critically. She was rushed to the Baltimore emergency center for treatment and face job. It was told that the manhole explosion was due to a gas leak in that area.

Firefighter and Washington Gas officials and crew members arrived at the scene to investigate the incident. The fire fighters told the reporters that they had evacuated the residents until the problem of gas leak could be fixed but some residents said that nobody came to evacuate nor did they know about any evacuation procedures. Why is this confusion that the residents and firefighters have different versions? Possibly, the firefighters came knocking and nobody was there in the house at that time but later the residents drove back or walked home. But the authorities had blocked the road of any traffic, so the residents could not drive home on that road. When they were blocked, that would rise questions among the residents to find out more about the incident and hence the evacuation. Instead of the reporters giving haphazard news to the public, it would be better if they give a complete analysis of the situation. Sometimes I feel that the reporters are just playing the role of ‘Narad muni’ to get a story.

So, coming back to our lady who was driving the SUV... Poor lady… she must be driving back from work and this had to happen on Monday evening. She would have been a little happier that the manic Monday was over when the flying manhole smacked her on the face. Driving has become so difficult these days, that one should expect the unexpected while driving. With the way we see pot holes all over the roads that we drive on, one must be good at playing Dodge Ball in driving to avoid them. Just like ‘Monk’, we should be able to zig-zag when we see flies (those who have watched ‘Monk’ will know what I am talking about) That reminds me, we being in the snow season still, I have seen cars driving with an inch or two of snow slabs on top of their cars after snow days. When I drive, I try to avoid those cars. If not, a slab of snow is bound to hit your windshield any time. Those drivers don’t have the time to brush of that snow off of their cars’ top.

To add a little pun to lighten up the situation – I heard an ad over the radio that Taco Bell is selling bean burritos for $0.38 today. Is that the reason for this manhole explosion? Maybe!

Fighting for the Basics

2010-01-24T10:10:00.000-05:00

Now close to two weeks after the catastrophic incident in Haiti, people there are struggling to get their basic need of food and water fulfilled in any way they can think of. While reporters are doing a good job of interviewing people and video covering the incident and the aftermath, it gets a little creepy when they are showing people being shot by police men for stealing bags of rice that fell from a truck of a shopkeeper. I am referring to an incident that happened on Thursday in Haiti that was covered by CNN. Three men were shot by policemen in Haiti, when they were in the act of stealing or rather picking up a bag of rice (whichever is true) that fell from a truck. One was killed and the other two were badly injured and lying on the side road bleeding to death. A couple of CNN reporters stopped their car and were video taping the incident and then were interviewing people to get a story.

Now, I am not discussing the fact that policemen shot the men for stealing a bag of rice. I do not know exactly what had happened, as to whether there was a riot going on or people were looting all over in that area and that the police had shot to maintain peace. It certainly did not give any right to shoot people over a bag of rice but I presume they did it in the spur of the moment to maintain peace. I am also not debating against the men who were stealing. When people are dying of hunger and thirst, the last thing they would be thinking of is to debate the fact over stealing that bag of rice to feed them selves or to take the honest road. I am awestruck at the fact that the reporters stopped to tape the incident rather than doing anything to help the wounded men.

I am not there in person to help the people in need and I am really impressed by all the people who are donating for a good cause and going there to Haiti to volunteer their time and efforts to help them out. Thanks to all the people who are donating money and things they need. Even a small donation goes a long way in helping them out. Friday night’s show – ‘Hope for Haiti Now’ by George Clooney brought many stars and strangers together in collecting close to $57 million dollars for the cause. Even a seven-year old boy in UK was able to collect $100,000 for Haiti relief by doing a charity bike ride.

Many bloggers would just say ‘do the right thing’, ‘help people in need’ but other than that how many have truly did anything more for the cause? Saying ‘do the right thing’ on the blog to attract hits is one thing and doing it actually is another. There is a big difference. People who say much, seldom do anything has been my experience. They just get carried away and say things that they can barely have the nerve to do or stand up for, just to win the moment and people’s trust. Don’t be one of them, do the best you can, donate even the smallest amount you can. It will touch people’s lives in Haiti. Donate now!

How lazy do you want to be?

2010-01-21T10:09:00.001-05:00

Research and new innovative developments is what makes us better human beings. Many agree to this but I sometimes feel that all these developments apart from the problems it solves, is making us only lazier by the day. Take for example, in old days or even a couple of generations back, people washed clothes by hand, grinded what they needed for cooking by hand, lot of activities involved manual labor. With the physical exercise that they got, their average life expectancy was 80+ years. But nowadays, we have machines to do all these chores and we seldom get our exercise so we have to end up in a gym to get our exercise done and to stay healthy. Nowadays, doctors and researchers say that we have to try to walk or bike to work to stay healthy and to keep the environment free of pollution. They also say that gardening or doing household work or climbing stairs instead of using elevators would get our cardio workout done. Though, having invented machines like elevators and cars to simplify our lives, we are only backtracking to old ways in the name of becoming healthy.

Cell phones are another good example of innovative technology. While cell phones have made it easier for us to communicate to others from wherever (apart from the problems that is has like the calls not going through because of weak signals or the person on the other end will never know if you are at work working or at the library working on your research paper like you had said or whether you are sight-seeing at Shenandoah), it also has made us lazy. Many (up to 66%) use their cell phone mainly for texting or playing games that are downloaded in it rather for talking. Incidents of texting while driving or walking and getting into accidents are many in number that is heard on the news on a daily basis. Spending so much time on the tiny lit screen has proved detrimental to kids and teens being near sighted. Should anyone be surprised when a research is run to see why kids these days are nearsighted after the fact that you gift wrap a cell phone for their use?

When I was hearing the news on the way to work, I heard a report that a group of researchers are creating an innovative idea on stopping the ringing cell phone that is in the pocket without having to take it out. The method to stop ringing is to smack the cell phone in a particular way on a particular place where the cell phone is. Also, you can smack another way to send a message back to the caller that they are busy and that they have to call back later. Imagine this situation for a bit – You have the cell phone in your pant pocket (or hip clip) and you are in a meeting. The phone rings (technically you would have turned it off or set on vibrate before the meeting) and in the midst of the meeting with your Manager or Director, you are performing smack dance, smacking your self on the leg (or waist). Is that not funny? Are they going to reinvent Morse code for communicating silently over the cell phone?

How much lazier do you want to get? Is it that difficult to lead a simple life rather than having to use all the gadgets and machines? Why do we need new innovations when we only try to get back to old ways in some time in the name of getting healthy?

Double Trouble

2010-01-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

The news that rocks the headlines right now or for that matter for over a week now is the earthquake that hit Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince with a magnitude of 7.0 on Tuesday, January 12th. The quake brought down buildings, power lines, and everything that could possibly be standing on the land leading to a major catastrophe for the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. It has been announced that 200,000 people are dead, 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless and many more still remain unaccounted for. Haiti being a third-world country and people struggling for their day-to-day existence are further pushed back to face the hardship that the tremor crafted.

People who witnessed the incident had reported that a huge plume of dust and smoke rose up over the city within minutes of the quake. They saw a blanket of smoke and dust that completely covered the city and obscured it for about 20 minutes. They are many damaged buildings throughout the capital, including the president's residence and many structures that were leveled to the ground trapping thousands of lives, some still alive to be rescued and many dead. The tremor that lasted only a few minutes had created so much havoc and damages that people and volunteers from all over the world are still working through to sort it all out. Organizations like Red Cross and many are collecting donations in terms of much needed supplies like food, water and basic clothing and shelter to money to help the poor nation that just got poorer.

“jab bhagwan detha hai, chappar phad ke deta hai” is an old Hindi saying which roughly translates to “When God gives, He blows the roof off”, meaning He gives with an open heart. I am sure He gave trouble with an open heart to Haiti. The saying should be “jab bhagwan detha hai, sab phad deta hai” in this situation meaning “When He gives, He tares everything”. All that the people in Haiti are left with is the big hollow word ‘Hope’ that they would be rescued, that they would get food and water just to survive after losing everything that they owned or even people that they loved for that matter. “Time will heal” mentality is what will fill in the void. I will talk about this phrase in detail in the upcoming blog.

As people in Haiti were trying to figure out their present and future this past week, another aftershock of magnitude 6.1 shook the place this morning. When will these aftershocks stop? Will the people in Haiti get the time to at least grieve over their lost ones or will they be scurrying to save their own lives? People have to figure out where they would live, what they would eat or drink to survive in this mired situation. Oh sure; time does heal by giving more pain or bigger worries to deal with, that the present problem will look miniscule and not worth the pain.

Pants on, pants off

2010-01-14T10:21:00.003-05:00

Make up your mind for once. This week seems to be pants off week. I am talking about two different things but will get to the other in a bit. January 10th is the no pants! ride subway day. This was started by Improv Everywhere in New York City in January 2002 and has been going on every year since then and has caught on in many major cities. In 2002, Improv Everywhere started this event with seven people to create "scenes of chaos and joy in public places." So this January 10th was its ninth anniversary and if you were riding the metro in NYC or Washington DC or any other major city, you would be enthralled with the sight of people riding the metro with their pants off.

Men and women who participated in this event walked in the metro as normal people – I mean with their pants on and after they boarded the train, they took their pants off, folded it and set it aside and continued to act normal by reading their newspapers or chitchat with fellow riders. It sure did get some smiles and some smirks among their riders. I hope no one was wearing boxers that read ‘wifeys pick’ or any other crazy wordings. With the weather being frigid on that day, many people were bundled up with thick jackets, hats and scarves. In the midst of this, to see people stripped down to boxers and panties called for stares and wonder.

Along the same line, on Jan 13th, General Larry Platt, a contestant in American Idol performed the catchy rap during auditions in Atlanta (oh no!). His song (which he wrote himself) was called ‘Pants on the ground’. The basic theme was to wear your belt or else your pants would drop off when you are talking to folks in a stylish manner with your hat turned sideways. Larry was not selected even though his song got laughs and applause from the judges and audience since he was above the age limit for the show. He is 62 years old but his song sure brought out laughs to many of us. I am sure it is going to be a hit song or some song writers would use it in their albums. Whatever happens, this is our 2010 'Macarena' - "Pants on the ground, pants on the ground..."

Here is the link Pants on the ground. Enjoy it and have a few laughs….

A dose of reality

2010-01-12T10:20:00.000-05:00

Carrying gun(s) in a public place without license has been a no-no in the USA for years now. But why does anyone have a need to carry a gun – with or without license, when there is all the possibility of something bad happening when the temper button is pushed? When such is the case, what was going on in Washington Wizards Guard, Gilbert Arenas’s head? For those of you who don’t know the story behind this incident, Arenas was charged of felony for carrying a gun (unloaded) into Verizon Center and pointing it at his teammate, Javaris Crittenton, another Wizards guard, in an attempt to play a joke over gambling debts.

Arenas is a three-time NBA All-star, who makes $111 million a year and is in his second year of six years contract with NBA. Most of us here make about 70K a year on an average and with the bad economy that we are facing, anyone is just happy to have any job at all to keep their lives moving forward. Students keep struggling to get a degree because there is no job waiting for them when they are done with college. So many are purposefully delaying their graduation, so they can still be students and not having to hunt for jobs in this economy. With that being said, do you know how much is $111 million a year for a pay? Compound that with all the perks he would get and all the exposure he gets being with NBA. With so much money on hands, he is attempting to play a joke with his teammate by pointing guns over a gambling debt? It does not fit well with people in this stature.

Moreover, a few days later police searched Javaris’s house in Arlington, VA, for guns and came up empty-handed. Sure they would. A few days not enough for Javaris to hide the guns if he had them? Why would he mess up his career when he saw what was happening to Arenas? Also, police found out (so did we) that Arenas possessed hundreds of gun. What does he do with all those guns? A collection perhaps to make some additional millions?

With this incident, Arenas has lost all credibility, his contract with NBA is terminated and he has to say bye-bye to his $111 million a year job. I am pretty sure he would be filing for bankruptcy in jail for felony. It is like a trailer trash winning a national lottery, blowing it all away and ending poorer than where they were before. Read ‘The winner’ by Baldacci, you will know what I am talking about.

Which way is it?

2010-01-08T10:08:00.002-05:00

I am not going to toot my horn and say like a few men out there, that given a few hours, I will figure out any piece of mechanism or get myself out of any place without asking direction even though I am lost. I would call them folks, knuckleheads. If you are lost anywhere, you stop and ask for directions. I for one, have a bad sense of direction and keep asking for directions even to a place that I have been a zillion times. So I got myself a GPS unit which I use now to get myself ported anywhere I want to go.

GPS unit is easy to figure out even for a kid. If my 10-year old can figure out, anyone who is driving a vehicle can figure out how to use it. You can get the GPS for about $150 (Megallan is good, if you are looking for one to buy this year) and use it externally or have it installed in the vehicle or get a vehicle with one installed already. The navigation system basically has the option of entering an address that you want to get to and different choices of getting directions and some being ‘Fastest time’, ‘Shortest distance’, ‘avoid highways’. But what you get in terms of directions is not entirely reliable or safe as witnessed by a couple during the weekend of this past Christmas. The couples were using their SUV’s navigation system through the desert of Eastern Oregon but were misled into a remote forest road. With the snow storm occurring during that time, they were stranded for two and a half days before they could get a faint signal in their cell phone to make the emergency call for help.

It has been my experience as well that when I use the GPS directions while I am in DC (obviously I was taking my guests to DC for site-seeing and posing for pictures), it would give me a round-about way to get to my home. The easier route might have been to get on I-66 from Constitution Avenue but instead it would direct me to get on I-395 and go around Virginia before I can get home. The reason might be that it was avoiding I-66 for HOV restrictions. But similar episodes when driving out of state has occurred and me being disoriented generally, make it a point to ask for directions in the gas stations (while getting ‘fuel’) to make sure that I am heading the right way. It is very important to have a general feel for directions and instead of blindly following the directions by GPS, use local maps and stop to ask for directions. But men being what they are don’t ask for directions even after they are lost for a good amount of time. Maybe it is about time for us (females) to figure out the mechanics of thinking on those dogged out men.

Aftermath ripples

2010-01-06T10:35:00.002-05:00

I am sure everyone on the east coast had a good taste of winter starting the week of this past Christmas. Those of you who have no clue as to what I am talking about – we on the east coast had a snow storm or rather a blizzard on the Dec 18th (unfortunate date) which led to many accidents for drivers. The snow storm resulted in two feet of snow on an average along the coast. At least as far as I know, VDOT did an excellent job of prepping the roads with salt and the snowplows on the prowl to clean the roads of snow to make driving easier on such conditions. The problem with snow plows plowing the snow off the streets is that if cars are parked along the streets, it becomes difficult for the plow to do its job. The snow was accumulated around the cars blocking it from being able to pull out of the lot. The plows cannot come too close to the cars to remove the snow because there is always the possibility of coming too close to the cars, scraping it which leads to the owners of the cars coming after the plow company. To avoid these headaches, snow plows keep their distance from the parked cars resulting in the embankment of snow along the cars and driveways.

Many have complained about how the snowplows have done a lousy job of dumping snow around their cars in their parking lots and that they had to shovel the snow to be able to pull out their cars to get out of their parking lots. To them I say - do you expect the snowplows to clean every nook and corner around the cars when they are maneuvering the big plows to clean the roads and to make sure not to hit the cars but come as close as they can come to take away the snow? I have had experiences like this when the plows go by past my house and during the process block my driveway. Then I spend a few minutes cleaning the dump off my driveway so my cars can enter. I guess it is part of the whole shebang.

The after effects of this snow storm are still witnessed in parking lots of the gym and office spaces where a number of parking spaces are filled with huge deposits of snow. As a result of this, parking has become a problem. When I go to the gym, I spend a considerable amount of time looking for a parking spot because of snow deposits and also given the fact that it is the New Year and people are sincere in keeping to their promises for the year. I just have to wait for a few weeks to get my parking spot, for the snow to melt away and also for people to cave in to break their resolutions of going to the gym because of laziness and also because promises are only meant to be broken.

New beginnings

2010-01-02T10:41:00.001-05:00

I had disappeared for a while after my last posting since I was busy with my gardening and growing my own produce for my home. I also was busy with my work and getting some issues resolved in my life. Now that my excuses are out of the way, I can direct my mind to pen... um.. type some words here to get us going.

Now that the New Year is here, it is full of hope and promises for many. Many of us can look ahead to do something worthwhile with our lives in terms of achieving some things at work, shaping their careers, learning new skills to add to their skill sets, build strong relationships and so on. Talking about building relationships, it is a two-way street and if one is determined to break all rules, you can pretty much write-off that relationship for good. If you end up in such a situation, consider it as good riddance and move on.

Unemployment has gone up to 10%. Many of us who still have a job are thankful each day to have one and if some regards are scared as well of not knowing when they might lose it. Many who don’t have a job are on a constant lookout of finding one. Don’t give up! This New Year will bring us good luck with job security and peace in our lives. I will continue to write on a regular basis. Stay tuned in!

Have a very Happy New Year. 2010 it is!

Nothing that a cold beer can’t solve

2009-07-30T10:30:00.000-04:00

By now you must have heard about the incident where Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (an African American) was arrested by a white police officer, Sgt. James Crowley. Gates is a professor at Cambridge University, Mass. and stays in a house that belongs to the University. He went on a trip to China for making his documentary for PBS – “Faces of America” and returned home from his trip with his luggage, only to find out that his lock is jammed. So he asked the help of his driver of the cab, who is also a black man to push it open. Gates called the University at the same time to get his lock fixed and while he was in the process of making that call, a police officer was outside his door asking him to step outside of the house. The police had arrived there as a result of a 911 call from Gates neighbor, Whalen, who had mentioned that two black men were breaking in into the Professor’s house. With enough misunderstandings, the police officer arrested Gates and Gates passed on a remark about how a black man is treated in America. That is the gist of what had happened but you can Google it for more detailed information.

When this racially charged controversy was developing further, Our President had passed on a remark in a conference as to how Cambridge Police acted stupidly and if they acted smartly, this whole incident could have been avoided. Now the black racism event is compounded with President being anti-police. I don’t see what is wrong in what Obama said. Whether he is black or white, the incident calls for a statement from anyone who hears it and that statement would be ‘How stupid can a police act in that situation?’. When a police officer reaches a scene, does he not make enquiries to find out what is going on? In this case, Crowley did ask Gates of his identification which proved that he is a Professor in Cambridge University and his drivers license showed that the address is same as the address that he is in. If Crowley needed more information, he could have called Gates’ neighbors and have them testify that that man was Gates and he does reside in that house.

Crowley did not do any of that and he just arrested the man and put him in jail for four hours? Based on what? The 911 call? Whalen, who made the call, did what she did with good intentions, but did she not know that Gates was a black man and that he might have come back from the trip? All this happened in the middle of the day and not at night, where she would have poor lighting and a bad call. This reminds me of the old lady who said that she witnessed the robbery and attack in the movie, ‘My cousin Vinny’. Does Whalen in this event, need a visit to the eye Doctor?

Anyhow, Obama’s statement of ‘stupidity’ had caused some furor in the police community and in order to quell the situation and to address the racial differences, Obama had invited Gates and Crowley to discuss the matter over a beer. Now there is nothing that a drink can’t do. These guys will have beer and all of a sudden racism would disappear from the face of this earth. This beer drinking is more for photo ops and for Obama to cool the situation in the police community as a result of his remark. If things were to be solved by a beer, I would have cases of it stacked up in my garage. Oh, by the way, I do have it stacked up not for this reason though.

How much for a dollar?

2009-07-28T10:39:00.001-04:00

With the sliding value for a dollar, instability in the job market and economic crisis, no one knows what one might get for a dollar. Gas prices seem to be rising every week as a result of summer and people travelling to their destinations for vacation. I wonder how one could afford a travel when they complain about job loses and recessions but there are a few who do travel for getaways whether they or someone books it. What is driving the price of fuel these days with a barrel of crude oil being $68?

OPEC had mentioned last year that they were going to cut back on oil production because they were not making enough money per barrel. How could that possibly be when the price of a barrel of oil is swinging between $65 and $70? OPEC wants their barrel price to be $74 as an ideal condition. Sure, they can stop production, which will increase demand as a result of less oil in the market and hence more cost per barrel. When OPEC will reach its goal where does that lead us to? Shelling out more dollars to get our tanks filled up every week.

The speculators, energy policy, global economy, foreign demand (especially from China and India) and the brokers working with clients who give big bucks to buy oil tend to raise the price. If we cut down on fuel consumption, maybe the oil prices will go down. Whatever happened to not driving the big fuel guzzlers to work or vacation trips, riding a bicycle to work day per week, carpooling, metro usage to get to work? Spending about $50 a week per car is scary in this recession. In January of 2009, the average fuel price was $1.77 and now it is about $2.56, driven in part by a falling dollar. I guess if we do a little bit on our side, we can bring down the price of fuel. I remember when the fuel price was $0.99 way back in the 90’s. If not that low, some drop in fuel price would not be a bad thing.

Words of Wisdom

2009-07-24T15:05:00.001-04:00

Musings for the weekend...

Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel "pick up your shovel, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the promised land".

Nearly 75 years ago, Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a camel, this is the promised land".

Now Obama has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of camels, and mortgaged the promised land.

Enjoy your weekend!

Once in a lifetime

2009-07-22T10:30:00.001-04:00

Today was when the longest solar eclipse occurred in Asia and many viewers awed with excitement. The eclipse lasted for about six minutes and 39 seconds, which is near the theoretical maximum duration for a solar eclipse of seven minutes and 31 seconds. A solar eclipse is formed on a new moon day, when Sun, Moon and Earth come in a straight line. The eclipse occurs on the earth where shadow of moon falls on the earth. The next solar eclipse this long will occur only in the year 2132.

After an hour after sunrise, the sun was covered by the moon and it became dark. Many people in India and China were crowding to see the event with special sunglasses while many believe that watching solar or lunar eclipse is inauspicious and hence stayed inside to avoid seeing the occurrence. When I was a kid, I have seen a solar eclipse from my house and would watch it by taking a piece of bottle/glass and blackening with soot of smoke instead of this day’s fancy glasses. I did not think of it as inauspicious or scary but rather got more interested in the phenomena. I started reading more about space. No, I was not born with an interest in space science nor did I move my leg in circles looking at a ceiling fan, when being held by my grand parents or anybody for that matter. I was a normal kid, just like any one else.

This event is eerie in a way because of how it affected a lot of the animals in the areas where the eclipse was total. In China's Hangzhou City zoo, animals that were out feeding at 9.30am, started going inside their dorms without hesitation after dropping whatever they were eating. In a similar manner, animals that are used to being fed after sundown came out as soon as it became dark. This is a sign of more like a Pavlovian response (as in Pavlov's dog) rather than being time or hunger based. Thanks to my friend who pointed this out. What would have been the effect on humans because of sudden darkness for less than seven minutes? I think it is nothing. What would seven minutes of darkness in the morning do to humans? Of course, roads and work space have had to be lit to work and move around as usual for that day. In terms of time sense, nothing should be affected for humans. At least that is my opinion. You would never know if some humans would just drop dead sleep or start getting hungry when it became dark. I think we are a little better than the four legged ones in this regard.

Workout for your fingers

2009-07-14T10:23:00.001-04:00

I am a firm believer that workout is the solution to be fit and healthy. While I push myself at the gym to get a full body workout, I did not realize that I would need to do a workout for my fingers. Now you all know that I am being sarcastic, right? Who ever gives a workout for their fingers, except the musicians? But kids and teens (or even adults) are so good with their fingers when it comes to texting on their cell phones. One could be driving on the highway at 70-80 mph and still be texting, and some can be texting to become the queen of texting. What I mean will be explained in the paragraphs to come.

I was watching Rachael Ray’s show one afternoon, when Rachael was interviewing a thirteen year old girl who had texted 14,000 texts in a month. That girl had come to the show with her father and a mound of bills from the phone company. Luckily, her father had said, that the family was on an unlimited texting plan which had saved them thousands of dollars in bills while his daughter was spending days and nights texting to her friends. She had said in that show that she would be texting all the time… unless she was asleep. How could someone be texting all the time during a day? Even if they do so, what or who would they be texting? Is it even a proud achievement that she was on the show to gloat about it?

In every profession, one has their own set of vocabulary or slang when they have to communicate and only people in that world can understand what is being said. This is true in the world of texting as well. In the 120 characters limit that one has in the texting world, one cannot embrace the fact that effective communication is the key to get the point across. Texters come up with their own codes to fit in their texts and to convey the message across. Do you even know some of the codes these texters use? SLAP – Sounds like a plan; TTFN – Tata for now and many more. But these are day-to-day usage in their world.

Apart from texting being a problem while driving or hiking the tab on your phone bill, texting has become a problem among teenagers since school kids use this as a means pull a fast one over their parents and to look cool among their friends. It is not that the kids are trying to hide things from their parents or plotting against their parents but just to have a little privacy and to be cool among their piers. But there is always a fine line between hiding and privacy. How many times, one hides the truth and says to their loved ones that they have not lied about anything. It is just that they did not tell the truth; not lied. People who want to lie or hide the truth will always find a way to do so. Kids these days take texting to the next level – sexting, which is scary. Try to find the meaning of some of the codes that these kids use while sexting like 8, IWSN or NIFOC. I can give the explanations here but I don’t want to cross the fine line of being civil here. All I would say is just keep an eye out on those kids of yours who are texting.

My elixir

2009-07-12T11:05:00.001-04:00

Not a day begins without me getting up and going right into the kitchen to use the microwave to make myself a cup of hot coffee. There is something about having coffee first thing in the morning other than the fact that it has caffeine to keep us going for the day. Whether you want to feel refreshed or want to rid of that headache you have because of your work or your spouse nagging you to go to Shenandoah or Williamsburg or want to cajole someone by being a personalized barista, a cup of Joe is all that takes to bring you back to life. In any work environment you can see a coffee pot going but you seldom see tea bags made available for tea drinkers. For example, go to any mechanic shop or office kitchen, you would see a coffee pot in place to be used. So you get the idea, coffee is the number one elixir you can have to get yourself going on with your activities in life.

Studies have proved that coffee improves memory, cures bad breath (no wonder all dates start with having a cup of coffee together - I remember my friend having countless coffee episodes in Starbucks while dating) and reverses memory problems. Research suggests that having five cups of coffee a day reverses memory problems seen in Alzheimer’s disease. I would take the choice of five cups a day to brain booster capsules to improve my memory. That would be like killing two birds in one shot - get wired and improve memory at the same time.

Fifty-five mice were researched on to see if the memory improves with the dose of caffeine. I can already see the smile on your face or nodding your head because you think that conducting tests on mice is funny. For those who scorn or joke on the fact that research for human betterness is done on mice - since they are found in plenty and no one would shed a tear if mice were killed in the process and also that it is medically acceptable to do research on mice for something a human will use on a later stage. Mice are the guinea pig for researchers. What is astounding is that an 18-19 month old mouse exhibits the same behavior as a 70-year old man in terms on memory capacity. So after the tests, it was proved that mice with caffeine had an improvement in their memory power, which draws a parallel that if humans start having caffeine (does that mean any caffeine or caffeine from coffee? Hmm… not clear there), it would improve their memory as well.

Don’t be too surprised when you come to know that you are either constipated or having weight problems after a couple of months of helping yourself with this caffeine dose. Anything in excess is converted to fat and is stored in the body for later use (what parts of the body it is stored, only your body decides that) and a known problem of having too much coffee is constipation. You do not need another research documenting what I said before about coffee’s effect. So have your five cups of coffee with no sugar and have more water during the day. If you have five cups, see to it that other intakes are equally compensated to avoid the weight problems. Follow the simple rule that “input is less than the output” for your body.

Good Salesperson

2009-07-09T12:24:00.002-04:00

I can forthrightly say that there are not a lot of people who visit this site or read what I have to say. Many bloggers would boast about how many visitors they have and how they keep checking their blogs in their time of absence or how visitors from different nations, place or creed bombard their mails with their comments or so on and so forth. But I can say that I have a few visitors by chance who stumble on to this site in their process of looking for something else. If you ask any of my friends or relatives or colleagues at work about my blogs, they would draw a blank. The reason being, I have not told any of them that that I maintain a blog site and portray my views on different happenings around the world or life in general.

I have not felt the need to tell anyone that I jot down my thoughts here for I write to satisfy myself, to improve my writing skills and to improve my comprehending power and more so, force myself to know the news either online or watch and hear on television and radio or take the time to actually hold the newspaper and sit in a corner undisturbed amidst my busy schedule. I do empathize with the fact that not everyone has time on their hands to spend it on reading blogs of others who regurgitate the news with their own touch or enhanced with their thoughts in a busy schedule. With the availability of blog space, many have taken the liberty to wad off their thoughts in the name of better communication. They would end up writing paragraphs after paragraph rehearsing the same point over and over again; but it is their space and they have the freedom to do so.

I have see many who maintain their blog site would mention about it in their mails (as a footnote whether in office or personal mails) or gloat about it to their kiths and kin, for they want to share their thoughts or boast about their immense writing skills or vocabulary power. Kudos to them! But the worst of it is not yet there. I have seen some who have their parents market their site to others. In any gatherings or phone conversation or meetings, their parents would pass on the information to others about their sons or daughters blog site and how well they express their thoughts intertwined with humor. I am not talking about kids or teens here; grown up adults who have the best salesperson working on their side so many will visit their blog site, only to gloat about it in their blogs. But in person, they would say that they don’t care who visits their site or not. In my case, even my parents don’t know about my site or my writings. Only if I had a good marketer on my side, many would be visiting here to see what I write and maybe I can say ‘Thanks to my visitors who flood my mailbox with your comments!’

Competitive eating

2009-07-07T10:13:00.001-04:00

What is it with men and being the best even at mundane of things? From resisting to asking for directions when lost, to showing how fast they can drive on a windy road, to showing how many hot dogs they can eat in the least amount of time. Men never fail me in proving how daft they can be. Every year they have hot dog and hamburger eating contest. This past weekend, Joey Chestnut proved that he could eat 68 hotdogs in ten minutes in Nathan’s International Hot Dog Contest held in New York. He won the championship this year by dethroning Takeru Kobayashi from last year who could eat 64 ½ hotdogs in the same time.

For the ten minutes that Joey put in to eat those hotdogs, he walked home with $20,000 to eat hotdogs for the rest of the year. Competition that is upcoming this September will pay out as much as $100,000. Hamburger chains like Krystal and White Castle (remember this one from the movie ‘Harold and Kumar’?) put in a lot of money towards such contests. While their idea is to promote their food, it looks dumb, to have eating contests, where food is wasted a lot, while there are many who are hungry waiting to be fed.

There are many restaurants around the D.C. metro area and around the U.S. where if you finish a one-pound burger or more, they would take your picture and put it on their walls of fame. How sweet? One can go around and say that they are a champ at eating of all other things possible like what we witnessed this weekend in the tennis world. Is it then surprising to see a report on how US is leading in obesity? Only men can make a sport out of frivolous activities and then they nitpick as to why women carry big handbags only to search for their lipsticks in the ocean of materials inside their bags.

Movies – Fact or Fiction?

2009-07-06T10:37:00.000-04:00

Whenever I hear about a movie being released, I would see if it is based on history or true events. If the movie is of that nature, I try to pick up the book that the movie is based on or any book that it relates to or any history book that talks about the event. I am not a movie buff and I watch movies very rarely. So the few I watch better be good ones, something that I can learn from. If the subject or the book is interesting enough, I would not even go to that movie as I know that movies never depict the history in its entirety.

I was seeing the ads for Public Enemies, which portrays the story and events of a bank robber, John Dillinger, (played by Jonny Depp) who is a gangster robbing banks in mid-‘30s in Midwest Indiana. Some of my friends who saw the movie this past weekend said that the movie was okay and that it had holes in the narration of John Dillinger's life. If it had to be a complete narration of his life, would that not become a documentary film? If a movie is based on true events or on history, the film producers try to capture the important facts and mix it with what I call 'masala' to make it passable for film watchers.

Any movie for that instance will not be a true depiction of the truth and will be made for the taste of the viewers and with the ultimate goal of making money at the box office. Take for instance, the movie 'Catch me if you can'. That movie depicted the life of Frank Abagnale Jr. (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in 1940s, who was also robbing banks but not as a gangster but by working alone, forging checks and playing the banking routing rules. In the movie, it is shows that FBI agent, Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks was a real person who ended up catching Frank. The movie also showed as Frank escaping from a VC10 jetliner by removing the toilet and climbing down beneath it. But if you read up on the history books than you would know that it is not true or that it is even impossible for it to happen. This is what I call 'adding masala' to pass the movie to the audience.

Even when the movies 'The DaVinci Code' or 'Angels and Demons' came out, the Christian group and the Roman Church protested against the movie being released because of some of the events that were shown. I am sure everyone knows that the author, Dan Brown (of both the movies) had mixed history and fiction; came out with a beautiful cocktail, that would make the readers (or watchers of the movies) to forget life for a while. Even after knowing this, why were their riots protesting the films? Movies’ ultimate goal is to provide a little bit of education on the subject but mostly to make money and entertain the viewers. If anyone is interested on the subject, read up more on it from the web or in the library. There is plethora of information out there and one should not depend just on the movies to get educated. That is like taking a ‘capsule’ and saying 'I know about the subject' without actually making a trip to your local library. If the library is closed, don’t pretend to be there, instead research on the web.

She did it, yet again

2009-07-03T21:31:00.000-04:00

No one can talk about Alaska without talking about its Governor Sarah Palin. Can we? Time and again, she steps on the mine in the minefield of politics. It is either her or her kids in the limelight, being the talk of the nation. Starting in 2008, primetime to Vice-presidential debates, she was scorned upon for the knowledge she possessed on American history. I was hoping she would not win the election because if McCain had won and if god-forbid, something happened to McCain and Palin had to take over, America’s little hope of surviving the recession would cease with her saying ‘You betcha’

Case in point was her appearance with McCain in a meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. When simple questions like ‘What have you learned from your meeting’ was directed at her, she simply smiled and leaned over to McCain for assistance and the aids intervened to get the reporters outside the room. Also, when she was answering questions that elementary school kids asked, she proved her lack of knowledge in the American history. This sure resulted in reams and reams of bad press and to even answer the most elementary questions in an uncontrolled environment was so dangerous that the McCain group was spending money to prevent such situations.

These events were compounded by her altercation when she was found spending $150,000 on designer wardrobe just for campaign. One would question the need of her wanting such expensive dresses when she was trying to portray a down-to-earth image in the campaign. She became a lame-duck and mocking figure (or figurine) in some talk shows and Democratic criticisms. She was even imitated by talented comedian Tina Fey of her folksy was of saying “You betcha”. Recently, her daughter Bristol’s name was brought in David Letterman’s show. But she brought it upon herself. Palin had her daughter’s presence in the campaign and wanted media’s attention but then when she was found pregnant, she wanted to be left alone and she accused media for focusing the lights on her. There is a saying in Hindi, that goes like ‘People in glass houses, should not be throwing stones at others’.

When things were quiet on her for a month or so, she threw the stone yet again. This past Friday, she announced that she was resigning as Governor by the end of this month for a ‘higher calling’. Does this mean that she would not be considered for Presidential post in 2012? Some politicians say that by her resigning from post, she would fade away from politics for ever, while others say that is was the best thing for her and the State. Many say that it was because of pending lawsuits and investigation that she has on her while Palin says that she does not want to be on the limelight anymore. She is done playing the lame duck. Whatever the reasons are, we have to wait and see if we can take the name of Alaska without bringing her name in the same sentence.

Suck it up... yet again

2009-07-01T10:38:00.000-04:00

Just when you think that you can use the toll road to get to the place you want in Northern Virginia, despite the fact that you are paying to go from one parking lot to another, you hear the news that the toll price will be doubled. By 2012, the toll prices will be doubled on Dulles Toll Road. It is said by the officials that the increase in the toll will help fund the Metro rail’s $5 billion expansion in Northern Virginia and also for the 23-mile Silver line connecting East Falls Church Metro station to Dulles International Airport. If metro rail needs to be expanded, why does toll have to go higher and toll road users have to pay for something that they are not or won’t be using? I do not use the Metro rail ever and the few times I use the toll road (I resent using the toll road) I have to pay increased prices, so that I would be contributing towards the Metro project.

Airport Authority took control of the toll roads from the State, since 2005, so that they can assist the Metro project and had decided to increase the toll on main plaza from 75 cents to $1.50 and to increase by 25 cents on other exits. Instead of blindly saying that the toll will be increased to such amounts by 2012, they should have meetings or suffrage every year to decide whether such increase is required. When the toll roads were opened in the mid 80s’, authorities never intended to keep on collecting tolls from its users. They wanted to collect the money to pay for the costs and maintenance. After such a point was reached, they were going to stop collecting tolls. I guess such a point was never arrived at. The toll kept on increasing from 10 cents to 35 cents now on each exits. But if they are doing it to pay for maintenance or expansion of toll roads, it would justify the fact. But to fund for other projects is absurd.

To top this off, some states, especially Maryland is charging $1.50 a month for those E-Z pass transponders on toll road. Delaware and Virginia collect deposits, instead of charging monthly fees, but Delaware will not return the deposit at the end, when the transponders are returned. Then it is not a deposit, is it? I own that EZ pass transponder as well and the few times I have used it to get off from toll road to go to Tysons (thinking of it, the last time I ever used the toll road was in Jan 2008) and it had been a convenience. When the EZ pass was introduced in Virginia, people paid $35 to be on reserve to use the EZ pass along the East coast, so they don’t have to waste their time on the toll booth, trying to get the change out from their pockets. Paying in advance, guarantees the authorities, that one would use the toll road but having to pay a fee to use that transponder in ridiculous.

If toll keeps on increasing, nobody will build or rent office space in and around the Dulles corridor and no one would use the toll to get there either. Dulles toll road is strangled with the traffic and has become a parking lot of a kind. Why pay to be on a parking lot on toll Road, when you could be taking side roads to get to where you want for the same time and traffic? The purpose of the toll road was to get to a place quicker than other routes but if that purpose is not fulfilled, and then it becomes another normal road. Then why pay to be on a normal road? To borrow from Malcolm X, "NOVA, you've been had! You've been took! you've been bamboozled!"

Solo in the woods

2009-06-30T10:46:00.002-04:00

Watching television does help! Not getting what I am saying, look at the news of a 9-year old boy, Grayson Wynne's quick thinking to turn to what he had seen and learnt from a television show, Man vs Wild, when he found that he was lost on a hiking trip in a northern Utah forest with his family on Father’s day weekend. The group had started hiking on Saturday from Spirit Lake trailhead in Daggett County, when the boy went on hiking without the others and drifted off onto another trail. When he realized that he was lost and away from the others, he thought about the survival in the wilderness show that he used to watch with his brothers and dad – Man Vs Wild by Bear Gryll.

Even though this show is more tailored for entertainment, where the host would just find himself in situations where he can just get wet by jumping into streams and rivers, the show highlights basic tips for survival while being lost. The key is to leave some trail, so people who are searching for the lost person would track the path that they went on. The boy, having seen this and mainly remembering it, made sure to leave marks by ripping pieces of his ‘ellow rain slicker and tied it to the trees on his path. He also left behind granola bar wrappers and his backpack on the trail to be found. How many 9-year olds would remember what they learnt and use it in situations when they are left alone? The boys’ common sense sure paid for the positive outcome when he was found after being lost for 18 hours.

I should start teaching these basic steps of survival to my 10-year old. I am pretty sure he would know these more than I would. I am known to be lost in areas where I have been before. I have to follow the same route every single time and if I make a slight detour, I am bound to be lost. But I find my way though, if that is a consolation. I have not even booked a trip (even locally) in my life or driven anywhere alone to find my way on my own, when people can do much more and beyond. If I was lost in the trail, I would backtrack my way or first things first – Stop, think and stay calm. I would think of ways to get attention (not of the bears) to be rescued. The boy sure did the right things in the right situation. So kids, tell your parents that it is okay to watch television, especially Discovery Channel and Animal planet, to get habituated and to learn things to be street smart or rather jungle smart.

July 4th Special fire

2009-06-29T10:24:00.001-04:00

By now you must all have known about the plans of North Korea firing a missile towards Hawaii around July 4th Holiday, according to Japanese intelligence reports. The missile that North Korea is planning to test or fire is the Taepodong-2 which has the maximum reach of about 8000 KM, which means it could strike Hawaii, which is about 6000KM from North Korea. But the experts in missile launching say that the missile would fall short by about 500 miles before reaching Hawaii. Does that mean we take a gamble and have to wait and see if the missile misses Hawaii or not? The US has taken precautionary measures by deploying defensive measures around Hawaii. So even if the missile is launched for testing purposes and even if the test fails and the trajectory is towards Hawaii, our defensive mechanisms can intercept and destroy the missile in air, even before it reaches Hawaii. Why gamble with the millions of lives in the Hawaiian soil? That seems to be a logical step to take.

North Korea had issued a warning to mariners to avoid certain areas in the Sea of Japan on certain days while tests will be conducted. If it was their intention to attack, why bother to broadcast their testing plans to others? If North Korea wants to test and improve their nuclear power, there is so much resistance from other countries. But USA, UK, Russia and China have been the leaders of nuclear power and no one seems to raise a finger when they want to conduct tests. North Korea has China on the West and Japan and Hawaii on the East. If it has to test its long-range missile power, it cannot send the missile towards the vast China and it had to fire on the East towards the ocean. While I do agree that there is a danger of the test failing and hitting Japan or Hawaii (the test has to be overly successful to reach Hawaii), I am sure they are not going to fire directly towards the land but instead be directed towards the waters. If North Korea wants to wage a war against the US, which is the leader in the nuclear power, that would be a dumb move, since US could bring down North Korea in minutes and make it a footnote in history pages.

But whether North Korea does short, medium or long range tests, why is US interfering? If we have the treat of being attacked, strengthen the warfare and leave it at that. Why bother to interfere with supporting South Korea? All we have ever done is to interfere in other countries business. We could be having military bases in any country we feel like, we could be invading or destroying countries in the name of finding Bin Laden, but no one can ever express resentment. What was our business in Iraq when Bin Laden is hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan? Now that Iraq is destroyed, we need to have our people and money to run their country? Same thing holds good with Vietnam War. Now US is waiting to put its nose in Korean war? With the economy going down the drain, unemployment at the maximum rate that we have ever seen, poor health care systems and most of America handed over to China, all we need now is to coddle in Korean war. Be prepared to disengage the missiles if it accidentally fails and don’t over blow the situation on hand.

Death of the King of Pop

2009-06-25T22:04:00.000-04:00

Many would be in shock by now knowing that the king of Pop – Michael Jackson, MJ, is dead at the age of 50. He died as a result of cardiac arrest today around 3pm in UCLA Medical Center after he was taken there from his practice for a series of 50 concerts starting July 13 at London's 02 arena. He was known for his pop music hit albums like ‘Thriller’,’Bad’ and ‘Beat it’ to name a few and he made music free of colors. Irrespective of the age of the listeners, one would end up moving their bodies to his music. He was known for his moonwalk and break dancing style.

The few music albums that I listened to while growing up included Michael Jackson, Abba and Osibisa. Whenever we got hold of the cassettes of Michaels ‘Beat it’ or ‘Thriller’, my cousins and I would listen to it endlessly in our little den upstairs and would compose dance moves. My cousin was good at break dancing and I would enjoy making him dance and watching, the big sister that I was. We would create fusion dance on his songs and would have a laugh at the end, telling ourselves that we are not even close to the way he would dance. I am sure the world would remember the legend in the days to come as well.

While the cause of his death is still unknown and an autopsy is scheduled on Friday to find out the cause of his death, many suspect that it might be possible abuse of prescription medicine. Anna Nicole Smith’s case was similar to this and that had happened a couple of years back. With that incident and the way MJ was using his pain killers, Brian Oxman, his former attorney and family friend had mentioned that he feared to see the same end for Michael and it had come true now. We don’t know if this is a suicide or not, another possibility that I am speculating, given the fact that Michael was in debt for about $400 million and he was on the cusp of making a comeback with his 50 concerts in London. Many who worked with him had mentioned that his physical endurance will not support the tiring performances. So did he realize that his comeback would not be a success in a couple of weeks and ended up doing what had happened to him?

While many theories are being worked at and analyzed to figure out the demise of the legend, fans around the world are gathering to pay their homage at the hospital, his home, the studios that he had performed at and many locations that hold value for the pop king. Life is very precious and also very dicey. Enjoy it while you can and of course, without hurting or playing with emotions of others and taking others for granted. Listen to a few albums of the pop king to pay your respects to the legend. That will make his soul happy than the usual way of paying respects by maintaining silence for a minute or so. He was all about music and letting ones self free to the tunes of the pop.

When the fail-safe fails…

2009-06-23T10:27:00.001-04:00

The latest news that echoes in all the channels of television and radio is about the metro train accident that happened on Monday evening. In the early hours of rush hour commute on the Metro red line, an inbound train with six cars rammed into another inbound train that was stopped in the same lane, leading to nine deaths including the train operator. Both these trains were heading towards Shady Grove. This accident is one of the deadliest accidents in the metro history and the mangling wreckage happened between the Fort Totten and Takoma Metrorail stations. Seventy six passengers are sent to the hospital for treatment. No body yet knows how this accident occurred or what the cause of the accident was. The standing train had 5000 and 3000 series cars with data recorders in them, whereas the striking train is old modeled with 1000 series cars with no data recorders. Investigators are going to use the data from the data recorders to recreate the accident scene in theory to figure out the cause of the accident. But since the striking train has no data, it has become difficult to simulate the scenes.

Investigators are also looking into work hour schedule of the operator of the striking train, her training records and work records to figure out if her train riding skills are at fault or if she was fatigued on duty. It was told that there were announcements on the train that a train was stopped ahead and the striking train halted and then started to roll on again. Also, the emergency ‘mushroom’ brake button was pushed, indicating that the striking train has used the emergency brakes. Apparently, the striking train’s safeguards did not kick in. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?(It is a latin phrase - Who will guard the guards). The main purpose of the safeguard on a train is to stop the train in case of emergencies and if that fails, then what is the safety net?

Though this is an appalling incident, many on the train would see this as grounds for lawsuits. It is in deed metros fault, since the striking train was due for an inspection and also it was required to upgrade the cars of the train to a better model that could track data to make the train safe for commute. Many in the D.C. metropolitan areas depend on metro to commute to their work. If the metro is not safe, then many would avoid taking the metro which would not be favorable to metro in terms of generating revenue. While I do understand that metro is not making much revenue running their trains, they need to inspect their trains and make it safe if they want to market to people to use metro more, to carpool more to avoid pollution and fuel consumption.

In India, most of the population depends on public transportations like buses and electric trains to commute within and in and around the cities. From schools to colleges; from offices to site seeing places, public transportation is favored. While this is true in European and Asian countries, it is not that much in use in the U.S. During the times when the authorities advertise to use the public transportation more, .there is some incident like this that would through a wrench in. Even with the bus systems, there are not that many buses on the route or that many routes are not covered for the people to use the bus systems. If public transportation is not made easy for the public to use, then why would anyone get into the hassle of using them in the first place?

Let the best team win

2009-06-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

I am a big fan of two sports – football (which is called Soccer here) and Cricket. I like to watch and follow American football but it is within the US teams/states and there is nothing great or fun about it unlike world soccer or cricket when countries bout to win the championship. While many may be able to ceaselessly write on the game of football (not soccer) or Redskins or their pathetic performances and ones hope that they will becomes the Super Bowl champions when the stars align, I have my reservations. Though cricket is not played here in the US, it is a very popular sport in the world and most other countries play it. It is very similar to baseball here. Currently, in the world of cricket, if you are among the ones who follow the news on cricket you would know that today is the finals for T20 (20-20) world cup match between Pakistan and Srilanka in Lord’s stadium, London. The match will be played at 10am EST. T20 is a match where each team is given 20 overs (each over has 6 balls to bat) to play. The idea is to stake up as much runs as possible and the team with highest runs wins. In the course of the game, you can extra runs because of no ball or wides’. You can Google ‘Cricket’ and can get a crash course on the way the game is played and what the basic rules of the game are.

Well, India was eliminated in the quarter finals but was the T20 champion last year though. There would not be any hesitation on my side, on supporting which team in the finals, if India was there, would it? Now that the match is in between the neighboring countries of India, it becomes difficult to decide on which team to support. When India is not in the finals of any series, I support for Srilanka, my next best team. When the final is in between India and Pakistan, you can imagine how the tension builds up in the course of the game. But India is not in the finals and since Srilanka is, I will support Srilanka to win the T20 series this year.

Both teams are very strong competitors and have their own strengths and weaknesses. Srilanka has the best batting trio – Mahela Jayawardene, Captain, middle order batsman; Kumar Sangakkara, wicket keeper and a dependable batsman; and Tillakaratne Dilshan, right handed all rounder. These three can make the most runs and can hold the fort. There is also the M factor – Muralitharan, strike bowler and Mendis, mystery spinner are the best bowlers, who can get the batsman of the other team out of the game. Sanath Jayasuriya is the opening batsman whose continued presence in the game will take the team to victory. He is like our old Gavaskar, who would be alive in the game and stack runs slowly and steadily. But he is good for test matches, where you get to play the balls until get out; not recommended for ODIs and 20-20. So with that said, Srilankan team is steady paced and has the potential to win this match.

Pakistan team is very unreliable. When they play, they play very well but when they don’t, it is really bad. Pakistan had lost to India last year in South Africa and is desperate for a win this time around. But this team is known for their weak points including weak starts, inability to finish off the close matches, unsteady batting and loose fielding. They need to perform steadily in this match if they want to win the trophy. Younis Khan, captain of the team; Kamran Akmal; Abdhul Razzaq, ex-ICL player, all rounder; and Shahid Afridi, another all rounder will keep up the fort on their team. Razzaq and Amir are their best bowlers.

Cricket means a lot to these South Asian countries, like India, Pakistan and Srilanka. When the South Asian countries play, people of their nation watch closely and their defeat sometimes causes riots in their countries and hometowns of their players. It is important to win these matches as it is their pride and honor. Many movies have been made just to portray how important a game of cricket is for their country. Don’t believe me, watch movies like Lagaan, Iqbaal and Victory, you will know what I mean. They show how each player plays with everything he has got, not only for himself, but for his country. They play for their country first and then to satisfy themselves.

I am a stern follower when it comes to matches that India plays. When they come to finals, I watch with close attention as to how each ball is played. When they chose to bat at the end, my heart skips beats because they have to make one run more than the other team who played earlier to win the match. I used to close my eyes; peek and watch each ball to see if they hit a four or six or got out. I sometimes used to walk away from the room, with the hope that if I don’t watch they would win. I know many would say that, if it comes to point where the viewers have to pray for a team to win, then it is already in a pathetic position in the game. But don’t follow such rituals in baseball as well? Like wearing their hats inside out, would get the team from the downs and get them to win; whatever works to get the favorite team to win.

This final T20 match is important for both Pakistan and Srilanka. It not only a teams’ match but it is a peoples’ match. It is important for their countries because of what happened in their countries in the months past. With their best players, let each team perform its best and let the best team bag the T20 cup this year.

Joe on the rocks

2009-06-19T10:34:00.002-04:00

Now that summer is almost here, a couple of days away (official summer beings this Sunday) and temperatures swerving between 70’s and 90’s, I am tuning my ears to listen to complains from folks of getting really hot, muggy, humid, and sweating like a pig. With the start of summer and school closings for summer vacation, two topics can be seen blogged to ones hearts content; One being about coffee and coffee makers like Starbucks, McDonald's, to name a few and the other being rising fuel prices. I will take this opportunity and blog away about coffee and coffee drinkers and leave the fuel story for later.

Coffee does its magic on most of us from the time we wake on any given day to keep us awake and going. Many, including me, cannot start a day without a cup of coffee, only to be followed by many cups during the course of the day. But with dog days of summer fast approaching (oh, it is called dog days because of dog star – Sirius, which is a binary star in the constellation Canis Major), many want to drink cool drinks to keep their cool, that includes having iced coffee. Many would be seeing long lines in Starbucks ordering their fancy coffee drinks. But with the way our economy is right now and job loss being close to 10%, many are avoiding going to Starbucks. Why not? Average drink there costs about $4.00 loaded with Cholesterol and fat as well.

In addition to Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts, the major coffee shops, McDonald's and 7-Eleven has joined the coffee band wagon by introducing their own coffee drinks, McCafe’ and iced coffee respectively. The golden arches has put in nearly $100 million behind its coffee push for this summer, but with all its others products will it be able to sustain longer? It certainly has taken over Dunkin' Donuts in coffee drinks sale. Starbucks, the once leader in coffee drinks and a hot topic for many bloggers, is seeing a steady decline in their customers. It is making an effort to win back its customers by grinding coffee before a pot is to be brewed versus its usual, grinding all its coffee in the beginning of the day and also slashing its prices on its drink. To the people who go to Starbucks (I don’t); they are selling its iced coffee at $1.95 for a 16-ounce through June. This summer, to promote new mocha drinks, McDonald’s will give out samples of iced or hot mocha every Monday from July 13 through Aug. 3.

Even 7-Eleven, who has mostly males as their customers, is introducing iced coffee in its stores for this summer to draw females and teen customers, since iced coffee is hip amongst females and teens because of its fewer calories. I think, just iced coffee is better than any other coffee drinks that is loaded with calories and you get your caffeine along with keeping your cool. When McDonald's and 7-Eleven is offering these coffee drinks at a lesser cost, then why would anyone bother to make a visit to Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts to shell out their wallet in this weak economic environment? Will Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts be able to maintain their positions or better it, while competing against McDonald's and 7-Eleven? We will just have to wait this summer and see.

Old way of the money

2009-06-18T10:32:00.002-04:00

Ever since mankind evolved, he is known to barter things he had to get the goods or service he needed. He has and will always find a means to trade different things for what he needs in return. So why must not this be true in prison lives? Prison mates use what they have, especially cigarettes to purchase or exchange for what they need in return. You can look at practically any movie made thus far, for example ‘Shawshank Redemption’ or television serial ‘Prison Break’ and you would know what I meant. In the movie, Andy will use cigarettes to get favors like posters of "fantasy girlies" - first Rita Hayworth, followed over time by Marilyn Monroe and then Raquel Welch. He also uses bartering to get a rock hammer. All these bartering usually happen in the exercise arena where the cell mates are left to do whatever for a period of time during the day. In those movies, you will also see that other cell mates use cigarettes for gambling or betting or purchasing their favors or services. You get the idea, that the prison currency is not necessarily ‘dollars’ but ‘cigarettes’.

Now that cigarettes have their value in prisons, Virginia is following the federal prison system and other states like California, Texas and Michigan in banning cigarettes and smoking in Virginia prisons, in an attempt to make the state buildings smoke-free and protecting prison officials and other cell mates from passive smoke injury. This ban is to being in February of 2010 and for a year from then inmates and employees can undergo therapy programs to quit smoking. The argument that the state has on this effect is that they don’t want unhealthy inmates from being released into the society after they have served their time, posing a burden on the society. Now is that a concern for a person who has served many years in the prison being totally cut off from the outside world? As you would have seen in the movie, Red and the librarian are having problems in adjusting back into the society when being released after serving more than twenty years in prison. The least of their worries would be about smoking their entire life in the prison.

By banning smoking or cigarettes in prison, are the prisoners gaining anything? Of course, one could argue about passive smokers and secondhand smoke problems. Then assign designated areas where inmates and employees could go and smoke away. It is not that they are in confined areas and have nothing better to do the whole day but to smoke away. They have designated work schedule that they go about doing every day, unless they are serving time in confinement or in chains. So, by forbidding them from smoking, a simple joyful event, is the state punishing them more? Being in prison, cut off from the outside world is bad enough, along with the pains and crimes that happen within inmates. The state does not need to inflict pain by taking away guilty pleasures and sanity that keep their life moving (for some). After all, the inmates will need to find a new ‘currency’ to continue with their ways of lives in the prison to maintain their calm.

Continental Airlines indiscretion

2009-06-17T10:10:00.003-04:00

I was reading the news and could not help but smile when I read about the 10-year old girl who was inadvertently put on a wrong plane to Newark when she was bound to go to Cleveland instead from Boston. The girl, Miriam, was traveling as an unaccompanied minor (meaning traveling alone) on the Continental Airlines from Boston to go to her relatives in Cleveland. Her father, Jonathan Kamens, dropped her off at the gate to the Continental agents but there were two regional jets that were loaded from the same gate at the same time at the Boston’s Logan airport this past Sunday. The agents put the girl on the wrong plane accidentally, (obviously! If it was intentionally, won’t they be sued?) even though the paperwork was in detail, as a result of miscommunication. (Time for some effective communication seminars in the aviation industry). Once the grandparents in Cleveland raised a flag, saying that the girl was missing, the airlines realized their mistake and took proper actions to get the girl safely to Cleveland. All is well, that ends well.

To get unaccompanied minors traveling in airplanes, the industry charges a fee of about $75 to $100 one-way. When you are booking the ticket, you give details as to who will drop the kid at the gate and who will be the person who will pick them up at the gate at the destination. Both parties should provide proper identification while boarding and receiving. In the interim, during flight hours and stop-overs, the flight attendant would take care of the kid, provide meals and they would play or watch television or rest in the Young Traveler Club under their supervision. How do I know about this? I have been there, done that. I have sent my son, Yashwant, just not to California (from Virginia) but also to India as an unaccompanied minor.

I sent my son to California to visit his cousins during summer break when he was five years old and he travelled all by himself. He was excited about the trip, traveling in the plane all by himself and spending his summer with his cousins alone with out parental supervision. The following year, I sent him to India to visit my parents for nearly three months. After two months, I went to India for three weeks and brought him back. During that trip was when his passport expired and had to go to the US embassy to get a new one done. In the years to follow, he has been travelling by himself to India or California by himself. If I tell him about vacations, the first question he asks is if he is going to be travelling alone and if not, at least to have his seat far away from others. In that regard, he is an independent boy and bless my stars, that I didn’t have to look for him in Indonesia when he is supposed to land in India.

The father of the girl that made the headlines was refunded the service fee for unaccompanied minors and gave an apology. But the father is not satisfied with it. Would anyone be unhappy and angry about it? Sure. But the airlines gave an apology and a refund. Just accept it and move on, instead of brewing a frivolous lawsuit. People tend to feel as if someone has to pay for it when someone commits a mistake. Sure, miscommunication and mistakes happen. Unless it was a planned mistake, just take the apology and the refund and move on. Many might say that we should not send our kids unaccompanied or that flight attendants are not baby-sitters but we pay for the service and send our kids on occasions where we cannot go with them for months together leaving our work. (Do you even know how much the ticket costs to go to India?) How many times have the luggage been misplaced or sent to the wrong destination? How many times has the plane be overbooked? How many times you are about to board the plane and the plane is cancelled because the pilot is sleepy and they could not find a replacement pilot? Yet we continue to travel in planes, don’t we? So people will continue and must continue to send their kids unaccompanied if situation calls for it.

Sleeping Beauty

2009-06-16T10:32:00.000-04:00

When it comes to sleeping, I would tell everyone that I have no trouble falling asleep anywhere, anytime; whether on a plane or in a car. I felt proud about this fact, as if I had an edge over those picky sleepers who have trouble falling asleep at night or wake up in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep; until I stomped on the article which I will discuss in a bit. It is ironic though that I came across this article, a couple of weeks later after I had the discussion on sleep and sleeping habits at night with my friends. We were discussing about how one cannot fall asleep at night or that they would go to sleep and be awakened by the slightest noise and would have trouble going back to sleep. I had suggested that they use prayer beads and keep repeating the prayers for every bead in the chain (similar to counting sheep) and that they eventually would fall asleep or they could pop in a couple of Tylenol, an hour before bedtime and that would knock them out. My friends were going to try and were going to get back to me on their sleeping pattern. But if one cannot go to sleep because of problems they are having in their lives or if they arouse because of nightmares of incidents, they should workout enough to tire themselves off, so the tiredness would knock them to sleep.

National Sleep Foundation had researched sleep patterns and has reported that more than 20 percent of Americans get less than six hours of sleep in a day. When you don’t get enough sleep, you have difficulty getting up the following day, you are tired and grumpy throughout the day, have hard time focusing on work and sometimes end up giving your boss weird excuses for not coming to work on time. But these are just mundane effects of not getting enough sleep. Chronic, inadequate sleep leads to cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, obesity and it affects metabolism, making people eat more and build up that belly fat. Knowing this, I resent all those people who come in my dreams giving me nightmares and disturbing my beauty sleep. Sleep deprivation also leads to majority of road accidents that we hear about in our daily news.

Even if you sleep for six to eight hours after taking Tylenol or any sleeping pills, some complain that they are still tired or not satisfied with their sleep. That is because that they get poor-quality sleep. What I meant by that is, when you sleep, you have different phases of sleep during the night. Among them are REM, the Rapid Eye movement phase (where you get your sweet dreams about floating in a tub of ice cream or bad dreams about slapping the person you have been meaning to), and Deep or slow-wave sleep. REM phase is needed during sleep for consolidating memories, learning, creativity (Einstein figured out theory of relativity during this phase), problem-solving and emotional balance, whereas Deep phase is needed for the body to secrete human growth hormones for development and physical repair of wear and tear. That is why we let babies and young kids (but kids are supposed to be young – no?) to sleep a lot and we don’t disturb them while they are sleeping, no matter what time of the day, so their body can develop properly. But these phases get affected as we age and also because of caffeine and alcohol. That is why we are advised as to not drink coffee after evening sets. Also, if you have trouble waking up or feel like sleeping during daytime, it just means that you did not get enough restorative sleep. That “falling asleep anywhere, anytime” that I mentioned at the beginning is not to be so proud after all. Maybe it is due to the lack of restorative sleep.

One can monitor their sleep pattern either by admitting themselves in a hospital (expensive proposal) or get a new sleep-monitor device that is available in the market (Zeo Personal Sleep Coach). It has a head band that you wear and go to sleep as usual and the sleeping pattern, and brain waves are recorded in a clock radio like device. The monitor would display your actual sleep time and also the duration of REM and Deep sleep. The device costs about $400 and you get to upload your data from every night on to a web site which would analyze the data and send your coaching instructions for six months, to get better sleep or to improve sleeping habits. This would be a means to figure out your sleep pattern and really know why you wake up tired each morning. I think $400 is worth it for the enduring beauty sleep.

Time dwindler

2009-06-15T10:03:00.001-04:00

Back home in India, my family is accustomed to sitting together on the floor and eating dinner. Every single day, my job would be to sweep the floor where we gather together, bring the plates, cups, water and all the vessels containing the food to be eaten. May it be roti and dhal; rice, dhal and sides with home made yogurt; or a simple tiffin dinner, I am to make sure that everything is set in the center of the floor. Then my family members along with guests (if any are visiting or just stopping by) would sit around the food forming a circle, plates would be passed along and everyone would help themselves to their food. The next hour would go by eating the food along with talking about how the day went by for each of us, what plans would unfold the following day or anything else that needs to be discussed with mom and dad.

I am sure many who read this would say that they do the same thing here in the US except they sit on a dining table. But do they forget that the television is running in the background or many have their cell phones or Blackberry texting? With the advent of new technology tools, people want to stay connected or rather update their status to others every minute of their lives. It is not just dinner time that I am talking about but in general family members tend to spend less time personally with each other and spend a great deal of time on internet surfing or watching TV or playing on xbox (or on similar machines) or texting and twittering. Recently, studies at the University of Southern California reported that 28 percent of Americans said they were spending less time with their household family members, reason being that they spend time on social networking sites or on internet. But even before this study, people spent time watching TV or on internet; then why the jump in the rate of families not spending time together? It is because of texting and twittering (or facebook-ing - made that word up!)

Nowadays even kids have cell phones and they have texting capabilities enabled and they could be texting to their friends who are next doors asking whether they want to meet up to play, when they could just holler. If they are not playing outside, they want to be playing video games or watching television. If nothing else, they would be on the internet, playing games. But this is true even for adults. They spend a lot of time on their cell phones and blackberries, trying to keep up with their work at any given time. Years back, work was done at the office and when you left the office, the work remained at the office. Now with laptops that are hauled everywhere one goes, blackberries and cell phones that can receive mail, one gets to work at all waking times that they forget to interact with the family members at home. Another advantage of having access at all times is that one can fib about their whereabouts to their counterparts or parents.

Oprah Winfrey’s show had featured “What Can You Live Without?” challenge on television earlier, to see if families can live without computers, cell phones, television, iPods, or video games for a week. The idea was to get families closer to each other and to make them understand others' interest and to have something in common that everyone can be involved in doing, thus spending time with each other. Was Oprah forgetting that this was aired on television and one would have to be watching television to begin with to get this idea? Technology was made by man to ease our job in every aspect. But when one becomes an addict to the technology, then who is the boss? Take a break from hanging on to your cell phones even while working out at the gym or taking a stroll in the park. See if you can be without watching television for one day in a week (did someone get a heart attack?) and instead go out and do something as a family. Maybe by the end of this summer, we will end up with more closely knitted family than couch-potatoes.

Marking your territory

2009-06-11T14:15:00.000-04:00

I was going through the main headlines and came across the news about Indian students being attacked in Australia and that these attacks are appalling and that this has been going on for the last month or so. As a result Indian students and Indian groups are causing reprisal attacks and so-called vigilante action. Many have called these attacks as racists. One can understand that if these attacks are targeted on Indian students and the number of occurrences is more, they would be classified as racism. I think years back, we had these dot busters in New Jersey and that was marked as attacks being made on Indians and hence racists.

Australian Police is trying to make the situation better by dispersing the groups formed for protests or vigilante actions, also trying to track and capture the culprits but overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi has blamed the Australian police's inefficiency pointing out that the administration should have dealt with the matter more seriously. I can understand the point from both the groups. Police are doing their jobs to maintain peace while there is mayhem everywhere in Sydney and Melbourne but even if they catch a few suspects, they have to have enough proof to prosecute anyone who allegedly would have committed the crime. In the same token, the Indian group is threatened by the fact that they are being targeted and they have no culprits to tie this action to.

These kinds of attacks happen everywhere in the world. They happen even in India where there are attacks between Hindus and Muslims. To take a stand is nothing wrong. If the attacked group is saying that the police are incapable of doing their jobs or that they are racists attacks targeted on Indians, it is because of the helpless situation that they are in. It does not mean that India is better than Australia or Indians in general feel that Indian environment is better than Australian. But a blanket statement saying that Australia is a racist country is not correct. When you come and stay anywhere other than your homeland, you have accepted their laws and work culture. That does not mean that they are slaves or won’t raise their voices to get what they deserve.

I have read some comments from Indians (oops, they are not Indians, they should be Americans or Aussie’s right?) who are born and brought up in Australia or the US, that ‘if they are that much concerned than these Indians should not have left India to go to the US or Australia; why should they leave India to go work elsewhere and steal their jobs; these Indians have a general idea that India is better in many ways’. They work elsewhere for the money, for the convenience that they get, to support their families back home but that still does not mean that cannot voice their concerns. What about these non-Indian generation men who grow up here but look for girls from India to get married traditionally? What happens when they BBQ on the fourth of July or have a Thanks Giving meal and yet celebrate Ganpathy or Diwali as a traditional Indian? Do they then become Indian all of a sudden? Does India and Indian culture become important then?

Where ever we live, we try to make the best out of it. We are human and we tend to group based on the common denominator – may it be culture, religion, practice or region. We try to mark our boundaries and if things are not right then there is no harm in voicing their concerns. But the Indian group trying to do vigilante actions or disturbing the peace or throwing a blanket statement that Australia is a racists country is not correct in the same token as the police’s incapability to take action to prevent from these attacks being targeted on the Indians.

Is America that Dumb?

2009-06-09T10:31:00.001-04:00

If you have read my previous postings, you would know that I go to the gym for workouts and that I prefer to be in front of a television when pedaling faster on an elliptical machine getting that heart rate higher. On one such evening, I happened to be at the gym watching Oprah’s show. It was a show where Suze Orman was the guest and she was explaining how to make changes in our day-to-day lives to get going in this economical crunch time. Some of her tips (like having a 10-month savings before looking to own a house or putting aside a part of your paycheck towards emergency funds) were worth knowing and following but most of it is real common sense.

In that show, there were many adults who were interviewed of what their income and expenses were and how they save for that much needed times. One such participant was a recent graduate from college who was working at Starbucks full-time. She was living in an apartment by herself, driving a fully-loaded new car to work, had expensive furniture and accessories. She was carping about the fact that she was always running behind on her bills, that she could not pay her student loan, and most importantly not being able to go out partying with her friends. When I was listening to this, I could not help but simper. I will tell you why.

Is it that difficult a fact to understand that what you earn is what you spend? Even our own body knows that what you eat is what you are. Then the mind that controls our lives, does not understand this basic concept? This is basic common sense that I spend what I have in my hand. If I earn ‘X’ dollars, I have to make sure that I spend less than or equal to ‘X’ dollars, unless I don’t want to save anything for the future. But many might argue that they can use their credit cards to buy what they want even though they do not have cash on hand. That is true but they forget the fact that they have to pay for it after the 30-day period when the credit card bill comes in. Charging it on a credit card not knowing whether one can afford it or not is how US got into that much debt and let China own most of it, is it not?

A graduate working at Starbucks, telling that she is too lazy to look for a decent job is unacceptable. She had to be told by Suze that she is not earning enough money to be spending lavishly on her car and apartment and not being able to pay off her student loans. She had to be told to start looking for a decent job, move into another apartment with her friends, to get rid of her car and start using Metro and buses and not to worry about not being able to party because this is a crunch time. I saw other similar cases on the show but I just picked this one to prove my point. To understand a simple fact “to spend less than the income” an outsider had to funnel the thoughts through her, who happens to be a graduate as well. Is America really that dumb?

How much is enough? - Part 2

2009-06-08T10:50:00.001-04:00

Earlier, I had talked about the Oscar winning movie ‘The Slumdog Millionare’ and its famous child stars and their families demand for improved lifestyles. Well, in the same Oscar event, there was another Oscar winning Indian documentary that is less spoken off – ‘Smile Pinki’. This documentary was based on children who have cleft lips and how social workers arrange for them to receive surgery. This documentary was directed by Megan Mylan who depicts the efforts of a social worker travelling to different villages helping the children get their stand in the society. The documentary focuses on two children: 5-year old Pinki and 11-year old Ghutaru.

Unlike Slumdog Millionare, the kids featured in this documentary are provided with scholarships and their houses have a corrugated metal roof and an electric pump to supply water. The kids have become famous in a way that whenever Slumdog is spoken of (a movie from India) this documentary is voiced as well. The kids and their families are happy at the fact that they have a firm roof over their heads and have scholarships to get their education. They are not complaining or even asking for more than what they received, even though they too hold the famous Oscar.

Is it because that ‘Slumdog’ made money at the box office that the families of the children who acted in the movie wanted to make most out of it? They were given a good pay, trust funds were established for their education, living accommodations were made and they have become stars overnight. Yet they complain. Recently, one of the child star, Azhar’s family were given an apartment (Thanks to Boyle) that was $50,000 and about 250 square foot in area. I have read articles where bloggers and readers scoff at the fact that this apartment is small and overpriced and that they moved into a closet.

Sitting here in the US, people can talk about this all they want. Have they seen India? lived there? Know the real estate market there? Especially in Mumbai, to own any apartment or house or any piece of land in itself a blessing. There is a saying in Hindi “Bhandar Jhaney adhruck ka swaad”. People cannot complain about facts that they not know of. Now along with the families and relatives of the kids, outsiders are giving ‘Thanae’ now about what is being provided to them? The kids should just be paid their wages/salary for acting in the movie or documentary and left it at that, just like other actors. Do something more and you get to hear more complaints than support? It is never good enough!

How much is enough? - Part 1

2009-06-05T10:20:00.001-04:00

Many might have seen the Oscars, a few months back and must have known that the multi-million dollars earning and multi-Oscar award winning movie was “The Slumdog Millionaire”. The story was based on an Indian book ‘Q and A’ by Vikas Swarup and was filmed by British director Danny Boyle, who had made films like Millions, Sunshine and The Beach. The movie was filmed in India, focusing on the lives of three Orphan kids (Jamal Malik, Salim and Lathika) who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, India and how one (Jamal) of the three kids becomes a millionaire by winning the Indian version of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ based on his experiences alone. When casting for this film, two (Lathika and Salim) of the three orphan kids’ role was played by actual slum-dwellers (Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail) respectively. Many of the other kids who played a part in the file were also actual slum-mers.

To film this movie, wages above norms were paid for these kids. These kids, if they had played a role in the local Bollywood movies would have earned far less than what they had in this Hollywood movie. At the time the movie was made, the kids or their parents or their guardian did not know that this film would be such a hit. To be paid a high wage and to be treated respectably was a dream come true for these folks. When the film earned millions and bagged many Oscars, filmmakers were accused of exploiting the two kids from the slums, when in reality a trust fund for the two kids were set up. Also, filmmakers donated about $750K to charities to help them develop their lives and to get them off the streets of Mumbai.

Before the advent of this film nobody knew of the two kids living in shanties of Mumbai. Because of this films’ success, these families have got the name and the money to live reasonably well. But the color of money always makes people greedy beyond their reach. Their families and neighbors are complaining of exploitation and that they are not given enough money for survival. Recently their slum was razed because their shanties were built on land that was not approved by the Indian Government for dwelling purposes. This is a recurring process in India, just not in Mumbai but in other cities like Chennai as well. Their huts will be razed, new proper houses elsewhere will be given to them by the government to these people but these people would rent those houses to someone else and come back to the same spot in their slums and start building their shanties again, because it is close to whatever business or work they do around the slums.

Recent news stated that these kids are in Hong Kong now, to perform for a charity fundraiser ‘The Community Chest’. Their expenses are paid for and they get a small honorarium by the show organizers given the fact that it is for charity. These kids and their families who turned celebrities overnight are flabbergasted and are trying to make use of it in any ways they can. Father of Rubina Ali is charged for trying to sell her off for adoption to another family for a high price since she is a famed child now. Selling his daughter is in itself a crime and in addition to it, trying to make the most money because she is known is yet another. It does not matter that they are paid generously, that they have a trust fund in their names, there education is paid for, they are famous because of the movie, they get to travel around the world to perform making an earning (I have not been to Oscars or to Hong Kong or to anywhere, expenses paid for) but still these people complain that their living conditions have not improved. I guess Danny Boyle should write off his property and savings on these kids’ name and hopefully that will be enough for them.

In your face

2009-06-04T14:16:00.001-04:00

I started blogging a couple of years back with the sole intention of improving my writing skills and to be able to express my views openly in public. When I write, I tend to write no more than three or four paragraphs in general. Honestly, who has the time to read through paragraphs of what you write on the same topic as the ongoing news or articles. Any news channel on television (FOX, NBC or CNN) or radio (103.5 FM) would give you a good coverage on what is going on around the world. Cell phones have news cast which is updated constantly and there are numerous websites which have newspaper online and of course the actual newspaper in itself is still there.

With so many news sources and news to cover and so many people blogging on what they think about the news and the news source, all you need is one more blog to say the same thing in different ways. Many will take out their swords (or pen or type?) to defend themselves saying that they need to write that much for effective communication. While I believe that effective communication is needed to get the point across, there is no need to write the same point in ten different ways in the same blog or article or for that matter on the same blog site. That is overkill. Pretty much many blog sites seem to be talking about their self achievement or how good they are in what they do, tooting their horn, given the fact that it is their own space for writing what they want. What do you expect?

I read an article on CCNmoney site which mentioned about how many different social networking sites are in place, like FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn, Tagged to name a few and how they rank in terms of usage and the effects it has on work ethics. FaceBook, started in 2004, ranks first with users logging 13.9 billion minutes on the site in April of 2009. This site has many improved features like leaving texts to attachments to pictures. Ranking second is MySpace with 5 billion minutes, Twitter, started in 2006, with 300 million minutes with only text (“Tweets”) capabilities of 140 characters limit and LinkedIn with 202 million minutes. The article mentioned that FaceBook was lifting the limit of having 5,000 friends connection for a member. Seriously, if I had a FaceBook account (which I do and I seldom use it. Who has the time to post comments in all these sites after talking with your friends over the cell phone using the minutes?), would I have 5,000 friends? Who has that many “real” friends?

Many of these social networking sites are banned at many work places to prevent employees from wasting their time. Is it not enough that they waste time during work hours, browsing the internet for news, deals, shopping and taking a quick shopping or smoke or car maintenance break in between? A productive work day is only three to four hours out of the logged eight hours at any given office. I am talking about white-collar jobs. Of the productive time, some will go in meetings and discussions over the phone or mail. To top this off, all we need is access to these sites and instant messaging and then we complain about our falling economy and jobs being shipped overseas.

A puzzle to solve

2009-06-03T14:23:00.007-04:00

You really must not be into following the news or what is going on around you or may be a frog in your own little pond, if by now you do not know about the plane crash of Air France, Flight 447. This crash happened on this past Sunday, when the plane was on its way to Paris, France from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil carrying 228 people. The jet flew through towering thunderstorms and apparently disintegrated in the air or when it slammed into the Atlantic Ocean. There was no sign of alarm or distress signals from the plane that it was in a crisis and it just disappeared from the radar.

Search crew were sent in via Brazilian ships to the presumed location of crash to search for debris of the plane and to find the black box to recreate the scenario of what might have happened that caused the crash. Since it has been days now, it has been assumed that there are no survivors from the crash and there is very little to no hope of finding any. This crash is the world’s worst commercial crash since 2001. Investigators are in pursuit of the black box of the plane to get vital information on the last few minutes before the crash to find out exactly what happened that caused the plane to crash. The black box records the voice of the pilots and records data of the flight.

It has been said that this plane of four years, had been built in a way that just lightning could not have brought it down and that there must have a series of failures that lead to the planes system shutting down, disintegrating in the sky. When the plane falls apart in the sky, there is no way that escape slides can be out for the survivors if any, to slide out. Due to bad weather and cloudy conditions, US satellites are not able to gather information about the debris that might be floating on the waters where the crash occurred and the search/Navy ships have 2,300 square miles to cover, to collect any wreckage they can spot.

Time is of the essence in this case, since the flotsam will be washed away from the scene or sink, and the black box that emits signal of its presence will die after a 30-day period after which it might be difficult to find or use. Have you ever misplaced your cell phone leaving it on silent or vibrate mode? I have done it many times (I never learn, do I?) and the search for the phone then becomes a pain. You can call your cell many times but you would never know where it is unless your ears are tuned to the vibration of the phone or your eyes can see the light from the flashing phone hiding beneath the car seat cushion. If you do not find the phone on time, the battery dies out on you and you are left purely with luck to find the phone. I hope this will not be the case with the crew trying to find the black box of Flight 447 to solve the mystery of its crash.

Big Bucks, No Whammies

2009-06-02T10:57:00.000-04:00

Before you think that I am going to be talking about gambling, put a leash on your thoughts. This is about the revenue generated by Montgomery County, Maryland this current fiscal year (by the way, fiscal year runs from October to September) by installing speed cameras around the area. The county has made $15 million in revenue this year. The speed cameras were installed and functioned since July 1st, earning $1.5 million a month. If you are caught on those speed cameras driving past the speed limit, you would receive the citation in mail with the nice little picture of you in the car with your license plate. The fine would be $40 per citation and luckily there are no points that go on your license. Know that if the same thing were to happen, that you sped and the police officer pulls you over, you get about $90 in fine with two points on your record. The least you can do is pose a smile when speeding past those cameras.

Many (who are victims) may argue that posting such speed cameras at almost every signal or road to trap drivers to make revenue is not good. But I don’t think it is such a bad deal at all. When DOT is posting signs on speed limit, it becomes the duty of the driver to follow that speed limit while on the wheel. When the sign reads ‘speed limit 35 mph’, why is there an urge to go at 50 mph? Is there a plane waiting for you to catch or are you speeding to propose to someone in front of the whole world? (That would be worth to get the speeding ticket for). Does it not suffice to know the rules and adhere to it? Must someone be watching over to see if you follow them or not? But that is the human nature, to push the limits and see how far one can go without getting caught.

Now the cops are getting smarter and DOT has these cameras installed to get two shots in one aim. They can make sure that the drivers follow the speed limit and drive safely around, and to generate revenue while making sure that the rules are followed. Getting about $53,000 per day by just flashing few light bulbs on those cameras is not a bad deal at all for the county. It is their hunting season and they are looking out for those who want to try those driving maneuvers on the roads. Now that summer is around the corner, you can see cops on the motorbikes as well, targeting those who violate traffic laws. It is big bucks for the Montgomery County and hopefully speeders won’t have to say ‘Cheese’ and avoid the whammies!

Too grim to grin?

2009-06-01T10:33:00.001-04:00

One thing that is nice about me is that I always have a smile on my face. No matter what, I always smile and that smile has gotten me into trouble as well. I would be with my friends and family in a situation where the car would get stuck in the snow or the car would skid, I would have a smile and people would get upset about it. Friends would hurt me emotionally (knowingly or some unknowingly) I would just smile it off. Many admire me because of my smile and some have said that I smile like Catherine-Zeta Jones in ‘Mask of Zorro’. I think smile is one of the characteristics that only humans possess and one could use that to conquer anything in this world. Or is it?

USA today, reported last week that four states - Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia, have banned smiling while posing for their driver’s license in order to get a neutral look that would help the face-recognition software in identifying people who would try to apply for multiple licenses or those who get a license under an assumed name. This face-recognition system costs about $63 million. The software measures permanent facial features at nearly 100 different points, so if someone sports a big grin it can cause two photos of the same person to not match. So what happens if a guy comes in a beard and mustache for a picture and after a couple of months he returns to get another license with no beard and no mustache? I am sure the software would go haywire yet again.

I can understand if someone is being asked to take off glasses or hat or brushing hair off of the face to get a good picture or capturing a cleaner image even for the software but not smiling or rather not showing the teeth and having to keep a firm zipped lips is something else. There would be a strong opposition in the cosmetic dentistry because of this software. What is the point in spending so much on those costly veneers only to keep your lips zipped on a photo that you would flash most often?

I remember the time when I went to DMV to get my first license here in the United States. I was grinning ear to multi-pierced ear to finally have that laminated piece of freedom in my hand. I could not stop smiling that whole day. But today if I had to go through the same scenario, I would be told to ‘zip it’ before the picture was snapped. All in the name of making this place a safe haven.

‘BRIC’, the building block

2009-05-28T10:30:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite pastimes in TV watching is watching Jeopardy. Everyday, like clockwork, if I am at home or at the gym in front of TV running, would be to switch to the program at 7.30PM EST. It seems to be built-in into my brain to switch over automatically. Many, who know me, know of this ritual as well. Even though I don’t get all the questions answered, I can get at least get 30-40% right. Some have derided at me that I watch the program even though I cant get them all answered and that the questions that are answerable are some subjects that we know of. But is it not the fact? We can answer a question, only if we know them or are exposed to that subject and are refreshed by the fact that someone is asking questions on that subject.

Programs like Jeopardy, Cash cab, Weakest Link, (to name a few) ask questions on general knowledge and also in depth on certain subjects like History and Current affairs. When a question is asked, you have a few seconds to answer them and the sooner you answer the better it is or someone else grabs your chance. In that few seconds, you have to run your mind to seek the answer in your collection in your brain if you know it. Compound this task with the adrenaline rush that you get being nervous in front of the audience and that you want to bag as many questions as you can to get the most out of the game in terms of fame and dollars. This really makes the game interesting for the participants.

Last night, while watching Jeopardy, the final question was on BRIC – an acronym that was used by Forbes magazine to talk about the economically developing countries in this globally attacked recession period. To those of you who don’t know what BRIC stands for – Brazil, Russia, India and China – the four countries that are growing economically and Yes, I answered that question correctly. While the US stock market is struggling to reclaim its footing, BRIC countries are doing well and have a gain of more than 30%. India and China are developing in terms of infrastructure and technology. No wonder all the jobs are sent overseas and many large companies here in the US have their development done mostly in India and China and have branches opened in these countries.

Labour is cheaper compared to the US and developers there (whether it is information technology or medical billing/Tran scripting) are far better than those here. Education there (in India and China) is advanced when compared to education level offered here in the US. Compare the level offered in any grade in the public schools versus private schools here and you will see that the private school standards are much advanced than the public schools. The private school standard is what is offered in the public schools in those countries and that is why I say that the standard is higher than here. One out of three people you would see at work would be Asian for the same reason of standards (yes, their accent is hard to follow – pun intended, from the one who has accent herself) and every other item you pick up while shopping has ‘Made in China’ printed on it.

These countries are developing in terms of technology, education and job markets, resulting in stock market growth and are contributing enormously to the global economic power. That is the reason why most of the US I.O.Us belong to China and I won’t be surprised to see ‘Property of the People’s Republic of China’ on the statue of Liberty, soon enough. No matter how much Obama stresses on in terms of bringing back those jobs from India and China back to the US, BRIC are the building block of global economy.

Cycle of air travel

2009-05-26T11:08:00.001-04:00

Whenever vacation is planned, I get very excited. It is not because of the destination that I am going to but the packing and the travel that excites me. I take time to put down a list of things needed for the trip and pack every single item in the travel bag in an orderly manner, so that later on, when I needed to get something, I could do it by just putting in my hand inside the bag at the exact location that it is placed. To add to this excitement is the part where you stand in line at the airport security with your shoes off, trying to get your travel bag through the scanner with all other belongings like jewelry, shoes and belt buckles in the tray.

Recent news mentioned that airports are seen less crowded and air travel seems to be slow this time of the year. Is it even surprising? With the recession and soaring fuel prices, people tend to spend less and in turn travel less. Even though the airplane industry is cutting down prices for various destinations to attract customers, people want to hold on to their dollars to use them wisely during this economic crunch time. Folks are losing their jobs like nobody’s business. With economy making a nose-dive, people are figuring out ways to pay their mortgage, to prevent applying for bankruptcy, to pay their bills and to get a decent living.

I know friends who are either selling their townhouse or not being able to pay their mortgage and hence foreclosing their property. In this situation, one would think twice before thinking of spending money on a trip, going on a vacation. But that is my thinking and I know that some people would beg to differ. Reports are also mentioning that recession will end this year and economical growth is just on the horizon. Soon you will see that the airport is crowded once again, with people complaining about how long the check-in takes, how tedious the process of going through the security is and how long you had to wait in the plane seated before the plane actually takes off. I guess that this is the cycle of air travel in general.

Johnny Johnny… Yes papa

2009-05-21T09:52:00.000-04:00

Terror plans? No papa! (waterboarded) Tell me the truth. Yes papa, I will tell the plans!

Recent news showed that Nancy Pelosi knew about the waterboarding that was done on al-Qaeda prisoners by CIA to get the truth out. Washington Post had mentioned that they researched on the news and confirmed that she knew about the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques - EIT”, harsh interrogation tactics against al-Qaeda prisoners. Whether she knew about it or not, whether she didn’t agree that she knew about it when she was asked is debatable. Nobody in power would just answer a question on internal security or techniques, just because they were asked. CIA is using EIT on al-Qaeda prisoners, for Pete sake, a group responsible for 9/11.

Isn’t that what CIA characters – Jack Ryan of Tom Clancy, John Carr of David Baldacci or Jason Bourne of Robert Ludlum or the most famous James Bond 007 of Ian Fleming (and the list goes on) do or undergo when a truth has to be brought to light? The spy or the intelligence finds a person who might know the truth (and in most cases they do, otherwise the Spy’s are not doing their job right), CIA captures them or gets their custody as POW, do their bit of drill on them to get the truth out that would serve their country. Even Sayid in ‘Lost’ does the same. The so-called torture is done to get the truth or plans they might have to attack on their country and by all means the CIA wants to get the truth out to take preventive actions.

If a person from al-Qaeda was caught before 9/11 or after the fact, do you think our people will just let it go. Wouldn’t they, not want treatments like waterboarding done to get the truth out? Tell it to the people who have lost families and friends of 9/11 and see what their reaction is. President Obama might not want to perform EIT on any prisoners to get the truth and might have other alternatives to get the truth out, but it is the person who is in charge who has to deal with the prisoners. If he is not able to get the information out from the prisoners to take preventive actions, then the public would say that the Government is not doing anything in terms of protecting their nation.

If you know that a prisoner has information on attacks or is a national security threat, then by all means do what you have to do, to get the information out. I come from the land of Gandhi, where he said that if someone slaps you on one cheek of the face, then show the other cheek but he didn’t say what to do if that someone slaps the other cheek as well. Smart man! You need to do what you need to, to protect yourself.

Born in the USA

2009-05-19T14:19:00.002-04:00

No. I am not talking about myself. I was born in India and grew up there. I came to the US about 15 years back but I am an US citizen. Though I cannot become the president, I have every right as people here claim it. My friend Kristens’ Birthday was yesterday, May 18th and her husband, Marc, Surprised her by taking her to a music concert last night. The band is famous for the song that is same as the title of today’s blog. Yes, you guessed it right – The E street Band, led by Bruce Springsteen.

My friends are from NJ, settled here in VA and they are die hard fans of Bruce as he is from NJ as well. So when this concert came into planning, he booked a room in the Lexus Suite in Verizon Center and had called his and her family and friends to surprise her on her birthday which is the same day as the concert. The concert was scheduled to begin at 7.30pm, so people arrived at 7pm to grab a quick bite of dinner that was served in the suite. People were trickling in the Verizon center general seating area and they were also standing before the stage.

When the tickets for this concert were opened for sale, all tickets were sold out in fifteen minutes. The big tickets selling names like ticket master and other business had monopolized in buying the tickets in bulk and hence the tickets were gone in a few minutes after being opened for public sale. Then these big companies would turn around and sell those tickets to the public for a higher price. Yet, people bought those tickets to see Bruce in action. The entire auditorium was packed and it looked like ant hill with ant crawling all over the auditorium.

Artists pick their own time of arrival depending on how famous and wanted they are. Don’t believe me – Go to any concert of your choice and you will see when the actual program starts depending on the artists. In this case, Bruce is an old-timer. He is a rock song artist from the 70’s and the 80’s and had been awarded many awards for his albums. He is also called ‘The Boss’. So his program scheduled to start at 7.30pm, started at 8.30pm. He opened the night by singing ‘Badlands’, followed by many popular songs like ‘She's The One’, ‘Little Latin Lupe Lu’, ‘Blinded By The Light’, and ‘Born To Run’.

The guy is 60 years old but the energy he showed in his singing and playing the harmonica was that of 40-45 years old. The concert started off with the words of his songs perceptible to ones ears but then as time went by, the energy in his songs were so high, that the music was all one big congregate of instrumental note. The words were not that clear which made the songs showier of the tunes. But I am sure that many of the folks who were present at the concert enjoyed Bruce despite the loud music. I am old fashioned in that regard when it comes to music. The words of the song have to be audible and pleasant to the ears even in a rock song. Even in heavy metal music, there has to be harmony. But that is just me! The concert ended with an Encore - Rosalita (request sign: "Obama called and wants Rosie") which I think is funny. But I was told that he never played the song that he is famous for – ‘Born in the USA’ which was wretched performing in the Nations’ Capital.

Every dollar is worth it

2009-05-14T10:23:00.000-04:00

With soaring fuel prices, one has to wonder how much mileage you get on a car. People are resorting to ride share or using the metro, to cut down the fuel expenses. Take the fuel prices and compound it with the growing recession and bad economy, and one gets to think twice before making any road trip. This has lead to the growth of scooters and motorcycle usage. Scooters costs about $1000 to $10,000 and motorcycles cost about $3000 to more than $10,000, depending on the model and they can use fuel or electric charge and can give up to 35 miles per charge or fuel tank.

One thing that I miss here in the US versus in India, is the freedom to take my bike (I don’t mean the bicycle and we, Indians call the motorcycles as bike) around to get the shopping done. Maybe it be going to school or college, or a trip to the bookstore or picking up a few items that mom needed at the groceries, I would take my Kinetic Honda (similar to scooters here) or my brothers Hero Honda (motorcycle). Helmet there is for safety but not many wears them and I did not wear it for my short local trips. Now-a-days, it is a law even in India, to wear the helmet when you are on main roads.

Using the scooter or motorcycle is convenient and quick and you can get return on every dollar on fuel. I now see a few bikes around here in the US where high school or college students use it around the campus or make short trips to the library or groceries. My routine or trips, apart from going to work from Centreville to Ashburn, revolves around my home. I take Yash to school, which is about a mile from home and then to his classes like Kumon, Tae-kwon-do, Chess club, and Soccer in and around 5 mile radius near the house. My library, groceries, gym and other shops is within the same range.

Even if I use my car to go to work (if I go on the bike with helmet, I would end up with a bad hairdo day), I could still use the bike to run my local errands for myself or for Yash. I would have to buy an extra helmet for the passenger and figure out a place to store them within the bike when the bike is parked. This would cut down on fuel expenses tremendously, in this ever rising fuel prices and growing recession. Parking becomes easier, and traffic grids can be avoided as well. If you have a motorcycle that is well-built, you can even take it to work to and from, as far as D.C. Bikes can be used from early spring to late fall but not a good choice in terms of safety, in winter and during rainy days. Seeing how much of a snow we get in our area, we can use bikes more often for convenience and inexpensive means of transportation.

Rock the Red

2009-05-13T11:31:00.008-04:00

Go Caps…

I am not a big fan of NHL but this season, I have started watching a few playoffs and I am hooked on it... groovy… Tonight is the big night for Caps – Game 7 and I wanted to wish them luck (na… they don’t need any, they are GOOD! They ROCK!). They are playing against the Penguins and is an important game to get to the Stanley cup.

Everything flying

2009-05-13T10:13:00.001-04:00

Man is a curious animal and in that he wants to conquer the land that he lives on. Conquering is not just in terms of ruling but understanding the mysteries of nature. Look for instance, he saw the fish in the ocean and he prepped himself to triumph over the waters and sail away to the far, far land. He saw the birds fly in the sky and he invented airplanes more than a century ago. (Pardon me, aviation buffs, for not providing the exact dates. I will leave the honors to you). He has pretty much left no stone unturned to master the natures’ workings. But as Spiderman was told, "With great power comes great responsibility…”

We certainly have made a breakthrough in aviation. Different types of planes with immense technology to get anyone across the world in the minimum amount of time possible. With every step forward, we also see that many accidents take place in the flights. A couple of months back, two incidents in flight accidents grabbed our attention. One good and one bad… The good kind of accident (are accidents ever good? Yes, if you walk out of it scratch less!) was when the pilot had the presence of mind to land the US Airways plane with 155 people on board into the Hudson River in New York, when a bird struck the engine during takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport. This incident happened on January 15th of this year, when everybody on board that plane was saved by the quick-thinking of the pilot of that plane.

Now the bad kind of accident is the one when the repercussions are not good. This can be loss of lives, damaged goods or reputations, or whatsoever. On February 12th, 2009, exactly 3 months from today, Continental connection flight 3407 crashed into a house in Buffalo, killing 50 people, 49 on board and one person living in that house on which the plane crashed. The plane was flown on a wintery day and ice was formed on the windshield and wings and it began to stall. The pilot Captain Renslow was caught in shock of the stall and he jerked the plane upward and caused it to spin out of control. If he had lowered the nose of the aircraft, increased power and leveled the turboprop’s wings, the plane would have stabilized. As a result of the pilots’ actions, the plane crashed, taking the lives of 50 people.

Hind sight is always 20/20. We can take any situation after the fact and analyze it in slow motion and can come up with alternate results or theory of that action. The NTSB is doing investigations on this accident and has mentioned that the pilot didn’t have enough experience to fly this kind of commuter plane nor did he have any training for stall-recovery. Authorities are putting in hours to investigate this mess-up. If the board had put in these same hours before the fact in selecting a well-trained pilot, maybe they could have avoided this incident perhaps?

I am not pointing fingers at anyone nor am I concluding that the pilot made a mistake. I am sure he did his best in that situation, because it was just not others lives but his own was in danger. He just was caught with the problem like the deer-in-the-headlights because he was not paying attention to the situation but instead of chatting with his co-pilot. This just added to the inability to take proper actions along with his lack of training and experience on the situation at hand. If the flight management team took the time to select a proper pilot for the flight and if the pilot had the quick-thinking needed to take action in situations like these, maybe the 50 people who lost their lives would be breaking bread with their families tonight.

Healthy Street talks

2009-05-12T10:06:00.001-04:00

When Mr. Obama is working to improve the Wall Street, Mrs. Obama made an appearance on the Sesame Street in New York this past week. Her mission was to inform the oblivious group about the importance of exercise and good healthy eating habits. She used Elmo as the media, asking him to exercise unless he wanted to turn himself into a fat, hairy alcoholic like Snuffeluffagus. She also insisted that parents should be the role models for their children to cultivate healthy eating habits and exercise routines. To be honest, I have not watched Sesame Street episodes like the kids do here in the US. I am glad that Mrs. Obama made this appearance to cultivate good eating habits and importance of exercise in the show that is most watched by growing kids these days.

I can reword the saying – ‘Good manners start at home’ to ‘Anything good starts at home’. It is true that kids learn from watching what the elders do. If the parents feed their kids from the beginning, with fruits and veggies, kids learn to make it a part of their meal. If the elders stack their kitchen with healthy snacks, that is what the kids get to eat, unless they see otherwise. Let us run the logic through – a kid comes to see what is there to eat in the pantry. He sees a bag of Oreos and a bag of Triscuits – what do you think he will pick up? Splurging once in a while on treats is good but not always.

Mrs. O (new nickname that I bestowed on her) also stressed on exercising habits. Seeing how Mr. President himself works out 6 times a week, plays basketball and sets himself up as a roll model to stay fit and Mrs. O works out 3-4 times a week (one health conscious First family), it is apparent that she would talk about exercising to keep one self healthy. I would not call myself a gym freak but I would end up at the gym at least 3 or 4 times a week for about an hour at the minimum. The days I am hooked onto the right music on my iPod or on the music channel at the gym, I would be on treadmill or elliptical for about an hour and then do weights for another half hour. But that still does not put me in the fit category. The day I would wear my swimsuit and not be evasive about it, I would consider myself fit.

Exercise is for everyone, both for men and women. I do see men workout to build their abs, biceps and triceps but I do think that they need to work on their chest to get rid of their man-boobs. Not all have them, but when they do, it looks ugly. I have seen some have that, and would still wear a tight fitting top without banyan (undershirt). They think that they are showing off their chest while it is actually making the people who see it, sick to their stomach. Maybe they should consider wearing a sports bra, like Homer wears it in ‘The Simpsons’ or try the Mansierre as shown in ‘Seinfeld’. Whether it is wearing tight fitting garments underneath or eating fat burning pills, they are all means to cover-up the parts of our body that are not right. Oldest method is till the best method we have so far – proper eating habits and working out to burn what was put inside our body.

Surprise Surprise

2009-05-11T10:06:00.001-04:00

Ever heard of the saying – “Jack of all trades and Master of none”? While I was growing up, my dad would insist that I become good at any one particular art but sure do try to know everything else that I could lay my hands on. He would put me in all the classes that I would ask him of. I have taken classes in dancing and instrument playing but I would leave that bragging for a latter time. Most of my gardening skills come from my father. We would spend hours together doing gardening on our terrace. Yes, I meant the terrace of our house as there was no land available around the house in the crowded city of Madras.

Well, this blog is not about gardening either. I wanted to focus on part of the proverb – Jack of all trades. This past weekend, I was reading the papers and I read that the unemployment rate is now at 9%. People are losing jobs like being dropped like a hot potato. Like shown in the picture, one should be surprised to have their job retained on any particular week or for that matter on any given day. Folks go to work and find out whether they still have their job or not. I have seen my friends lose their job after putting in years of service at a company.

There are many sites on the internet that give advice on how to survive a layoff like making sure to have enough savings in the bank to survive at least for three months, build up on the network so you can get referred to a new job when it opens up and such. If you Google the information, you can hear it from the horse’s mouth rather than me. But I am sure that none of those sites will have this advice on the list - "Get yourself a Significant Other." (obviously, if you don’t have one), , followed by having a fun week. I learned about it a few years back.

To survive this economic crisis, one would have the advantage if he or she knows how to perform many jobs. In my case, I can do programming, if needed but I do project management mostly. But, I also can do project costing and analysis and write proposals as well. The more you grow your expertise, the better you get to survive this downtime. I also read an article that mentioned that bar tending schools are on the rise and that this year marked the most enrollments in their schools. People get depressed after losing their jobs or unable to find new ones and go to bars to drink their depression out or to socialize to get jobs contacts (only they know) and can this be considered to improve the economy as they are spending and putting it back into the pot? Experts, this is your chance to speak up. Since I like to make or rather experiment myself in making new exotic mix-drinks, I can enroll in the bar tending program and add a feather in my cap. The more colorful my cap is the better luck for me to outrun this job survival.

Rain rain go away… GO… Gone!

2009-05-08T10:23:00.002-04:00

One of the most discussed topics on the news channel apart from Swine Flu is the weather. This past week or so, we have been getting rain showers for most of the day and the weather channels are doing a good job tracking the occurrences. I am not going to be mocking the weather guys of their bad predictions (like snow occurrences this past winter) in this blog. I will leave the honors for some latter time. At least for the moment they are doing their best based on whatever data they have.

Local area people are now pretty much done with the rains and want to see some sunshine, so they can move on with their outdoor activities. But me, I never am done with the rains. I grew up in Chennai (former Madras), India, which is on the East coast and my house there was five minutes walk from the beach (Bay of Bengal). Climate there is humid for most year, hotter during summer and of course there is no winter per say. But we do have monsoon rains. When the rainy season starts, it is refreshing when the warm rain drops touches the skin and is the most wanted season of the year.

During my school days, I used to walk to school up until fifth grade. My mom usually forced me to take an umbrella or raincoat (not Gogol’s raincoat) with me during the rainy days but I always ended up with drenched uniform and schoolbag. So my mom got me a bigger umbrella that gave a bigger coverage and I still ended up drenched. Little did she know (tujhe sab hai pata..haina ma) that I purposely don’t use the umbrella or raincoat on my walk back from school up until I reach the corner of my street. I love the raindrops or shower falling on my face, soaking me completely wet and then the wind blowing to make it even cool. I cannot explain in words as to what the feeling is… You have to experience it for yourself, like Natasha says “Feel the rain on your skin; No one else can feel it for you”. Later, I started using the bus for my school and college but during rainy days, I still got wet on my way to and from the bus stop, sat near the windows in the bus to get the mist on my face.

No matter where I am, when the rain falls, I would walk in the rain to feel it. When the first rain falls and wets the soil, the fragrance that comes as a result of it soothes your mind. This past week was bliss when it rained. For many, they needed the rain to wash down the pollen and to increase the ground water level for the season. For me being a gardening aficionado and a rain craze, I needed the rain so my plants and grass get water and I get my rain walk. I enjoyed walking along the trail near my house with a mist overhead and sometimes just overcast sky. Since it has been raining for almost a week now, people are getting tired of the rain and want to see some sun shine and have been praying for the rain to stop. Now the rains are gone. It is only a matter of time before these very same people will start doing their rain dances to call for more rain when the temperature hits 90+ degrees.

Rest in Peace... Eventually ...

2009-05-07T09:15:00.001-04:00

They are making it easy on us, aren’t they? I am talking about the Kindle DX, a new version of Kindle that was unveiled yesterday. I was listening to the news about it on my way home yesterday and how it has added features that make it better than Kindle (or Kindle 2). This device can hold up to 3500 books, has almost 3gb of storage, large screen with auto rotation feature and with no need to zoom or pan out while reading the eBook on it but the cost is almost $500. Is it worth it?

Of course, it is all worth it. It certainly will be cool among college students who usually beg, borrow, (steal?) loads of textbooks for their courses. The same textbooks can be loaded on Kindle and can be read from as if reading an actual book. This will save up on book costs eventually and also be eco-friendly as that many trees will be saved in making these books. Any other book (guilty pleasure of reading?) can be loaded on Kindle via subscription besides newspaper and magazine. As it is, the future of newspaper is at stake. I meant the actual newspaper that you can feel it in your hands and read but at least eNewspaper will still keep the newspaper saga alive via this life support. By getting rid of actual books, students can make room for their most wanted items like video consoles and cases of beer in their room.

Reading that I support Kindle, some who are avid readers would come charging at me with a sword (or rather pen – mightier than a sword) for their defense. They would argue as to how that feeling of holding an actual book and reading will vanish with Kindle. To them I say you still can hold Kindle like you would hold any other book. Yes, it would be staring at another screen apart from TV, computer, or video screen but you also can listen from Kindle like books on tape. But honestly, cutting down so many trees to print books for the pleasure of just feeling it while reading is so contrary to the fact that we are on a band wagon singing about go-green, eco-friendly, and saving the world.

I am an ardent reader too. Any free time I would get, I would be seen reading or going to local libraries back home hunting for my mystery novels (okay, I read all those Nancy Drew, Poirot and Perry Mason mysteries). I also used to collect all these books but after reading it once, you just arrange them in your shelves and that is the end of those books (of course you read it again later if you want to) but then I realized there was no point in buying all these books and hoarding them. Rather a better deal would be to just borrow it from the library – my contribution to saving the trees.

In all aspects of life we go through a cycle of evolution. We invent an item, and then we make that item even better by polishing its features. Take for instance the music player. We started off with vinyl records, 8-track, cassettes tapes, CDs and now mp3 and iPods. There is plethora of devices that we have seen do the same thing – play music. But the medium has changed for the better and we are accustomed to these changes for our own good. This same logic can be applied to books. We started off with papyrus and natural ink from plants that was used for writing using a feather. From there we graduated off to book publication, books on tape and iPod and now Kindle. I am sure that people who now talk about holding the actual book and refusing to accept Kindle will own it soon; it is just a matter of time. It is the medium that is dying, not the reading.

Story of the $64 Tomato

2009-05-06T11:05:00.001-04:00

Friends who know me would vouch for the fact that I spend more time in the garden of my house than anywhere else. Of course I do, do the chores around the house like cleaning, cooking, laundry and .. and… (ok, ok, enough already!) But I tend to be more in the garden though. From early Spring to late Fall, I spend most of my time there. What do I do there? Certainly not reading a book and getting lost in the fantasy world. Come on, let us be practical and be down to earth. I do gardening, working on soil beds, weeding and cleaning the flower and vegetable beds, becoming one with the Nature.

I like to read a lot on the different flower varieties that are around. When I see a flowering plant that I am not familiar with, I do research on it to find out more. Whenever I go to Home Depot or Lowes, I end up like a zombie in the garden section looking at the different plants that are on display and reading their little tags trying to find out what type they belong to. I am certainly not a Botanists but I could become one if I took up on the program. I love plants. The different colors, sizes, shapes and texture of the plants (just not flowers) makes me happy – takes me to the la-la land (ok, not going there).

So, what does the title have to do with any of this? “The $64 Tomato” is a book by William Alexander and anyone who is in the garden club and also a voracious reader (pick me, pick me) would know about it. The author explains the joy of gardening, fruits (or rather vegetables) of labor doing the garden work in your own backyard, how it relieves stress and foremost what it means to garden in terms of satisfaction. He explains the fact that by the time you end up growing any vegetable after putting in the time, material and labor, you would end up with a tomato that costs $64.

Don’t believe me? Fine. Let me put it this way. To start a garden – flower or vegetable bed in your backyard, you have to prep the soil along the fence or near the back wall of the house. Till the soil, add garden soil, fertilizers, and after the bed is ready you put in the seeds that might cost you $1.50 to $3.00 a packet. When the seed is sown, comes the watering process, cleaning the beds of weeds and worms/insects, putting a fence around the bed so the deer or the squirrel won’t eat your plants, putting support for your plants and such. By the time the plant actually grows and yields anything for that matter, you have already spent enough dollars on your garden that that the one vegetable that fully grows, (bless the fruit that escaped the deer’s craving) in this case for example, a tomato, would cost $64 which is more than what you would pay at the grocery store.

Now that Spring is here, I have started my garden work. I have made my trips to Home Depot and Lowes buying flowering and vegetable plants. I am yet to start planting them and you will hear more of it in my upcoming blogs (so the tooting begins…) Having said this, any true gardener would still agree to grow his or her own tomatoes in their backyard, put in their labor, spend hours watering the garden, weeding and feeding them, caressing and supporting the plants, fencing and applying scram to keep the deer and squirrels away to see that one ripe tomato on their dining table. n'est-ce pas?

There and back again!

2009-05-04T11:37:00.000-04:00

I am back. You remember me, don't you? I was quiet for a while for numerous reasons ranging from being busy to what topics must I blog on, with so many news and blog sites that are present around the world (or must I say 'on the internet'). But seeing how many can blog even when they don’t have anything to say other than tooting their horns (really it gets boring after a while), I figured I could contribute some to the noise.

The latest news, if you are flipping radio or TV channels is on Swine Flu. Now, now, I am not going to be blogging about the flu or its new name H1N1 or how it spreads or what its effects are. There are enough news channels that are doing a good job talking about it and how to prevent it from spreading or how to contain it from becoming a pandemic. People are becoming really cautious about this flu because the media has given enough exposure on the flu and WHO has raised the panic level to 5. There are enough school closings to keep the sick children home and to keep all other students from becoming sick. But is this all necessary?

Flu or influenza is a common disease and every year we have this sickness and deaths as a result of this. Any flu needs proper hand-washing and sanitization, covering of mouth while coughing (or now in this case, even while kissing as shown in the picture) to prevent spreading of germs and keeping the sick children and of course adults too, if they are sick, back home to avoid the spreading of infection. But are these not what we should be doing even otherwise? Is it that difficult to follow the same logic for a somewhat catchy named flu? Whether it is a bird flu or avian flu or swine flu or HIN1, they all belong to the same group - FLU.

In 1996, Oprah mentioned about mad cow disease and everyone shunned from eating beef. Couple of years ago, there was bird flu and the next thing that followed the news was that the market for Chicken (poultry) went rock-bottom. Now this! I am sure the market for hot dogs is in the negative. It is ironic to see the TV commercial “Feed the pig” at this time around. It is a piggy bank savings commercial but because of this swine flu pandemic, the namesake will reap the effects because of people who are not aware of this. Even the flight industry will take a nose dive because of what the VP said about not flying as the air in the plane will be contaminated when one person sneezes. Churches had stopped the communion handshakes during their meetings to avoid the spreading of the virus.

I feel sorry for the school board who are working extra hard to sanitize the school grounds so the children can be safe. Is it that difficult to follow the norms on keeping a sick child home and having the schools open as usual? Now that the flu effect is waning out, schools are reopening after 2-3 weeks of closings and the students will have to work extra to catch up on the work that they missed. If we just follow the precautions, would not everything will be in its place? It is just a FLU for gods sake!

Look up and you will find the answer

2007-05-31T11:50:00.000-04:00

Before you start wondering what that image means to you, I will be out with it. It is just an image of a ceiling that is there in any house. Many ceilings will have white or half white color with moulding to decorate them but for most it is just a plain white ceiling for any room. I am not getting into the architectural details of the hows and the whys. So let me move on with todays blog.

Have any of you caught yourself gazing at the ceiling while you are in deep thoughts, sad or alone, trying to kill time? Whatever the reason maybe, people often gaze at the ceiling to find a solution. Not able to sleep through the night, stare at the ceiling and eventually you might fall asleep. Going through a rough time or pondering hard to come up with a solution, keep staring at the ceiling and you might find a solution.

All there is, is a plain flat roof that is mostly colored white (yes, sometimes it has colors or design to give an elegant look, but we are not discussing that here) and we depend on it so much in our lives. It is like our go-to haven when we are in thoughts. Need to make a decision at work, find a solution to your problems, start staring at the ceiling and the solution will fall right out of it. Maybe, the reason we stare at the ceiling at the time of need is to find a focus point with little disturbance and ceiling often serves the purpose right. If you all have a different opinion about this, please let me know as well as I am not psycologist to understand any better.

Lately, I have caught myself staring at my ceiling and that is why I thought of letting my pen, rather my keys to take this form on a blog. My ceiling does not even have any colors or at the least, no even a ceiling fan. So I am not sure what I am expecting to fall out of the ceiling. With so much going on at work and at school, it has been busy and stressful lately and I am looking forward to having a good summer and less staring at the ceiling this year.

Will I be lucky?

2007-05-22T14:13:00.001-04:00

First off, I have not blogged in a week for various reasons but I am stealing my time to get at this and hope to keep stealing some time every day to work at this. So, I was browsing the papers this morning looking for some topic to blog on. There is tons of news that is happening or in the making everyday from different parts of the world and so I would never run out of topic to blog on. Everybody reads the paper (at least most of us – right?) and so what is the point in blogging about the news that everyone knows of already? To blog on something that someone knows already and someone is blogging on about somewhere … you see… it becomes outmoded. Some can say, that is the point behind blogging and I agree. It is my space to blog on what I feel is ok or what I can relate to but the key is how to keep the reader interested in what I write even though the news or the article that I am writing on is already known. Well, that is the skill I am working on and I want you all to support me in that by sharing your views.

So for today, I picked up a simple news of how a woman, Kristina Schneider in North Canton, Ohio bought the last lottery ticket on the roll with a $10 bill that she found in the store that she was working for. Kristina, a single mother, was already in debt with nine maxed out credit card and almost $9,000 in debt for her associates degree found a $10 bill in the store she was working and with that money bought the ticket for Magnificent Millions lottery game, last Friday. Her luck favored her and the ticket she got was the winner and she ended up with millions. She did not have to put the seed money to buy the lottery ticket. Anyone will pick up the $10 bill or any dollar bill or coins for that matter, if anyone spots it lying on the ground. There is no argument there. But what you do with the money you picked up is the question. I guess something pushed her to buy that last lottery ticket. I can say with certainty that ‘Force was with her’.

Well, what would I do if I got all that money from woodwork? I can go about saying the usual lines just like others would – give some amount to my parents, give some amount to my family, get a bigger house, buy a great car, and donate some money for a great cause and so on. But apart from that, what else will I do. Will I change to be a different person? Will I start wearing fancy and classy stuff? Will I start being like a royal person? I don’t think so. I will still be the same person as I was before. If I am happy from within already, nothing will and should matter. Well, that is a very heavy statement. I have not even imagined what I would do, if I get that kind of money on hand. First, let the force be with me and let me get the money first and then everything will fall in place automatically. Yes, even before that I sure will make a trip to the store to get my ticket!

But Life ain’t a movie

2007-05-14T14:17:00.001-04:00

Often times I do my work at home with the television in the background. May it be doing laundry or dishes or cleaning the house, I have the T.V. on with some program running in the background. Not that I can follow the program or watching anything in particular, it is more to have company. When I am doing my work and turn to the T.V. once in a while, I see some colors, images and some music (I cannot hear or follow what is going on when I am washing dishes or vacuuming the floors) to soothe me and keep me going. So having said that, I was watching a couple of movies over the weekend – one was English and one was Hindi.

As I was watching those movies my attention went on to its story. The stories were good. In one, father loves his son very much and the son dies in an accident and the father overcomes the grief, the agony and pain of losing his son and finally adopts another child. It was an emotional piece. The movie lasted two and a half hours. In that span of time, the movie showed me how the parents loved their child, the daily routines, how they taught their child, how he grew up, how he died in the accident and how the parents dealt with the pain and finally overcame it. There was a problem and the problem was solved. Well, all of that in that span.

When I go through any situation, good or bad, happy or painful, I am the one to live through every minute of it. They say that time flies fast when you are happy but what about when you are in pain? What about when you are unhappy and feel terrible about what is happening? How do you deal with that? Even then, a day has 24 hours, 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds and it all moves in the same speed, no matter whether one is happy or sad. No matter, in what state of mind one is in, they all have to go through every second of the day, day after day until one can overcome that pain or joy in some way or the other.

One, who is going through the pain, often wonders what the outcome may be at the end. (One, who is happy, just hopes that the happiness continues for ever and ever, until the end of the universe) They hope that everything turns out to be OK in the end. But do they know about the results after three hours or do they have to wait for a long time with faith to know the results. One has to wait it out to know what will happen in the end. If life was just like the movies, one would know everything at the end of three hours but life ain’t a movie!

Reality check on Ms. Pretentious

2007-05-09T13:01:00.000-04:00

So the count down begins for yet another episode of a celebrity visiting the slammer. Those of you who watch T.V. or read newspaper or at least hear the radio will know by now that Paris Hilton, who is the heir of Hilton family, model, party lover or simply Ms. Pretentious, is about to begin her jail time starting June 5th for 45 days to serve out her sentence for violating the terms of her probation. She was charged with DUI and was on probation and was not allowed to drive during that period. This was not her first time to violate the law and she ended up driving and was pulled over, yet another time by the cops and taken to court where the judge gave her a sentence to serve 45 days in prison in LA.

Hilton said that cops usually pull her over because she is a celebrity and I am sure they will get a kick out of pulling celebrities and spending the time with them on a one-to-one basis on the shoulders of the highway or some local streets. The cops have a special detector that will signal them when a celebrity is coming by. I am sure. Hilton also said that she was unaware about the fact that she cannot drive and that she drove to work which should be considered alright. What part of the probation and cannot drive during that period, did she not understand. Oh well, she would have if she reads any of the mails right. She had said that she has people who reads the mails for her and that she simply signs on documents that is given to her to take care of business. What a life!

Hilton’s family and fans are supporting her on this and have petitioned (I believe) Governor Schwarzenegger to pardon her. I am sure he will understand and relate to this. How many times has he been pulled over as a celebrity? If he pardons her (I will bet he does – one because he can relate to it and two, he needs funding for his campaign - doesn’t he?) it will set a trend among the celebrities and there will be two sets of traffic laws, one for us and one for them – the celebrities. Whatever it is, if Hilton gets to spend the 45 days in prison, she can come up with more shows and more fame like Martha Stewart. It is not going to make any difference for her in terms of her driving behavior and following traffic laws. Life after 45 days will be the same as before or maybe filled with even more fame and glory, in addition to the money that she will make.

I had once seen her on a show where they were airing celebrity on camera. She was out on the streets and her car was running out of fuel and stopped. She was going on and on about how her assistants did not check her car for fuel. One of her fans came to help her out. He had gone and bought a 5 gallon container and filled it up with fuel, came back and filled her car with it. She gave that guy $10 for doing all that. Come on, that guy deserves more than $10. The cost of the container and the fuel itself would be more than $10 and the fact that he went and got the fuel for her during the night should mean something. The 45 days will at least slow her down a bit and keep her away from all that party-ing and give her some time to think and regroup.

Is this a game?

2007-05-08T09:19:00.000-04:00

The reason to blog today was from what happened at work to a colleague of mine and a couple of incidents or rather news that I read about. My colleague’s father is ill and is undergoing an operation for Cancer in the liver in India and so my colleague went to India last week to visit his father. I hope and pray that everything works out OK for him. When other friends and I were talking about it, somehow we got into the discussion of how we can operate on the liver and it grows back if the patient is young enough. These talks lead to other conversations where a man in U.K. went to a doctor and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was given a year to live at the most. Knowing that he was going to live for hardly a year he skipped to pay his mortgage payments and other bills, took all his savings, maxed out on his credit cards and spent lavishly visiting places around the world. He was literally broke financially.

Then came the time for his check-up at the end of the year (yes, he was visiting his doctors in the interim as well). During that visit, he was checked thoroughly and was told that he does not have cancer and whatever the cause was can be taken care of with medicines. Imagine the plight of that patient. Should he happy that he is going to live longer or should he curse himself being left out with a rotten life at the end. He worked his brains and sued the doctors for false statement about his health which is legitimate action he took. What happens to all the people who he borrowed money from and the mortgage and bills that he failed to pay? I want to know if he got settled with an amount that would cover all his bills and credit card payments and left with some chunk of change to get him started again in his life.

Another incident was about a judge, Roy Pearson, who gave his clothes for dry cleaning to the service run by the Chungs, South Korean immigrants, only to find out that his pants were lost or misplaced. I have experienced this many a times but my clothes would always be found. In this case of the judge, his pants which were worth $1,000 in value were lost and the Chungs offered to pay him that amount to compensate for his loss. But after a week, his pants turned up and so his payment was refused. What does Mr. Judge do? Sue. Of course he is in the business and that is what he does for a living, so he will know the trick of the trade on how to sue and get more money for his troubles. The Chungs offered him $3,000, then $4,000 and finally $12,000 but Mr. Judge wanted $65 million. Talk about putting what you learn to practice. I think the judge will lose his pants offer from the Chungs, lose the case and lose his job as a judge for misusing his power and knowledge; maybe he will be given orders to go to his job pant less at the court for a month along with being satisfied with a month of free dry cleaning service at the Chungs.

Another incident was when the Brazilian local brewer Ambev was ordered to pay 100,000 reals which $49,000, to an alcoholic beer tester who drank about 16 to 25 small glasses beer with a bottle of beer at the end of the shift for more than a decade. The employee sued the company saying that drinking that much alcohol made him alcoholic. What, he decided to sue the company after 10 years? Maybe he was drinking way too many beers than the company was selling and so they fired him and in return he decided to sue the company saying it made him alcoholic. The employee was alcoholic before joining the company and the company hired him knowing that is the issue. Not that after ten years you drink all you want and then sue the company saying that it had made him alcoholic.

Whatever the case maybe, if you are smart and know that you can make easy money off of someone by suing, one would do it. Cases like these are what make other valid ones weaker. This has become a game in this society where one would ask for hot coffee and then sue the place because the content was hot, smoke all you want even though the cigarette case says ‘smoking is injurious to health’ and then sue the company saying you have become an addict. Yes, this land is full of opportunities and so is full of idiots.

I am all ears

2007-05-07T12:23:00.000-04:00

Cleanliness has been a major thing for me. At any given time I would not say that I am the cleanest person but when I shower, I make sure I clean properly, especially my ears. I need to have my Q-tips to clean my ears properly or I feel uncomfortable with a drop of water in my ears. The day I don’t use the ear buds, I am jumping around with my ear on the side to get that drop out. Well, you get the picture. I advice the same to my son as well and he does it everyday as well.

But it looks like not all take the time to clean their ears. When I read about the incident where a 9-year old had two spiders walking on his eardrums and had made it their home, I was shocked. How could not one but two spiders get inside the ear and live there. When my hair lock falls over my ears, it tickles me and I have to move it away from my ears. If an ant walks in my ear, I am jumping around everywhere to get it out. I am not saying that insects don’t get into our ears occasionally, especially for kids who play outside in the woods. But when something gets inside one will be irksome.

I feel sorry for that boy who was constantly complaining about faint popping sound in his ear, "like Rice Krispies" and his mother ignored that, until the pop became an ache that was unbearable and then the boy was rushed to the doctor to be diagnosed. The mother could have checked his ears with a flash light or made him jump with his ear tilted towards the ground. Maybe it is the season of spiders to make more spider-men. Someone should look out for that boy and see if he spins some web in the coming days. I am sure the boy will be excited. With this incident, I will be all ears when my son complains ;-)

What’s the difference?

2007-05-03T12:50:00.000-04:00

I am the only child to my parents. I have my cousin brother who I consider as my own brother but still I grew up alone. You can call me “Daddy’s Girl” but never snobby or pretentious. I got my way through everything while growing up. I got what I asked for except for those times when my mom would think that I am asking for too much as a girl like staying out late or going to late night movies. But Dad let me do everything; he gave me full freedom but also told me that I should know my limits as a girl. I would ask for new clothes, new bike or anything I wanted and Dad would get it for me. If I were a boy would I gotten all this the same way? I guess not. Because I am a girl and that too, Daddy’s girl, I got everything.

One might think that the girls in the family get everything they want (mostly and also depending on what the parents can afford) because they will be given away in marriage (eventually) and will be given gone to another family where they do not know how their daughters will be treated. But on the hand, boys are built to be strong both mentally and physically and they need to work for what they want or desire. Maybe! But in addition to what I said before, our parents might be knowing that their girls will not be in par with the boys in the outside world.

Not in agreement with what I said? Take for instance, a girl and a boy go through the same classes in the same University and graduating at the same time with the same degree. We all know that girls work hard in terms of studying and getting good grades than boys do and I am a writing example right here. But let us put aside this fact and consider they both got same grades. They go for the same job interview for the same position and get hired. Good. What about their salaries? Are they the same? No. Girls get 20% less than what boys get. Over time, the difference increases and women earn 69% of what men earn.

Simple reason – women don’t negotiate. They always feel that they don’t perform up to the mark. They always think that they can improve in what they do and they are the worst critique that they can have, for the better when it comes to themselves and not so good in the outside world. Men on the other hand, will perform less but will give more credit on to them. Before you all raise a finger against me, it is not me who is making up but it is from the studies that Post had conducted.

Maybe our dads knew that we will be underpaid and that is why they were paying for everything to cover up the difference upfront and we got away with what we wanted and moms always were making sure that we learn the trick of the trade to survive in this so called “equal opportunity” society. One thing I have learnt from this study is, I better know how to ‘toot my own horn.’

This is where the bus stops

2007-05-02T11:01:00.001-04:00

While I was growing up, most of my commute was in the bus. If it was a walk able distance to local markets or shops, I would walk; if the distance was a bit farther or if I was carrying groceries and packages, I would take the rickshaw. But if I had to go to the other part of town or visit a friend or to school and college, I would take the bus. Bus commute was an integral part of anybody who lives in India. Without bus transportation, life would come to a standstill pretty much for most there. It is a means of taking people not only within town but also to go out of town to others parts of India, just like Greyhound here. But along with bus travel comes the fun of risking your life. Once you are in the bus, there is nothing to worry about unless something major happens. But the part of getting into the bus is where all the fun and frolic comes.

So where does the fun come? You stand and wait in the bus stop for your bus to come. You see the bus coming and you get ready to board the bus when the bus actually stops. But the bus stops not in the bus stand but a few yards ahead. So you literally run to catch the bus as the buses follow the 10 second rule. What is that rule? The bus would stop for 10 seconds and then start moving after that. People who are quick and those who can run and get on the bus are lucky that time; others wait for the next bus to come. Local buses in India don’t have doors like buses here, so it is easy to run for the bus and hop on to it. I have done that many times and I guess it is no-brainer but doing the unsafe trick of hopping into the bus safely is the key.

Now one might ask how safe can you be in doing something unsafe, knowing fully well that it is not safe. Well, this is the exact statement that the spokes person (I think it was the spokes person and I forget her name) for buses here said when the local news interviewed them about the rising rate of bus accidents and violation of traffic rules. When questioned, she said that whatever bus drivers are doing, even though it is unsafe, they are doing it safely. Buses in the D.C. area is on the rise in violating traffic rules like jumping red light and stop signs, not stopping at the appropriate locations, making illegal turns, not watching out for pedestrians. Case in point are the pedestrian accidents we hear and see lately.

What does the bus driver do when he or she has to jump the red light or stop sign? Look on both sides to see if there are any vehicles or people crossing or if there is a cop car near by; if not do it and consider it done safely? Buses are with bigger mass and when it hits a car or a person, the results are instantly seen. “With great mass comes great impact”. (Spider-man 3 is releasing this Friday and I have to make this one up as I am a fan of Spider-man – “with great power comes great responsibility”) Rules are there for a reason and it is there to be followed not broken or mended. If the bus drivers are following the rules and are vigilant while on duty, most of the accidents will be reduced. In the same token, pedestrians and other vehicles should look out for bigger vehicles like buses and trucks because they are of bigger mass and can’t stop easily as would you as a walker or a car would. Look out for each other.

Stop your natter and I shall have my turn

2007-05-01T11:57:00.001-04:00

I like to workout as often as I can. When I drive in to work, you would often see me park my car in the far off spot in the parking lot, so I could walk the extra steps to get to my cube. I like to take the steps instead of the lift except at times when I am carrying something heavy. I try to go to the gym whenever I can, even if it is for a 45 minute cardio workout on a machine or being in an aerobic class for half an hour (class is usually hour long). I try to make my trips to the gym whenever Yash is at his class, either in Kumon or Tae Kwan Do. I would drop him at his class 5-10 minutes earlier and pick him up 5-10 minutes later after the class ends. During that time I would hit the gym. So now you can see how I am crunched up on time at the gym.

During my visits there at the gym, I try to get my cardio done along with other machines. On any given machine, I do 3 sets of 10-12 reps with a couple of seconds of break in between. So on any given machine; I would be there for about 10 minutes at the most. There are also notices on the wall that says not to use the machine more than 15 minutes so that others get a chance to workout on any machine. This is a way of making sure that no machine is hogged by any one gym freak and that everyone gets a turn to use that machine. With the given time I have on hand, I hate to wait for machines and I work on the machines that are free, coming back to the hogged ones to see if they are free in between.

One thing I like about the gym that I go to is that it is open 24x7 unless it is a holiday like Christmas or Thanksgiving where they close early. I try to go when the gym is less crowded, usually before 5pm or after 8pm. Times that I am during the rush hour at the gym, I end up wasting my time waiting for machines rather than getting an actual workout because there are many people at the gym during those times. But those many people are they there for getting a workout or are they there for socializing, catching up with their friends or gossiping. It is just not women who talk, men do talk. They would put a towel on a machine, to let others know that the machine is taken and they would either be sitting on the machine or stand beside it with their hand on the machine and be talking to others who are working out with them or someone they met at the gym.

I think most people come to the gym just to socialize or market themselves to other genders. I understand that men and women who are in the market have to look out for availability where they go but not at the expense of having others to wait. Yesterday I was at the gym and I was waiting to get to my favorite leg machine only to see that there was a towel on the machine and a woman and a man talking besides it. I went and asked the woman if she was using the machine and she said she was starting in a few minutes. I went to workout on another close by machine, watching her chitchatting with her acquaintance. Ten minutes passed by and I was done with my machine and then again I went to the woman asked her if she was done with the machine. She again told me that she was still working out, standing besides the machine and talking with her acquaintance. Another ten minutes passed by and I was getting annoyed with the woman who was not letting go of the machine and not working on it. I went to her and asked if the machine be free or not for me to use, only to hear her say she was using it. I told her maybe she will be done if she stops chatting and starts her workout on the machine instead.

We go to the gym or workout elsewhere to let go of our tension and relax our body of our stress. But to workout if we are to put up with such cases, what is the alternative? People should be considerate at the gym. If they met someone who they have to catch up with, then they should step aside from the machine and talk all they want, so that others can use the machine. Don’t hold on to a machine and pretend to be working out, making others wait for no reason. You are there to workout your body not just your tongue. You do not need machines and gym atmosphere if your goal is to workout just your tongue.

Reap what you eat

2007-04-30T13:35:00.000-04:00

Lately FCC is scrutinizing the ads that are aired on television with the sole purpose of finding out how the ads related to marketing junk foods affects obesity amongst youngsters. As a result of this, there are debates amongst many of us who say that if the parents are strict about what they buy then the kids don’t get obese and that FCC should mainly focus on teens because they have the capability of going to the store and buying things for themselves. Kids who are dependent on parents and guardians to buy things for them will have no choice but to listen to what they say or decide in terms of what is to be bought and that would be the solution to obesity problem. But what happens to the parents when the kids behave badly in the stores or throw temper tantrums in aisles of the stores to get what they want?

I have seen many kids (including Yash) at stores who want to buy candies or toys that they had seen on an ad on T.V. Toys are a different issue but candies, sweets, junk food are what cause the obesity problem. When kids misbehave on aisles for the want of candies or sweets or junk food, ignore them or try to divert their attention to something else or put the things in the cart for the time being and when they are not paying attention, take it out of the cart. During checkout or later on at home when they ask for it, you say that it must have fallen out of the cart and since you are at home by then, you can give a good lecture on their behavior at the store. At least, that is what I do. I am sure kids will become smart about this incident after a couple of times and they will come up with their own ideas. We as a parent should also be in par with them and come up with our own inventions. As they grow, they will understand and start behaving as well.

But this blog was not to talk about obesity or parent’s reaction to children’s tantrums. The result of junk food and sweets are just not obesity but also tooth decay. Recent studies have shown that tooth decay is on the rise amongst kids. Kids very rarely do a good job on brushing their teeth and keeping it clean. Nowadays product like AGENT COOL BLUE™ Plaque-Detecting Rinse helps kids in showing were the plague deposits are. It still comes down to the kids brushing it properly and keeping it clean. There are different types of brushes and devices that are motorized, designed to reach the unreachable niche of teeth. Even with all that is available the problem just seems to increase. I can only relate this increase to kids eating sweets and drinking juices and sodas, whereas they should be eating natural fruits and vegetables and drinking plenty of water.

If good nutrition is not followed, it not only affects their body but also their teeth. So we have kids who are obese and rotting teeth. Parents need a lot of patience to inculcate good habits in their kids, like brushing teeth as often as required. I try to follow it and also force this on Yash. I would rather do this, rather then having to take him to dentist and spend my earnings on fixing his teeth. Don’t forget “What you sow is what you reap” or in other words what you eat is what you are!

How far is far to get far

2007-04-29T11:17:00.000-04:00

Growing up had been a challenge for me in terms of studying in India, especially to get good grades and to be first in class. When I was in school, I used to be in the top 10 and my position was never fixed. I would in the third place and the next term would end up in the tenth place. My teachers knew I had the potential and the capability to do well but I did not push myself to face the competitive edge. When time for exams came, I would prepare as hard as I could because I had this visual memory where I would know where different passages or explanation on a term would be located in the book on what side. (not that it helped me a lot during exams because I would know where the answers were but didn’t know what the answers were!) But some students took tuition or additional classes from the teachers and when it was time for exams, those teachers would ask students who sit near their students, to help out. One time when I was in middle school, I happened to be the chosen one to help out a student who was coached by a teacher. Unfortunately, other teachers who were supervising the exam saw me helping the student. That teacher knew for sure that I was not copying but helping the other student and wanted to know why I was helping and which teacher told me to help that student. So I was torn between the two teachers. You can imagine!

When I was in high school I had the urge to do well because I had to get in good college. By then, I made sure I always stayed in top 5 but even then, never at being first. I did give the first place holders a good run. I made sure they prepared extra hard to secure their first place because they knew I would take their spot if they were careless. During exam time, other students still needed help from me and since we were in higher grades, my paper would be circulated so that they could get the answers and at least pass the exams. Some students would write the answers on their palm, hands and legs and would copy off of it. Some students would roll scraps of paper with answers written all over and would hide it behind their ears or in pockets. Looking at that scrap of paper, one could see how that white space was used in every possible way. Talk about real estate and optimizing the use of white space on that paper.

Then came the time when I went to my Engineering College. I knew I had to be the best. I was the first and remained there during my Bachelors’ and Masters’. Everyone at the University knew that I was on a roll and by default I was the first unless I had skipped taking an exam. Even then my helping friends to get the bare minimum to pass the exam never stopped. If I didn’t help, they had their own ways of helping themselves. At that time, we didn’t have cell phones or other gears and our means was the standard paper and writing on palm, hands and feet. Nowadays, cell phones are available through which you can text message the answers or write answers as a note or have your friends call in and give the answers. I saw the same concept being used in the Hindi Movie ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’, where the hero takes the college exam in a medical college with a cell phone in his pocket and wire with ear buds is all that is sticking out and some one is reading out the answers on the phone and the hero is writing away. Cool concept. I wish I had cell phones during my college days.

Now that iPod is in existence with 30gb or more storage space, you could store all the answers for all the questions for a given exam and use the same concept as cell phones to copy during the exam. All this to pass an exam where they ask a set of questions, if you are lucky enough to have studied it, you would write it and if not, they you are labeled a failure at that subject. Mountain View High School Principal. Aaron Maybon recently enacted a ban on digital media players after school officials realized some students were downloading formulas and other material onto the players. Why are students allowed to carry digital players, cell phone and iPods to school anyways? I understand that cell phones are for communicating in case of emergency but most of the time, students are just yapping with their friends anyways. Cell phone and players – even if they carry, should be in their bag and bag is under the table/desk during exams. While taking exams are they not suppose to have just pen/pencil/erasers and the papers given by teachers and nothing else on the desk – at least that’s the way I took my exams here in the U.S. If one spends half the time in studying for the exam that they spend on entering answers in iPod, I would say they would have a fair game.

Are they out of their minds?

2007-04-26T10:57:00.000-04:00

A couple of days locked in with a person in a room with nothing to do will get on your nerves pretty quickly. Imagine being with someone for 1000 days in a confined limited area and that too being on the sea. For those of you who don’t know about the adventure that a couple started last Saturday - Reid Stowe, 55 years old, a veteran sailor and his girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad, 23 years old college student who had not done much of sailing, started their adventurous trip on a 70-foot schooner to go around the world, just like “Around the world in 80 days”, except it is for 1000 days, because that is how long it takes to go to Mars. This is a feigning trip to simulate the journey to Mars and hence they will have no port calls.

So what do they do when they have no port calls to re-supply or stretch their legs per say? They stuffed their ship with enough supplies of cooking items – in terms of food and materials needed for cooking and cleaning, fitted their ship with devices to catch fish that they can cook and eat; use tarps to catch rainwater and use desalination to make drinking water from salty sea water. Talking about desalination, I am reminded about the projects I used to work on as a Civil Engineer. Traditional chemical desalinating kits have very limited capacity and are really inadequate, to say nothing about the terrible taste of the water produced. A decent size produces only a liter of fresh water per hour, so they better be having “Survivor 34" which will produce nearly 1.5 gallons of fresh water per hour and they be drinking less water than what is being produced. Otherwise, the following will be true - "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink"

Now that they are set with necessary items for survival, let me take a look at how their day-to-day life will look like. Even though they are equipped with technology on the ship to communicate with their families, friends and sponsors via email and such, don’t we all know how the call drops when it is very crucial and how the internet connection fails on us when we need it the most. Being on sea can cause sea sickness and I have experienced it myself even if it was for a couple of days of doing deep sea fishing. What happens when they fight or argue or break-up? I hope not but just think. When couples argue or fight, they will leave one another for a while and go out do something else to soothe their minds. In this case, they would just go out and have a swim.

At the end of the trip, the duo will be so tired of eating sea food and would never want to look at eating any fish in the future. At least I would feel like that. When patience and presence of mind is required for such trips, I also hope that they have read enough of Moby Dick and similar adventures to keep them savvy. Romance is part of the ingredient for this trip which will become stale when faced with challenge. “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” But let us forget about the Murphy’s Law for a minute and wish them luck for this trip. They will need that in plenty as well.

Oh no – I can’t live

2007-04-25T11:03:00.000-04:00

A very close friend of mine sent me a link for a T.V. turnoff week program, basically it says to turn off your television for a week and do other activities instead. When I first looked at the site, I was thinking how this topic became the topic of interest this week. Why? Sri was also talking about turning off our television and doing something else this past weekend which was gorgeous. We were also reading an article that had a list of question trying to find out if you watch more than 2 hours of T.V. every day, do you snack while watching T.V., do you get so deeply involved that you don’t know if others are talking to you and such. If you had answered ‘Yes’ to any of the question, it would basically brand you as a T.V. head.

While T.V. is considered the window to the world, it is also now considered as a means where kids can learn violence, watch cartoons and other T.V. shows all day long, look at junk snack ads and toys, ask or rather pester their parents to get more of it and finally become couch potatoes and contribute to the obesity problem that this nation faces. Anything of limit is good and if it goes over limit, it becomes poison, basically not good. T.V. watching is good for kids when they watch programs that are about nature or wild life or scientific or historic, something that teaches them, enhances their knowledge, supplements what they study in school. But when they watch cartoons for hours together then they are not challenged to do anything else physically or mentally but instead they just end up staring at T.V.

Kids or adults can watch T.V. for some time to unwind, but also should do other activities outside. There are a lot of activities and games that can played outside on a good sunny day. It is good for the mind and body and it rejuvenates our soul. But on a cold winter day, what options we have, some might ask. That would be a perfect time to pick up a book and sit in a cozy corner and read away all you want and be transferred to your world where the book takes you. I keep telling Yash to read to a lot and make it a habit to carry a book everywhere he goes, because books are the best and ever lasting friends he can have for his entire life which will not fail to give him company whenever he wants.

As far as I go, I read too whenever I can, after I finish my chores. Whenever I work in the kitchen, I put on the t.v. and watch it in the passing. But since I had the T.V. on for hours together while I am in the kitchen, does that mean I am a T.V. head. No. While T.V. helps me in unwinding and relaxing, it also helps me to get my chores done while it is on. As per the link, to keep it off for a whole week is good but if you follow to watch moderately or as needed per day, then you will not be at a point to need to shut off T.V. for a whole week. In India, people enjoy what they eat and they eat well. Food prepared in desi ghee and oil, full course meal for lunch and dinner. To compensate for all this eating, they also follow ‘vrath’ which means fasting for religious purposes. Festivals like Rama navami/dhashara and Durga Pooja will have fasting for a week or ten days before the grand function. This is a way to balance out their diet and happy eating.

It looks like having a week off from t.v. follows the same regime as I mentioned above. Watch T.V. in moderation and do other outdoor activities and you will never need a week off from t.v. If you are physically active, it keeps your body and mind active. Let t.v. be the window to the world. Through the window, you can see good and bad that happens in the world, just like the window in your house. You make the choice of what you want to see in the world. Something that will enlighten you and make you more knowledgeable or something that will make you dumb. You always have the right to choose and so make the right choice in watching what you see on t.v.

Shifting focus is all we need

2007-04-24T10:59:00.000-04:00

As we all know, incident at Virginia Tech last week has taken the lives of 33 victims including the killer himself. This has been the topic of discussion on the news and on every media you all can possibly think of. The day after the incident, NBC got a package from the killer. Apparently, the killer, Cho Seung-Hui has mailed the photos and video to NBC, prior to his second attack in the classrooms. So the officials are investigating the photos and video clippings to see who might have helped him in taking the pictures or if he had any sort of help in carrying out this massacre.

Based on the tracked cell phone calls made by the killer, emails sent by him, the photos and video received from him and his background investigation, officials are trying to draw a rationale as to what caused him to perform this massacre. Many are bringing out the fact that violent video games and movies are the cause for anyone to loose their minds and act crazy. Psychologists say that bad experiences in childhood and stress in-built a child due to situations they face at school, develops within them and finally explodes to cause such painful acts.

This incident has provoked many to ask how he got the guns he used to carry out the massacre. As per the law, you need two forms of identification and should be a resident alien to procure a gun. Of course, they run a background check to see if the records are clean before allowing anyone to buy a gun. When Cho went to buy the gun, his record was clean and he being a resident alien of the U.S. was able to obtain it without any difficulty.

In relation to this, I heard over the radio talk show that Cho should not be given the gun as he is not a Citizen of the U.S., while the law clearly states that anyone who is a resident alien is eligible to buy one. Also, since he is an immigrant from South Korea, immigrant process should be tightened. The process of allowing immigrants into this country should be scrutinized thoroughly before letting anyone into U.S. If Cho, happened to be a Muslim, that it would have been tied to Al-Quida plotting to attack us again. If he had been an African-American, it would be a mindless act that was performed by them. What if he had been a white American? Who are they going to blame it on?

Instead of trying to see ways to blame this act on someone or some movie or violence, try to see the big picture. While the incident should not have occurred in the first place and what Cho did was wrong, what motivated Cho to perform such action - his mental stability, him having to deal with the peer pressure, ridicule at school, his loneliness and such? He was treated while at school and was noted that he should voluntarily go for mental therapy because of his mental instability. This being in the records, Virginia Tech could not hold him off from admissions because that would be discriminating against mentally challenged people. With many laws supporting many people in many possible ways, how do you filter out the problem causing student.

Every student is stressed by their work load at school, peer pressure, achieving success and fame, performing better than their peers, having to face ridicules by their peers and such. I see kids at school taking AP courses while at middle school. When one does it because he or she can do it, there is the pressure for other kids to do the same. This is just an example of how students are pressured in what they do. Don’t come at me for this, for you all know it is the truth. Add parents pressure to this and we get a child who is all stressed out mentally and physically. Then we complain about why kids are so stressed out, why they have so much negative forces in them and why they burst out and perform such actions. Reach out to them and help them as much as possible. Leave them to be what they are – kids.

My 2 cents (or 2 paisa) on ‘The Namesake’

2007-04-23T11:14:00.000-04:00

Like I had mentioned before about writing about the movie, here I am after getting the opportunity to read the book prior to watching the movie as well. This story portraits the struggle of a female to coup up with the new country, new culture and new society as a whole. Movie is toned down to suit the viewing audience. Some details are either missed out or polished from the book to suit the widescreen. The story is not extraordinary but putting it in layman’s terms the struggle of an Indian couple in America. The story is a reality that happens to each of our family settled here in the U.S.

If your family is emigrated to the U.S. to seek opportunities, to gain wealth, to seek further education, to better their lives and give a good future to your kids, then there are scenes in the movie that you can relate to. The story was placed in 1960’s to start with and to show how life was like back then in the U.S. and how you would feel if you came to the U.S. from India. But to depict what the author, Jhumpa Lahiri was trying to, she didn’t have to change the timeline. It would still be the same, even if it was shown for this time. Even today, families who come to the U.S. to settle down have difficulty in adjusting to this society.

It is a whole new experience of leaving where you grew up as a group (in the same sect/group) and to come to this new world where there is a mixed heritage of different sects, religions and people. You always miss where you came from. But being here, you adjust to the customs here to avoid yourself being looked down upon. Things have changed today, one might say. There are many Indians here, many Indian shops, and restaurants and so it is easy for anyone who comes here today to enjoy when compared to those who came in the 60’s and 70’s. True. But even today, people who come here struggle as much to be in par with the others already here.

Making friends with the non-Indians is a major hurdle. You open up to them and are social and interact with them but it all boils down to how much they are open to you. There is only so much and so far you can go after them to pursue the interaction but if they retract there is not much you can do about it. Making that same interaction amongst Indian circle is much easier as they understand where you come from. Some may differ at this, but it is true. People who come here with the notion of staying here for the rest of their lives may open up even more and take that extra step to make friends with non-Indians. It all depends on who your neighbor is. I have had some good non-Indians as friends and neighbors as well. But it all comes down to who you have as neighbors.

Celebrating Christmas just to make the kids happy and not being left out when they discuss with friends later on is good at the beginning. But slowly inculcating the idea that we are not Christians and hence we don’t celebrate is not a bad one either. Yash understands that Christmas is not for him but he enjoys the fact that we get gifts for him, meet relatives and friends over the holidays. We celebrate our Indian holidays and festivals as we would in India and that brings a joy to him as well. He loves to wear his Indian clothes and suits to parties and enjoy the merriment there as well.

In a nutshell, whatever we do here to please our kids, we still teach them our values and cultures with a hope that when they go back to India, they will not have any problems fitting there either. I am sure, if people from other cultures (Asians in general) watch this movie, they will also have something to relate to and take with them after watching the movie. I was able to relate to a lot of scenes and the movie just reiterated the fact that “We can take the Indians out of India, but not India out of the Indians.”

Is it not for her to decide?

2007-04-20T11:45:00.000-04:00

As I was browsing through the T.V. channel, I landed upon the news on a ban by Supreme Court on a form of abortion called "partial birth abortion." This is a sensitive issue and many argue that abortion should not be allowed, that it is a sin or a religious crime and that it is like killing a living one. Many can come up with many reasons. But I like to differ. It is the choice of the bearer who decides to be the mother of the child and give it what is needed to bring it to the world or not.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, she might decide not to bear the child and hence decide to abort it. Some might argue that it is a life form and should be brought to the world. In the first place, the bearer decides not to bear because she can’t take care of it for reasons such as poverty, fetus has a medical problem, the bearer is bearing the child unwillingly due to reasons you can think of. Then why go through the hassle of bringing the kid to this world and have two people suffer for the rest of their lives?

There are protective means to stop this from happening in the first place. She can’t have fun and then do this sinful act - some say. But she was not the only one having fun, was she? Then why, she must be the one to suffer the results or consequences when she does not want it? There are some who are willing to see the results and are determined to face it. Then it is good. But if she is not, then she should have this option open to her. First off, prevention is better than cure. But, accidents do happen and in situations like these, she should have the right to decide.

It does not make sense for her to unwillingly bear the fruit (or rather burden) and then suffer with another live for the rest of her life. It is not like having it and then if not able to deal with it, she can return it to the store. It is a life long commitment and it will only make sense if she does it willingly for the benefit of both the lives involved. As long as she is the one who makes the decision, one way or the other, I am OK. All I am saying is don’t make it legal or illegal and let her decide on what she wants to do. But for her, she should take precautions to start with.

Fuel for Media

2007-04-18T11:52:00.001-04:00

Media such as T.V., Newspapers and Radio, show occurrences of what happened at Virginia Tech campus this Monday. Though what happened was tragic enough, media and politicians will take the situation and use it to their effect either to get attention or benefit out of it. Whatever happens currently gets the spotlight for the moment until another news crop up. No matter what channel you see on T.V. or what station you tune in on radio, you will pretty much see or hear the same stuff over and over with an addition (sometimes) with the latest development. Since Monday, news was aired regarding the massacre in VA Tech campus, followed by ‘who the killer was’ on Tuesday. I am sure people want to know what happened but not to the point where all you hear is just that.

A week back was the week of spotlight for Don Imus’s issue. At that time, he made the news and all the channels were airing what he said about the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team. While it was bad regarding what he said, it was not required that he be fired from his position. But his news became the most watched. Polls were open in all major news channels for people to vote on making a decision on whether to fire him or not. Discussion forums were created for people to share their opinions regarding him making the comment and what the outcome of it should be. If the incident on Monday in VA Tech had not had happened, (it would have been better if it had not happened) then Don Imus’s news would still be in the spotlight and the same wave would have continued this week as well.

Prior to this was the news on Anna Nicole Smith's death. They were showing what had happened and what caused Smith’s death. While there were other pressed issues throughout the world, Smith’s death took the spotlight. She was just like anybody else. There are thousands of other people who commit suicide or die throughout the world in a day but her death was somehow important for this Nation. This was followed by never ending battle news on her child’s custody and who the father was. The latest in her news was that her former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead was proved the father of Dannielynn, daughter of Anna Smith. Do I care who the father of the Child is? No. Maybe, the way things were heading, (Anna Smith’s body was not even put to rest because the mother and others were debating as to who should get custody of the body and child) even the child would go careless about knowing who her father was. Media took advantage of this (or did the affected party take advantage of the media?) and they were airing the interviews and their findings about the news in every channel plausible.

You can take any part of the world and the media always covers the news that brings attention to them. Take for instance, Shilpa Shetty, Bollywood actress. Months ago, she was the talk of the news because she was the victim of racists comment made to her in the show ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in Britain. There were protests in India because of this and effigies of Jade Goodall were burnt because she was the one who made the comment in the show. You could see any channel in India during that time and all you would see was how Shilpa was the victim of the racists comment and Indians would not tolerate this.

Months later, Shilpa Shetty was a speaker in the AIDS awareness campaign in New Delhi along with the guest speaker, Hollywood Buddhist Richard Gere. He happened to kiss Shilpa on her hands and cheeks but in public in front of the cameras and this became an issue and effigies of Shilpa and Gere were burnt. This incident became the headlines currently. The same person who was applauded months ago because of her stance against the racist remark became the person to be looked down upon for being kissed in public by a Westerner. Leave alone the fact that she is the same person who wears skimpy clothes and kisses the hero in the movie she acts based on the character she is playing, which is well received by the same public.

No matter who makes the headlines, good or bad, it is only for the time being and the dust of hubbub will soon settle down until it is disturbed by another storm of what is new. As long as there are people on this planet, media will never have the shortage of news to air and entertain or keep us informed of the latest. We only hope that there are good things to be said and shared rather than incidents like what happened at Virginia Tech campus or who made racists remarks on others.

Reality in Movies

2007-04-16T22:27:00.000-04:00

I am not a movie buff but I watch every single movie possible. I have no bias in watching any movie – the simple truth is ‘how will you know whether you liked a movie or not without watching it in its entirety?’ But I am told that the first few minutes into the movie are important to watch as it sets the mood for the upcoming story or mystery or whatever it may be. In the same token, you will know the pulse of the movie as to which direction the movie is heading to – a good or a bad one!

Even if the movie is bad, there is always the urge to finish watching it. I always try to see the good in bad as much as possible (only in movies). In a very bad movie, I can see the goodness that I spent that movie time, doing nothing but relaxed and unwound. One such movie was 'Janasheen'. It was a total waste of time in watching a bad movie but with good friends. I sense the smile on those who relate to this. So go on, smile away. :)

I learn a great deal from movies. Some movies are a portrait to real time stories. Take for instance, movies like 'Office Space' and 'Duplex' - my all time favorites. Everything that was shown in those movies was real and it could happen to anyone. The opening scene in 'Office Space' - trying to get to work in rush-hour traffic in the morning, but cars move so slowly because of bumper-to-bumper traffic that an old man can walk and beat the traffic. Is that not true? What about printers getting a paper jam, are we not frustrated at work when things like that happen?

Take for instance 'Duplex' - what about getting stuck with a bad tenant. I have seen incidents like those shown in the movie here in real life and they are so real and down to earth scenes. Having a bad tenant is the worst nightmare one can have. My family back home has had good and bad tenants and I have seen the best and worst of the two worlds. In India, we had a bad tenant once, who rented our upper level of our house. My parents and I lived in the ground floor portion. The tenants used to put T.V. and Radio on at odd times, especially during my exam days when I would be glued to my book preparing for my exams. Imagine me with a book and cotton balls plugging my ears to stop the musical annoyance, preparing for my exam.

Using movies as a media to show reality or fiction or relive historic events is the key. When you watch movies, go with an open mind on what you see. Some are down to earth movies like ‘Office Space’ or ‘Duplex’ to name a few and some are fictional – basically making you imagine being in another world, conquering and restoring peace in the new world and such – like ‘Star Wars’, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and such; some movies make you think beyond what you saw, it shows some element of truth and history in it and leaves the rest upon us to do the research. It just acts as a catalyst to instigate the urge to find out more on the subject like ‘Da Vinci Code’, ‘300’, ‘Fly Boys’.

When you watch them, you can always relate to some scenes or stories as you see fit. Not all of you will relate to the same scenes or movies but you will have your window of opportunity to relate to some movies. I have heard that the movie ‘The Namesake’ is good and many of us immigrants can relate to the movie. I have not seen the movie yet, but when I see it, I will blog upon it. Until then, see movies for what they are – a means to unwind and relax. If the opportunity knocks on you, then relate to it and have a good laugh or cry!

Starbucks Union Zindabad

2007-04-16T22:24:00.000-04:00

First off I should explain what Zindabad means for those who don’t know Urdu or Hindi, it means ‘long live’. So the title actually means ‘Long live Starbucks Union’. Now that we are squared off with the title, let us move on to the content. I am not a big fan of Starbucks, except for the occasional meeting of my friends for a cup of coffee or taking Yash for a cup of hot chocolate with a cookie or a brownie when he achieves something like passing a level in Kumon or getting to a new level in Tae Kwon Do.

Whenever I go to Starbucks, unlike some, I just go to one and only Starbucks store near my house and close to all of Yash’s activities, I order my usual ‘regular’ coffee and during holiday season, I get my pumpkin spiced latte or ginger bread latte (have to tell them ‘skip the whip’) Depending on the time of the day that I go in the store, I see different baristas with their green aprons on, whipping away the drinks ordered by the customers. So what is great about it? Any place would be doing the same thing – fulfilling customer orders.

But little did I know, until I read an article about Starbucks Union having a picket last week at Dupont Circle, at the store at 1501 Connecticut Ave. NW. for firing some of their baristas for raising their voices against Starbucks atrocities. Starbucks is mostly understaffed and their baristas are left unsure about the number of hours they would work in a given week. Most of Starbucks employees are working part-time and that is how this corporate is cutting down on its benefits costs. If the employees raise their voice and join the Union, they either get bribed or booted from their job.

As much as anyone would go their and enjoy a cup of coffee, the company should make sure it makes its employees, especially the baristas happy about their work of making those coffees. If the barista is unhappy about their working conditions, I would get my coffee either extremely hot or strong or maybe with a shower of their spit (geez no). What the baristas are asking for is reasonable. They are asking for proper scheduling in their work hours, decent insurance coverage and a decent apron. I wouldn’t mind joining their union to support them. (I don’t like their green aprons either). So, Starbucks Union Zindabad!

How far before you understand?

2007-04-12T13:17:00.000-04:00

I was watching the news last night (for a change) and I happened to see the accident report on I-270 that happened early Wednesday. A car and a truck were involved in a road rage situation and were exchanging obscene gestures with one another. The driver of the pickup truck veered in front of the car and braked causing the car to swerve, loose control, hit the guardrail and flipped, tossing the driver and the passenger of the car, instantly killing them. Of course, you can get the detail of the accident, the car and the truck on any paper or news website. I am not getting into the details of it.

Seeing this news, I was wondering, what it will take people to understand that driving is a privilege not a right. No one owns the roads and it is for everyone to use it equally. There is no reason for anyone on the road to think that they are important and hence no ‘get out of my way’ attitude, expect for the police cars, fire engines and ambulance with their sirens on. Everyone is in a hurry to get to somewhere in this fast moving world. So, all it takes is starting a few minutes earlier to accommodate for traffic and unforeseen situation and to be on time at your destination.

My dad would always leave early to get to his destination. Some days, I would ask him to drop me off at school. Those days, I was forced to get up early (I am sleepy head – what can I say?) and be ready to share the ride with him. If I was not ready, I would be left behind. I sometimes would argue with him and say ‘what if we are a little late?’ and the look on his face would be enough for me to get me going. If you are desperate or if it is important for you to be on time at some place, make an effort to start early. It is that plain and simple. Driving carefully and reaching to the destination, even if you are little late is OK by me, rather than not reaching the destination at all. It is “Better late than never.”

I am reminded of Calvin and Hobbes comic strip from Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, where Calvin makes a traffic safety poster for school and in it he has the catch phrase “Be careful, or be road kill”. Is that not so true in this situation? It is so aggravating to see drivers chit-chatting on the cell phone rather than paying attention to the road. To add to this some drivers put on make-up or eating or doing everything else besides concentrating on driving. Compounding to this problem is the tail gating situation. It is bad enough to be followed by another car closely, but the drivers who drive slowly should understand that they have the right lane for the very same purpose – to drive slowly.

We have so many advances in technology; another one for the purpose of safe driving won’t hurt right? Future cars should have the ability to record drivers information, route traveled, stretch and time where speed limit were exceeded. This information should be sent to DMV or traffic officials, so corrective measures can be taken. (If anyone is visualizing this theme, keep in mind that this idea is mine and I should get the royalty for this.) Let us just share the road amicably. Road rage is not going to take us to our destination as it has its own destination – road kill!

On a different note - To add to my previous blog on Don Imus’s issue – I still stand by what I said earlier – Firing Imus is over kill. He apologized and is suspended for two weeks. It was just a slip of his tongue. There are a lot of times when we say something in the spur of the moment and want to take it back. People say that he is nationally looked upon and he cannot make such mistakes. We are all people and we are bound to make mistakes. If we don’t make mistakes, then we must be God. But we are not. So, let us just move on!

Watch what you say

2007-04-11T12:29:00.000-04:00

In this blog, I am making an attempt to address an already sensitive issue and am offering my comments and the way I perceive the entire situation. By no means am I a racist. So after reading, please don’t come to that conclusion either.

Recent hubbub is about Don Imus being suspended for two weeks for his racist remark that he made during his talk show regarding the Rutger’s Women’s Basketball Team. The purpose of this blog is not about what he said, despite the fact that it hurt some people. Don is known as the ‘shock jock’ and he does have the tendency to go over the top and say things for shock value, like they say “the modus operandi for a shock jock”. I have not heard his show, so I cannot say much about the quality of his show. But he is a shock jock and will pick on anyone to get that attention. It is his persona for the show. It is what keeps his show on the edge.

By making this comment it does not make him a racist. His comment went over board and he apologized for it and is on a two week suspension. But some people and groups wanting him to be fired and wanting to make his show and livelihood history seems a little over the top. The news media wants politicians and advertisers to back off from his show. No more ads from Proctor and Gamble, and Staples will be aired during his show. Politicians are asked not to be the guests in his show. Why? I have seen on T.V. and heard other radio shows where non-white (trying to be politically correct here) has made similar comments about their own race. But that does not seem to raise a flag anywhere. When one race makes a comment on another race, that too on a show, just to get an edge or make their show attractive or get some laughs out of the audience that seems to make the entire system hay wire.

Like I said, I have not heard Imus talk on his show but years ago, I was a fan of ‘The Greaseman’ show by shock jock Doug Tracht. I still am, except I don’t know on which station he is aired. (If anyone knows, please share the information). He was punished, suspended and finally booted off from his show because of similar racist comments he made during his show. He was not a racist either but it is just that his mouth outran his brain. Some days his shows don’t turn the way he intended to. If I am listening and I don’t like it, I switch stations; same with Howard Stern.

Few months back, Senator George Allen of Virginia, a Republican, was at a political rally in support of his campaign when he called Sidarth, a “macaca”. The Indian community was up in arms over this fact. Allen had of course apologized and his life and career moves on. Was he suspended from what he was doing? I don’t think so. I am an Indian (and am proud to be one) and just by Sen. Allen calling Sid (and us, Indians) a macaca, do we become one? No. We are who we are. Just by anyone passing comments on us, is not going to change anything. What ever happened to Gertrude Stein saying, “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” to mean "things are what they are". Let us just forgive and forget. It is just a show to entertain people and let us leave it at that.

What is your worth?

2007-04-10T14:59:00.000-04:00

How many times have you ended up in restaurants to enjoy the surroundings and the ambiance more than the food in itself? I have. I have been to Marrakesh in D.C. which serves authentic Moroccan food which I consider it decent but more than the food, I like the atmosphere of the place, the way food is served and how the group who goes to the restaurant eats from the same plate using hands. Of course you will get your cutlery on request, but the fact that you get to eat from the same plate and using your hands in a different experience by itself. I also like the belly dancing that they perform in the restaurant as a part of entertainment. Will I go there again sometime in the future? Yes. But if someone takes just the food and serves it to me regularly just as any other restaurant, will I consider going back. Maybe not. It was for the atmosphere that I went for not for the food.

Why did I mention what I did above? I am not discussing dining in this blog but I just used it to prove a point that the atmosphere or the setting matters for any product or service offered. I was reading an article about Joshua Bell, one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made, against a bare wall outside the Metro at the L’Enfant Plaza station. This was an experiment that was set up by Washington Post in January of this year to see if the talent was recognized and people proved his worth in the outside atmosphere.

As expected by me, the crowd paid no heed. He hardly made a collection of $32 and change from an hour that he played on a cold morning during rush hour at the metro. 1,070 people passed by him and only seven stopped to listen to his music for a minute or to and twenty seven threw in some tips in the open case of his violin he had kept in front of him. When he performs in the Symphony Hall, the hall is packed and the decent seats are sold for $100. But when the maestro performs on the street, no one pays much attention. Was his music any less than what he played in the Symphony Hall? No. It is the same person, same violin, same music, except the place was different. Where was performing in the Symphony Hall and where is standing in the metro and playing?

I am sure we are all enthralled to meet the super stars – may it be from movies or from the music world. How many times we attend a performance by such stars and we keep waving our hands from amongst the crowd to get their attention with a hope that you will be the one to be called upon to perform for a minute or two with the star. But when the same star happens to pass by you in a crowd, walking without glamor or make-up, you fail to recognize them. The locale, situation and the venue matters for anything that is offered. There is always a right time, right place and a right atmosphere for anything to happen. It does not matter how talented you are, unless you are amid the right crowd, like the idiom goes “it falls on deaf ears”.

My Cherry Blossom not so bloomy

2007-04-10T13:23:00.000-04:00

This past week was spring break for Yash and whenever he has holidays, I do too. What do I mean by that? Whenever he is off from school, I either work from home or take off from work, so that I can spend the time with him or take him out somewhere like the museum and such. My schedule revolves around what his activities are or what he needs to get done for that day. Apart from school, he is into Kumon, Soccer and Tae Kwon Do. When he goes for Kumon, I end up doing my grocery shopping. When he goes to Tae Kwon Do, I pretty much stay there in class most of the time, admire and soak up the art as much as I can but sometimes I step out to buy things needed for my home.

So last week was a relaxed one for us. We lazed around (don’t tell my boss), watched T.V., went for movies, played around and I was glad that I got to spend my time with my baby (not a baby anymore, but will always be a baby to me). We also decided we will go to D.C. to see the Cheery Blossom and its bright pink hued flowers covering all the cherry trees surrounding the tidal basin. I remember years ago when I went to see the cherry blossom with my family when Yash was less than a year old. When I had gone then, all the cherry trees were either covered with white, pink or a mix of white and pink flowers. That picture is still in my mind and that is what I had in vision when I was planned my trip to D.C. with Yash last week.

For those of you who don’t know, the basin is covered with hundreds of cherry trees, not of the same kind but of different varieties and hybrids. It is true that Japan had donated some trees to U.S. as a token of friendship but we too had created many hybrids from the saplings that were given to us. That is the reason that you see a wide variety of pink and white flowers when the tree is in full bloom. Being a plant fanatic, I enjoy being amidst of trees, take pleasure in admiring the colors and their sweet fragrance, trying to learn a little more about the plants to add it to my knowledge base. I got this trait from my dad, who is a Civil Engineer by Profession, but also a plant lover. He is into gardening much more than I am.

When I had gone to tidal basin I was disappointed to see the flowers. There sure were flowers on the trees and had not withered. But the color was so faded because of the cold weather we have been having lately (even though it is spring). The scenery I saw was half in quality when compared to what I had in mind from my memories. Anyways, the best part was, I was with Yash, running around, biking along the tidal basin, sitting on the bench and reading a book together with a blanket on, while the passers-by were smiling at us looking at the coziness we were sharing even on a cold evening out in the open amongst the trees.

These are the moments that I will have in my memory and hold it close to my heart. Even though my trip to Cherry Blossom was not as I expected, I still will cherish those moments as it was time well spent with my son. A little time outside like these is what makes our lives that much more interesting and pushes us ahead. So, I am hoping I will be able to make it to the Cherry Blossom Festival this coming Saturday on April 14th. For those who are reading along, Yash is getting his Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do this Saturday during his Ceremony. If I make it to the festival, it will make the day that much more special for us.

Lost and Found and ….. Lost and?

2007-04-06T13:29:00.000-04:00

Have you ever been in a situation where you have held something close to your heart and have lost it? It can be anything from personal jewelry to items you use on a daily basis. I have been through this, many a times. My best friend gave me a book marker, years ago and I valued that a lot. Whenever I would read a book, I would always make use of it. One time I had left the book with the marker in the van I drive and the marker slipped into the deep recess between the cup holder and passenger seat. Even today, pieces of it are still there barring the fact that I can’t get to it.

I also have been the victim of losing my wallet many a times and sometimes finding it too. Despite the fact that it has my driver’s license, my credit cards and money, it is valuable to me. Why? It has my sons’ picture and other papers that hold a lot more value than money itself. Here is my saga of one such “lost and found” that explains part of the title I used in today’s’ blog. Last week when I was at home, I had used the credit card from my wallet to charge it for a product that I bought over the phone. After that was done, I was about doing my other chores and went to the gym. When I went to the gym, I could not find my wallet to show my gym ID card. I got in OK though by using my home phone number (don’t use my home number at the gym, because my picture will come up anyways!) This incident raised a red flag for me and I knew I had to find my wallet and so the search began.

Desperate as I was, I was ransacking the whole place at home trying to find my wallet. I was running scenarios in my head trying to figure out what I should do in case I did not find my wallet. I was recollecting what I did after I used my credit card because that was the last time I saw my brown leather wallet. When I was at the verge of crying (I do cry!), my husband called out from the foyer of our house. “Honey, look!” I came running and wondering what happened now. Reason being - I love plants and have plants everywhere in my house and am very passionate about it. When a plant wilts or Yash breaks a branch accidentally, I freak out. So that was the reason for me to wonder what had happened. When I got to the foyer, I saw my wallet sitting on the handrails of the staircase, camouflaging itself with the color of the wood. So that is the story of “Lost and Found”.

So what does the other part of the title mean? Well, I was happy that I found my wallet. This week on Wednesday, I took my son to watch a movie in the theater. I paid for my tickets, watched the movie and after the movie was done, went to grocery shopping and Walla! There it happened again. When I was about to pay for the groceries at the checkout, I realized that I was the victim again. I left my groceries (of course, I didn’t have money to pay for it) and scurried back to the theater to look for my ‘lost’ wallet. (This is the second part of my title) The theater was packed with viewers for the next show and I searched even though it was amongst people sitting there but in vain.

It is very difficult to find what you loose in this world and if you are lucky enough you might find it sometimes. Hold on to what you value a little tighter; hold it closer to your heart, for you know not the pain when you actually lose it. Now for the magical ending; I did go back to the theater again that evening after the show was over and I searched (or rather ransacked the theater) and found my wallet. My happiness knew no bounds. I will be a bit more careful from now on and hold on to my valuables a bit tighter.

P.S. Do you think it was me who lost the wallet? Or maybe I did ;-)

As fast as fast can be

2007-04-04T13:54:00.000-04:00

During my summer vacation while I was at my school and college in India, I would go to Bangalore to visit my cousins. I lived in Chennai all my life and I would go to Bangalore to visit my relatives on a train. Going for vacation is exciting enough but having to go on a train added that flavor for excitement. Average time to get to Bangalore would take 6 hours and that time was filled with fun. Why so much fun going on a train? The train was a means to see the country side that we passed in the interim. We would see people, their houses, their ways of living, farming, and more so, whenever the train stopped at the stations, road side vendors would bring in their local fresh produce to sell like fresh fruits, vegetables and sometimes home cooked snacks.

One would say it is not good to eat snacks from roadside vendors. But there is nothing like trying out such items. People from India would vouch on eating Bhel and Pani Puri on roadside, especially tea and coffee served in plastics cups. They do serve meals and snacks on the train itself. There is one car that is allocated for pantry where fresh food is prepared and train crew would come to sell them to us. Whenever the train stopped at stations, we could get out stretching or buying eatables or magazines from vendor stalls. Average train stop would be 10 minutes and in that time, I would get out to make a phone call to my friends or pick up snacks. There have been times when the train would start moving while I was in the middle of buying something or making a call to my friends. I would rush from what I was doing and hop on the moving train in whichever car I could. Since the cars were all connected to each other, it was easy to go from one car to the other and eventually to my car where I had left my belongings.

These are the memories that I would add during my train travel. But with the fast moving phase of travel, I don’t know what adventures I might be able to gather. Recently, the French set a train speed record of 357.2 mph or 574.8 kph on train V150. It was like going on a plane but on ground. People in that train were saying that the French countryside outside was just a green blur. Going at such a great speed is indeed a marvel and an achievement for the human race and will surely cut down on the time between destinations but not at the verge of losing little experiences that you would gather on a regular trip.

As it is life is moving at a fast pace in this day and age and all we needed was a fast train to minimize the distance between two places. The distance between Chennai and Bangalore is about 300 km and if I am on this train, it would take me about half hour to reach my destination but will I be able to enjoy my countryside site see or have my snacks and food from local vendors? Will I be able to hop on a moving train? It is those little experiences that make my trip a lot better and fill it with fun and pleasure. Even today, I can sit around and recollect those moments and smile and I am not going to give away such pleasures sitting on a fast train. I want to slow down and enjoy life while it lasts.

Is it his triumph or mine?

2007-04-03T12:52:00.001-04:00

This past Saturday was a dream come true for me. I always had passion for Martial Arts and I grew up watching movies of Bruce Lee and movies like ‘Snake in the monkey’s shadow’ and the like. I always am mesmerized by the speed with which one can attack or self defend. Even though I did not have the opportunity to learn such an art, I was adamant about putting Yash, my son in one such class. After doing research on what schools and what martial art to put him in, as there are many schools teaching many styles, I landed upon a school in Centreville for Tae Kwon Do (TKD). I put Yash in that school three and a half years ago, when he was four and a half years old and this past Saturday, he tested for his black belt and is one now!

This past three years I took him to class three times a week in addition to him being in the demo team which met on Saturdays to practice. This team will perform in other schools and events as needed or requested. Taking him to his TKD class was like me going to the class myself. I used to drop him off at class and wait in the class watching Yash do his moves. I watched on instructors teaching him new techniques and forms and I used to spend my time learning the moves by watching. After class time, I would work with Yash at home and practice with him. For me, it was like comparing notes after a lecture is over in school. But what can I say; I am an ardent TKD lover. Even though I was not the one in class, every single class brought me new details.

There are times when Yash was tired or swamped with school work and other activities that he was involved in, that he would not feel up to it to go to the class. But my passion to the class was so much that I would force him to class as that was the only way for me to be in class to watch him and the instructors spar. This past three years has been like me going to the class and learning the art. When I came to know that he was ready for testing for black belt, I spent every day with my son practicing the forms, hand and leg techniques, board breaking techniques and sparring. We worked as a team in getting closer to our goal and getting the black belt.

On Saturday, we practiced everything and we were at the school by noon. The exam started at 12.30pm and ended at about 5pm. Those five hours was like being on a roller coaster ride. Everything he learned in those three years was tested in those five hours. There were spots that were rough and I would tell in my mind that it would all smooth out at the end. The instructors and his friends would boost his morale when he would be down with pain while trying to break his double boards (two boards together) or get hurt while sparring. Getting a black belt was just not Yash’s dream, but mine as well. We worked together in fulfilling this dream. It is true that the belt will have Yash’s name embroidered in Korean,(attached picture is just a sample, not Yash's belt - He will get his belt on April 14th during his black belt ceremony) saying that he is a first Dan in TKD but every time he wears his belt or asks me to tie it for him, I will always feel that I am the one wearing it on me and that I am a black belt. I am glad that I am seeing my dream come true even if it is through my son’s achievement.

March Marathon of Idiocy – Your pick?

2007-04-03T11:56:00.000-04:00

We are three months into this New Year (not new any more). Looking back at some of the incidents that happened in the month of March, I decided to write this blog. From the title you must have gotten an idea of where I am heading towards. Well, let me start off then.

Pick 1: A couple of weeks ago, there was this news where the curators at the Ohashi Collection Kan museum in Takayama, Japan had their popular item on display at the museum, only to their dismay that the item was stolen. It was a 220 pound (100 kilograms) gold bar that was worth $2 million. Many museums have many valuables on display and they let their visitors to touch and feel them, take photographs and such. All this is allowed, after the museum has added security to guard the item on display. But this museum which lost its gold block did not have any security and the thief in the disguise of a visitor took off with the gold block to make his fortune. I did not understand the motive of the curators in leaving that valuable block of gold unguarded and letting visitors touch and feel and eventually walk away with it. If any of you know of it, enlighten me.

Pick 2: Latest news in terms of air travel is that United began its opening flight non-stop to China, a couple of weeks ago. The flight takes about fourteen hours to China from Dulles and it is the first of its kind in being the first non-stop flight to China. So where does the idiocy part come in? Well, just to be a part of this historic moment, a small group of aviation buffs, took off for two days, jumped on the first flight from Dulles to China, sat for fourteen hours in the non-stop flight, only to catch the next flight back from China to Dulles for another fourteen hours. They did all this to be in the hall of fame of United to be the first fliers in the maiden flight to and from China. Aviation geeks will be geeks, no matter what.

Pick 3: A disgruntled soul from Canada made an attempt to cross the Niagara Falls to immigrate to the United States. The falls was affected by the cold weather and ice was formed on the surface leaving a walkable plane along the edge of the falls. Making use of this, a 42-year old man made an attempt to walk on this surface to cross the Niagara to get into the U.S. using an inflatable raft and an ice floe. His ice floe broke and he was crying out for help when he got rescued by the Authorities of the Falls. Despite how bad the situation is, who would make this crazy attempt of crossing the border on the edge of the Falls?

I can go on and on giving you all a list for the best pick of idiocy but this only iterates the fact for me that this world is heading towards a bizarre end. Instead of trying to beat and be in the hall of fame of United, maybe spend the money and time wisely to help someone out who is needy. I know walking the mile over the Niagara was only to better your life, but what if you had lost the life in the act? What is there to better than? We are all people and we will all pounce on every opportunity to become rich. We pick up the $20 bill we see on the road unclaimed. Do you think we will miss the opportunity of getting away with a 100 kg of gold unattended? Come on people, we can do better than this.

Watch what your kids eat

2007-03-30T12:23:00.000-04:00

Last year Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was involved in a study to determine if there was a link between ads for junk food and the increase in childhood obesity. With there initial findings, it has been stated that 40 percent of food commercials that are aired are for candy, snacks and fast foods. These ads are largely viewed by kids who are between the ages of 8 to 12 years. Kids in this age range are trying to be independent and it is important to understand what they are exposed to.

What FCC is going to do about these ads being aired is at their discretion. Maybe they will reduce the number of such ads being aired; maybe they will work on improving the quality of such ads, so the viewers are educated. I have never seen any ad for fruits, vegetables, meat or seafood that are nutritious and are much needed for the growing kids, except for that ‘got milk?’ ad. Maybe FCC will improve on airing such ads. Whatever step they take it will be for the benefit of growing kids; after all they are our future and you don’t want your future to be obese.

The whole issue on airing these ads in like a chain reaction. The ads are aired luring the kids to these junk foods. They ask their parents to buy them such foods and sometimes throw tantrums on food aisle while shopping with their parents. To avoid such embarrassing moments, parents become vulnerable to such tantrums and give in to the child’s plea. I know parents are the ones who control the final decision of whether to buy what the kids ask for or not, but sometimes you just give in for various reasons. Once in a while for kids to have what they want will make them happy and give them a sense of winning their requests battle.

But that in no means says that you just let kids get what they ask for all the time. We as a parent should have our stand as well. When I go shopping with my son, Yash who is 8 years old, I am strict about what he can get but at times, even without him asking (because he knows he is not going to get it anyways), I will pick up his favorite candy bar for him to munch on, on our way back from the store. Even stores have made candy-free checkout aisle for moms, so they can checkout and pay for their groceries without the kid asking or nagging for candies.

The idea behind FCC getting involved is to reduce junk food promoting ads and to improve food ads that have nutritious values. One can argue that removing these ads is not going to change anything. But the fact is kids ask for things that they see on T.V. where they spend their time watching their program of interest. Then you might say, ‘reduce the TV watching time or cut off TV completely and promote other physical activities.’ That’s not the point. Cutting TV and video game time is not the solution to the problem of reducing intake of junk foods. Such ads, may it be on TV or magazines that kids watch or read will only instigate them to try it out.

My son watches selective programs on Discovery channel or Animal planet or his channel that airs Sponge Bob or Captain Scarlet. But in the midst of these shows, the numbers of ads for junk foods and toys that are shown are numerous. Why can’t the program be ad-free? Even if FCC is able to get this to work (ad-free programs for kids), I would be very happy. Someone has to take that first step to start the race and I am glad FCC is working towards this.

Shunt – What is that?

2007-03-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

Ever been in a car crash? Absurd question! Well, let me rephrase. Ever been in a car accident? Some might say ‘yes’ and some ‘no’. I started driving while I was in India. I learned driving there and it was in a stick shift. Don't let the picture of Ferrari accompanying this blog fool you. That was not the car I used to learn my driving. It was an Ambassador car. I have had my share of faults while learning to drive and amongst them was when I was driving to a hotel and was waiting to make a right turn at an intersection where there was no traffic light (we drive on the left lane in India). I made the turn when I hit an oncoming car. The situation was taken care of by my teacher who was with me while I was driving and got into that mess.

After I came to the U.S., I had to relearn driving in a way because the car we had was an automatic and driving is on the right lane. It took a little bit of adjusting before I was accustomed to the ways of driving here. Eventually as time passed, I became a good driver. A couple of years after settling in the U.S. came the day when I got into an accident. I was driving on Fairfax county parkway one sunny afternoon in my Camry and I got a little carried away with my driving and made a bad turn and hit the railing, bounced back and made a 360+ degree spin and stopped facing the oncoming traffic. Luckily, I walked out without a scratch after all that happened. Of course, my insurance went up. From then on, I have been a very responsible driver and have a good driving record since then (keep fingers crossed all the time).

In relation to what I said above, the news of Comedian, Eddie Griffin crashing a rare Enzo Ferrari on a test drive on a race track surprised me. Why? He is not a racer, so why practice racing on a $1.5 million worth Enzo? That car belonged to the ‘Redline’ movie Executive producer, Mr. Sadek, who also happened to be a rare car collector. Why would he let Griffin practice racing in his car, even though it was for a charity race to promote his movie? I am sure; the car is insured in some way for this purpose. Without prior arrangements, I won’t let anyone drive my car to practice racing on a race track, even if it is a Ford Pinto. So why Mr. Sadek would let Griffin drive a rare Enzo without any arrangements. I am definite about the way Griffin would have felt while walking out of that crashed Enzo, without a scratch as I had much the same experience.

But I don’t know about how he would have felt about the damaged Enzo after the shunt. To those who don't know what a Shunt is - it is the racers lingo for car crash while racing. When I got into the wreck, I felt good that I walked out safely but was feeling bad about the car and the after effects of dealing with getting it fixed, dealing with the insurance going up and the lectures about responsibility from family and friends (that’s what they are for right?). Griffin has gotten the experience of having to learn racing on a race track in a rare Enzo and an ultimate thrill of shunting it too. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

P.S. After reading this blog, don’t estimate me to be a reckless driver or a person who would shunt a Ferrari or any car for that matter. I am a responsible driver and am living with a dream of owning a Ferrari. So I won’t crash my dreams that easily ;-)