Look up and you will find the answer

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?

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

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

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?

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

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?

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

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

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.