Solo in the woods

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

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.