Brown Motion

There are many things we think we know. We have theories and postulates and fact and fiction. There is belief and faith and hope and a prayer. And then there is the unthinkable. Unbelievable. Like the rape of young women amidst the society we live in. Children wiped out with gunfire that comes from a weapon we created. Immense tragedies that are done in the name of religion, faith, beliefs, chemically induced fantasia or extreme circumstance. What is that? Unknown Unknowns is how I would like to qualify these. We are good at labeling. Genocides, homicides, suicides, degrees of manslaughter (even if the perp is a woman), infanticides, pesticides, his side, my side and so on. Then there are the hazards - fire, flood, poison, moral and other intangible kinds. Yet events happen with increasing frequency that baffle even the most astute amongst us. We as a species continue to surprise ourselves daily. I mean look at - for example we are still around when a civilization thou

Ever heard a guy that just came off a boat (or airship) from the south of India ask a question? As an example - Waat is the time wrrite nau? I think it butchers the language entirely as the words leave the mouth of this individual who has honed his diction and accents in the deep south. To many on the American shores too its a strange sound and does not elicit much reaction let alone admiration or swooning by the recipient of the inquiry? Now imagine that same question asked as - Wat eese de tyeme hier? Perhaps from a native of Sicily that came on the same conveyance. Perhaps its an Alitalia flight making its way from Mumbai to Roma to JFK. This time depending on the sex and cultural makeup of the native who gets asked this question there is a certain feeling of being charmed that exudes with the response. Oh how I like your accent - why its 2 o clock. The actual time has nothing to do with the feeling of being charmed as much as a fantasy that everything Italian or southern E

This year was no different in many respects in that it introduced me to whole host of new events and places along with interactions with people from various ethnic and cultural and financial backgrounds. It is indeed amazing to witness all this diversity and feel lucky to live without facing severe hardship as I once did. Here is a quick summary of things I remember and people I met.. A chance encounter with a native of Kurdistan one day in San Francisco was interesting as it told of the human spirit and ingenuity in face of decades of war. This person happened to trade in heavy earth moving equipment sales from San Diego to his native region in war torn Iraq. He explained that his culture strongly believed that they have their own place although it's viewed as Iraq by the rest of the world. Then there was the hour long chat with the descendant of Royalty that ruled the islands of Hawaii a century ago. This on public transit that I was riding with a grandmother heading home

This morning I am thinking of how we deal with available information that bombards us in petabytes on a daily basis and how we have to make sense of it all for ourselves and for our children. This from a semi avid blogger who contributes in kilos to the petas. What got me thinking was an off hand remark from an acquaintance recently. When asked if he had heard about a recent large scale, headline item, power outage in India he remarked that he did not pay much attention to the news - in fact he did NOT listen to them as a rule. That got me thinking. Was he serious or delusional or somehow had more sense than most of us walking around? Recent tragedies including the one in Connecticut just yesterday which had our president step out and say 'Our Hearts Are Broken Today' was headline news. Whether that is something you can ignore or take in stride and move on is what I am trying to determine. For all its achievements humanity stuns us yet again. Media plays an important r

I cannot believe the jargon that spews out of the variety of mouths occupying space on this planet. Not only do they occupy and then highlight it as such but they also contribute dramatically to the issue of global warming. If they all kept quiet I think Antarctic penguins might continue to have a home? Perhaps more people could at some point move to Iceland? Getting back to jargon - enough has not been said about the notion of SAME SEX marriages - make that marriages in general. I mean first it was the quintessential question from the uninformed to any Indian that showed up with a spouse on American shores - Was your marriage arranged? Now how to answer this loaded one depends on your mindset. I for one chose to go the route of - It was certainly not Disarranged. Whatever that informs the questioner is left to the intellect of the questioner - not my problem. Then we move onto the more arcane world of SAME SEX. First of all the notion of sex in a marriage is so vague and

Used to be that 'Genie in a Bottle' was a billboard hit. Now an incarnation of 'Eat Shit' or 'Coffee in the Poop' baby is somewhat indirectly top of the charts. As in coffee extracted from the poop of certain wild mammals - it appears is THE ELIXIR to have. How did the coffee bean get in the poop in the first place. You feed said animal said beans. From civets to elephants, coffee consumption is on the rise since the humans it seems are weaning off and resorting to Tea. Someone came up with the idea to stop the trend reversal (guess who?) and encourage the idiotic human race to try a new idea. Turd 'o' matic range of coffee makers is now soon hitting store shelves from Bangkok to Burundi to Baton Rouge and everywhere in between. Special manufacturing instructions will be shipped with each personally engraved stinking pot for the true connoisseur. Each comes with 20 servings of beans. The most exclusive collection will feature the actual turds s

At the outset I will confirm that this write up will piss a whole bunch of people off but then again that is the added pleasure of writing my own blog. So all the stupid surveys as surveys go now show that half the kids want an iPad for Christmas while 40% (littler) kids want an ipad mini. Not sure what defines a kid these days either so the whole survey is suspect. Regardless what I wish for said kids would be two tight slaps, same for the kid looking to get u-verse tv or a newest pair of $300 Nike shoes. Then there is more to share with us losers that have nothing better to do than watch our daily dose of news. Kate is about to deliver something. William is considered the co conspirator and the promise of dumping more princess or princesses on this planet will soon be fulfilled. Royal 'pain' I tell you. At least Kate agrees for the time being. As for Christmas I also wish for news devoid of any reference to royal shenanigans as well as how much rain we are going to g

I like some things cooked and some raw. Most foods are better off cooked in some way or the other. Some are delicious raw. Like Watermelons. I think the same applies to Video of an event, specifically a news event. That which is supposed to show the action as it unravels. Media outlets make a big deal when they show RAW VIDEO ... since we know what obviously is shown all the time to the awed public is COOKED. Also on that subject there is always a lot of 'footage' of a particular juicy disaster or a not so epic rain shower, never any 'handage'. Wonder why? I would think that the camera shooting the said video is artistically held in the hands of the holder thence handage would seem apropo but no. Aside from documentation of such travails I now turn my attention to the subject of cooking. Auditors of large and small businesses are supposed to check if a company has cooked its books so to speak. They want to see raw data and draw their conclusions. These dr

American newscasts are made up of a lot of nothing including redundant and meaningless weather forecasts. I personally think they are used to showcase some apparently up and coming talent in the form of the female variety of our species that dress up and perhaps find other job opportunities on bigger screens later. Some are worthy of a second look - a random poll confirms that indeed it is their presence and not that of the threatening clouds or thunder that attracts viewership which sells all the more meaningless advertising (But Wait!). I mean seriously do you need another coffee maker or a knife or an address to a salon? Look out and you will see one. There are more of each than green trees in all of California by now. But getting back to my fave subject of weather related news. A gimmick often used by these idiots involves the use of the term Hi Def Doppler. First of all a newsflash - everyone has one so quit yamming about it. You yam when you are being different not when