Brown Motion

I suppose I could have titled the blog 'like a hog at a trough' but it would have taken away from the positive and uplifting message I wanted to convey. What I mean is having landed in India's steel city in its northeastern corner, a day ago with local flagship air carrier shenanigans to provide more blog material, I found myself (as expected) facing walls of humidity each time we stepped out of an air conditioned environment. A lot of said walking took place from a car to a market esp one that supplied an array of mishti aka sweet elixir in form of milk and dough and sugar based preparations. This method of sweating was what some in the states would pay big money for and call it a detox.  Whilst sweating I got to enjoy massive volume of Bengali mithai (local milk based sweet treats) at will.  Kala jamun for breakfast can do wonders to one's attitude towards life etc. Rashogulla for brunch adds to the sentiment. hence the prior reference to being at a troug

Post Mumbai our adventures took us by car on the new (err) Mumbai Pune expressway up the hill slope towards Pune. Way uphill is one way traffic and it has 3 lanes marked on it with 2 of the left ones allocated to heavy vehicles per posted signage. What we saw instead stirred my soul and something more. Since trucks took matters into their own hands all lanes heading to Pune were packed with noxious gas belching lumps that seemed to be suspended in slow motion. At times we did encounter a truck or two that had lost its will to ascend and has the driver on edge as it gives in to gravity and start slipping backward. Amidst this scenario our taxi driver decided that since he too had command of a wheel of a nimbler vehicle he would impress his visiting guests with driving skills not seen since Ford invented the concept. This included discovery of a new gap on far left side of the one way lanes (remember traffic in India drives on the left so the fastest lane is supposed to be the one

My trip to mera mahan Bharat began with blog worthy material from the get go.  My first encounter was with Mumbai - happened in the form of arrivals hall in T2 terminal.  Wow.  Mumbai needs this rather India needed this long while back but they hit a boundary (cricket term to mean home run) with this product. Not only is the physical facility well done and welcoming but the ease of doing your business was noteworthy.  Thrre is One way clear signage leaving the jetway to guide passangers towards immigration passing through a well laid out storyboard of murals depicting Mumbai's history and culture.  All the art can be enjoyed as you glide on working motorized beltways in air conditioned cool.  Even the hand sanitizer dispensing machine dispensed the needed dose to ultra paranoid visitors like myself. The service deserved a star rating as well.  Multiple immigration agents in uniform processed our arrivals within 15 minutes and we went through customs in another 15. The proces

When planning any trip one (depending on which one) can get caught up in the research leading up to the expedition.  That too is part of the journey (or the pre journey) and can be fun if you choose to make it so. To digress - this gives me an idea - the Zen mantra can be tweaked to say - enjoy the research - then the journey and not worry about your destination. Back to matter at hand - aka - the research for a trip.  With the advent of 24x7 blogs; trip advisors online are dime a dozen and like with any publicly sourced information the consumer needs to be aware of what it is they are consuming.  Some of the posted material may not qualify as information but merely a person's opinion and hilarious at that. So whilst consuming content recently around making reservations for a five star dinner establishment in India we got bounced around multiple times since the person taking the reservations seemed to not have a set schedule.  The access to this person was through a switch bo

When you visit a foreign land there are traditions and customs native to the people that may seem different from where you come from.  Many develop over time, as a result of the choices available to the public and a need to simplify and codify standards that would be most efficient.  Used to be when smoking was still fashionable and some restaurants or hotels would ask if you preferred 'smoking' or 'non'; same with food being served as Veg or Non Veg (specifically in India). Here are a sampling of what I have encountered in the good ole USA - Paper or Plastic - largely the phrase used by retail baggers (or cashiers) not so much for the form of payment tender (although it could apply in that case) 'For here' or 'To go'  - Generally reserved for fast food purveyors this phrase used by your cashier tells them to pack your meal in a bag for the road or serve it on a tray to eat in house Ice or No Ice - Most dining establishments will ask for your pref

Rich people have many ways to show off.  This one involves parading a winning sports franchise /team down the street of their hometown after winning the trophy in their respective sport. As in the case of the Warriors team taking the NBA championship this year. This pro basketball team is based in Oakland CA.  So the city after inviting the team back from Cleveland where they went to win and bring the trophy and respective big money prizes is hosting a parade. Said parade is at the expense of tax payer money - which the city does not have - Oakland appears broke given the state of disrepair, yet somehow happens to find money to pay for floats, police overtime, sweeping the streets after the party et al. The believers (a self defined term for the fan base) or the faithful (to the sport - which happens to epitomize capitalism where every player is traded for the most money) spend additional gobs of money - money they do not have and might be close to a foreclosure themselves - on p

Aka generation gap.  I refer to the natural evolution of the species and why some feel that they ought to be clued in to the latest and greatest.  In fact the use of the words 'latest and greatest' speaks to the fallacy.  What is latest is mostly not the greatest.  Sometimes it is just short lived.  It is foolish.  Most people attach and associate with ideas that become self fulfilling prophecies and show high adoption and acceptance.  Just because a billion people are doing something does not make it a must have or 'you are doomed if you do not' situation. Most people though don't like to overthink instead relying on their peers to make decisions and follow.  It is also helpful to be accepted in social circles.  Commenting on pithy remarks on websites and liking others for every fart has started becoming the currency to trade favors. There is also the culture of wanting to be 'in the know' and be 'out there'.  Estelle Costanza (for those that

Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become graduates . The procedures and traditions surrounding academic graduation ceremonies differ around the world. Whereas in most countries a graduation usually only occurs at university level, in the United States graduations often occur at high schools where no higher education qualifications are conferred upon the graduates . In a graduation ceremony the students dress up in special graduation caps and clothing that are made just for this purpose. So it was last week where all across America students graduated from kindergarten all the way to college.  As with word usage and ceremony the local culture plays a key role in what defines a term.  America is well known for capitalizing on any idea and milking it even if it is a bull (pun intended). Take graduation for example. I literally saw small children the size of a gnome holding their lig

Since Costanza famously converted to Latvian Orthodox I have always found the subject fascinating. In America there are daily examples of conversions.. Most prominent use of the term is in sports esp football which is its own religion in the states.  Then there is alcohol or the precursor to alcohol like barley or malt or fruits that convert to a more enjoyable format through conversion. Then we get into the more 'in the news' type of conversions - Man into woman Woman into man Black into white White into black For those that cannot decide they have their own groups and the constitution protects them all. For one it has converted me from being aware to being confused is all.

One of our expat desi acquaintances recently chimed on his Facebook page.  His picture showed a predictable collection of desi dudes in a park in what used to be largely Caucasian community a decade ago. His comment while intended to state the obvious was exactly opposite.  Here he was a foreigner if that is even remotely logical a statement given the whole country is an immigrant haven.  His perspective /ignorance later was unfortunately shared by a whole clan of semi witted sycophants that typically seem to laud any of his inane comments. Facebook gives rise to a lot of this type of rambling being propagated at large with folks making silly comments that get broadcast and retweeted and approved or liked because people in general seem to not have anything better to do and use this digital platform in lieu of hanging out at a local nukkad chewing pan. So this blog just proves the point.

My daughter and I take walks in the park in the mornings if I can manage to convince my old tired body to do the needful.  The daughter being young and full of zest for life is banging the door down. So we go.  Once I get going it feels relaxing and the body thanks me for a better nights sleep the following evening.  Now my entire exercise regimen is based on ensuring I get to walk couple miles a day - between work and home and points between, That I have decided is kasrat (exercise) enough.  The readership might remember my surprise in an earlier blog when I saw a native of southern India running along the neighborhood streets bare foot along with an appa flock or whatever a  collection of  Andhra males can be called.  This to prepare for a marathon run, was the answer to my curiosity. When they ran they also breathed in funny.   Sucking air in big gulps in a staccato manner. I am sure the lungs demand lot more of the O2 than if you had to walk.  Then again I would not walk an a

It got hot finally in inland valleys of the bay area.  It is early June so says the calendar.  After what seemed like a storm was brewing one evening and temps dropped into the low 50s (F) the Nino or Nina gods suddenly woke up and decided it was time to crank the heat in Northern California. So much so that the Sunday ended at 100 F on the nose.  As part of the weekend frivolities we were asked to join a neighbor for some chow in the evening and shoot the proverbial what not - we both were at hello before and we agreed we could move to the next level of being acquainted. So in the course of the acquainting the neighbor a smart chap with variety of interests ranging from sports to photography to travel for satisfying curiosity, to raising fine kids offered me a beverage that I was not familiar with. It is called a Shandy - which is defined as a beer to which another fruity concoction is added - in this case it was fizzy lemonade.  The beer (chilled) itself was a wheat beer and th

My blogging hit a milestone - 13,000 views to date - I know I will be the first to say its another meaningless number but I am the one doing the writing so I am allowed to make exceptions. So then why I write is not because there are readers as much as it helps to get feedback from the blogosphere on how they perceive the commentaries, but to satisfy an innate need to vent, pontificate without repercussions, or simply to ensure that my brain is still coherent enough to articulate thoughts. As I write this blog, coincidentally I finished reading one of Andy Rooney's last books titled 'Out of My Mind'.  Master of puns and astute observer of the human condition he ranks amongst one of my favorite writers.  In the preface he wrote - "How much do I have to say that anyone cares about reading?   If you write for a living you have to put modesty out of your mind.  One thing I know is, that you can make an essay out  of anything.   There are times when I have written on

What the dickens?  As I troll the internet to plan my upcoming adventure in the Indian sub-continent I am flummoxed by the reality of trying to book travel arrangements in stark contrast to the advertised ease of doing business enabled by the so called IT revolution (that has apparently revolved the country in to a new orbit). I suspect the revolution went full circle (or 360 deg to the trigo minded) and not much changed except now my local telecom company found a call center in Ghaziabad with weirdos that accent their original name of Santosh to Steven and cannot answer any question in a meaningful manner. Take the case of booking airline tickets for domestic travel.  After entrusting personal data to the gods behind the screen I was about to make the payment when I found that my US issued Visa was not acceptable to the vendor.  No explanation online - just a strange message indicating that transaction is unable to be processed (after momentarily showing a screen saying my payment

I stumbled on an interview with the film producer Brian Grazer.   He is very noticeable in a crowd I would assume with his gelled pointy hair style and lean face that appears curious. The book (A curious mind) is his journey through the last few decades of him being CURIOUS. I agree with his basic premise in that not too many of us retain our early stage curiosity as we age.  That I feel is our biggest loss.  With our fancy degrees and high faluting job titles and chasing other material accouterments we tend to lose sight of what really matters. It was someone's curiosity and the need to ask WHY or HOW  that got us to where we are from where we had been.  From travel by car to flight and from reading books to having the world in your pocket a la smart phones curiosity has paved the way to make new ideas fruition.  It also helped Heinz develop a ketchup bottle that stands upside down and let out enough with a simple squeeze. His book partly reads like a memoir wherein he nar