Brown Motion

There are weekends when the only sensible thing to do is binge.  Both with food and movies.  We did just that.  The weather outside was dense with soot from fires burning north of us.  No point in being out.  Other than to get some movies and food and hibernate.  Or technically estivate.  People often confuse these terms.  The going to ground during hot spells is Estivate.  Got that? Now - we watched a bunch of films over the two days and I must say the hit rate of decent to great was high.  Some were Swedish in origin.  Some were regular Hollywood. Of the west coast product one stood out called 'Norman'.  It was a disc I picked up after looking at the cast.  I could make out one name - Richard Gere.  Talk about using star power to move merchandise.  This did it.  And it was actually quite entertaining.  Director is Israeli guy that I have never heard of.  Cast is partly Israeli as well and that is good because big part of the story revolves around a lot of Jews and their

Many might wonder what the title means.  I will attempt to explain.  It helps if you understand some Indian lingo and also if you are born Indian.  It makes understanding this narrative much much easier than say if you were born in San Luis Obispo (SLO) and had never ventured out.  The latter might slow your understanding. But let us pretend we are on the happy path and that I as the writer will make some adjustments to ensure I share more than is required to let the SLO population follow along. We visited an Udipi food joint in Sunnyvale.  Udipi is a region of South India known for its rice based food products.  These products are consumed from morning to night as a snack or a meal.  What adds to the flavor is the accompaniments much like the orchestra to a lead singer or for the ball crazy single tracks, the other Warriors to Stef's three pointers. These food accompaniments are a lentil and spice based curry (with a soup like consistency) called Sambar as well as a whole

It has been one fantastic Swedish movie after another.  In this case the title is actually the opening scene of the film. It describes a 100 year old man called Allan in an old person home who decides to abscond from his own birthday party.  What happens after he manages to exit from the window of his nursing home is the subject of this weird tale. His encounters take him literally and figuratively on a voyage beyond imagination in which he meets and dines and dances with luminaries and dignitaries and blows up things along the way. One explosion leads to another and interspersed in it are a whole bunch of people screaming.  It is hilarious in its narrative and the outrageous scenes that unfold somehow keeps the viewer glued to accept it all as if it is entirely possible. Written and directed by Swedes it is the second gem of a film since I saw the one titled 'A man called Ove'. As with Ove this film too is being planned for a Hollywood version release starring Wil

Hollywood is already salivating.  Could they rope in Tom Hanks to play some part perhaps.   Which studio gets the sole rights?  So on and on.  This after what the media has dubbed 'heroic rescue' by a team of international divers to save a dozen unknown Thai teenagers from a swampy cave in this SE Asian Buddhist country. Why the fascination with someone who made poor decisions?  Of all places how come a story in remote Thailand garnered the attention of everyone from CNN to Elon Musk?  Ironically a large ferry carrying passengers in Thailand sank around the same time, not far from shore and killed dozens.  No one knows the name of a single dead. I guess the answer came in the form of a coincidence.  I was recently e-reading.  Whoa.  Yes my readership knows that I am a paper version reader.  But now with laziness has come some change.  I discovered an e-book on Behavioral Economics at my local (online) library.  This one is written by professor Richard Thaler and titled -

Not a chance.  I mean honestly the picture that these PSA cards show is not at all like the person that finally is discovered. In most cases they wander back home or are simply gone for a reason and not wanting to come back.  Foul play is also admittedly a portion of the missing folk but it is sheer optimism when someone says to look for a face that is grainy on bad quality paper and put out in third class mail. In India there was a similar effort that was handled through the state owned television channel.  There was only one channel so you could be rudely interrupted on the state's choosing.  Between the evening prime time news and an action soap opera there was for example a local language announcement episode that read - Aapan Yanna Pahilat Kaa?  Translation - Have you seen any of these? These happened to be a collection of beings that had ostensibly disappeared.  The interested families and local police were seeking the public's help in finding them.  When this outr

Us humans have more than foibles.  We have major issues.  As a species we love to do certain things over and over again.  Those being Give (unsolicited) advice Interfere (where not needed - really when is it ever needed?) Gossip You get the idea. I thought I would expand on this interfering business.  After all the geo-political axis itself seems to be wobbling under the last six months of testimonies (wonder where all that money goes?  testy or otherwise) and special counsels and handshakes and footballs. The idea of interfering where one would be careful to tread has been with us before even prostitution became a thing.  David interfered in the battle between the Israelis and Philistines when he could have gone on to a life of feeding goats.  India's own Mahabharata is littered with tales of kings interfering along with their multitude of queens who were busy interfering on their own volition.  Funny thing is the entire Ramayana would not have happened if it

The local library yielded yet another golden find.  This is a Swedish production from a Swedish director with lead roles by Swedish actors. A story about a grumpy old man called Ove, who has given up on life.  Perhaps a story about procrastinating death.  Or being completely bad at killing oneself? Regardless it is a dark comedy that completely captures you and makes you root for this stubborn and nasty human being.  I see myself exhibiting many a characteristics of this aged and frustrated man who is the protagonist of the film.  To him the world is full of idiots.  Amen. It is the story of a man who grows up singularly focused on doing the right thing, a cultural legacy I think while saying very little.  The movie weaves the viewer through the life of this once young kid who grows up stoic facing many a challenge, losing his parents relatively young age.  He goes on to meet a woman that captures his heart on a train.  Eventually marrying and having a wonderful life traveling

Weight loss remains an abstract idea in my mind.  Not entirely sure if I am going to or could make any sort of concerted effort towards it.  Food is top of mind.  Curiosity about all aspects of food seems to be a driving force that I cannot control. On the flip side of all that enjoyment through nourishment came a couple of sad losses this year.  First the world lost Anthony Bourdain.  With his irreverent wit and hunger to discover worlds we only knew on a map in the atlas, he brought an unfamiliar landscape close to home.  He took his own life in France. This week we lost another curious mind.  Jonathan Gold.  A favorite LA area food writer (not critic although his Pulitzer will make you believe otherwise) and consummate gourmand.  His navigating the Los Angeles food scene was provocative (the Beyonce and taco comparison) and informative and I benefited from his discoveries when I went and tried the food.  Especially on Pico Street. Those to me were picoseconds spent well.

What does that mean?  I refer to the arcane world of currency conversion.  Today an American Dollar can be exchanged at a bank for a princely sum of 69 Indian Rupees.  This within a short 10 year span where the Rupee saw itself drop like a stone against the American fiat.   Never mind India had its share of Fiats (but they were from Italy and not very good). Frankly it is all made up.  If you turned the clock way back to the spring of 1792 you would have found that an American Dollar was worth 24 grams of pure silver.  Now why someone would care to carry around pure silver is worth debating but back then people killed each other for that metal. In today's terms where silver trades for around $15 per 24 grams one would be correct to say that the inherent value of the USD has depreciated itself by 15 x. How and why this happens is very confusing and the rules and regs that govern all this are set by very powerful people who get to decide how the world should operate.  Much

Curiosity and Imagination.  Two invaluable gifts given to mankind that make us human.  Some of us have more of one or the other while some are gifted with both in abundance.   But regardless it is what separates us from the other species that inhabit this planet.   That and the idea to not decline money when offered to us. Two separate events led me to pen this.  First was a movie I watched called 'The Magic of Belle Isle'.  The protagonist is a handicapped drunk played by Morgan Freeman.  One time award winning author turns to the bottle after his life is completely shattered by an accident. He meets a young girl full of curiosity and chutzpah on a retreat by the lake.  While helping her understand the meaning of the word 'imagination' and write her own stories he turns a corner and finds new meaning to his life. The other thought was really a combination of two books I read.  One was a while ago written by a Hollywood film producer called Brian Grazer and i

Telugu is the lingua franca in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh or AP.  Rather what was the former AP has now split into two states in the union that is India.  One retains the Andhra moniker and the other is called Telangana.  Water and economic rights are at the root of the split by some account but I am no expert in the goings on over there. That said Telugu as a language is foreign to me but am being driven to learn some words for the sake of the most basic of needs to be met.  Food.  As the readership is aware food is more than nourishment to me.  It is one of my primary reasons to exist.  To sample and if it suits me to consume in large quantities the dishes of a region.  Daily staples aka dinner is always a question mark for the best half since she manages that operation for the sake of the family.  If she has the time and energy we eat well since she cranks out a variety of Indian curry based meals.   But in the absence of the 'time' commodity we like

Age being what it is I cannot remember if I wrote about how I felt or thought after watching the below cinematic productions from Hollywood.  But given it is my blog I can regurgitate at will.  So here goes. This summer the local public library yielded some good movies to watch.  It was more fun watching some of them with the child who is now 16. Lady Bird - this is a movie directed in a debut attempt by Greta Gerwig of Sacramento, CA.  It is a semi autobiographical feature showcasing a complex and turbulent relationship between mother and coming of age daughter.  Lively and with an amazing supporting cast this film keeps you engaged till the end which occurs sort of abruptly.  Good watch. Quote from this film - A sister in the catholic school admonishing the students at prom dance - "six inches for the holy spirit" (as they embrace a little too close) 20th century women - a film starring the amazing Annette Bening it is a mother son relationship drama.  With l

Austin is the capital of the state of Texas.  A very large state.  In the deep south of America.  Also known as the Lone Star state.  Over time Texas has been owned and ruled by Spain, France then Mexico until it gained republic status and hence the one star.  Eventually it became annexed to the United States in mid 19th century. Austin is the second largest city and diverse in terms of people and its employment.  Aside from the state government running the employer shop there are many technology centric companies taking their HQ there to get tax benefits. Tourism is also big and a younger demographic arrives each year to attend a vast University of Texas campus in the city.   Our kid attended a speech camp where folks with degrees in communication taught high schoolers the fine art of writing and speaking.  More like provided advanced strategy and technique.   The weather this time of year is not pleasant but we managed to make the most of it.   Me as a visitor to pick up the

You can shop for anything in America.  Even pretend shop.  The fancy way to describe this activity is window shopping.  So with not much happening during our staycation this weekend we decided to see what was in the market by way of new abodes.  As in homes.  We drove into a new community being built in the hills of east bay not far from home.  The signage promised seclusion and exclusivity.  Typically precursor for a large price tag with not much by way of conveniences. The sales office was not quite open at five minutes to 11 but a blonde approaching sixty opened the door for us and asked that we step in.  So far so good.  Then she started her line of questioning.  Where are you from?  What sort of product are you looking for?  Or are you here to get decoration ideas?  Whoa! She simply tripped multiple wires right there and would likely not be good at her job - if I was her boss I would get rid of her immediately.  You are trying to move drywall worth $1.5M and up and you

Human. Facetious you say?  Hardly.  The San Francisco Mayor and newly elected at that admits she ain't seen so much shit.   Literally. Not to mention the political BS that brought the city to this state.  This post prandial and literal accumulation in a once upon a time gold rush town has turned into a golden poopalooza for the world to see. I myself encountered this residue from someone's bladder walking into our offices in a tony neighborhood in the city.  So gentry or not its one big toilet for all. SF needs to have woken up long ago and not wait for the mayoral reaction to this epidemic.  I guess the irony is that it is now starting to look like Mumbai - which until now could be contending for the shit capital of the world.... blocks from some of the priciest real estate.  But on both counts I want to bestow the title on the city by the bay. All those apps and not one for that?  Where are all those people who code? Time to clean up?

Well not exactly an ode.  But some prose.  This after the enjoyment of a singular delicacy this Sunday morning.  The bagel. Make that complemented with cream cheese and masala chai.  Here you have a true international cuisine melange consisting of Indian and Polish Jewish cultures. The bagel - a ring shaped food that is first boiled then baked and perhaps the only one of its kind that was unfamiliar to my Indian upbringing until the summer of 1996 in Michigan when I was first introduced to it.  In the Detroit suburb that we called home about 20 miles from the third largest Polish community outside of Poland we found their native food.  It was an acquired taste.  After all the taste is hard to appreciate when at first bite you are worrying about the mandibular exercise it takes to consume said item. The Poles came in droves during the early 20th century to the Detroit surroundings to work in car factories after the Dodge brothers cranked out hardware for Ford and Chrysler.  They

It is hard to romanticize an off the highway farmland the same way one might say Paris.  Or London.  But since I am in closer proximity to a once only dusty and now being gentrified part of the bay area I thought of visiting and penning my observations of the same. This is the town of Livermore.  To some it may be known as the home to a DoD project called Lawrence Livermore Labs or LLL a large federal employer in the area.  Otherwise some farmers a while ago cultivated and tilled the land to grow a certain varietal of grape and it became the Livermore wine region.  Not my poison but that did not deter the best half and self from taking an evening drive in to the town. We parked and strolled.  It was a magnificent summer evening.  Temps had started to drop with the star, our sun making a beeline for the western horizon.  Here are some glimpses of the area on the stroll...

It is fascinating to experience different people's background and belief system in person if one can.  We enjoyed such an experience right here in the bay area today.  We went and attended a prayer service for the Sikh religion followed by a community lunch served by volunteers at the attached kitchen to the main prayer hall. This place of worship for the Sikh community is called a Gurdwara or literally the gateway to the master or leader (guru).  The SF bay area has quite a few around which is a testament to the Sikh diaspora in this area.  Many thousands have migrated from their native Punjab over the last five decades and made this area home. They have since married in caste and inter caste and have a diverse population scattered across the region.  We were able to visit this weekend and witness a lot of social and religious events within an hour.  On first impression the location appears very calming situated on about 100 acres of the east bay hills.  Just as y

Over the four-ish decades I have graced this planet I have seen my share of hardware, services and human philosophy disappear or get close to extinction.  Below in no particular order are some examples - Sewing machines and the tailor shop that housed them Fountain pens Ball point pen refills Log tables Stand alone PND (personal navigation devices) or GPS (bad slang for said devices) Stand alone digital cameras Polaroid cameras VHS tape recorders and players and cameras Blockbuster (a movie rental business) CDs - new and recorded (for audio and music) Borders (the book store) Toys R Us  (were us) Circuit City (electronics store) Cobblers (although some shoe shine stalls still prevail at railway and bus stations) Filament bulbs Rotary dial phones Public Phones (that operated using a quarter) Flip phones Home phone line (people are disconnecting the copper wire to the house entirely) Morality Apparently vinyl records are making a comeback.  Wonder what the w

The title at first glance might seem suggestive of something lurid perhaps if you have a fertile mind like mine.  Phonetically rhyming ideas like a nubile Kate Winslet on a big ship on open ocean come to mind but it is much more intriguing than that.  I recently in my early morning navigation of the WWW stumbled on this.  A dude make that a famous maestro of classical music from India playing Carnatic music on the Saxophone.  Hence the title. To put all this in context - a brief primer on the Saxophone.  Invented by a Belgian fella called Adolphe Sax it is a wind instrument made popular in the early 20th century by the birth of jazz music.  While the Sax as the saxophone came to be referred in shorthand is largely associated with big brass bands and the music of the south it has found several artistic interpretations and use in other genres such as Carnatic. A quick primer on Carnatic - it is the classical music of south India (result of a vague boundary) as opposed to Hindusta

Followed by piano music.   Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'.  Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac.  Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'.  Well I will be damned.  I thought  I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but  I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer service number and expectin

In English there is a wonderful expression - Clutching at Straws. This phrase is used to describe a situation when the clutchee is at the end of their rope (another curious expression where no rope is actually involved) in terms of their options.  This is the case with the tree hugging crowd.  These self absorbed clowns try to find some item to draw attention to themselves so that they could be in the spotlight outside of the usual suspects getting all the air time. One might be familiar with my similar expose (pronounced Ex-Po-Zay) a few years ago when I ranted about the banning of plastic carry bags at my local grocer.  Apparently the Oregon Salmon was choking on it and I proved mathematically that it was fake news. This time the wrath of the anti plastic lobby is toward the last tube standing aka the plastic straws used by fast food establishments to let their consumers slurp their oversized sugary drinks.  C'mon really? I say if someone wants to suck in their poiso

Every day you hear of some stupendous amount being paid at auction for what is apparently a collectible.   The mad dash from avid collectors to get their hands on it drives the price to stratospheric levels. Therefore I have compiled a list of items I too am in possession of that I would like to post publicly via this blog to attract the attention of the collective crowds. Please respond directly in the comments section if your medulla decides to exhibit interest in the below- My breath when my rental car reached a max cruising speed of 130 miles per hour on my very first rental in America.  This breath was captured in the cool hills of Hawaii and has been in my possession ever since.  It is aged over 20 years so the vintage alone could fetch a premium. A black shoe lace made in India and never used.  It was designed for the left shoe but one with some ingenuity could possibly use on either shoe.  It also retains the manufacturer label on it. Well pressed hand kerchiefs. 

It is July 4 in 2018.  All cities around the bay as in most America are promising fireworks as the sun sets.  Parades in local communities showcasing the local heroes and cultural highlights were had earlier in the day. Barbeque grills firing up, cocktails and beer flowing freely in backyards would be the most common scene you'd see if you took a hot air balloon ride over suburbia aka Anytown, USA. The wife and I (the kid is away at camp out of state) were just two old fogeys who decided to go stroll in the city by the bay.  Now mind you in the past 15 years of being resident of the bay area and having visited San Francisco consistently for all that time it has become my opinion that this city has become a toilet.  Literally.   People like in Mumbai take a dump pretty much anywhere there heart or rather their bladder desires.  Homelessness and the ills that come with it are rampant. No that is a commode at a (MUNI) bus stop.  Not entirely sure if it is a prank or a n

We spent a week wandering the desert.  As in the south western corner of America.  In the early part of summer.  A trip to the states of Arizona and Texas.  Primarily to transport the offspring on some educational activity in the form of camps organized at two different universities. This is what American high school is all about now.  Kids that want to explore opportunity need to start earlier and earlier.  Soon a newborn will be given an embedded chip and they will start tracking its overall growth remotely so a college can send messages to their brain as they learn to slurp Cheerios. Anyway outside of the inevitable let me pen a few observations and post some pics. First stop was Tucson in the state of Arizona.  Tucson is a satellite city to the larger capital city of Phoenix about 100 miles to the north.  So we flew into PHX and drove south.  It is over an hour by road - you follow the interstate which technically is the I -10 (in America highways that run east west are e