Brown Motion

To an Indian ia lifestyle choice is to broadcast unsolicited advice to others.  No matter what the venue or the occasion the average Indian whether from the north or south will unabashedly dole out his perspective, recommendations and critique regardless of decorum. What decorum? This advice takes the form of hilarious to foul language or yelling from roof tops or streets to putting up signs to admonish any random reader of said signs. One such appears in a local Shiva Vishnu temple of the bay area.  The attendees (aka devotees if you asked them what they would prefer to be called), at said site which is a sprawling campus by the way, tend to park their vehicles and wander in with shoes which are left in myriad locations around the perimeter of the temple.  Since the Indian tradition advises removal of dirty footwear outside God's home these accouterments get left behind like a trail of bread crumbs from the parking lot all the way to the very threshold of the l...

Recent news about private sector investments (SpaceX et al) and expeditions in the exploration or visitation of space - that beyond earthly matter - got me thinking.  Uh Oh! I know.  It is far out - the thinking I mean.  I was chatting (postprandial) with a friend of mine who is from an Asian gene pool with a spouse who arose out of the Caucasian branch of the sapiens tree.  He is atheist and the wife Catholic. The subject started out about what makes an animal a pet - why I did not see as many people walking their rooster as say people walking dogs - for that matter I had also not seen a cat on a leash.  Strange I tell you.  This conversation somehow morphed into what one (pet owner) does after the said entity (pet) is deceased.  As in its remains.  He opined that said remains usually are cremated.  Some bury them in special cemeteries.  From there we moved on to our species and on inquiring I learned that his side of the family ha...

We love to eat out.  What with global cuisine at our doorstep and a general need to conserve time to do meaningless things like writing blogs and taking walks. So with a hankering for Udupi food we ventured to our usual desi adda (Indian food joint) in the neighborhood.  With restaurant names that evoke the lords worshipped by natives of Southern India it is unlikely for an American wanting to explore Indian cuisine to identify with but I suspect the desi diaspora volumes still provide a sound economic base to function. The physical facility is quite interesting too. It used to be an Italian restaurant with a stucco finish and long hallways intersecting each other at right angles with large glass pane windows to look in at what other people are eating.  It is now remodeled sparingly as an establishment to serve south Indian food. The name plate has just been installed taking away the plastic sheet signage that was a placeholder.  The moment you  wade throu...