When I was growing up in India I remember being gifted an odd piece of cloth by an older relative. That oft came with instructions to use it as a input for what would become a shirt or trouser. Thus the onus to convert raw material to finished good was left on the giftee. The giftor merely showed up with a certain rectangle of their choosing in terms of color or fabric and divined that the gifted gleefully accept this gesture of generosity.
I found this proces retarded and somehow arbitrary. What if I needed was a good bicycle or a pair of socks instead? The idea of gift cards for generic stores was yet to reach Indian shores. Today one could get a gift card to appear politically correct and hand it to the giftee and let the have free rein on whether to buy tobacco, guns or a shirt with the funds.
Of course certin smart elders just handed me cash. I respect that. For one they believed that I knew what cash was and how it could be used. Also it left me to choose the outcome of the cash to suit my desire as a rceipient of the gift rather than their old age whim.
Going back to the idea of getting a cloth stitched cracks me up to this day. Who in their right mind allows a strange man to touch you in all the wrong parts of your anatomy outside of a TSA agent? This with the suspect hope that his skills will produce a garment for your wearing pleasure. That is what I never understood about my favorite hero 007. For one who wears a suit to the bedroom containing an exotic and mesmerizing female? Now you have to come up with witty dialog to bed the gal and also get rid of all that excessive Saville Row clothing. Talk about inefficient style from someone that has to be quick on their feet and mind.
On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
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