Brown Motion

What is Fusion? We exist because of it.  Earth as we know it is only possible because of our sun.  The sun is nothing but a fusion factory.  It generates energy every second by fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium.  A lot of energy.  Enough to keep us ticking until we decide to end it ourselves. But I wanted to discuss another type of fusion.  Another type of mixing.  And blending.  To form something new and different than the parts that went into it. Fusion is a concept has been in vogue in pop culture for the past couple of decades.  You see it with food.  Indo Chinese or Tex Mex or Asian inspired American.  Then there is fashion.  A whole slew of artists have made careers fusing and melding together different art forms to someone's delight and to some not. Then there is fusion of ideas.  Some great writers borrow from legendary styles and meld it with their own flavors to create something worth reading.  ...

I am not sure if this type or line of questioning is considered sarcasm or rhetorical or both?  There is so much BS online and at the conferences where so called whos who attend to deliver keynotes.  Not sure what the key is or what it is I am supposed to note? One of the favorite BS clichés typically from someone who got lucky selling his meaningless endeavor to a techie company is - If you love what you do and do what you love - then you won’t have to work another day in you life. To me this is like the 'does the bear shit' question. So  how are people supposed to do just that when a lot of our prescribed education is making templatized automatons walking out the university doors?  More importantly they do not possess the  life skills needed to actually  go do a job. The top performers are certainly eager to try new things and self starters and can find gainful employment but there is a whole raft in the middle of the bell curve t...

I am noticing that I am losing patience with people.  Fast.  Last night we were at our kid's friends house waiting to pick up the child when a cold gust began blowing.  It is mid June in the northern hemisphere and it was late in the evening.  The occasion was the daughter was celebrating her birthday and is a friend of our offspring. Among the waiting attendees were parents of their respective wards.  Most of Indian origin.  One dad remarked on some sort of derived analysis about the weather.  Idle chit chat is all.  I am not sure what to make of this anymore.  His comment while profoundly vague was frankly immaterial.  This planet will do whatever the heck it wants to do much to the chagrin of all the arrogant know it alls.  But in retrospect it was merely a way to make small talk. I for some reason found that irritating.  Then another dude walked in to pick up his kid and instantly made a sweeping comment that all the p...

Humans are peculiar species.  They will not stop to kill their own kind yet be sentimental to assign and celebrate certain positions of the earth relative to the sun as hours of remembrance.  Remembrance of certain others of their kind.  On the point of avoiding being killed these days the visitor spaces around the world's monuments are being covered with bullet proof glass.  We will all be wandering in glass bubbles now. Everything from secretaries to blood line based relations like Father, Mother, to the planet itself (aka Earth Day) as well as revered leaders like Gandhi, MLK, to intangible fabrications like lords, religious deities are assigned a particular day of the year as their day. Most of these events are carefully crafted by the capitalist regimes of the world in order to further their agenda of addressing increased revenue to their shareholders.   Nothing wrong with that.  After all everyone has an angle. That said to me this whol...

As what's in vogue goes the bay area is no exception.  With its hubris as the innovation epicenter it is constantly challenging the status quo on many things, habits and language itself. After all IM and its associated slang was born here.  That said there are many contributions that the valley makes to the lexicon and spoken word all the time including some gems that I want to share.... Disruptors - Everyone's uncle it would seem is busy disrupting something.  Interrupting someone back in the day was considered rude.  But disrupting is cool baby... or as the teeny bops might say 'kewl'.  Electric scooters and child like im-pedi-ments are all over town doing the physical disrupting.  Traffic that is. Diversity - Oh I forgot about everyone's aunt.  We are very sensitive to gender equality here. Digital exhaust - this blog included are examples of the amount of insane and deranged commentary that is filling up petabytes of server farms and...

In grade school we were taught that tolerance was a virtue.  I kept thinking that it equated to surviving in India as a virtue.  After all merely growing up in a land where supply and demand where always out of whack, coupled with crushing and largely uneducated and crass humanity was a form of penance and therefore a sign of tolerance.  Beating the odds to do something drastic against the innumerable idiosyncrasies of life and finding the right path was equal parts tolerance and luck. Look at me - virtuous me. But what about those that were or are intolerant?  Well most examples in politics the world over are shining examples of intolerance. My way or the highway.  Capitalism sometimes thrives on a level of intolerance using the calculus of profitability over moral good or social good.  Intolerance has become a way of life for all the commuters in the bay area it would appear. The conundrum then is how is it my way for all commuters when there ...

Food and Travel have been my two passions.  Taking pictures along the way became the third.  In terms of either there have been extremes but I got to thinking about the geographic limits that our travels have taken us in the past couple of decades.  Below then are some of the sights we saw in America ... Westernmost part of contiguous United States - Shi Shi beach, WA - A beach stuck out on the northwest corner of the state of Washington.  My memory suggests we finished hiking and driving through the Olympic National Park after leaving Seattle and then headed out to this beach which sits on land owned by the native Makah people. Easternmost corner of the United States - Not having been to Maine yet I think the Hampton Lighthouse on Montauk which is the easternmost edge of Long Island, NY would be it. Southernmost point in the continental US  - our visit to Florida in the 90s took us on a road trip to the keys.  Key West I believe was the last of ...

I live to eat.   I will try anything for the first time.   But there are of course the dog ears in the culinary spectrum that I always go back to and feast or at least reminisce. India – ·          Joshi wadewale for Batata wada and Pav with garlic chutney – Deccan   Gymkhana in Pune ·          Vitthal Bhel Puri in Mumbai – not sure if this place is still around ·          Canon Pav Bhaji in Mumbai – with butter and smashed raw onion on the side ·          Kharvas at a rest stop on the Mumbai Pune highway (Mumbai bound) ·          Butter Dosa at Vaishali on FC road in Pune ·          Sol Kadhi at Gomantak in Dadar ·          Vadilal Butterscotch Ice-cream sold retail in Mumbai · ...

The hustle of getting through a school year is as much an effort in gallantry for the child as it is for us parents.  This was the first clean weekend with no agendas, no practice to go to and no birthday parties to prepare for. Whew!  But bummer was there was no more new Bourdain to come except maybe a couple of shows that were already in the can.  Berlin is coming up tomorrow.  A lovely city from first hand experience.  No worries.  After sampling a new food I also decided to chill with a chilled Sidecar.  This version labeled the White Lady involves a subtle ratio switch of gin and the triple sec that goes into it as the main ingredients. Mine was made with Bombay Sapphire 1.5 oz, Cointreau 1 oz and a hint of lemon juice with a few star shaped ice cubes to keep it chilled. I had a few of those with some spicy batata wadas, an Indian fritter that has a mashed potato curry as a filling.  Watched 'Justify' take the prize in NY at the Belm...

For Food.  Perhaps in a tribute to the passing of my food and culture hero Tony Bourdain this weekend we decided to try out an entirely new cuisine.  Laotian or the food of Laos.  We visited a Pho shop in the east bay (east of San Francisco, CA) that had some good reviews from the eating public. Situated on a residential street the unassuming building did not look like a restaurant but the smell of basil and coconut milk wafting through the ether around drew us in. Laos is a tiny Rhode Island sized landlocked country in S.E. Asia.  Bordered by Burma and China to its north, Vietnam along its eastern boundary and Thailand to its west and Cambodia down south it draws on its culinary influence from all these regions including its former colonial rulers the French. We tried a few things that were very similar in their flavor profile to the neighboring regions.  What was good about the place was the sampler sauce platter to begin the introduction to their cuisi...

A fast paced, crime thriller with a powerful cast largely focused on one woman who is the protagonist of the film.  Molly, played by Jessica Chastain is shown as a one time Olympic ski team hopeful embroiled in the fast paced and drug laced world of running high stakes Poker games. While the screenplay is loosely based on the real life story of Molly Bloom the film is fluid and engaging with a staccato rhythm.  Jessica's one woman show is supported wonderfully by British actor Idris Alba playing her attorney and cameo from Kevin Costner as her demanding dad. What starts out as a promising career arc for the young Molly capable of skiing downhill with superlative grace and making it on the Olympic stage ends in a tragedy on the slope that puts her out of commission for a while.  A possible career in law is put on hold as she moves west to Los Angeles in what she describes was a change in scenery and be in warm weather. Trying to find a source of income she ends up b...

Parts Unknown was the show that made CNN more than a news organization.  The creator and star of the show died today in France.  Anthony Bourdain was 61. What everyone who watched his show agreed unequivocally was why?  Why did he of all people decide to end his life?  This unfortunately highlights the fact that there are and always will be parts unknown about people's lives.  And we are better off not judging. His show was one of my all time favorite as I may have written in prior blogs and this takes my favorite TV personality count down to 1.  Jerry Seinfeld.  Jerry also a New Yorker is living out his life doing small projects but not getting into the spotlight for any of the wrong reasons.  I sincerely hope he continues to live his life all the way till biology naturally intervenes. Bourdain was able to navigate through many societies and cultures and highest seats of power including his famous Bun Cha eating episode with Barack Obama i...

Life and Death. Yin and Yang.  Time Space continuum.  We as a species are but an insignificant part of something that we cannot fathom.  We perceive it to be vast but we really have no idea. Amidst this daily chaos we label life we encounter all manners of other humans.  Some we meet in person, get a glimpse or only know of through the use of technology aka the internet, TV or cable shows or pictures.  Mostly we scan and move on.  In some cases you live vicariously through the eyes of someone you have come to respect and admire.  It almost felt like I had a kinship with Anthony known to his friends as Tony.  His irreverence and his wit, his passion for food and learning about people through their food was something that struck an artery in me and made me proud to consider him my friend.  While the dictionary defines friendship as requiring a mutual connection mine was one sided in the literal sense.  But you felt that Anthony was co...

Sounds like a deep philosophical statement.  All beings on this planet at some point must go.  No need to explain from where to where. It could also be a good tag line for a laxative. But I refer to the staple in the American retail landscape.  It highlights the plight of lot of big box retailers as they are known in marketing speak.  Toys R Us (now more like Toys were us), Sports Authority, Sears and so on are some of the recent big brands to bite the dust. A glut in available shirts and shoes and refrigerators and toys is increasingly the cause for this demise.

My understanding of any type of politics = Zero.  I know that I know nothing to quote a famous greek.  With that liberating disclosure I can proceed to expound on matters of gravitas that people with inflated egos have been churning out ad nauseum. Based on recently released hot air below are the headlines. Kim of North Korea has the world by its genitals. Kim of North Korea has a change of heart and is weeping after noticing his people dying - low end vinegar spoiled all the 'Kimchi' causing food poisoning. Kim shows the world media he has launched missiles. Kim has called the Americans to come watch him blow up his bomb making labs. Kim has the best hackers who can create any video they want and hack wherever, whenever. Therefore one can conclude that Kim actually has never owned anything except cheap looking polyester suits and walmart style black glass frames (with no glass in it) and is putting up a fake melodrama for the world press to come and video tape....