Brown Motion

 A question that has been the inquiry of many a teacher, a parent and student alike for years.  Clearly yours truly has no professional background on the subject, but will attempt to dissect what I see in the following narrative. In today's world there are distinct styles of education based on my personal experience going through one and vicariously through our kid studying at an American University. The Asian, in my case Indian style of elementary and high school education followed by University level undergraduate and grad work all rests on the parameters of a one way traffic model.  Meaning the teacher or professor is in command of the board (black or green in our case written on with white chalk) all the time.  There is rarely an opportunity for dialog. There is not enough opportunity given for the mind to explore what ifs, questioning the written word or even read outside the curriculum too much.  This is rooted in culture and circumstance. Contrast it with...

 In life whether day to day or corporate I have encountered people with a chip on their shoulder. Not because they are carelessly eating their fried veggies but in the sense of being narcissistic. This often stems from the person's sense of having seniority over the other party or as in my case over me.  Seniority is a strange term.  It is quite literally defined as " a privileged position earned by reason of longer service or higher rank". What is strange is that it is often a function of passing of time and therefore advanced age among those that use it as a crutch.  These individuals cannot see past themselves or their ideas or lack thereof. And frankly in corporate life there should be no room for how old you are. If you bring something credible to the table that helps solve the problem statement so be it.  But reality is far from it. Many so called folks with seniority lack maturity.  Maturity of thought and gained wisdom or experiences.  Because ...

It is time for America to get into a garment to be used only once in a lifetime and beg for candy.  Aka Halloween.  Said garment is identified as a costume and can be time consuming to procure and wear depending on the level of enthusiasm of the beggar.  Usually children; some adults who still milk this tradition hiding behind a mask. This time as before I have oft wondered about the idea of costumes.  I get when you are on stage in a play or a movie that costumes are integral to the framing of the story. You need Stallone to have lot of ketchup marking the spots he is bleeding and the shirt needs to be ripped enough to show his ripped rib cage else we cannot believe he just fought like a badass. But today when I read about the Pope appointing a first ever black American as Cardinal I was struck by the same question.  Especially as I read the story with some graphics and photos of the two. The Catholic religion as any other preaches the virtue of being human....

 So said a recent complaint on a local community board.  Someone was peeved.  Apparently the poster was of Indian origin and having now invested in a property in an upscale neighborhood of the Bay Area was expressing his disenchantment with the setup. He was driving at dusk.  Some dude came walking down the road in a bike lane.  Walker was wearing dark clothing making himself almost invisible.  End result could have been  a crash as the poster was turning his vehicle into a side lane and crossing the bike lane. Why do folks not use sidewalks so well kept for walking?  The poster was mad.  Then I got to thinking about his predicament.  Turns out my neighborhood does have folks doing all manners of things that are not meant to be.  Riding bicycles on sidewalks.  Walking against traffic in the middle of the road and randomly crossing said road when no crosswalk is present.  Vehicles exceeding posted speed limits.  Vehicl...

  Well not quite literally.  I am no poet and I do not think anyone thinks of me as one. So rather than an ode it is more a ramble.  Which I am quite proficient in I might add. But I got to thinking of Covid and its impact on society on a recent phone call with my mother half a planet away.  She is computer illiterate having grown up in a generation devoid of too much electronics.  That is to say she is not surfing the WWW or sending status updates on her gum lines to make believe friends and followers. Even electrical appliances were a luxury during her formative years and only recently did she send her first whatsapp message and still did not know what had happened. So back to this Covid and its implications.  Boredom comes to mind right away.  I mean to find the world forced into stasis in a domino effect of rules and regs that cascaded from federal or central governments of the land to the local; people suddenly found themselves in varying ...

 Oh what does a covidised homebody to do?  Esp mua that does not partake in the omnipresent social activity of FB or IG or its ilk. Read or research or watch the telly of course.   In doing the aforementioned research on random things in the whole wide world using what else but the www I stumbled on a documentary produced by the BBC.   That docu series happened to be scratching me where it itches.  A passion of mine - perhaps inculcated in me by my late father who was a train buff and loved timetables - train travel. Thanks to a silicon valley invention called Youtube I can now board a whole bunch of train journeys without leaving my bed. They are broadcast under the larger brand titled ' Great Railway Journeys'  but are localized versions based on which part of the world the protagonist on the show is traveling. I have so far watched a few called -  BBC's Great Canadian Railway Journey Great British Railway Journeys  Great Continen...

 English has adopted some strange expressions which make no sense today.  I mean even when Trump takes experimental pills that are in design stage to demonstrate he is head and shoulder above Evel Knievel his doctors think he is not out of the woods yet. When was he in the woods I ask?  He was at Walter Reed Hospital, named for a Army Surgeon from early 1900s.  It is best in class care - I mean there were only 20 or so white coats at the press conference when he left the White House.  How many more were there at Walter Reed? Clearly nowhere near the woods. America is deemed to be in the woods at this time due to lack of transparency from its President.  I think that makes it tricky.  Millions of us in the woods.  Someone shoots something, anyone could get hit.  Hard to tell in the woods. I guess the cities we inhabit are the metaphorical woods.  After all lot of people are shooting at something and that something happens to be other peop...