I can't think of an apt title

These days, what with women's lib and everything, the old adage, "Behind every successful man is a woman" is slowly taking on a new avatar: "Behind every successful woman is a man". Still, I found this bio-profile of the Consul General of India in San Francisco, Susmita Thomas, totally hilarious.

Slightly self-trumpety as it sounds, I have no issues whatsoever with the first three paragraphs. But what on earth are the last three paragraphs doing in the Consul-General's profile? The description about her husband Ravi's achievements is even longer than her own! This chap is in no way related to the Indian Embassy other than being the Consul General's husband. How is what he did, is doing and going to do even relevant in this context? Perhaps this is how Susmita is supposed to show her loyalty to her husband - don't know! Aaaargh!

This brings me to another question: am I the only one who finds the practice of women doctors in India identifying themselves Dr. (Mrs.) Female DoctorName on name-boards odd? How many male doctors are there who have the compulsive need to identify themselves as married by saying something like this: Dr. Male DoctorName (married) on their name-boards?

New look

Finally, I tried out the new Blogger template designer. It is so much easier to change the various elements of the blogger page. Thus, in about 15 minutes of picking and choosing, my blog has got a new look. Sweet! Though I usually avoid it in interest of speedy loading, this time round I could not resist picking a background picture.

Do hop on over and let me know what you think. For the lazy ones, here is a screenshot of "The New Look":

Vidathu Karuppu

Last week S discovered all the episodes of the Vidathu Karuppu television series on some website online. If you recall, Vidathu Karuppu (VK) is part two of the thrilling Marma Desam stories penned by Indra Soundarajan. VK was telecast on Sun TV more than a dozen years ago. It was one of the very few TV series that I watched regularly. I still remember waiting eagerly every Thursday night 9.00pm for the next episode of VK.

So when S asked if I was interested in re-watching it, it took very little thinking on my part to say yes. Other than remembering the climax, I recalled nothing whatsover of the series. So we started watching it. And I realized all over again as to why I was so attracted towards the series.

Each episode is divided into scenes from the past and the present - both these parts are rivetingly done and more often than not, end in an event which leaves you with burning curiosity as to what happened next.

Needless to say, S and me were completely hooked. The main advantage we had was that we just had to click on the next button to see the next episode instead of having to wait a whole week to know what happened (man, it must have been excruciating back then to wait for a entire week - and even more exasperating to see a a few minutes of recap every week when that time could have been used to move the story further). The downside was that we were completely addicted.

On Sunday we finally finished watching the series (ya in one week we watched all 84 episodes of it and yup while working full time and everything). The series was as satisfying as ever. We are still discussing the nuances and we kinda miss the characters now - addiction withdrawal symptoms I guess. I wonder how come such thrilling serials no longer get made in Tamil these days. Instead we have these sob-fests called mega serials which go on for years together. Ugh.

Another thing I liked while watching VK was seeing how naturally the various characters were dressed. But I wondered at the protaganist Reena's clothes. She mostly wore extremely loose tops and jeans/skirts or tent-like salwar kameezes. She was supposed to be a modern young woman from Chennai - so why was she wearing such ill-fitting clothes? Then I realized with a pang - that's exactly how most "normal" Chennai girls used to dress back then. Including me. *blush*. Oh well, you live and you learn, no?

If you know Tamil, Vidathu Karuppu is a must watch series. It has aged well with time and is as gripping now as it was more than a dozen years ago.

p.s. do you know if DVDs of good Tamil serials are available for sale?

Faith

While driving to work this morning, I was hearing NPRs broadcast about the latest series of allegations of child abuse against priests in the catholic church. These priests are supposed to be people in God's service and they behaved worse than animals! Even more disgusting is the fact that their higher ups actually tried to protect the predators instead of stripping them of their titles and kicking them right out of their community. How will people continue to have faith in a religious institution if they know that even the most vulnerable and innocent members of it have no safety?

Not long ago, another of those Hindu Con men, sorry God-men, in India got exposed for what he was - a greedy, lustful charlatan. This is not the first time this is happening. Religious and spiritual figureheads being caught doing immoral, illegal and criminal activities is something which happens in India with even greater regularity than the coming of summer. In fact, the more I read such news, the more I wonder every time I hear about a new God-man or spiritual guru, as to when exactly that person will be found to be a fraud as well.

Given that such news has become a fact of daily life, I have never been able to look up to a religious or spiritual figurehead. Since childhood, I have always strongly felt that my religious faith and my spiritual inclination is something intensely personal between me and the supernatural force that I believe guides the universe. I do not need a "broker" to talk to God or a spiritual guru (the very term spiritual guru sets my fraud alarm bells ringing) to guide me onto the path of truth or whatever, thank you very much. Really, I cannot see what makes someone else, who is just as human as I am, closer to a higher power or more blessed or more divine because they claim that is so.

However, there are plenty of people, not necessarily illiterate or uneducated who totally believe in their gurus no matter what anyone else says. I was seeing a rather disgusting interview on the internet the other day where the fraudster Swami was giving some cock and bull story as to why he was inculpable and the interviewer was actually looking at him like he believed every word was true! Whoever came up with the phrase "blinded by faith" knew what they were talking about.

I guess for every hundred fraudster gurus out there, there might be a genuine guru. But if you were so enlightened and free of the materialistic world, why would you encourage people idolizing you and worshiping you as God? Isn't renunciation of all worldly wants the first step towards a "pure" life?

However, as I said, faith is something which is intensely personal and I have no interest in questioning other people's choices and beliefs especially since I get annoyed when people question mine. Live and let live without causing any harm to anyone is my motto.

Still, it does not stop me from feeling anger at the gullibility, naivete and faith of people which enables the fraudsters, every time such an expose happens.

Blogger gets a template designer!

Oooooh this sounds promising! Can't wait to try it out.

Bullet points

- The key to enjoying restaurant food is to never look up its nutritional information. Recently we ate at PF Changs and when we got home I looked up the calories in the sesame chicken bowl I had. Turns out it was 525 calories per serving and apparently the plate had *two* servings in it. So I had had a whopping 1050 calories for lunch and this was not even counting the appetizer and the soup. Gaaaaah! I am so not going to look up restaurant calorie information henceforth.

- Watched Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya. I liked the low keyed tone of the movie and the very down-to-earth, real-life dialogs, settings and clothes. Even the clothes in the dream song-sequences was something which "normal" people could wear. I enjoyed the movie though I thought the second half dragged a bit and I was not totally satisfied with the turn of events. Another outcome of watching this movie was me actually being able to stand (and maybe even *like*) the hitherto extremely annoying Simbu. Also, though I had not heard the entire soundtrack of the movie before (really) I thought the songs, though forcibly inserted in some places, sounded good on screen and have now downloaded them to hear them through.

- Is Karthik the most happening name for movie-heroes? Off the top of my head, I remember that the heroes in Alaipayuthey, Mozhi and now, Vinnaithandi Varuvaya were called Karthik. Or is it because Karthik is a very common Tam name? I had three classmates named Karthik in undergrad and have three cousins named Karthik. Don't know. I can only be happy that Babu/Bharani or some such name did not catch the fancy of movie-makers.*

- I have become a big fan of guacamole. I found this recipe which is so easy to make and yummy as well. Avocado being made of plenty of good stuff, it is a total win-win situation I say!

* I have nothing against people named Babu or Bharani. Just that I hate those names for no reason.

Weekend

When the alarm rang this morning, my sleep-addled brain wondered why on earth I had set the alarm on a Saturday morning. Then I slowly realized that today was only Friday. Then began to wonder what happened to yesterday's Friday. And then - okay, as you can see, I was totally confused and annoyed that it was not Saturday today. On the brighter side, today is Friday which means tomorrow is Saturday. Which is far better than waking up thinking it is a Saturday only to realize that it is *Monday* (that has happened to me as well - that week correspondingly seemed to be the longest of my life).

I think it was only after I got to the U.S. that this concept of weekend being a BIG thing was introduced to me. I mean, I liked in weekends in India as well (other than that awesome year of my life when I disliked weekends because I could not hang out at school with my friends). However, since I was going to school/college back then, besides going out, weekends also usually meant catching up on pending school/college work. Also, no matter how much you try, such work always runs as a background process in your mind.

One of the best things I like about working life is that it is possible (at least most of the time) to completely detach yourself from work once you step away from the office. Which is why I think weekends take on a special significance as it is a complete break from the daily grind. On weekends, you can sleep better, eat better, be vetti better and the possibilities to relax seem almost endless. That is, until Sunday evening rolls around and you wonder where on earth all that time went to!

Grad school was when I first started chanting the TGIF mantra. Our department even used to host TGIF parties every Friday! My friends and I were a relaxed bunch and most weekends meant renting out a car and going somewhere, mostly to hike or camp. Of course this meant doing night-outers on other days so we could catch up on course work but hey, weekends spent doing nothing were a criminal waste of time, no? I still remember my parents worriedly hinting that they thought their daughter had gone abroad mainly to be a wanderer until I sent them my grade sheet and quelled their fears!

Though I remember doing this in childhood as well, grad school was when this "got to do something on weekends" and "got to travel for long weekends" concept got permanently embedded in my psyche. Thus, now, weekends are treated special and long weekends are treated specialer. So much so, a weekend where I don't put a foot outside the house sometimes becomes a treat in itself!

Luckily, S has turned out to be an even more enthusiastic chanter of the TGIF mantra than me. So now our household has two ardent members of the "Go Weekend!" brigade. I have no idea what we are planning to do this weekend. Still, am mighty glad it is Friday today. TGIF, folks!

You know you have waited too long in queues...

...when you start getting nightmares which feature you standing in a queue which does not have a destination.

S and me visited LA over the long weekend and did all the touristy things - Universal studios, Disneyland, Walk of fame and so on. We had a wonderful time though I am visiting these attractions for the 3rd time!

Last weekend being long weekend and all, we had expected the crowds to be on the higher side. Universal Studios crowd was manageable but Disneyland seemed to have attracted every person in the United States.

Thus we wound up doing quite a lot of queue waiting at Disneyland - the longest being the wait for the Space Mountain ride at 90 minutes (to boot, we weren't the only morons who gamely decided to wait in line, the queue swelled behind us as well)!

Now, are you surprised that for the next few nights, I kept dreaming that we were waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting in a queue, with no destination in sight?

Regardless, the whole visit was fun from start to finish. As S put it, Disneyland is a magical place - and LA is one place which does not get boring to visit.

p.s. Both of us kept a lookout for the famous Hollywood sign. On the freeway, S spotted another huge sign which said "Save Peak" on a nearby mountain. We both were curious what this new sign which was as big as the Hollywood sign was. It was only at the Kodak Theatre complex that we realized that the Save Peak sign *was* the Hollywood sign. Apparently they had covered up the sign to raise awareness for some cause. Sheesh! So yup, no Hollywood sign patel pics this time.

p.s.1. The Universal Studios Simpson ride simply rocks - I *totally* loved it.

p.s.2. During busy season in Disneyland, get the Fastpass passes much earlier in the day for the popular rides, else they simply run out of it.

Spokesperson

Like I have said before, by conscious choice, I have never commuted a great distance to work. Thus I really don't need to come up with many ways to entertain myself during the drive. Usually I listen to one of the many radio stations blasting pop music.

A couple of months ago, I re-discovered the National Public Radio (NPR) and decided to give listening to it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised to find out just how many diverse topics they talk about and how entertaining as well as educating the discussions usually were. Now, I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of listening to NPR while driving to and from work.

This morning the talk was about the Tea Party. I have heard about the Tea Party (as in present-day usage) only a couple of times, that too in passing. Wiki tells me that the Tea Party movement

"is a United States grass-roots protest movement that emerged in 2009 and is opposed to the federal government's stimulus package, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."

Anyhoo, the topic under discussion was the Tea Party convention currently being held in Nashville, Tennessee. The program host gave an informed overview of the movement, what it stood for and its ideals. Then the host started to interview one of the convention attendees, let's call her Lady, about the movement.

The first question was what she thought the movement stood for [note, I am paraphrasing the dialogs, my memory is not good enough to remember exact wording]. Lady said something along the lines of "It is against a big overseeing government" or some such. Then she bristled, "People are against the Universal Health Care bill because it is unconstitutional. It is against the law. THe government is trying to pass an unconstitutional bill."

Now, though I keep reading about the healthcare bill that Obama is promoting, I have not quite gotten my head wrapped around what its specifics are. But I was quite sure that I had not yet heard of it being an unconstitutional move. Sure enough, the radio host asked, "So in what way do you think the bill is unconstitutional?"

There was a flabbergasted silence from Lady. Evidently, whoever had filled her with passionate protest had forgotten to tell her exactly why she was filled with passionate protest! Lady finally rallied around with, "I am not sure about the exact part of the constitution it violates but if you look around in the constitution, you will find that it has a section stating it is invalid". WTH!?!

I rolled my eyes and am sure the radio host did too for he promptly switched over to another question to a different person.

My question is, when you are holding a convention, how difficult is it for you to find someone who is well-informed to talk to the media? After all, this person is supposed to be a representative of the attendees. If this is the best you can come up with, what impression does it give about the rest of the attendees?

Now I know why most organizations use only trained spokespersons to talk to the press and media!

p.s. I still don't know enough about the Tea Party to have an opinion about it one way or the other.

Titbits

Yesterday was my second fitness class after a longish break of about two months. I have said it before and I say it again - it is highly unfair as to how it takes several months to reach a certain level of fitness and how only a few weeks break undoes all the good work. Unfair, unfair, unfair!

Anyways, considering that these days I am looking more and more like a well-iced snow-woman, not to mention puffing like a steam-engine at the slightest exertion, I am nevertheless dragging myself to class and putting myself through the grueling workout.

So, last evening, I followed the teacher as closely as I could. Still, at the end of class I felt a bit bad that for a couple of exercises, for a short while, I had not been able to keep up. I finished putting away my stuff and was about to leave when another fitness-class participant called me and asked "How long have you been doing this?". And then continued, "I have been watching you as I could not see the instructor from where I was. O boy, you did all those tough exercises without a break - that is so awesome! I wanted to know how long it takes to get there."

I was so delighted to hear this - I am not as unfit as I had imagined then! This is exactly the boost that I need to keep me going. So maybe next week I will not whine quite so much as usual before class. Amen to that.

***
I don't think I could say it better than this post. Still, I really have to put this down somewhere:

The new mile sur mera tumhara video simply sucks. [Part 1, Part 2]

And not just because I am viewing the original version through rose-tinted glasses (though I admit, I get all nostalgic whenever I hear that tune). According to the new version, present-day India apparently is defined by her actors and actresses. All of whom "emote" the song so well that I felt like someone was drilling my teeth as I watched them.

Sigh - some things are better left alone, no?

p.s.1 What's with Big B speaking out words in the song? I thought everyone was already tired of hearing Big B's baritone voice in almost every movie out of Bollywood. I sincerely hope he gets an incurable case of laryngitis if that is the only way to save us from the misery of hearing him booming everywhere.

p.s.2 Amar Singh did not make an appearance in the video as an extension of the Bachchan ensemble - thank God for small mercies!

p.s.3 I even hated Vikram and Surya in the video. Ya :-(.