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 :-(.

Small town memories

Yesterday S and me were watching this movie "Something Something Unakkum Enakkum". One of the songs in that movie has a scene in which the hero and heroine watch with awe, a goat give birth to a little goat-kid. I exclaimed to S, "Oh you know, I once watched a cow give birth to a calf".

Then I thought about where exactly I had seen this. Oh ya, it was a long time back, in my grandmother's village. Then it struck me, there are certain things which one can easily see/do only in a small town or rural place and which are not easily accessible to city dwellers. How many of these things have you done?

- Bought a "cooling glass" with gaudy pink/green/orange frames from the trinket peddler.

- Smelt the fresh butter as the butter seller weighed it on his scale and slid it into the vessel your aunt has brought to the door. And surreptitiously dipped your finger into that vessel and licked the butter when you thought no one was watching.

- Bought som-papdi in paper cones from the street vendor's cart outside your door and savored the sweet taste as each fluffy bit melted in your mouth.

- Looked at plenty of black beads strewn on the ground and remarked innocently that you would like to gather them into a chain only to be told that the black beads were actually goat poop. Yuck.

- Cajoled your parents into buying a "whistle" from the potti kadai* outside the temple with promises you so will not use it till you were away from human hearing. And then driving everyone crazy with the constant whistle-blowing on the ride back home. Till someone grabbed the whistle and flung it out of the window.

- Swung from the branches of the mango tree on a makeshift swing made of jute rope with a gunny sack for a seat.

- Named the cows in your grandma's cowshed and fed them hay every morning.

- Made yourself sick by eating too much raw mango with salt and chilli powder.

- Had a bath sitting in a big brass drum filled with warm water and sang as you pretended that you are a movie heroine having a bath in a bath-tub.

- Eaten half dried vadam from the terrace and acted innocent when grandma wondered how her vadam quantity had gotten cut in half.

- Walked to the river and played in the shallow knee deep water.

- Pinned freshly woven jasmine flowers onto your hair and sometimes even begged for the bright orange kanakambaram flowers because it matched your dress better wondering why none of the adults seemed to prefer it.

- Lain on the verandah on a clear night, staring at the sky and admiring in wonder, the billion stars sparkling in it.

- Had a long swim/soak in the the water from the pumpset used to irrigate the fields.

- Drank coconut juice and then scooped out the tender coconut flesh with a spoon fashioned from the shell - all from coconuts just cut from the tree.

- Ditto for nongu (sorry I don't know the English name. The fruit comes from palm trees).

- Had everyone in the street greet you when they saw you because, you were so-and-so's granddaughter, right?

I guess I can write a lot more but okay, enough memories for one day. In case you didn't guess, I have done all of the above in my childhood days when I visited my grandparents :-) (because it is *my* list :-D).

*potti kadai - a small shop typically housed in a tin-shack.

Hawaii ho!

When we came back from India, the last thing S and me had in mind was budging out of the house for the next few weeks unless absolutely necessary. Both of us were looking forward to the Christmas vacation just so that we could sleep, sleep and then sleep some more.

But then, a week-end came in between, before Christmas. Both of us totally chilled out and slept to our heart's content. That Sunday night, I announced - "Let's go somewhere during Christmas." S enthusiastically agreed as well.

And lo! Within the next 24 hours, the tickets and the hotel were booked. Yaay - we were going to Oahu, Hawaii! One of my childhood dream vacation destinations!

This was the first time in as long as I can remember that I have gone on such an unplanned vacation. Anyone who knows me can tell you that my vacations usually involve plenty of research about the destination and a wish-list of places I want to see along with the tentative dates on which to visit them*. Plus I carry along a horde of printouts having maps, restaurant directions and what not.

This time round, there just wasn't any time to plan. So, S and I simply packed our bags and drove to SFO to catch our flight. And boy, did we have an adventure.

We wound up doing a ton of things - a submarine ride, shopping in the International Market Place, going to the North Shore, visiting Pearl Harbor, going to Waikiki beach, hiking up the Diamond Head crater, going on a sunset cruise... I only wish we had more than 4 days to spend there!






Turns out that even unplanned vacations are super-duper fun!

Just to make this post a wee bit useful, if you are heading to Oahu any time, do drink coffee at the Island Vintage Coffee cafe located in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping center in Waikiki. I kid you not - they ground coffee from the beans to make my yummylicious cup of Lava Mocha. BTW, they served the best coffee I have ever tasted. Aloha!

* note, all this happens only if another a fellow-vacationer has not entirely taken up the planning mantle.

2010 is here ...

Wishing you a wonderful year ahead filled with all possible joy, happiness and prosperity!

*clink*

Pic courtesy here.