Moving on ...

New beginnings out at my door

Making me wonder what's in store

The past, still throbbing, alive

It's hard, hard not to look behind

Yesteryear had happiness, it had joy, 

Had friendships, independence ... but toying

Never found my place, struggled to identify

Where I should invest and convince myself why

I'm hard to please, but I tried hard

Give it all, held back a shard

In retrospect I'm happy I did - helped maintain sanity

I am to be blamed for my own naivety

Utopia is called that for a reason

Beautiful Spring can't be the only season

I tried to dig hard to find honesty

To forgive, to forget, without indemnity

But everything you wish for doesn't come true

Lessons learned in life are often shades of blue 

Trying to end this post with something wise

In the words of One Republic "It's too late to Apologize" 

Salamanca - Day 2

Should have started writing this a lot sooner but here we are anyways. Haven't written for a while now (seems to have become a pattern really), but life is all about new beginnings. Speaking of which, a new, big beginning awaits. There's a lot of almost every kind of emotion that's associated with it. Leaving behind friends - some will stay in touch over the years and some that will fade in mututal consciousness, a change of environ and the memories associated with the one I had learned to call home-away-from-home for the past 7 years and so many many more memorable intersections in the time-space continuum.

Leaving tomorrow morning for Las Palmas. This trip is turning out to be therapeutic in a few ways. When you need to move on in life, it helps to be immersed in something that you have no expectations from and something that offers beauty on so many different levels.

One thing that I've noticed about myself, no matter how many good memories I have, the thing that always lingers is a feeling of introspection trying to find what are all the things I could have done better. This really is one of the more pensive posts I have written and I attribute that to trying to find honesty and truth in our lives both - inside and outside. We as a species, love to lie to ourself, to others, personally, professionally, sometimes to hurt someone, sometimes to save someone and sometimes to mask our insecurities - it's one of those acts that is only punishable in the professional setting but personally, it's only morally reprehensible - interesting thought ...

In addition to having a few things that I find very attractive in friends, I have really learned to appreciate honesty. In fact it's something that really draws me. Honesty of thought. Honesty of word. Honesty of action. In the words of Paris Hilton - "That's hot"

You can't be serious...

The first (and only) Vice Presidential Debate was held today in Ohio. This was one of those rare opportunities that you got to see Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska in an unscripted (ha!) forum fielding questions from a neutral moderator.  

In a nutshell, I feel that Palin was adequate, purely because the expectations after the Katie Couric interviews were so low that anything from thereon was an improvement.  Now, what we are looking for here is the No. 2 person who is going to be the leader of the free world (although democracy seems to be a fading notion in this country). What we saw today, was a person on stage who does not understand the question or chooses not to answer it (I don't know which is worse), changes her position on Gay rights while on stage, has zero substance in the entire 90 minutes that she was on stage (probably quoted 3-4 statistics in her entire stint on stage), has more in common with the Bush-Cheney regime than ever imaginable, repeats the same catch phrases like "maverick", "hockey-mom", "executive experience" etc over and over again to cover up for the lack of substance and then comes out and tells Biden repeatedly not to look back into the past? Isn't this another George W. Bush with breasts?

I ask this not out of spite, disgust, frustration or despair (all of which are very acceptable emotions at this point) but is this Hockey-mom, soon to be hockey grand-mom, wolf hunting, wild life hating, "drill-baby-drill "chanting ex-Mayor of crystal meth Town the best that the Republican Party can come up with? I can't understand who needs to be blamed more - the direction-less Palin or the senile McCain. 

Biden, to me was more than adequate. I thought he smiled a little more than he needed to when all he was getting from the other side were snide remarks and twisted truths. He controlled his emotions, kept his gaffes to a minimum, spoke to the issues, backed his answers up with numbers, spoke about the direction this country needs to take and offered genuine leadership that a lot of people felt comfortable with in case something were to happen to Obama the President.

The political dialog in this country has plummeted to the point that the polls are still close ?!?! Shocking is a word that comes to mind.  Is this what this land of opportunity has been reduced to? What happened to separation of State and Church? What happened to objective discussion? What happened to equality? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FUCKING TRUTH!  

Curry Influx

I have been trying to find the right topic to get me back into the blogosphere and it never materialized. I have half a dozen incomplete posts that I thought would signal my comeback but alas they all stay on the back burner in the dreaded and rarely visited "Drafts" folder. Surprisingly the topic that is getting me back into writing mode is something very very near and dear to my heart.

In the short time that I have been in this country, I have seen things change pretty drastically. I happened to come into the US post 9/11. No one knew (or anticipated) how much damage a President could cause. We are all living proof that the elected, so-called leader of the free world has messed up pretty much everything that he wanted to "improve".

Anyways, this particular post is not about the whether the President of the most powerful nation in the world is smarter than a 5th grader or not but it's about the changes, specifically the influence of the Masala Mafia on this nation or as I would like to call it - The Curry Influx.

It seems like each decade belonged a specific Asian country where they established their influence on the American lifestyle. This decade (and perhaps the ones to come) seems like it is the decade of the Indian influence to take center stage.

Call it a coincidence (I wouldn't) that Madonna decides to get Henna put on here hands for the filming of her Video Frozen and travels to Varanasi to learn Sanskrit, Richard Gere Travels to India to return to his Buddhist roots, Bollywood dance is featured on "So You Think You Can Dance" (and is very well appreciated), an Indian comic makes it into he finals of the "Last Comic Standing" and the list goes on.

Don't get me wrong, this is not about an Indian blowing his own trumpet. If anything, the Indian experience and culture teaches a lot of humility and respect and the Indian parent teaches a lot of self deprecation. Put those 2 together and the point I'm trying to get at is that phenomenon is one of joy not arrogance. There is a weird sense of pride in giving something back to the West - the same West that has always held the beacon (and the bacon if you count the numerous porn movies) and almost every imaginable field of note.

The tide is changing - there is not doubt about it. India is booming today and it's footprint on the world is getting bigger with every passing day. Writing this post sitting in California, I feel like a guy who keeps missing the boat time and time again. The first instance was the dot com boom here in the 90s. Back then I was too young and didn't know what the Internet was. My parents are to blame -they should have had me (and not my older sister) first! The second one is the India boom happening at this very moment.

This post is hopefully the start of more to come. So for the millions and millions of readers frequenting this page, tune into both - this blog as well as the Curry influx around you!

Save the Planet - Little by Little

I have not written this article but I am just reporting it for all the 3 people (including my mom) that read my blog. But seriously, even if we can do 1-2 things out of this list, we are making a difference.

1) Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact florescent lights (CFLs). Look closely at labels when buying light bulbs. Those marked as CFLs last 10 times longer and use 66 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs while delivering the same light levels. As a result, CFLs accrue net savings between $30 and $45 over their lifetimes, depending on your cost of electricity, the wattage size of the CFL, and the lamp's lifespan (manufacturers make CFLs that last 6,000, 8,000, or 10,000 hours). The return on investment is 15 times higher than leaving your money in a bank account or the average return on Dow Jones stock investments. CFLs also reduce the release of greenhouse gas emissions and are safer because they burn at a lower temperature (160° F or less) than incandescent and halogen lights, which can burn at temperatures up to 500° F.

2) Inflate your car tires. When walking or biking isn't feasible, you can do something to better protect the Earth while driving. Take a step in the right direction by inflating your car tires. Pumping them up can improve your gas mileage by about 3.3 percent – a savings of about 7 cents per gallon. It's the right thing to do for your wallet and the right thing to do for the Earth.

3) Weigh your ecological impact. It's far easier than stepping on a scale. Take CI's short eco-footprint quiz to find out if you need to tread more lightly on Earth's biodiversity. Measure how last year's habits stack up, and you'll be well on your way to becoming a full-fledged eco-warrior in the year ahead.

4) Turn down the hot water heater. Set your water heater to 130° F. While you're at it, turn down your house thermostat during the winter to 55° F when you go to bed or leave home. These simple actions can have enormous positive consequences, preventing the emission of more than 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide over the course of the year, while cutting your energy bill by more than 10 percent. And that's just from you! Get your friends on board, and the benefits will multiply.

5) Choose your seafood wisely. We can't afford to wait until 2008. The world's seafood will be entirely depleted by 2048, according to an early November report in the journal Science. That means the moment to shape up is now. By buying and eating certain types of seafood, you can discourage harmful fishing practices and avoid the more depleted or threatened species. Take a look at Seafood Choices Alliance or Seafood Watch to make smart choices.

6) Replace your showerheads and faucets with high-efficiency models. Retrofitting just one showerhead and two faucets will reduce water usage by 50 percent to 70 percent, while maintaining the same user experience. The cost savings you'll see on your water and electricity bills will pay for the retrofit in only three to 12 months.

7) Offset your carbon footprint. Carbon footprints are soooo last year. Luckily, CI's new carbon calculator guarantees you'll be on the cutting edge. It empowers you to offset your personal impact on Earth's rising climate. Donate $10 to offset your cross-country road trip, $20 for the upcoming family reunion, or $7 for a domestic roundtrip flight. Your money will help protect the roughly 832,000-acre Makira Forest in northeast Madagascar and prevent millions of tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

8) Buy locally produced meats and produce. Sounds like a good idea, but you don't know where to start? Just type in your zip code on Local Harvest's website to see a list of farms and farmers' markets close to home, as well as nearby restaurants committed to supporting their neighbors. Buying locally produced food cuts out the middlemen and the vast amounts of energy required to get your products onto store shelves. Most produce in U.S. supermarkets travels an average 1,500 miles before it is sold!

9) Drink more water from reusable glassware. It's great for your bank account, your health, and your planet. The average American consumed more than 400 beverage bottles and cans in 2006, leaving behind wasted glass, plastic, steel, and aluminum. That adds up to excessive amounts of fossil fuels and hydropower for mining, processing, refining, shaping, shipping, storing, refrigerating, and disposing of those materials. Of course, changing your drinking habits both at home and at work is applicable to just about every other habit, as well. You've heard it before and you'll hear it again: Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

10) Turn down the thermostat just three degrees in the winter and up three degrees in the summer. You can prevent the emission of nearly 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

Note to self...

There are questions and then there are some more
Where am I going, what's in store

Should I follow the light or should I ignite the fire
Should I keep trying, or am I allowed to tire

Feels like an uphill struggle, maybe it's really not
Maybe it's things I once did right, but now forgot

Having reached a crossroad, sooner than I thought I would
How do I proceed and how do I do what I should

What are my next steps, how hard can it be?
Hope to forget the destination but enjoy the journey

It's scary to see change, more so when it's in me
But how long can I ignore unperturbed reality

My problems seem small, they're the biggest I've faced
Picking myself up from fallen grace

Don't get me wrong, I ain't whining or complaining
But keeping myself honest, with this piece of writing ...

Desi Men

Some consider a lot of the Desi population in the US to be Fresh of the Boat or more affectionately known as an FOB (kinda like SOB but, with a more racial innuendo as compared to a family-oriented one) which is some kind of slang for a person who is not totally familiar with the American way of life. By that equation, most people I know fall under that bracket.

Coming from a land of arranged marriages, picking up women at bars is not something that comes to us naturally! We expect that our parents would do the talking (read picking-up) for us and the next thing we know, we have picked up a woman, a bride, for life! The rest of this article is an attempt to try and classify the types of Desi men that you might come across in your daily (if you live in The Bay Area or New Jersey. For the rest of you, more like a weekly occurence) life!

Lets start with the Uber-suave know-it-all Desi Frat Boy Wannabe. This breed has swagger, money, intellect and all the right moves. All of this to make up for an exceedingly small penis size.

The next breed would be the Bumbling grinders. A member of this breed would usually stand in one corner and stare at Indian women at the club with a "I'm a hungry man and you are an Indian buffet" look. These guys will sneak up on their preys from behind and start the proverbial (uncomfortable) grind. Not to mention by the end of the night their either grinding with the fat chicks or leave early to go appease themselves.

The third would be the Lonesome too-classy-too-approach-anyone Drinker. These guys perhaps have everything but lack the confidence. So in order to make up for that fact, they will sit at the bar and pretend to be engaged deep in thought in the hope that some lady will fall for the Manoj Kumar (the Tragedy king of Indian Cinema) look.

Then there's the Insane Disco-Dancer. Straight out of a Bollywood movie and does the pelvic-thrusts and shoulder-shrugs. These guys are usually the carefree variety and are not afraid to make an ass of themselves (knowingly or unknowingly)!

And finally, I would enlist the Virgin Clubber as our final variety. Coming to America, living the dream, making money in USDs, there are a lot of people who would like to use that opportunity to check out what the great Western Civilization is all about. So, well, the Indian guy who is supremely uncomfortable, like someone just put a tadpole in his trousers which accidently made, ummm, a wrong turn is the guy I'm talking about.

Well, all I want to say to everyone is, have a good time, experience everything, but just don't expect to do it with the women I am with at the bar!!! Go do your time to land you one! Or, well, just arrange for a ... you guessed it - arranged marriage!!!