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!