Dec 31 2005

I’ll never forget Dec 31 2005 - One of the scariest days of our life. This is what happened -

We gave our 1.5 year old an Indian sweet (Cashew sweet) and he really enjoyed it. But within 20 minutes he had an allergy breakout in a way we haven't seen before . His body was fully covered with rashes and his face began to swell out of proportions .In case you have seen the movie ‘Hitch’ – it’s the same thing that happens to Will Smith in that movie after eating oysters. Believe me - it is not funny as portrayed in the movie. It’s really scary when it happens to someone in your family. We were horrified, had to call 911 and thank god he became fine after a few hours. But those few hours as a parent was excruciating.

To those reading this – Don’t give any form of nuts to kids unless you are very sure he/she is fine with nuts.

There was a report in CNN recently which said that these incidents of allergy in kids have increased immensely in the last few years and they don’t have a reason for this. So be safe than sorry.

Cannot watch this!

Today Saddam as many know has been executed. I don’t like him just like many around the world for all the atrocities he did. I am not going to argue whether this war is good or bad. I guess enough has been said about it.

But the photos and videos of him minutes before he was hung was something that was not palatable to watch for me as a fellow human being. I don’t know why the media kept showing it as many times as they did.

‘A capital punishment is always tragic news, a reason for sadness; even if it deals with a person who was guilty of grave crimes’ said the Vatican. I totally agree.

I don’t think it’s possible for any human being with heart to watch somebody else die. His last minutes were very depressing to watch.

Stop Comparing!

One thing I have always seen with many parents is that they have this tendency of comparing their kid with some other kid. Personally I think this is bad. Situation is even worse for a kid when he is compared with some other kid within his own or extended family. I think most parents think that it is means of inspiring the kid. But I think they are actually hurting the kid’s feelings rather than influencing in a positive way. This doesn’t stop sometimes even after you grow up. There will always be a peer whom you are compared against and life becomes tough in those situations.

Thank god it hasn’t happened to me. But it used to happen to one of my friends and I know how frustrated he becomes every time that happens.

On the other hand I have seen some for whom such comparison really works. They work hard to reach the same heights as the other. But personally I think you get very stressful in those situations.

There is one more type of people who always compare themselves with some others. They don’t need any outside influence. Those people really get depressed when the person they are looking up to becomes successful. Hate, jealousy and anger just broods inside them.

For very few this kind of self comparison might have a positive influence too.

What do you think?

Research before you move in !

When I lived in an apartment 3 years back, there used to be this landlord who was excessively obsessed with his apartments. He was a nice guy except for his obsession. He maintains the apartment very well, takes care of all repairs in a timely manner etc…

Just like any other Indian we cook really spicy aromatic food and it used to bother him so much. So once in a while he would knock the door to tell us to keep the windows open when we cook (Even in winter!). That used to bug all the Indians living in the apartment because he does the same thing to all the Indians. Looking back if I had enough money I would have sued him. In fact I looked for any NRI organization which could help me. But I really did not find anything. So just like others we just ignored it and eventually moved out after we bought a house.

That I think was the only incidence of ‘racism/profiling’ that I have experienced in 7 years I have been here in the US. I hope it is the last.

So for people moving into apartments, I would suggest that you check the reviews from some reputed websites before moving in. I would also avoid apartments owned by a single landlord. Also talk to fellow Indians if you can.

Go Away!

My 2 year old son is going through a phase right now where he says ‘Go Away’ to anything or anybody he doesn’t want at that moment. This is true for both living and material objects. If he bumps his head on the wall he says ‘Go away Wall. It’s not right’. Obviously we are enjoying every minute of his innocence.

Today I was driving him to his daycare and I was on a freeway. This car in front of me was going really slow (I guess it was the policeman’s curse from yesterday!) and I controlled my road rage and was patiently driving behind it. After a lot of time it gave me way. And as soon as I passed it, My 2 year old turned back, looked at the car and said ‘Go away Red car. It’s not right’. Even though I enjoyed his cuteness, I was surprised and at the same time shocked. I guess we still have a lot of things to teach him.

I used to have the road rage initially when I came here and started driving. But now I have got over it and usually yield to crazy drivers. Anyway it came as a big surprise for me this morning.

It's a 2 way street!

Today a cop car was driving behind me in the morning when I left for work. I guess he was just doing one of his routine routes. Just seeing the cop car behind made me very alert. In fact I was too cautious. I made sure that I came to a complete stop in all the stop signs and I was maintaining proper distance between vehicles, driving at a proper speed etc… I am sure he would have been frustrated when I was cruising at 20 mph on a 25 mph road. But I just wanted to be safe than sorry.

On the hindsight you just feel safe when you see people respecting cops. In fact cops are not paid very well when compared to other jobs just like how it is in India. But they still do their duty conscientiously and do not accept bribes like they do in India. I know I should not generalize and there are good cops even in India. But on a cursory inspection the feeling you get is that cops are corrupt in India. I think it’s true in most cases.

The important point to be noted is that the cops respect their jobs and we respect them. It’s a 2 way street.

Be a Roman

It's Christmas day today. It's probably not going to matter for most non Christian NRI's. I think it should matter to us even if we are not Christians. If we miss out on the festivities celebrated here in US then what are we left with? As far as me and my wife are concerned, all festivals irrespective of the religious significance is mainly for breaking monotony in life. We don't have the opportunity to celebrate Diwali and other good Hindu festivals. So we should try to celebrate Christmas, Halloween etc... as long as we are here. I see most people doing it these days as they don't want their child to be left behind. That's a good sign as people are looking outside their religion.

We should be a roman when we are in Rome. There is nothing wrong with that.

Polite

Some people have this habit of calling a spade a spade. Even though this is required in some circumstances, this could also be an annoying habit if used wrongly. I have seen some people blurting out what they feel not caring about what others feel. Some are really proud to talk that way.

One thing I have noticed after coming here to US is that most people generally tend to be nice to each other. Or at least they 'try' to be nice to each other. They may have other feelings inside them , but when they talk face to face they are usually very careful to make sure that they don’t hurt others feelings. This is true both professionally and also outside work. Some people may not like this ‘fake’ attitude. But in the hindsight, it does not leave bad taste/memories in you/them after you talk with them.

On the other hand if you talk bluntly, you could potentially hurt others feelings and leave bad memories that would potentially linger in their minds for a long time.

Do you agree or disagree with 'faking' politeness?

Credibility!

Some People may think that I may not have too much credibility for writing negative stuff about India since I am a Non Resident Indian. Even I have thought about this.

But in the hindsight, I have this opportunity of looking at things from outside the shell and sometimes the perspective is different when you look at things from outside the shell. You may be able to spot things that are both good and bad which you may not realize if you live amongst it. This blog I feel is an opportunity for me to express it. I have expressed both positive and negative things about India. So I think it's fine.

Do you agree?

Hoist it!

One thing you’ll prominently see when you visit US is the hoisting of national flag. You’ll see it hoisted in almost all the business places and even in some private residences. The flag is always respected and well cared for. This became even more evident after the 9/11 terrorist incidents. Here people feel proud to display their sense of patriotism. This is really nice and some thing other countries can learn.

As long as I was in India the only time I used to see a flag hoisted was during the Independence Day (And in government offices.). No offense to fellow Indians – I don’t see anything wrong in a little display of patriotism. This probably is one of the easiest things to do.

Sweet Surprise!

When I listen to music I mostly concentrate on how the song is composed. It’s the tune that has to be appealing to me. My wife listens to the lyrics in the song. For her both the lyrics and the tune has to be good. I guess we are different in that aspect.

I am one of those who sing loudly when I am amidst my own family. I am too shy to sing in front of friends or strangers or for that matter other family members.

During our early days of our marriage I used to sing songs loud and most of them happened to be songs with romantic lyrics. I guess my favorite composer (AR.Rahman) was composing mostly romantic songs at that time. My wife being a little possessive in nature used to get very upset when I sing a song whose lyrics actually praise some other woman. As time went on she got used to it.

Now that we have been married for 6 years, she now knows that I don’t look deeply into the lyrics of the songs. So she doesn’t mind even if I sing such songs loud now. But it really was a sweet surprise for me the first time.

Be Nice!

We saw this movie ‘Water’ by Deepa Mehta yesterday. It’s one of those typical artsy films that will linger with you for a long time. This film is about the plight of a group of widows who live together in Varanasi, India. It shows how the widows were treated by our society during the pre independence period. This movie ends with a caption that there are still many millions of widows in India who are treated differently.

I don’t think the current situation is as bad as how it is shown in the film. But I agree with the fact that widows still are treated differently by our society. One place where you can glaringly see this disparity is in our temples – our highest place of worship. You can also see how differently they are treated in religious ceremonies, occasions, gatherings etc… They are still being considered bad luck. Thank god (should I?) that we have at least got away with dressing them in white saris.

The most interesting fact about the movie was that the movie was met with severe protest in many parts of India owing to the fact that it was an anti - Hindu movie. Anybody who sees this movie would agree that it wasn’t the intention of the movie to portray Hinduism in a bad sense. It was just saying the truth. Sometimes truth hurts.

As far as I am concerned, all it was trying to convey was a fact that humans should go by what their conscience says and not blindly by how religions preach. I totally agree with the message of the movie. How can we call ourselves cultured and developed if we still adhere to such abominable practices?

Fake charities

I was listening to a program in NPR about the Fake charity organizations that spring up all over the place when a disaster happens somewhere. They were discussing on how these fake charities are so hard to spot and how their names sound almost similar to a popular real charity names.

Another issue with charity is the way money is mishandled after it reaches the destination. They were discussing on how in some tsunami affected countries the money didn’t reach the suffering and how it was embezzled by some big shots of those communities.

It’s so appalling how humans can use somebody else grief for their own profit. Some times humans behave worse than animals.

Lost

Have you wondered how many friends you have had through out your time in life? I was wondering about it. It’s just amazing how many have just come and gone throughout my life. I am partially to blame because of the fact that I am not very good in keeping touch with them. But it’s just amazing the number of faces that come to my mind when I think of it.

I think most of the friends we have are what I call 'impermanent' friends (for a lack of a better word). They are with you during a particular phase of life – School, College, work etc… But once you move on, you lose the commonality you had with them. Once you are physically far away from them, the loss of commonality and the distance makes the friendship go dead. In fact even if you call to talk with them, you’ll be amazed to find out that there are no similar topics for you to talk about. So eventually as times moves on such friendships die.

There are some I would like to call ‘thick’ friends. I think you all know what I mean by ‘thick’ friends.

Now looking back, I wish that I still had contact with some of those 'impermanent' friends.

I care

One of the main reasons why this country (US) looks beautiful is because of the importance given to landscaping here. Here all the individual houses/businesses etc… are required to maintain a proper landscape – Clean and beautiful.

When I first came to US, I used to think just like every other Indian as to why people here are so obsessed with cutting the grass and then watering them and cutting them, over and over again. I used to think that it’s just silly and a waste of time.

But just looking at the results – green landscape, I am convinced that it is not. I am sure people who have been here long enough would accept what I am saying.

I think it's also a way to telling the nature - 'I care'.

Respect

One thing I really like about Hinduism is the fact that it teaches to treat everything – even lifeless objects with respect. Here are a few salient things that a Hindu does as a means of showing respect to other things

1. Anytime we buy something new we keep it in front of god as means of thanking him or we perform religious ceremonies as a means of thanking god for what he gave us.
   
   
2. Anytime we accidentally stomp on something, there is a certain gesture we do to acknowledge that it was wrong.
   
   
3. We pray everything in nature – Sun, moon etc... We are told to treat nature and everything associated with it with respect
   
   
4. We always revere our parents and as a matter of fact anybody older than us.
   
   
5. We have various festive occasions in every calendar year for celebrating and revering both material and immaterial objects.
   

I am sure all other religions also preach such things. After all religion is a medium for enforcing discipline in life. Isn’t it?

Do you have anything to add to this list?

Your ID please!

Do you feel frustrated when some one asks you to show your ID when you use a credit card to buy stuff?

It doesn’t bother me if what I am buying is for a sizable amount. But it really bothers me when somebody is asking for my ID when I am buying something for a very small amount - Say less than 5 bucks.

This happened today in a coffee shop and I was noticing the lady carefully to see if she is doing the same thing to others too. She was working like a robot repeating the same set of questions to everybody in the queue. So apparently she was just doing what she was asked to do. But for that flicker of seconds, I was so mad at the lady.

I have seen a few others react very irately in those circumstances . It’s just funny how we sweat over such small things in life and how quickly our mind judges people before pondering over the facts.

MultiVitamins

I am one of those health nuts who take a multivitamin whenever I feel that I haven’t eaten well. I know some people take it everyday.

But every time I take it I am always unsure as to whether it is really doing good for my body. I just console myself thinking that as long as it does not do anything harmful to me, I’ll take it.

I think more than the adults the kids need it. This is because of their bad eating habits. My son eats a lot of dairy and eats vegetables wherever he has the mood to do so. Since we are vegetarians, I am not sure whether he gets all the necessary minerals and vitamins.

So inevitably we try to give him multivitamins. Thankfully they have those candy coated multivitamins. So I feel satisfied when ever I see him eat one of those. I don’t know whether it works. But it at least gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

The Razor evolution

I ran out of shaving blades today. I remembered that I got a sample of 'Gillette Fusion' in mail. So I wanted to try it out. The first thing I noticed after opening it is the number of blades in it. It's exactly like my wife predicted. My wife predicted last year that we'll have 5 blades this year and her prediction came true. Yay!!

I remember shaving with one blade a few years back. Now the razor companies are adding blades at the rate of 1 blade each year and I am very curious to see where it's all going to end. Another point worth noting is that the cost of these blades increases exponentially with the addition of each blade. I think I should seriously think about getting a stock of P&G soon.

Pop Culture!

I read that coke is going to introduce a new drink called diet coke plus. This is going to be a multivitamin drink. As such it is hard for parents to keep their kids away from carbonated beverages. Now with such a product, it's going to be even harder to make kids stay away from sodas. Every coke fan is going to drink with a content feeling that they are really drinking stuff which is partly good for the body totally ignoring the fact that soda is bad.

I know that are many other drink like that in the market like red bull etc.. But this is special because it promises the same taste as coke.

I just hope that it is priced high to shy away those cash crunched teens at least.

Johnny Bravo!

I have this narcissist tendency of looking at myself in the mirror whenever I see one. My wife calls me 'Johnny Bravo' for doing this. For those who don't know 'Johnny Bravo', it is this cartoon character that is very narcissist and keeps look at him in the mirror even on dire circumstances. There is this funny episode where a monster chases him. But he'll still keep making stops to look at himself in the mirror whenever he sees one.

I guess most men do this. I have observed that most men are very shy to look at mirrors when somebody else is around. That includes me too. In public restrooms, I have seen people instantly shying away from the mirror as soon as somebody walks in. You can almost feel that they were looking at themselves in the mirror just before you walked in.

I guess men think that it is effeminate to look at them in the mirror. But I don’t think that it is true with most women. Or is it?

What do you think?

Let me in

Have you wondered how many online accounts you have created in the last few years? I must have created at least 20+. The difficult part in this is remembering the user name and password for each and every account.

Each account seems to have a different format for login and password. So I must have at least 5+ different kinds of login ids and many different passwords. Now it’s reached a point that I have forgotten a few of them.

Recently many financial institution websites have started creating a second layer of protection. They ask you as many as 3 questions and ask you to remember the answers for them if you are not logging from a specific computer.So it makes it even more confusing.

The only viable solution I think is getting a biometric reader. This is getting out of hand.

Interesting

This is very interesting. No wonder people say that lots of household in the US are very unhappy.

In-Sanity

There is a lot of emphasis given to sanitation here in the US.
One thing I have observed in India is that most people do tend to keep their houses clean. But after cleaning the house, they just throw the crap on the road. We seem to be more worried about keeping our house clean and not the environment around us. It’s nothing but indifference to your society and neighbors.

There is no excuse for that.

Why we stay back?

Have you noticed that our body actually starts losing its defense mechanism after we have been here long enough in the US? We used to be unaffected by mosquito bites, drinking impure water etc... till we were in India. But once we come here and get used to the conditions here long enough, we seem to be losing the defense mechanism our body had. I have seen lot of people complain about that. Once our body gets used to luxury it just cannot seem to take even a slightest discomfort.

This probably is the main reason why Indians who come here don’t want to leave. This is especially true if they have a kid. I think it’s really painful for a parent to see their kid go through what they went through especially when they have everything here.

Of course there is always an argument that our culture is better etc... But you know what - Not many are going back. If they go, most of them end up coming back.

It's a nice topic for argument. But if you do a reality check, you'll see that most really do end up staying back.

But who knows? Things might change in the future.

SSN

India is known to produce software programmers dime a dozen. But it feels odd that even with so much resources, India still doesn’t have a tracking system for its citizens. I mean a concept similar to Social security number here in the US. The whole system here in the US works on SSN and as we all know it is very successful and useful. Why isn’t the Indian government thinking of it? Is it a monetary constraint or is there any other reason i am not aware of?

I have always wondered about this.

Sleepover

This is a practice that exists here in the US where a kid goes and spends a night with his/her friend in their house. This practice is fine till they are up to a certain age. When the child reaches a certain age, this becomes a very worrying thing for parents due to obvious reasons. Even though I personally haven’t experienced it yet, I have seen many Indian parents very concerned about this.

But personally I think people should not be a pushover when somebody does not feel like sending their child over. I think it's a natural parental instinct to be protective and be afraid of their child's well being.

All parents are different and one should respect others feelings.

Smoking Guns!

One thing that surprised me when I first came here to US is the number of women who smoke. I guess you can call it a culture shock. As long as I have been in India I haven't seen a single woman smoke. I am hearing that things are changing now for the bad.

Before I type further let me make one thing clear -
Smoking is bad irrespective of the gender. I am totally for all out abolition of smoking.

Now coming to the point, one thing that really appalled me is the fact that some women smoke even after they get pregnant. They just carry on with their life as if nothing has changed and they refuse to change themselves.

Those women really bug me. Don’t they know that they are harming the innocent child inside them? These are woman without any remorse or guilt.

If I had the power I wouldn't mind passing a regulation to punish those pregnant woman who smoke.

Do you argue?

1. Some argue till their argument is accepted. They cannot face the fact they could be wrong.

2. Some argue up to a certain point and then they give up either because they are tired or because they feel that the argument is not worth it or they sense the other person is not going to give up.

3. Some argue just for the sake of arguing even if they have nothing to back up their argument.

4. Some don't like to argue. They just accept whatever the other person says even though they might have their own opinion.

5. Some don't like to argue. They just accept whatever the other person says because they just don’t know what do say back.

6. For some the mere fact that somebody is disputing their claim is unacceptable. They don't even argue. They might turn hostile.

What kind of a person are you?

Class apart!

One thing I love here in the US is the fact that everyone regardless of their profession is treated equal and everyone can afford simple luxuries. I am not saying it’s a perfect country. But it is much better than many developing countries.

That is not the same case back home in India. There is a huge gap between the middle class and lower class. That gap seems to be increasing in this free economy because the middle class keeps moving higher and higher and the lower class still remains the same.

In India People are graded depending on how much they earn. Even within the same profession there could be discontent among people based on what kind of work they do.So when that happens this gap becomes even more transparent in the society.

In fact I was reading an article about the US economy where an analyst claimed that the gap between the middle class and lower class is widening here.

I was thinking that analyst probably hasn't been to some developing countries.

Fear of Flying

I saw an ad yesterday where they show everybody staring at a man boarding an airplane wearing a parachute and all other safety accessories. It was funny commercial.

1. Haven’t we all wondered while boarding an airplane as to whether it is really worth listening to all the safety instructions?

2. Haven't we all wondered why the floating device, parachutes etc... are kept in inaccessible places (under the seat or latches in an inaccessible place)?

3. Haven't we all wondered as to whether we'll even have time to react when something goes bad?

4. I read that most of the people who know to swim have the confidence that they can swim to safety if the planes fall into the water. On the other hand people who don't know to swim have the utmost fear when the plane is flying over water.

I don't know whether all of you have this fear. But I sure do feel queasy about all these things every time I board a plane.

So thinking about the ad, I don't blame the man. If the society accepts, I wouldn't mind doing the same thing.

How about you?

Seinfeld – Gandhi

I was watching one of the Seinfeld episodes yesterday wherein Jerry, George and Elaine sign up for volunteer work. I don't know what Seinfeld writers have against Gandhi. There are quite a few negative references to Gandhi in that episode. There is one where they make fun of him as being involved in a relationship with a woman here in US. Seinfeld does cross a fine line sometimes. But they somehow got away with it.

Why Gandhi? That bugged me a lot.

Coincidence?

One of my friends mother passed away recently. He said that he had this uneasy feeling in him the day before his mother’s death and he knew that he was going to get the bad news soon. This is not the first instance I have heard of such a thing. I have heard a lot of people say that they some how knew that something was going to happen to their closest kin even before it happened. In fact I have also read stories about how the dead person’s spirit was seen by somebody far off just at the exact time of death as if it had come to bid farewell to him.

When my son got hurt once, we had to call the paramedics. The paramedics after examining my boy asked us how we felt about the situation. He said that the parents usually sense if something is seriously wrong with the child and it is almost always correct.

I think even if our closest kin lives physically distance apart, spiritually we co exist. This might seem like a weird concept. But how do you explain these strange coincidences?

Why do we do it?

In Hinduism we do so many things as a way to please god without knowing the meaning of things behind it. Let me quote a few examples

1. Most of the prayers are in a language we do not now. Yet most of us pray without knowing the meaning of it.

2. There are lots of activities we perform in front of a deity. All have them have symbolic meaning and most of us do not know what it is. We just do it the same way like we have seen others do it

3. Most of us do not know why god is in different shapes and forms like we have. We just accept as is and pray in front of it

These are just a list of few things. I understand it is mostly because of our own ignorance. We learn things from our parents and they learnt it from their parents and certain formalities and beliefs get passed through generations. I know for sure that there are good reasons behind every thing we do. But very few people know about it.

In fact as an NRI when people here ask us questions like why we pray cow/elephants etc it is really embarrassing because most of us really do not know why we do (I know that even if we explain they might still make fun of us. But at least we can be happy that we tried to explain it to them). The situation is even more embarrassing when our own kids start asking questions.

When I was young, I remember asking the meaning of a few things we do and I remember one of the Hindu scholar (Shastri / Pandit) just telling me that I am asking questions way beyond my age. That pretty much killed my enthusiasm.

But with the advent of internet, inquisitive minds can get most of the answers they want.

It's just a piece of paper!

At one point of time government backed every dollar printed with a certain amount of gold bullion. So Dollar really did have value at one time. This was also true for some other currencies.But sometime after 1970 the government stopped doing it. So your dollar really is not worth anything.The only reason currency works right now is because people actually think it is valuable and are ready to exchange it for all commodities.

Funny isn't it?

Hypocrites!

I was walking in a mall and saw sign board for ‘caring for doves’ campaign. The people behind the placard I am sure were non vegetarians.

What I don’t understand is how can people be so hypocritical?

I remember an episode in Seinfeld where they show Elaine as an ‘anti fur’ activist. She would be questioning everybody who wears fur. One of them would question her back asking ‘Are you a vegetarian? If not don't even talk about it.’ and she would be stumped.

I am not saying that non vegetarians should not stand for any cause protecting animals or birds.But won’t they feel hypocritical when they do such things?

Herbal Remedies

Most kids here in US often gets sick with cold and cough during winter. We always rely on known cold medicines like Tylenol etc… to comfort the child.

But back home in India, There are certain herbal remedies that we use. It’s something we have been using for many generations. But here in US we are afraid to use it because the AMA (American Medical Association) does not recommend any herbal remedies.

It is true that certain herbal remedies surely do help for some minor ailments. But the only factor that is preventing us from using it is the fear factor. If it does have some side effect and if we have to take our child in to the doctor – ‘What do we tell the doctor?’ This is the only reason why we don’t use it.

Meanwhile when our parents come here and see their grandkids suffer, they just can’t take the fact that we are not doing the some things they did to us when we were a child.

Whenever I try to explain the reason to them they always ask me

‘Aren’t you still alive and healthy?’

Beats me. I am not sure how to answer this.

CD

I was listening to my favorite CD on the way back from a birthday party in my car and it suddenly started skipping tracks. I am sure all of you have encountered the same problem.

Why can't they make CD's and DVD's durable? Cassettes were very durable and lasted for a long time.You need somebody like my 2 year old to wreck it. Floppy discs were also very durable. On the other hand CD's/DVD's are very sensitive. They need a lot of care. These days I take a back up of any cd as soon as I get it because no matter how well I care for it ,somehow it gets scratched. That makes me really mad.

Indian Ads!

One thing that I really liked after I came to US is the nutritional value label in all the consumer products. I was totally naive about nutrition and recommendations till I came here.

That’s when I wished we had the same thing back home. It really pains me to see some Indian ads where they make atrocious claims about their product. As an example I have seen some ads where they claim that their oil is really good for health. There is another ad where they claim that their oil can be used multiple times for heating since it doesn’t leave much residue like their competitor. People really do believe in those ads and I have seen my mother make a claim that she has switched to a particular kind of oil because it is good for you. No wonder we have a high rate of heart disease.

I hope things change and we begin to see nutrition values in Indian products. I am big believer of the fact that we should eat everything in moderation. These labels really help us keep track of what we get daily and what we don't. Now with western values slowly seeping into Indian culture, this is something we can really use.