We are not that great!

Human beings, no doubt, have been a very dominant in planet earth. At least that’s what I have been thinking all along.

For the past few days I have been suffering from severe cold and sinus. That has made me realize that we still haven’t been successful against these damn viruses. These viruses are supposedly so smart and could mutate in such a way that prevention and cure is almost impossible.

I almost laughed when I watched the ending of ‘War of the Worlds’ by Steven Spielberg where aliens couldn’t sustain the earthly diseases. But now I guess Spielberg must have had bronchitis when he wrote that story.

Your kid looks up to you

I usually eat a lot of fruits daily. Yesterday my 2 year old stayed at home because he was sick. When I came back from work, he was so excited to see me back home. He immediately ran to the refrigerator and got me a plum and got himself a plum and started eating with me. I was so happy to see it.

Just goes to show how kids observe you each and every day. It’s a good lesson for me as a parent. Instead of just telling your child to eat healthy, you should lead by example. They automatically look up to you.

We take things for granted

We take so many things for granted.I was listening to NPR today during lunch and they were discussing about the water scarcity in Kenya and how tough it is to get decent supply of water to a household everyday.

I came back from lunch and a guy who just participated in Boston Marathon was talking about how good the Kenyan runner was who came first in the marathon. He was going on and on about how these guys are very athletic and was wondering what they eat to keep themselves fit.

The Kenyan runner must have gained his strength by walking many miles everyday to fulfill his daily needs. I am not sure whether he really had all the luxury, comfort and time to think about what he should eat to run good in a marathon.

How ironic?

Bunny bites!

Rabbits are no doubt cute to have around. Spring is finally here and all the rabbits are finally coming out of their burrows to have a bite of all the beautiful plants and shrubs that are blossoming right now.

I was very curious to see how the tulips would bloom in my front yard this spring. But those hungry bunnies spoiled my curiosity by biting away a lot of flower buds from my tulip plants. I sprayed some repellants yesterday to save the remaining. But it is a little too late.

I’ll have to wait one more year for the blooms. Damn Bunnies!

Virginia Tech Shooting Revelation

When the news first came out about the Virginia Tech. shooting incident, everyone was curious to see who the killer was.I was amazed to learn the response from a few after it was known that the killer was Korean. Here are a few responses I heard -

One Afro-American guy said that he was happy that it wasn’t black.

There was a loud remark from a Caucasian friend of mine – ‘Did you see it was a Korean?’

A Chinese friend of mine was angry that the media reported it as Asian and Asian mostly refers to Chinese.

We talk all about democracy and everyone being equal. But in heart we are still divided by Race. I have no doubts about it.

Did you hear similar responses?

Not My Daughter

Today I met a friend of mine who was shopping in a store with his little daughter. I greeted him and he introduced his daughter to me. Then I told him that his daughter looks exactly like him just to be polite. That sentence usually brings a smile in a parents face. But to my embarrassment he said that it was his step daughter and not his own. I was very embarrassed and didn’t know how to react.

Our Little One!

My 2.5 year old is going through a phase right now where in he says anything to anybody irrespective of time or place. We are trying to be as cautious as we can when we talk to each other these days. It won’t seem like he is listening when me and wife are talking to each other. But his sharp ears are listening to every word we talk. He is amazing us every day with a new word.

He also puts us in embarrassing situations sometimes by telling things to others - things that they are not supposed to know. But it really is a fun phase.

More TV's than People

Did you know that there are 2.73 TV sets for every 2.55 people here in US? This is according to a research by Nielsen.

Almost every household these days have 2 TV sets. These days even the refrigerators come with TV attached to it. TV's these days come in many possible dimensions so that it can be fit in any possible nook and corner of a house- kitchens, bathrooms etc..

So I wasn’t surprised when I saw the above numbers. Are you?

Marriage and Indians

How Indians have progressed with respect to marriage

1. Parents strictly wanted their child to marry within their own caste.

That changed.

2. Parents were OK as long as their child married within their own caste or sub caste.

That changed.

3. Parents were OK as long as their child married somebody within their own religion irrespective of caste or sub caste.

That changed.

4. Religious barrier is broken. Parents are OK as long as their child had a happy marriage.

With globalization in place and people moving to different countries the current scenario is

5. Parents are OK as long as their child married somebody within their own race.

6. Even the race barrier is broken to some extent. Parents are OK as long as their children have a happy marriage.

The common joke here in US among Indians now is
‘As a parent I am fine as long as the marriage is between a Man and Women’.

Even though not everyone’s thought has progressed this way, many are open-minded these days.

What do you think?

Always think Long Term

It’s always better to take decisions thinking about its long term implications rather than making it based on your current situation. I am sure most people must have encountered stressful situations at work or other places which may have made them think that they should just quit and move on.

The most important thing to do in such a situation is to control your anger and then think about the long term implications of it rather than making a decision in a fit of anger/stress. If you think about it, there is no guarantee that such situations will not arise in the other place we move out to. So we should always have this in mind before we make decisions.

I am not saying that you should ignore what’s happening around you. But make sensible moves to avert the current crisis especially if the long term perspective of what you have is good.

What do you think?

Frequent Accidents

Have you noticed that accidents happen at particular spots very frequently? This almost seems like a coincidence. But it is hard to accept it as a coincidence.

In fact back in India wherever such a thing happens, some people attribute it to evil spirits and other un-natural phenomenon. In fact I have seen few spots where they had kept idols of god with the hope that it would ward off evil spirit.

There are those who don’t believe in such things and they attribute it to physical imperfection of the road, signal placement etc.

Science or religion -Whatever be it, I think it would be wise to be precautious if we are driving through such a spot.

What do you want today?

I am becoming very predictable. These days any time I go to any of the fast food places that I usually frequent during lunch, they seem to know what I want. I have this habit of eating specific food at specific places and as soon as I walk in, people there guess what I want even before I tell them. It’s probably because I am the only guy getting the same vegetarian dishes day in and out.

It’s embarrassing sometimes when I walk in and the person there says ‘So what do you want today? Veggie sandwich?’.

The hype about American Idol

Somehow it seems that everybody is obsessed with American Idol. I don’t see the show much and I can’t understand why it’s creating such a sensation like it’s a crisis. It’s after all a cheesy television show with no values in it. It’s mostly filled with misfits and people just watch it for insults that the judges make.

Why does the entire popular newscast talk about it all the time? Why do they care if some guy Sanjaya, who is supposedly, not as talented as others keeps progressing in the show? I don’t mind if the news appears on the entertainment section of the newspaper. But it really bothers me when I see it as a headline. I am just waiting for this show to end and for all the hype and buzz to be over.

Smoking inside a theatre

I never thought this would happen here in the US.But it did. There was this guy smoking inside a theater and nobody ever questioned him. It was very unpleasant and we had to move to a different seat to avoid smoke. It totally ruined our movie experience. I was surprised that the smoke detector did not go off.

How do Private Equity firms do it?

Chrysler is up for sale. I am sure many private equity funds and individual investors are lining up to bid for it.

The ideology of these private equity funds is to buy a company which is weak currently, somehow improve it and then sell it to somebody else/make it public again and make money out of it. But the question I really have in my mind is, if a private equity firm has the confidence to turn around a company, why can’t the current company management do that? This always baffles me. I am sure there is a very good explanation for it. Please share if you know the reason. I am curious.

Prejudiced mind

Some people are very loud. There is this guy at work who talks really loud that I can hear his conversations clearly even though he doesn’t sit close to me. Because of his loud voice, people generally surmise that he doesn’t do much work. They see him mostly as a big talker and not as a big doer, even though this is not essentially true.

It is true that sometimes your personality overrides everything you do. You are almost always judged based on your personality if you are too bombastic in your actions. For some reason there is a perception in our minds that big doers are generally not pompous in their actions. Even though this is not essentially true, this I think is a great example of how prejudiced we are in some common situations.

Hard to accept!

One thing I have noticed is that if someone gives an advice that is contradictory to a popular belief, they are usually booed out. There is this guy Robert Kiyosaki, who writes in the financial section at Yahoo. He almost always writes a column suggesting how it is dumb to invest long term in Stock Markets and rather beneficial to invest in Real Estate and Precious metals. If you look at the comments to his article, most people just make fun of his assessments. Another glaring historical example I can think of is Galileo. We all know what happened to him when he opposed the popular belief at that time that Earth is the center of the universe and not sun.

I think it’s tough to think beyond years and years of beliefs/ideas implanted in our minds. If somebody comes up with a contradictory idea, we are almost always, not very welcoming of that idea. Even if our common sense tells us that the other person might be correct, we still prefer to go with our ingrained belief and ideologies. If not for this inexplicable odd behavior in us, people would have been able to look beyond religions, faith and bad principles and live a happy and harmonious life.

To Lick or not?

The other day I went to the post office to mail some documents. I realized that I needed a bigger envelope than what I got and decided to buy one on the counter. I stuffed the document in and realized that I had to lick it to close it. I was so embarrassed to lick it in front of the person in the counter. Thank God the guy had a cello tape. I asked him to put that instead of me licking it. The counter guy said that he was waiting to see if I am going to lick it or not with a chuckle in his face.

It was one of those awkward moments.

Over the counter!

Aren't you afraid when a popular drug company suddenly pulls their popular drug of the market citing patient concerns?

I think you all remember the days when Pfizer and other big pharmaceutical corporations pulled their popular arthritis medicine off the shelf citing concerns. If I was one of them taking the medicine, I would be deeply disturbed. Call me crazy, but I like to avoid drugs as much as possible unless it's a serious condition.

On the other hand there are people who gobble up drugs like Tylenol, aspirin even if they sense slightest discomfort. I think Human body is more adaptable than we think. I sincerely feel that it’s not a good idea to be taking too many over the counter drugs for slightest of problems.

What do you think?