Judgement Day, Rapture and Harold Camping

So, the judgment day did not come as Harold Camping predicted, though he said the Bible guarantees it. What does it mean? One way this could mean that he proved Bible is wrong. Who is the loser here? Those fools who believed in him. Many people sold their assets and donated that money to Camping (May be Camping’s people bought these assets at cheap rates), some gave away, there were lots of garage sale…those who did these kind of foolish activities lost everything. And Camping? (He said he will comment tomorrow. That is May 23 2011. May be he need more time to come up with something like 'God said not enough number and hence we need to convert more' ?)

He knew Judgment day is on May 21 2011 6pm pst sharp (So, Jesus is American and he follows pacific time with daylight saving?) But he was clever enough to apply for tax extension for 2011 in advance (now he has more time to file tax returns. His plan B?)

He did not forget to renew his ‘Family Radio’ (owned by him) license for 2012

He asked for donations well in advance (for doomsday advertisement)

I don’t know what this means but they did book meetings past May 21 2011

Look at this evangelist’s financial position:

As per his 2007 Balance sheet, (that is the latest I can find. It is available in MinistryWatch.com site. His ministry is Family Stations Inc) his total assets amounted to $152 million. And as per his 2009 tax returns, he declared that he got $18 million as donations. See? this is self-explanatory...

He cleverly discounted people’s faith and converted that into money, just like many people in God business.

Next is the final episode, which is end of the world, that is going to happen exactly on October 21 2011 (as per his prediction). That is when God is going to destroy Earth by sending fire and brimstones from the sky (and kill 97% of Earth’s population and then send them to hell - 3% was supposed to go to heaven yesterday- OMG!)

When will people learn?

May 21 2011

So, for some people the world is going to end by tomorrow, May 21 2011. The placard shown by some guy here in Oakland read “Bible guarantees it”. Does it mean that the Pope did not read Bible? Or he did and did not understand anything? Come on..

But this benefited some clever guys (I do not know whether there is a nexus between the sponsors of doomsday and these guys). They came out with new life time insurance for pets at an one time premium payment, at a 'premium' price. The logic behind this scheme is that Jesus will take ONLY selected people with him and as of now animals are not there in his list. So, if the pet owner gets selected, who will take care of the pet? This insurance people takes care of that responsibility, legally. Hundreds of people already took that insurance (as per yesterday's news report)

May be some guy(s) behind this publicity stunt is going to commit suicide and he/they want to take as many scapegoats as possible with him/them… But if he/they survives tomorrow, what is there to lose? He/they got the world publicity he/they wanted and he/they can come up with something for Jesus not coming to save…. Probably a flight delay?

Path

She said left

He said right

They parted away

A Lioness Woe

The Lioness in the cage

Had a lovely forest past.

Now she has a city cub and

She doesn’t know how to

Tell her son that they

Do not belong here.

Organic Thoughts and a GPS

I happen to have some mail conversations and chats with some of my friends regarding my hometown, global warming, organic food, GPS ,maps etc. and this made me think about my own life style change.

The other day I was travelling using the GPS application in my phone. I had to stop for lunch but I forgot to turn the GPS off. I went to the rest room first and as soon as I entered the rest room, the GPS said ‘Turn left….’ and that was kind of embarrassing. I wasn’t using GPS to find where exactly the urinal is but it sounded like that.

These days we use GPS system to find almost every place- like to find a place of worship, post office, rest area, hotel, beach, pizzeria, gas station, mall,…There was no GPS during my childhood and I have not seen anybody using any kind of maps either, to travel. Till I came to US I had not used even a road map to move around (but yes, I had collected some route directions from those who have already been to those places). When we send a search request to find an ATM near us, we don’t even realize that we are sending signals to 4 or more satellites which are thousands of miles away. I have experience of losing way even while travelling with the help of a GPS. This made me wonder about world travellers like Monk Hsuan Tsang who successfully travelled from China to India over a thousand years ago…The three wise men (probably astrologers) travelled hundreds of miles to see Jesus, 2000 years ago…Later, Jesus Christ travelled all the way to India without GPS…amazing.

(They all took help from the sun, moon , stars and the earth’s magnetic field, I know.. but still it is amazing)

Had to tell one of my friends how my native city was some 40 years ago. The tap water was potable and we never even heard of water filter or any such purifying system. Water from the wells tasted great and it never gave any diarrhea, though it was natural home for many insects. Bottled water did not even exist in my place, that time. The air was cleaner and I don’t know whether ‘pure oxygen’ was sold in pharmacy stores like they do these days.

Couple of times, I heard President Obama speaking of the importance of investing in cleaner energy sources. I do not know whether this talk was because of the pressure to stop the oil wars. We had used firewood based ovens for cooking (from firewood to kerosene was a big upgrade that time). Was that a prehistoric way of cooking? Then how come traditional BBQ is still modern and civilized?

‘Don’t forget to switch off the lights during earth hour”…..

We never had any special hour for earth during my childhood, though we loved mother earth. Our tradition taught us to consider earth as a goddess as well as our mother. I happen to see that some of the pathway lights here are on 24/7. And it was surprising for me to see that many corporates here keep hundreds of lights on even during weekends/holidays (when nobody is working). We had very little electrical equipment during my childhood. That table fan of ours was a luxury and we mainly used it when we had guests. It looks like my dad never used an electric iron in his entire life. He ironed his cloths using a traditional coal based iron box till his last days.

We used to grind kitchen stuffs manually – like rice, green gram, black gram etc. We made dough and batter using our hands (with the help of grinding stones etc …there are some other traditional stuffs but I don’t know its name in English) and not with any blender or mixer. We kids ran to grocery stores making vroooom sound assuming that we are driving a car or a motor bike. We walked to school and used bus or taxi only when we had to travel more than 2 miles (or so, or when there is an urgency/emergency). During my childhood I never even thought of machines that could wash and dry cloths. We washed our cloths and dishes with our hands (this I did till I came to US. Here in US, there is no washing soap – we can find it in Asian stores). There weren’t any obese kids in our school (except some from rich families). And hence there weren’t any juvenile diabetes caused by obesity. Kids, parents and even grandparents, everybody did some natural ‘exercise’ every day as part of our day to day activity.. When I was 6 years old, I was able to and used to walk to school which was 3 miles away… Gyms were only for those who are very serious about body building and they were hard to find..

By the way, will switching off lights for one hour save this planet? I asked couple of people in what way this helps prevent global warming and I did not get any proper answer. Yes, it is symbolic and may be it has some chain/cascading effects too but many a times for some people and organizations it is just a fad. Somebody said ‘the heat from the bulb…’ Well, if that is the case, look at this – here in US, most of the cars turn on headlights even during day time. This means a million headlights turned on during day time, very single day (personally I found this useful while driving in freeways) which definitely can increase the atmospheric temperature.

Carbon dioxide is considered (by many ‘scientific people’ and organizations) as the main greenhouse gas. After seeing the US lifestyle, I asked myself this question – where does the carbon dioxide from the carbonated drinks go? Why this aspect is not at all considered as an environmental issue? Here people empty tons of gallons of soda and beer every day. There is no US without soda and beer. It is the same with many European countries. At this point, we need to look into one thing – how many global warming research organizations got funds from soda companies?

Why is China (and India) ALWAYS blamed for CO2 related issues? Even the USA flags we get here in US stores are made in China ! Go to any store here and we find less than 5% ‘Made in USA’ items. Out of that 95%, 80-90% is Chinese products. This means China has lots of industries and factories. US is a capitalist nation and they never want to help a communist country (the Vietnam War is a proof). So?

So, it is clear that this happened so because of corporate vested interest to boost profits by utilizing China’s cheap labor, infrastructure cost and other production costs and not- so- strong environmental laws. If industries in China are polluting the environment, it is for and because of the corporates and MNCs from the west (And this policy is one of the major reasons for the current recession in US). If I have a factory in another country that is polluting the environment, whom should I blame, myself or that country and its people?

So, CO2 is a big problem? Look at the creation. The creator created both plants and animals. Animals breathe in oxygen and breathe out CO2. Plants take CO2 and gives out oxygen…awesome. That means, if we are facing issues related to excess CO2, it also means we need more natural plants and trees (not plastic ones).

Plastic wasn’t a big player during my childhood. I never had a plastic lunch box. We had more of stainless steel, aluminum and copper utensils. We had aluminum ‘school bags’ (box shaped)and metallic pencil boxes.

How did we buy milk, 40 years ago? Some families had cows at home. They used to sell excess milk and we go to their house with some stainless steel utensil. Or, milkmen used to come to our place and he pours milk into what utensil we hand him over to, which usually were stainless steel or aluminum. Then it became glass bottles. These glass bottles were re-usable. Same was the case with soft drinks. There was coke and Fanta during my childhood too but they all were in glass bottles and not in plastic bottles. We used to carry cloth bags to market or grocery stores. Veggies were directly put into those bags and grocery items were packed in paper bags. We hardly used any insecticides and chemical fertilizers. I myself had a small kitchen garden where I had a kind of pea, tomato, green chili, eggplant, ladies finger, yam, plantain/banana etc (and rose, jasmine, shoe flower etc ).

So, 40 years back, I was eating organic food almost every day? I did not know how lucky I were during that time. After all these years of scientific developments and new food pyramids, now we are asked to stay away from genetically modified foods and grab organic ones ….

Years passed and passed....And now? Limiting the use of electric and electronic equipments, daily walking and exercise, organic food, eating more fruits and veggies, going organic, avoiding plastic, car pooling, cotton shirts, handmade soaps and other goods, herbal, natural and alternative medicine, Yoga... what the..?

It is nothing but going back to the roots but at a cost with a strange price tag.

The Easter Feast

Another Easter just passed....

It was a Sunday morning of some 16 years ago. I heard a knock knock on the door. I came out from my room and saw my then best friend smiling at me, carrying something in her hand. She wished me 'Happy Easter'. She was in a hurry and said she need to go to church (was the lead female singer in an evangelical band. Did some cassettes/records too). She brought something to eat. Her family was going through some hard time, financially, and hence what she brought wasn't anything feasty but something simple and homemade.

What matter is the willingness, intention and heart..

That was the best Easter feast in my life, and it always will be..

Cannibal

He ate brains to boost his brain
Testicles to boost his sex
Human fetus for his health and
They called him civilized.

I accidentally bit
My tongue and
'Drank' my own blood
And they called me
A cannibal.

It's Libya...

The US got another war to fight - Libya. In what way Libya’s internal issues concerns the US? If the rocketing gas price in US would not come down after the war, I don’t know what concern it is. Is it because the US love to save the common man in Libya? you got to be kidding..

For a moment, this war made me think about the greatest war that was fought in India, some 5000 years ago. In the long past, there were 6000 odd other wars that were fought here but this war stands out because of the sheer presence of Lord Krishna in the war field which resulted in ever greatest Srimad Bhagavat Gita (He was Arjuna’s charioteer and did not fight).

This war happened some 5000 odd years ago. How civilized were the humans that time? were there any rules for fighting a war that time?

Yes, there were rules and they are clearly mentioned in Mahabharat. Let us look at some of those rules

• Warriors in chariots should attack only warriors in chariots, warriors on elephant with warriors on elephant and so on

• Soldiers on foot fight with soldiers on foot (a warrior in chariot can not shoot an arrow on to a soldier on foot but has to come down to ground to fight with a soldier on foot)

• No war after sunset and soldiers are allowed to visit the other side (just in case any of their friends or relatives are on the other side, which was the case in Mahabharatha war since it was between relatives)

• No one will attack someone without any weapon. In that case it is a man to man bare hand fight

• No attack on women, kids and elderly people

And now?

Islam and A Blue eyed Blonde Jesus !

After I moving to US, somebody from the largest Islamic country asked me couple of questions - How do US treat the muslims? Why many Christians change their religion to Islam etc. The question came with a 'what do you think?' prefix or suffix.. In what way my opinion matter if Christians change their religion to Islam when I do not follow neither of the religions? I don't know.

I had never thought about such a scenario till I face this question. But what do I think, if I have to think?

The outlook of the americans towards muslims changed after that 9/11 incident, thats a fact. Bin Laden even gave a direct message to US to accept Islam or face consequences. Attacking US (India too) is jihad for him/them. I live in a place which has considerable muslim population. This area is said to have the largest Afghan population in this State (or even country, not sure). I do not think they are being discriminated here at least in my locality. Or I better say I never felt so (no such news so far).

Why do Christians convert into Islam? I did not think about it. But this question made me recollect certain things that came and gone through my head. First of all, I am not sure about this conversions. But the person who asked me gave Michael Jackson as an example. Yes, thats true, sometimes back I too had blogged about his conversion. Then I realized that an acquaintance of mine too left Christianity and embraced Wicca. Some more conversions too went through my mind. Two of my acquaintances changed their faith to Islam to marry muslim guys (one Christian and one Hindu. Islam and Hinduism has polar difference at this point. There is no exit clause for Islam. If you change religion, you get death. In Hinduism there is total freedom – you worship Jesus, you worship Allah, you worship this or that, you don’t worship anything at all, you worship Satan, you change religion to a cat's of dog's or even donkey's religion, no questions asked. Hinduism do not believe in forcing religion on to others or even among Hindus). One thing common with couple of these people were that they were African Americans or dark skinned people. Is Islam picking up in African countries? Not sure but if it is, I am not surprised coz...

Last week, I was checking (at the largest online store in here in US/in the world) the list of the top selling books here in US . There was an interesting book which tells us about a boy's near death experience (NDE). What is interesting is that this boy claims that he went to heaven and met Jesus and even God (plus angels and some of his relatives -who died earlier- etc). This book is promoted as a true story and people are buying it and giving very high rating too. Surprisingly, lots of them believe that it is for real (personally, I do not believe because the book is written by his father who is an evangelist and the boy says funny stuffs like Angels always carry sword to fight with Satan etc. Sword? Oh yeah? So, they still live in the iron age? I expected at least a Light Saber...if that boy really had an NDE, I don’t think he is telling lies. But his these sort of experience can be very much explained in terms of psychology/para-psychology). But in what way this is connected to Islam?

How did the Jesus look like? He was tall , white skinned and had blue eyes. So, Jesus is a tall white man with blue eyes (there is a confusion regarding the color of his hair; some say its blonde and some say its chestnut). So, Jesus was probably an American?

I spent a lot of time reading stuffs here and there to find how the americans feel about Jesus. Many of the white people like this 'fact', they believe Jesus was a white man for sure (in reality, if they check Jesus's DNA, it would be closer to Bin Laden and not Gorge Bush !). But the problem here is when Jesus gets promoted as a blue eyed blonde white man, may be it is bit hard for the darker skinned people to digest (I have seen some pictures of Jesus where he was shown as a dark skinned man, may be this was to promote Christianity in Africa). But Prophet Mohammad wasn't a white man plus Islam believes in Jesus (as a messenger).

I have heard it from some of the very popular promoters of Islam that when Jesus comes again, he will be coming to testify to Christians that he never said he is God and he will be coming to re-assure the words of prophet Mohammad, the words or Allah, spoken in the Koran. According to Islam, Jesus's message was exclusively for Israel. I spend about 6 hours to listen to the talks and teachings of one of the 'islamic evangelists'. He speaks convincingly. I think even the celebrity evangelist/televangelist Benny Hinn can not counter his points. He says Jesus was a muslim and muslims are more christians than the present day christians because they follow the teachings of Jesus better than the christians....lots of stuffs like that

So, these new Jesus image and promotions could be one of the reasons why Christians are changing their religion to Islam. At least thats one possibility.

Sleep and the World

Sometime back I wrote about falling asleep during meditation. So, is sleeping heavily bad for spiritual growth? I did not say so. Sleep (at night) is always good. Look at one wonderful thing about sleep (apart from its healing properties).

Science may not accept this at present but at least some people know/think that our thoughts also play some role in creating the environment around us. As we know, thoughts have some connection with our desires because desires can influence our thoughts. Dreams have some connection with our desires. Many dreams, especially the repeated ones,  could be the reflections of our deep rooted desires. When do we dream? We dream when we are asleep.

By observing our dreams, chiefly the repeated ones,  we can trace some of our deep rooted desires residing within us which could play a role in creating ‘our world’.

So, we can use our dreams as a tool to analyze and assess the strength of our desires and modify it to enhance even our spiritual growth.

See?

 

Story of Stories

In every tradition, there are many beliefs and some stories behind it. For example, in India, people used to say

“While sleeping if you keep your head facing towards north, you will die (early)”

To support that they might say the story of how Lord Ganesha got his elephant head (the elephant was sleeping keeping its head facing north. The story has no importance here so I am skipping that). This story will keep kids away from keeping their head towards north.

(Now science has explanation for this belief in terms of magnetism and how our health is affected if we sleep that way)

In my native State,  to get relief from neck sprain there is this belief among the elderly to keep a ‘nazhi’ (a round measuring cup) under the neck and rest. Now docs and physio therapists ask us to roll up a towel and keep it under our neck and rest or use a cervical pillow (btw, some people still do not know the logic and insist in keeping exactly the ‘Nazhi’ …..its their ignorance)

If those ‘wise guys’ of the long past knew the reason behind it,   why didn’t they say it straight instead of making up some stories?

Ever heard of 'grandma stories'? Yes, every one of us. (But what about grandpa stories? Well, at least I am not sure about such stories). In every country and tradition, it was the grannies that used to tell stories. Women were the one who used to take care of the babies and kids. They used to feed them telling stories; they used to put the babies to sleep telling stories. Some stories were just stories and some stories had something within it.

Women in India never used to go to school in the past. Men were the bread earners and women were the ones who took care of the household things. The beauty those old stories is that everybody can understand it, at least the story part. Those old grannies were illiterate but they always had lots and lots of stories to tell. They gave turmeric telling a story and not telling that its an anti-septic.. they gave pepper with another story...there comes garlic with a glass of story...

We don’t need to be educated to listen to such a story or to tell a story. So, those ‘wise ones’ made things simple (well, in India, they also made stories with super depth,  which demands higher understanding, with a different purpose) – instead of trying to explain how things are and making it complicated, they passed the knowledge through stories. It is true that there were lots of people who really did not care for or understood the logic and they kept telling stories ( In this ‘modern' era too many people take even medicines without reading the ingredients!).  

Story time…

“Athazhamundal ara kaatham nadakkanam”

(After having dinner, one must walk a little)

A Parallel World !

Do parallel worlds exist?  Look at this:

I live in the ground floor of a wooden apartment (which has three floors). Somebody lives just above my apartment who always creates some sort of noise…. Stuffs falling, heavy stamping.. From my observation, he works from home and that too at night. When I am in the hall, he stamps and pounds just above me.. At night, when I rest in my bedroom, he too moves to his bed room and starts pacing or stamping just above me creating creaky noises and mild ‘bangs’.

I am convinced that parallel worlds do exist !

Christ and Kali

In some Hindu homes we can see this picture of Goddess Kali. She is the most ferocious and fearful form of God. Her tongue is out and all red.. holds the head of a demon she just killed… holds lots of weapons.. What is the point of having such a God concept? Actually, it is not to scare anybody but to scare away the scary things.

Hinduism teaches to love God. We don’t get scared by those who we love irrespective of their looks. So, when one learns to love such a scary figure treating her as mother, nothing is scary. That is the logic behind it. I personally knew couple of Kali worshippers and they were never scared of the dark. 

But what if that picture scares one and keeps them away from that picture at night? I think such a person should remove that picture from the pooja room/place. Hinduism offers lots of God forms (including the formless) to suit all kinds of worshipers. That person better choose something which is comfortable for him/her ( There is a reason/logic why there are many different forms).

Once a Christian friend of mine told:

“We hate Jews because they crucified our Jesus”

I asked:

“Do you have that cross at home? The crucified Jesus?”

I got the answer “Yes”

The very idea of Jesus in the cross is not to remind who killed him (or that is what I personally believe). So, if what that cross bring is the memory of his killers, I think one better replace that with a picture of Jesus holding a lamb close to his heart. I think His life was there to teach love and not hatred.

Winter Sport !

I have blogged about many of my vacation trips in the past. But I have never done this kind of a trip in my life so far where I almost reached my destination but could not make it…where there were signs/omens but I did not read it…

I was waiting for the winter to come to see some snow and do some winter sport. Since there is no snow in our place, I decided to visit Lake Tahoe where it snows and lot of winter activities happen. 

I booked a hotel well in advance to get a competitive rate. The trip was planned on 20^th of this month (December). On 19^th, I did some last minute purchase (some gloves, caps etc) and we were all set. We wished to reach there before check in time (3 pm) coz the sun sets very early and then it will be difficult to drive since there will be snow fall during evening/night.

I could not sleep well at night and I woke up with severe headache and thus the trip got delayed for 2 hours. When I was about to enter the road from driveway, there came a ‘red’ truck and there came a thought in my mind ‘ is that any warning?’ then I thought ‘how can I be such a superstitious person?’. As soon as I entered the road, there came a red car for which I had to stop. Then I thought maybe these are coincidence or just a warning to be a little careful. So, there we gooooo

Since we started late, I wished ‘if only the traffic lights were all green, I could save lot of time’. The first light was green, so was the second, third, forth, fifth… hey this is great !

We had checked the Google map for planning and I use GPS to drive. GPS showed a different route than the Google one. But we followed the GPS. But all of a sudden, for no reason, the GPS said ‘recalculating’  and came with a different route. Usually this happens when there is traffic jam/block etc and it also depends on the settings. This time, we had no idea (usually it is my wife who handle the GPS and route and I just drive. So she is good with GPS stuff than me but even she could not find out why the route changed). We missed a billboard which gave a warning about some road closure. We did not care much coz our GPS has traffic update and it can tell us which road is closed and where the traffic is heavy.

We started climbing hills. The temperature started dropping. 5, 4, 3, 2 …I was thrilled and kept looking at the thermometer. I was waiting for 0 to come and finally there it is minus one…wow. It was a great feeling and there it is – SNOW. I saw a board ‘Chains required’ but did not see any car with tire chains. I have seen similar boards like 'ICY' and something related to tire chains during summer too. So, I thought these boards are always there.

Before traveling we asked one person who already have done this route and he said he did not use any chain though there was snow. And I read that there are places where we can stop our car and put chains and there will be professional people who we can hire. I had practiced how to put chains but since I did not feel any difficulty in driving and saw nobody is using chains, I went on. I thought there will be BIG snow ahead where we might require chains. On and off, I saw these guys who were removing snow from the road driving bulldozer and some other equipment (I still do not know its name)

Then, the GPS stopped working…it could not load maps. There is no phone signal and hence we can not make any calls, nor any search. I told my wife:

“I wonder why we are the only people in this road”

Then there I saw another black car (mine is black) ahead of me. It was a relief but then I saw him turning back. I went ahead and it looked dead end for me. There is no road but HUGE ice or snow or whatever. And there goes a road on to my right. Wife said she is sure that our road was supposed to be a straight road and there is no need to take right turn. We were just 30 miles or less away from our destination

So, I turned back and asked a driver of one of those bulldozers. He said

‘Lake Tahoe is that way but the road is blocked and it might take a day to open this road. You have to go all the way down…..” and he gave us a different route (which was the Google route, which had less trouble).

Then there came another guy and he told me:

“You are not using chains. If the highway patrol see you, you MIGHT get a ticket”

I said thanks to them , turned back and proceeded. My wife started getting worried coz – it is snowing, we need to climb down all the way and this will take longer than we expected, may be 2-3 hours more and by that time it will be night.. and she said

“This is what that billboard said, I guess…it said this road is closed ”

But then why the GPS did not inform us? No idea..It gave us the worst route..…

Everywhere it is snow and ice and it made me happy rather than worried and the happiness weighed more, may be. But this does not mean that I was not worried. And I felt I better put chains but there came a thought:

“the road is closed so, there is no chance for police patrolling this road and that driver said I MIGHT get a ticket so chains may not be mandatory ” and wife just said “yes” she was not worried about the chains but other things coz I was driving without any problem. Then….

I spotted a police vehicle well ahead of me and I pressed break. I was on the right side, obviously, closer to the center of the road, but the car started moving to left, skidding. I am going in the wrong direction. There is no control even after putting the hand brake. The car moved slowly and hit a huge chunk of snow and stopped (luckily, coz I think else we could have fallen into the valley....I do not know coz everything was covered in snow). I wasn’t worried and did not lose my presence of mind and managed to back it slowly and proceed further. By that time the police van disappeared. But I said:

“I think we need to put the chains”

We were going down and hence I thought I will stop at some level/even place or turn out place. There was one such place but it was already occupied by the cop! And he caught the other black car. I stopped my car and started putting the chain. Then the cop reversed his van and asked what happened and I told him that I am putting chains. Then he said:

"Follow me and pull over there". I did.

He came out of the van, so did I (we are not supposed to come out of the car when a cop stop us. But he will come to us. Not like India). He asked:

“So, you stopped there coz you knew that you cannot pass me without chains, right?”

“No, sir… Those bulldozer drivers asked me to put chains and I was looking for a right place…I am driving on such conditions for the first time in my life”

He stared at me and asked:

“Did you see those board reading chains required?, there were many of them”

“Yes”

“Then why you did not put chains while coming up? You were supposed to do that”

I had no proper answer and I said I did not find a proper place. As a matter of fact, I expected some special places with pros available to help (that is what the internet say). He did not agree:

“No, there were lots of places”

I just said “I am sorry sir” and he said “can I see your driver license, registration and insurance?

So, it is a ticket ! So far I have a clean driving record and here I am going to get my first ticket…This really made me very sad.

He asked me to go ahead with my chain thing and wrote a ticket. I was wearing a normal woolen glove and the temperature was minus 5. BIG mistake. There was a chunk of snow between the tire and the body of the car. I wet my hand…when I finished putting the chains, my hand/fingers froze (then I remembered my Romanian friend saying “if you do not protect yourself in minus temperatures, it will result in frostbite. And even might result in amputation” )

Cop gave me lots of advice and issued a ticket. My hands was paining like hell and became numb. I switched on heater and changed into another thicker glove. Slowly the pain started going away and I can feel my fingers…what a relief…

After sometime, the GPS started working and said some direction and then again it failed. This time it did not even turn on. But last time, what it said was to take a left turn. But that left turn was filled with heavy snow (coz snow wasn't removed).  I turned and my wheels got stuck, I cannot move at all. Wheels started spinning and the car started coming back. I told my wife:

“It is impossible for us, even with chains. Only 4 wheel drive cars can go through this road”

We were already late (coz of the chain I was driving at 20 miles per hour)..the sun started setting, GPS not working, no phones working, no cars passing, no food to eat, there is no restaurants around, no houses around, it’s snowing and the temperature is minus 5 or 6…

I managed to back my car from the snow, safely and started moving very slowly coz the road has become icy. I went further and said:

“I feel like there is no chain”

I stopped the car and checked…the chain is gone ! we need to turn back safely, go up and get it but what if the cop finds me again without chains?

I was sure that it might have lost in that huge snow.. and yes, it was there buried deep inside that snow I pulled it out but it was damaged !! Luckily I had some tool to fix it. But will it last for the entire trip? No idea.

Chain again and there we go…then the road looked better and I decided to remove the chain. There still was snow on the sides of the road but the middle looked fine. I stopped the car, removed the chain and said:

“what about taking a picture of mine?” and my wife became angry and said:

“Are you crazy? I just can’t believe you, really, I just can’t believe you”

“Ok, fine, no photo then.”

I told I want to make this trip and ready to drive through snow at night, taking the risk. But wife said we better go back home. It was a big disappointment for me. But I said:

“Yes, it looks like something tells us to go back… we are going back home…when you can make a call, call up the hotel and tell them that we cannot make it”

GPS started working and it worked all the way till we reach home and then became dead again.

Finally, its home sweet home….

Man ! , what a trip !

Life in the US - Part 2

County Libraries are one of the wonderful things here. The membership is free and we can borrow 75 books at a time! But the same reason becomes a con because people take more books than they want and thus most of the popular books will not be available (we can book a book). Libraries provide almost all info we need, for free. Means, they will provide free internet, info on schools and colleges, the California driver handbook, info about social security, upcoming events in that locality etc. There are lots of big print edition books for the elderly people. They keep lots of magazines and lots of other language books too (like, Hindi, Farsi, Chinese, Tagalog etc). Apart from books we can borrow Audio and Video CDs/DVDs too. With a single membership, we can use the facilities of the other libraries that come under that county.  

One thing when could not avoid noticing here is the lack of electric switches, in most cases. Most of the panel has only sockets but no switch. This is mentioned by Jackie Chan in his latest ‘Karate Kid’ movie. When the kid says ‘we do not have switch in America’ he says ‘keep switch and save the planet’. Yes, we have 24 hours hot water. Electrical equipment are just plugged into the socket and there is no ‘on or off’ concept, in general (of course there is switch for stuffs like in sink garbage disposer)

Unlike India, we cannot directly consult a specialist. As per the ‘system’ we need to consult our primary care physician and then that doc has to refer to respective specialist. If we break this system and visit Urgent Care or Emergency Room, we will end up paying more money. Some basic insurance might not even cover such visits.

Initially I thought I will take up some university course here. But the reality is education is very expensive here. So, most people (citizens) avail educational loans to study. Back in my native place, lots of people have a college degree and here it is not the case. Even in IT field, many of the locals are not computer engineers. That is one of the reasons why Asians dominate here in IT field.

It’s a rich country, but there is poverty and unemployment here in US too. And at present, it’s very high.  Recently the government cut funds for most of the things. But surprisingly they have funds for war, always. One reason for unemployment is the outsourcing. It’s not just some software but lots and lots of other things too. Go to any shop and try to find something ‘Made in USA’ and its tough time to find. Most items are Chinese and Americans really do not like it. They consider it as cheap quality. But there is not much choice left. This might sound surprising, but it’s a reality that Dell do not make any computer here in US, though Dell is a US company. There is not even a single company in US which makes spoons, forks and knives. Same with canned sardine, Levi jeans and cell phones (including iphone4) – none of these are made here. Here the labor cost is high and hence the corporates just invest their money on other countries to double or triple their return.

This country is strange. Here we can find people from almost every other country. Many ‘real’ Americans do not like this (including one of my acquaintances). This country gives citizenship even through lottery system. People from most of the Asian counties like India, Philippines, China etc cannot participate in the lottery system currently since their population is very high here. But people from lots of other country can participate in the lottery and if they win, they can come here and get settled. Looks like the founders of US wanted to make this a cosmopolitan country. 

That’s how things are here….

So? 

So, God bless America !