Golden Gate Bridge was in my ‘must watch’ list since months. But ‘the time’ did not arrive till last Saturday, that isMay 8th2010.
I had heard about this bridge loooong back, when we studied about the wonders of the world. But that time, I had no idea that one day I would see it for real. This bridge, built on Pacific Ocean to connect the SF peninsula to the Marin County, is THE symbol of San Francisco. When we consider this was built on 1937, this is really amazing.
Apart from being one of the seven wonders of the world, this bridge holds another credit – United State’s most popular suicide point…. the place where world’s most suicides happen.Now, pedestrians are not allowed in the bridge at night. Somebody suggested and designed a suicide net to prevent the jumps but there is no fund. The documentary film ‘The Bridge’ is based on this bridge and its suicides. I did not watch that documentary yet but it is said that they captured some real suicide jumps. Wonder what was important, filming a suicide or preventing the jump…I don’t know. If they prevent, may be those guys would go to some other place and die.
What if one do not die after jumping from this bridge? Should we call them lucky or unlucky? I don’t know. The bridge is very high (abt 75 meters from sea water) and when somebody jumps from there, he/she reaches at a speed of over 120 km/hour before hitting water.If we fall from such heights to water, it is as good as jumping from a 75 m high building onto the floor. Science says the property of water is like that……its kind of immediate death.But still, some people did not die… lucky or unlucky?
Anyway, I would call myself lucky and unlucky. Lucky, for being able to see the bridge myself…and unlucky?
My Golden Gate visit gave me another everlasting memory. I accidently passed through the FastTrack toll gate without paying toll and now eagerly waiting for my first ticket in the US !
When a (virtual) friend of mine came to know that I am a vegetarian, told me that she will make me eat cow’s meat when I visit her. Why cow? Because I am a Hindu and Hindu’s (generally speaking) consider cow as a holy animal. Of course, I know she was not serious about it and even prepare some vegetarian dish if I ever visit her. But since cow’s meat got dragged into the talk, we happened to discuss some ‘religions, eat meat !’ things.
Muslims do not eat pork not because it is holy for them but they consider pig as one of the dirtiest animals in this planet, unlike a Hindu’s view on cow who considers cow as mother.
If I am not wrong, Old Testament is applicable for all Abrahamian religions (in general. I understand that there are new religious sects who keep a Bible which has only New Testament and they do not read or follow Old Testament).
The Bible says:
Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
-Genesis 1:29-30
Adam and Eve were provided with fruits and vegetables, as food, in the Eden garden.
Ah, then comes Saint Paul and his letter to Romans saying all food is clean (Christians who eat pork takes cover under this). More than half of the New Testament is written by St.Paul…. Who is this St.Paul?
During my Bible study period (and even now) I got this feeling of ‘Bible is tampered with or manipulated’ feeling . This St.Paul was not one among Jesus’ direct disciples and the worst, he never even met Jesus. If we check a Red Letter Bible (there is something called red letter bible where whatever is spoken by Jesus is printed in red and rest in black), red letters are very few. It would be just couple of pages. So, I have never taken this St.Paul very seriously and even suspect many things are written by somebody else in the name of St.Paul.
Jesus is considered as somebody who preached love and compassion. There is a popular picture of Jesus with a lamb. When we look at it, what impression we get? Does it look like he is going to kill that animal and eat?
That answer is a big NO
.
There was a research done on ‘the Last Supper’ picture and it was found out that the food items on the table are growing more and more, though it started with bread and wine. Why there was no meat on last supper? After a decade or so this bread and wine picture will slowly vanish and it can even end up with pork with an apple in its mouth!
So, was Jesus Christ a vegetarian? Recent studies tell that there is high possibility. Some even believe that he indeed was a vegetarian. A Google search ‘was Jesus a vegetarian’ now gives over a million results, see? Lots and lots of people started thinking that way, because he was man of compassion. Lots and lots of people are now curios about his life between his thirteen and thirty period. The journey of Jesus the carpenter to Jesus the Christ…any search on this connection also leads to a million search results…
Read Bible a thousand times and we cannot find a teaching from Jesus which says ‘Have compassion only to humans’. His compassion and love was not just limited to human race. He did love animals and he had compassion for them. How can such a person kill an animal and eat it?
How do we get meat these days? Those animals are grown just for meat. They are genetically grown in such a way that they have more flesh. Thus most of the grown up chickens, pigs and other animals cannot even stand on their feet. Of course they try to stand up since its natural instinct and then breaks their legs. Then its pain, agony…
Just like we humans, animals too suffer from pain. That is why the pharma companies and the researchers try their new medicines includingthe pain killer drugs on animals… Some religions do not even allow animals to be stunned before being slaughtered. If we check YouTube , we can get some idea how these animals are being killed for meat in modern day….Will Jesus eat meat if he see how this animals are grown, treated and killed? No way !
Jesus in the Cross tried to tell us about such pain…He tried to pass some message....but who cares?
“If this is the way you make tea, it is better we drink milk”
That’s a comment I heard from a relative when my wife told how she makes tea. The tone was as if my wife is making it in a wrong way or as if she doesn’t know how to make tea. Well, I am not trying to justify my wife but she makes good tea and it’s not at all like drinking milk, in fact she likes to drink strong tea. The statement from that person was unrealistic and exaggerated. But that is not the point here…how to make a cup of tea?
I am not going to tell how exactly we can make a cup of tea because people are different and they all have their own way of making tea or liking tea. It is not like drinking Coke which has a standard around the world. In my native State, if we ask for just tea in ‘Tea Shops’, they might not consider the request complete till we specify what kind of tea we want – Light, Medium or Strong….. India is the second largest producer of Tea in the world and we consume lot of it. Here most of us know how to make a cup of tea the way we like it. So?
So, the thing is if somebody thinks my way is the only right way to make tea and others are wrong, it’s just ignorance.
We gets such comments for almost everythingand the worst part is that it's free of charge and we don’t even have to ask for it… the way we have arranged furniture in our home, the color of the car we chose, cot, fridge, our shoes, dress, toothbrush… does everyone in this world has the same likes, dislikes, thoughts, inhibitions, fears, ambitions, emotions, views, talent, aptitude, fantasies…..though God created man in His image? Is nature filled with just one kind of tree, rose, spider, rat, snake, orchid, coconut palm, jasmine, ant, rice, mango, banana….??
The point is making tea is also like believing in God, His forms, and His ways…
This was my first experience with saving the light act. Back in India, we never got any chance to save the day light. What people used to save was money and some non-perishable goods. I was trying (some people, including one of my teachers, think/believe that there is nothing like ‘trying’ .Sorry guys, it all depends on the way you look at it), to make my son understand why he has to go to bed an hour earlier than his usual time and wake up an hour early too. Kids are like that, they question us. And, one beauty of being a child is the ability to question things …. An ability many of us lose when we grow up.
I am pretty sure that I had studied about ‘day light saving’ in geography in 7th grade or so. I don’t remember what it was but definitely they might have told us some reasons and logics.Now I am sure that I might not have properly understood it.I never thought about day light saving after that geography lesson till I got befriended with an American some 4 years ago. I did not see that person online at a particular time for many days (without notice) and I started wondering what might have happened.I got a reply
‘Sorry, I forgot to update you about the day light saving ’.
For us, this year, it started on Sunday the 14th at 2 am. And how was it?
When I woke up at 7 am on 14th, the day looked darker compared to the 7 am of 13th. What is the logic behind this pushing our clocks one hour ahead? Well, there is no logic. Ask any astronomer or geographer and they would just shrug and point their finger at.........So, it is not that easy to make kids understand what exactly is happening.
When we look at the history of this daylight saving time (DST), we won’t see any astronomer or geographer but a biologist, George Hudson. In reality, he suggested that for personal benefit. He was an entomologist and he thought if he gets extended hours (oh yeah, he was willing to get up early) he can use it for collecting specimens. And he even suggested turning the clock two hours ahead. Some other guy supported it because he wanted to play golf after work. Then the politicians took this into their hand and started playing with it with inputs from businessmen. Russia and America hardly agree on anything and hence they never change the clock on the same day. Here in the US, each State has some freedom and hence the congressmen (yes, it’s a political decision to turn the clock at 2 am) in Arizona State decided to not to observe DST, though they are very part of the US.
Why somebody want to extend the time? There are many (controversial) theories. The advocates of DST claim that we can save energy since the usage is less in the afternoon coz of the extended day light. A study by the US Department of Transportation came out with data to support this theory. But the National Bureau of Standards reviewed this data and found incorrect and according to them, the energy saved is insignificant. This is because people wakes up early and starts their life early. A studyexclusively on California proved that there is no energy saved because of DST. So, it all depends on geographical factors, life style, technology, way of living and many other factors.
Some people thought it has great health benefits since people wakes up early. But this again went wrong. The group that got benefited by the extra sunlightis those who used it wisely by doing physical exercises or participated in some sports. Some studies show that DST leads to more exposure to sun which is one reason for (more) skin cancer. Another study shows the heart attack rates went up during the early days of the start of DST.Then comes the theory of reduced road accidents. Once again there were data to support this view and there were another set to disprove it. So who actually benefits from this time push?
It is the business world. Retailers can sell more since people gets more time to shop (in the evenings). Since retailers sell more, whole-sellers sell more and thus the manufacturers produce more. There was a study based on the data collected from 7-Eleven stores which showed that their sales increased by 30 million during this DST period (its an old study).
DST disturbs our normal sleep pattern. Those who are undergoing a therapy for insomnia are the ones who are in real trouble during this time shift. Companies with international clients and meetings also face some issues. Some countries abolished practicing DST since it resulted in more health related complications (eg. Kazakhstan ). China and Japan too dropped it. DST is kind of cheating…. sometimes coated with ignorance or vested interests. . I read somewhere that ‘…DST is not Uncle Sam’s idea but it was in existence even in the BC’. Was that really DST?. Those days, people adjusted their activities based on sunset and sunrise and they did not try to push the clock and fool themselves. And the ‘modern’ man?The modern man simply turns the clock forward and says:
‘Look, the sun sets very late these days !, isn’t it awesome?’
I hope, one day, the political leaders from all the countries would sit together and decide:
For anything and everything there is a day to celebrate, these days. Most of these days are invented by (greeting) card companies and some other multinational commercial establishments.There are some exceptions too. For example, March 8th is considered as International Women’s Day. But since it has some socialist connections, it’s not observed in most of the capitalist countries (and its allies?). It is even a holiday in some countries like Russia and China (only for women). But it’s ignored in the U.S.
Is there any such 'day' that I don’t like?
No, it’s not valentine’s day I am talking about but March the 14th. It is observed as the ‘Pi’ Day. This day fell on March (third month) 14 because the value of Pi is 3.14. So, what about countries who do not follow the mm.dd.yy ? There comes another day to console them, those who follow the dd.mm.yy, the Pi approximation day, which falls on 22ndof July (since the value of Pi is 22/7). Thus Pi enjoys two ceremonial days in every year. But how can I love this day? Math and me never were buddies..
Is that all? Nope, the worst thing is yet to come..
March 14th also happened to be ‘National Save a Spider Day’ !
What the heck ! Are they going to extinct? It is said that wherever we are, there is a spider within 3-10 feet close to us. They are there everywhere, over 40,000 species of them.On land, in the water, in the air (yes some of them travel by air without Visa and Passport using some balloon technology). Yes, I agree that spiders are one of the main predator of insects, but still, a save a spider day?
I hope there would come at least this ‘National Arachnophobia Day’ to those who have arachnophobia (No, I am not scared of spiders, especially the BIG BLACK SPIDERS !)
Mondays and March(s) weren’t friendly for me when I was a school boy. March always brought final exams. Mondays came with blues which disturbed the laziness that we hesitated to part with. I was born on a Monday, I got married in a March and my son was born in another March…
Though students and those who work hate Mondays, Monday is considered as a good/auspicious day in many religions. Fasting on Monday is popular in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam. May be it was there in earlier Christianity too but at some point of time they decided to ditch Monday coz they did not want to follow a Jewish custom (and opted Wednesday).
Monday is moon day and moon influence our mind, mood and feelings. Moon has some feminine connections too and in Hinduism, usually it’s the women who observe fasting on Mondays.
It was the start of the year and it is the start of spring…
This year’s birthday had a specialty. This was the first time in my life so far that I ‘celebrated’ my birthday abroad. India is kind of one day ahead of US. Astrologically, our birthday is connected to the day and date of our place of birth. But I decided to stick to US date and hence I got this chance to enjoy my first unbirthday.
Those who follow the tradition has one more day to celebrate. Because we (those who speak my mother tongue) have our own calendar and in that calendar what is more important is the ‘star’ and its ‘weightage’ than a specific date in that month. When I am writing this, I tried to remember my birthday according to our calendar and I realized that that particular data is now stored in a bad sector.
"....we are not our body, mind or emotions. We are divine souls on a wondrous journey. We came from God, live in God and are evolving into oneness with God. We are, in truth, the Truth we seek. Aum."
Since I have a commerce background too, the term credit is in my blood. That is how it is with anybody who was/is into accounting. There is no accounting without debits and credits. But what is this credit they are talking about?
Back in India, people hardly knew that there exists a credit bureau in our country.I had no idea that having a ‘credit’ has this importance here in U.S. till I actually faced the realities.
Here in the U.S., having a good credit has a lot to do with lots of things. I happened to see some ads by some people and firms who offer service to improve our credit. And some people gave some tips on building the credit. But to what extend these are true and how long will it take to build a good credit score?
What is a credit score, by the way? This is a three digit number, ranging from 300 to 850, arrived after doing some statistical analysis on our credit report; where a credit report is a report that shows the history of our past borrowings, repayment etc. There are bodies called credit bureaus who prepare these credit reports. U.S has three major bodies – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These organizations collect the information using many sources and tag this to a person’s Social Security Number. Since they collect information from different sources at different time, these reports may not show same score on a particular day.
The statistical method they use was originally developed by Bill Fair and Earl Isaac who then found the FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation). Some say there are other methods too, which I am not sure of. In fact, who knows how the data is analyzed and what formula they apply? At least I don’t know.
So, what is the fast and easy way to build a good credit history if we are new to this country? People might give many suggestions and we might find many people offering their service in this regard, but the reality is there is no easy way. Ask anybody here and the first thing they say is:
“Pay your bills on time”
What are the bills then? Rent, electricity, telephone bills, credit card bills…
To pay rent, we need to get a house for rent and for that we need a credit history (rent can be paid by cash or money orders too. So, in reality, if I am not wrong, rent and utility payments are not directly tracked by major bureaus, unless it’s not getting reported to other agencies like PRBC.). If there is no house to live in, from where does the electricity bill come from? We won’t get a post-paid mobile connection if we do not have a good credit history or else we need to keep a decent deposit varying from 500-1000 dollars depending on the type of phone and plan. None of the credit bureau bothers about the prepaid phones and the top ups we make. So what bill to pay?
So, is it all over?
Look at the entry gates to U.S or the Visas types . Tourists do not need any credit history. Those who are on business Visa are not eligible for Social Security and hence they are ruled out. Then what are left are these H-1B (work permit) holders, long term visa holders and students. H-1B holders already have a sponsor. If somebody can afford education here, they sure can afford some deposits and many a times they might even have some contacts here. Long term people already have their colleagues here. And from this environment arises our savior in the form of a ‘co-signer’.
Getting a co-signer with excellent credit history helps us jump those hurdles with ease. So, it’s not a big deal to start with. Then what are those fast track credit building methods?. Many of them are scams. Look at one scenario. Somebody suggested going for loans and repaying it. If we do not have good credit, first of all, the rate of interest would be high. Taking multiple loans and keeping the EMI small and extending the term might help us create more bills and easy payments. But if somebody thinks we can fool them that way, they are wrong. What are the factors they (credit bureaus) consider while calculating the score? Look at the weightage:
35%- payment history 30%- total debt outstanding 15%- length of time you've had credit 10%- types of credit 10%- new credit
Plus, one major criterion is our income. If we have a big pay check, we build the history fast. There is no fooling around here. Many a times it takes about 90 days for these agencies to track and update our payment history. So, is there any faster way for a good credit, without blocking our money?
Nope.
When AT&T asked for deposit, I felt like insulted coz I never was a defaulter in my life so far. But I know they did not mean to insult and that’s why they sent a personal letter telling that they got my credit info from so and so bureau and I can write to them. It takes some time and it all depends on our income, expenditure and repayment.It is said that it might take 6 months to 1 year to build a good credit.
All we need to do is to understand that this is how it works in this country and have some patience.
"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you're keeping all of these in the Air.
You will soon understand that work is arubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.
But the other four Balls - Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it."
This husband and wife were facing some issues with ‘getting along’. They never agreed on anything and hence one day they went to attend a talk on relationships. The speaker went on and on…
The husband thought: “Hope she got the message. I know the speaker meant her”
For once, surprisingly there was this unity and the wife too thought in the same direction !
Oscar was born in 2005. I don’t know the day, date or month. I have no idea how he happened to be in an animal shelter though he was cute. He got adopted by Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island (U.S.) as a therapy cat (Cats are known for making people comfortable). He wasn’t that friendly as a therapist and he once even bit a doc. His mission is different, it seems.
When he became a member of that Hospital, he was six months old (There are more therapy cats in that Nursing home). He grew up in the third floor which has the Dementia department (Dementia is a disorder where a person (usually elderly) face problems to reason, think , remember etc. Has links to Alzheimer’s). Some of the staff members happen to notice something. Whenever a patient died, Oscar was in the room.
That was the turning point. And then Oscar got closely observed by the staff, may be especially by Dr.David Dosa (I assume so coz it was he who told the world about Oscar).
Like doctors, Oscar too goes for rounds in the hospital. He enters some room, jumps up to the bed where the patient is lying and sniffs the air. If he don’t find anything odd, he moves on to the next room. If he smell ‘something’, he stays with that patient and sometimes nuzzle the patient. Within a short while, the patient dies.
Not just one or two, but so far Oscar predicted 50 deaths with 100% accuracy. Once when he tried to enter a room, the room was closed and he waited outside for 25 minutes. These days, if the staff see him cuddle with any patient, they immediately inform the patient’s relatives and many a times, they come with a priest.
Sometimes the relatives may not like a cat sitting with the patient and in such case the staff will move the car out. But Oscar will wait outside the door strolling and saying lots of ‘Meaow meaow’ and goes back to his room once the soul leave the body. If he don’t smell any more death, he goes back to his desk.
Oscar
How do this cat do this? I read many theories by many doctors and people from scientific field including a stupid theory by a qualified doc that when somebody is about to die, he/she becomes immobile and the cat finds it and sits there so that it can sit there comfortably (not verbatim). I wonder how a doctor can make such a statement? But many others say that it can smell some hormone that gets released at the last moment.
But there was this incident. Once Oscar was sitting with a patient and all the relatives were there in the room (since the hospital ppl called them) and there was this grandchild of that dying patient too. The child asked
“What is that cat doing here?”
And the mother answered:
“He is here to help Grandma get to heaven”
Whatever it be, one thing is sure. As long as Oscar is there, nobody in that ward is going to die alone. And he sees off the soul with love and compassion.
I happened to check my own blog. There are less posts these days. For a moment I felt happy about it coz there passed many blogs through my mind during every sleepless nights, which were in plenty, and had I wrote them the next day, it could have resulted in kind of criticism type blogs about a BIG country in which I live now; not all of the blogs but many of them. But lack of sleep has this ability to wipe off those blogs from my mind rather quickly. If we do not get enough sleep, our brain will not function properly. There will be confusion, short term memory loss, fatigue, acidity and GERD (GastroEsophageal Reflex Disease) and so on…some latest studies say that prolonged insomniac nights could result in early death. Whatever…
I think that is a nice introduction for this blog coz it has nothing to do with what I am going to write. Sitting on this couch with slight back pain, upset stomach, tired eyes, mild headache, and aching toes I was thinking about my 8th grade. It took some time to get a visual of my class room. Once it came into my mind, I wondered why it took so long to remember it coz I do remember that class room.
When I joined this school as a 5th grade student, our division, the ‘I’ division, had no particular class room. We were split into many groups and were accommodated into other divisions. I had no idea why they just accommodate and did not absorb. But 8th grade ended this slavery and we got freedom. A separate division got created and we the ‘I’ division became ‘F’ division. May be 8th I division was English medium, I don’t remember now. We had both English and Malayalam medium divisions in our school and I was in the Malayalam medium. English medium was considered as something ‘above’ Malayalam medium. English medium had no representation from poor people (this does not mean that Malayalam medium was filled only with poor people). I think there wasn’t any extra fee for English medium or was there?
Who was my class teacher? Can’t remember.. it was either John Sir or Titus Sir. I still remember some of my 8th grade teachers, obviously by their nick name. Geography teacher was known as ‘Ambattan’ which means barber and Malayalam teacher was known as ‘Eruma’ which means buffalo. English teacher’s name can’t be written here coz it means something dirty (once I got a very niiiiice pinch from him for trying to imitate his signature).
None of us in that class can forget our Math teacher, Titus. He got transferred to this school that year and ours was his first class he taught. He was a terror. He always carried a cane. He beaten up the students and very soon there came some uproar against him. There came writings and graffiti against him on many walls on the school. Our school was well known for politics (major political parties have their student wings. Our class and school elections were just like president and prime minister Elections of the country. All contestants belonged to one or another political party ) and thus there were kind of rowdy students too in our school. I think Titus became a discussion among them and some of them even called him names, hiding here and there. (Later on, Titus sir left the school and joined a College as a Math lecturer. This wasn't coz of the anti-Titus movement but he always wanted to become a College teacher than a school teacher.)
Our new class room was already occupied by a boy who failed two times in a row (such students have to pay a fee for their next term). Happened to meet my 2nd grade best friend. There were only three students in my class who scored first class in 7th grade and promoted to 8th grade and I was one among them. There wasn’t any competition in my class. If Math wasn’t there as a subject, I would have been the topper all the time in that class, coz the other two always scored more marks than me in Math.
One thing about this school is that, once you pass out from here, you will have a clear idea about almost every filthy word in our mother tongue. This is coz every class had some kids who use abusive words liberally and once there was one ‘filthy word competition’ in our class, when there was no teacher for a period. The class divided into two groups for this purpose and each side had one lead person to shout the swear word and the rest hauled, whistled and made noise tapping on the desk. All of a sudden a teacher appeared and asked who did that (shouting dirty words). Though couple of students including me were against that ‘competition’, we did not name others coz it would have made our lives tough in that school. Some students managed to bring some porn book in the class and they always kept we, the so-called decent guys, at a par and we were warned to not to tell this to the teacher.
The English teacher assigned the work of checking the homework to three (or four?) students and I was one among them. We were selected based on the marks we scored for the first term examination. My old buddy was supposed to show his book to me and he took advantage of my friendship and many a times came without doing the home work. He never took me seriously. Once or twice I gave my book and asked him to blindly copy it into his book.
(went to bed early coz of headache) (Feb- 1- 2010)
I started wearing full pants from 8th grade. There were only very few students who were still wearing shorts. That boy who failed twice and studying for the third time was wearing shorts (we had uniform. Black pants –half or full- and white shirt. And, on Wednesday we were allowed to wear color). He was a big boy and the reason seemed that he is poor and half pants cost less compared to full one. But he too started wearing full pants, later on; may be its coz he felt embarrassment since only 2-3 boys were wearing half pants and they were small (short) too.
I got befriended with couple of more boys. I was choosy as far as friendships were concerned. None of my friends used any filthy words while speaking to me. There was a gap between those students who do not study well and those who study well. I wasn’t a very studious boy, though I stood 2nd or 3rd in my class. I was attentive at class and used to do the home work. Other than that, I never had this habit of studying each day. If there was no home work, I didn’t study anything. There were moments where I came without finishing home work and then copying it from one of my friends (this boy (usually) never allowed others to copy from him. He stood first or second in the class and he never helped others during exams). I was one among the toppers because our class mostly had boys who do not study well. There wasn’t much competition and hence I never put an extra effort to improve myself.
I started participating in some Hindi language exams (every year till 10th…I passed all those exams with first class and I somehow lost all those certificates when I shifted my city after marriage) and that’s the end of my extracurricular activities. There were some other similar exams but I did not participate. Now I feel very disappointed about that because, I was good at science and I could have attended some science related stuff. Even our class teacher was not interested in sending his top students to any such exams. At home? Who cares about my studies? Mother never cared about what, how or when we study and father felt OK since I always scored a first class (60% or above). It looks like he had no idea about my potentials.
Usually, we used to play something during lunch break. But I don’t remember what I played when I was in 8th grade. But I remember one incident where one of my friends falling into a pit. It was fully covered with long grass and he accidently fell into it. Which was stupid, keeping a pit open in a boys school or playing somewhere which was not meant for playing? Anyway, he was my close friend and I helped him come out of it by pulling his hands. He had pain in his chest, looked like he felt some difficulty to breathe…
We were more active during ‘Sevana Vaaram’. Sevana Vaaram literally means ‘Service Week’. Every year, during/starting October 2nd, which was Mahathma Gandhi’s birthday, we used to celebrate Sevana Varam. That is, there won’t be any class for one week. But we have to come to school. All we had to do was cleaning the school, neighboring roads etc and some helping the poor and needy acts. The school arranged something to eat (steamed tapioca/cassava for example) and drink (usually black tea or coffee). We always enjoyed that week.
There weren’t any change in my home atmosphere, which never wasn’t great. My sister started attending college. The college was very near (just 5 minutes walk from our home). During the initial days she did not like the college and even cried since the medium of instruction was English. That time, I had no idea how it would be when all of a sudden our teachers teaching everything in English. My house owner’s wife, who was an illiterate that time, came to console my sister. Even now I can remember that moment. I can still see it in my mind (?, or whatever. I refer those dream kind of visuals what appear when we think of something).
In our native place we had this educational institutions called ‘Tutorials’ (and ‘Parallel college’ too) which provide tuitions, not for just one subject but for all subjects we learn at school (we had Malayalam I and II, English I and II, Hindi, Math, Drawing, Craft, (P.T.), History and Civics, Geography, Physics, Chemistry and Biology). By default, most of the middle class students (the upper middle class and rich prefer private lessons or one to one tuitions) used to attend one such place and so did I. It wasn’t the best known place for tuitions or teachers (there were such places too) but one which was closer to my home and run by some unemployed guys (who were friends). It was a mixed class and many a times I had butterflies in my stomach when some girls look at me. One of the boys used to wear the cleanest shirts to impress the girls. He was my school mate and if he came home with a dirty shirt (oh yes, we used to make it dirty), he used to wash it and dry it immediately using electric iron and wear it whenever there was evening classes.
There weren’t any boy-girl friendship in my tuition class. Most of the good girls hardly spoke to boys. I faced serious competition from three girls. Many a times I managed to stand with 2 of them in overall marks but never ever bet one girl (her name is Subha). She was very strong at Math. When I recollect those moments now, I realize that I never took any effort to compete with those girls.
Sometime back I witnessed a strange thing. Somebody making tea. What is strange in it? It was done in our traditional way – keeping a utensil with milk and water in the stove, adding tea leaves, filtering it with a tea strainer, adding sugar… that person wasn’t using a utensil which will allow us to easily pour tea into a glass without spilling and naturally I saw tea getting spilled. Spilling...wiping... Once, twice, thrice…I saw it happening every time that person made tea. It looked like a daily ritual. The strange thing is that I saw a perfect utensil for making tea that can be then poured without spilling even a drop. But why that person did not use it?
According to that person, that utensil is for making a particular curry. I came to know that this is because that person’s mother told so.
Do we need to label things around us that way? Do we need to follow our parents blindly in this labeling process?
Everything might have a specific use but it also has a general use too. A safety pin, a swab, a kitchen fork, sewing needle, a rubber band, a dining table, a dining chair, a business card, a screwdriver, pliers, a piece of wood, a tea spoon, a roll of toilet paper, a coin...Prejudice about people, ceremonies, rituals, beliefs, culture, religion, faith etc too gets labeled.
When I saw that labeling, an incident came into my mind. Roughly 20 years ago, I was working in a factory as an accountant. They had lots of machines and tools, including some lathe. That factory used to open by 8 in the morning and the owner used to come around 10. One day, I saw my boss’s car coming early, I stood up in my seat to greet him and here he comes in a hurry and from his face I read that something is odd.
“Call Madhavan” he said
Madhavan was a strange worker there. He was not in our rolls. He was working with that factory as a supervisor but later on resigned and started his own workshop. But still, he comes here and works on an hourly basis. He was the best there..was proficient with every department there. Not just that, he was capable of fixing many things like motor bike, car, clock, electrical equipments, plumbing…he was very very talented.
Why did the boss come this early and call Madhavan?
As usual, he took his morning shower, cleaned his ear with a cotton swab and there it is…the cotton stuck inside his ear. But he did not go to an ENT specialist. This is not because he was a miser. But his trust with Madhavan. He did not label Madhavan as a Lathe operator.
(Madhavan or none of us did not dare to laugh when we came to know why boss called him coz our boss was very very short tempered)
Who was the first country singer to whom I listened to? I might have heard some songs without knowing that it was country or who sung it. But the first singer I remember is Jim Reeves. His ‘Bimbo’ is still popular, though he died and early death even before I was born.
Why do I remember this particular singer? When we connect certain things to certain other things, sometimes we remember odd things. It was my then best friend who gave me a ‘Best of Jim Reeves’ cassette. She said she like the song ‘Bimbo’. Did she say she liked the song ‘Just Walking in the Rain?’, can’t remember it ...the incident happened about 20 years ago. Why did she like Reeves? She did not tell me …may be because I did not ask her. But I know its coz his Gospel work and Christian songs. My friend too was a good singer, was highly involved in Gospel work and even sang in couple of music albums.
Why did I remember my then best friend now?
Is it coz I happened to listen to Reeves or is it coz I missed her and hence I listened to Reeves?
Sometime ago, I had mentioned about people who are into God business (Benny Hinn for example and more can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_televangelist_scandals). Evangelism is a business for them and they live in super luxuries. We cannot blame them for their followers’ ignorance. If we closely listen to them, we can find out that many a times they say scripture or somebody from the scripture said this and that and they never tell that they believe in what they preach . They escape from places where there is a possibility of them getting exposed and next day they might say ‘God asked me to not to attend that meeting’…
Pastor Tony Alamo is one such cheater. He grew from a news paper delivery boy to a multi millionaire. He married 4 times, sexually abused minor girls and two months ago ended up in a jail with 175 years term. That means he will never come back (good God!). Today’s news said one of the US courts ordered him to pay $500,000 each to 5 women who became victims of his lust when they were minors. 2,5 million US dollars is a big money but he and his missionary has more to spare.
Why all such evangelists and their missionaries are filthy rich though they are not coming from rich families? Too much for a coincidence?
Jealousy is a negative emotion, a negative force or energy. It can work the way the prayer we do (for others), but in a somewhat opposite manner. A prayer we do for somebody else purifies our mind where as feeling jealousy rotten the mind and attracts more negativity. If our prayer for somebody else can do well for them, jealousy can do something bad to them.
To what extend our prayer can do good or our curse can do bad AND to what extend the other person can receive the good or bad from our prayer or curse depends on various factors including the magnitude of our thoughts, the aura around us and them and many other things.
Getting a well paid job, buying new car, an ipod, a laptop, a camera….getting a chance to visit places which many others wish to visit, moving to a better living condition…many such things can make others jealous of you; even if those ‘others’ are friends or family members.
It is in the nature of humans to share our happy moments with our loved ones. I said loved ones.. where divine love is the purest form of positive energy. I am not referring to that love in the ‘ I love you’ originating from lust.
So, when we share good things with others, it is better we think twice to whom and what we share coz it can attract negative energy or even bad luck.
What if we think we made somebody feel jealous of us?
The flight was at 3 pm. Since it was the first domestic travel here, we (me my wife and son) started bit early. We commuted to airport by train ( BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit). Since it was Christmas day, there wasn’t much rush in the train. But the plane was full (except for first class and they offered an upgrade for just $50). Travelling on Christmas day has this advantage of getting a low fare.I got a window seat but since it is winter season it was foggy.
But still I could see many snow filled mountains… It was beautiful
Reached at Seattle-Tacoma airport around 5.10 pm. Weather was different…it was colder than Fremont. Sister-in-law came to pick and we went to a Punjabi restaurant and bought some Indian food for dinner.At night went out to see the Seattle skyline. It was a great view but I had bad headache coz of lack of sleep on couple of previous nights. So went straight away to bed as soon as we reached home, I did not even change my dress…
Saturday, December 26, 2009
I wasn’t traveling to Seattle for tourism or sightseeing but my sister-in-law was kind enough to add some tourism element into it. Thus we decided to go to Snoqualmie falls and Pass, which was about 55 miles away from home. I was thrilled to see the snow but sis-in-law said if the weather is not good, she will cancel the trip (it was she who was driving the car). We went to the falls first. It wasn’t a great fall but it really was cold…I went out without wearing any jacket and when the wind blew, wow wow wow…but my jaws did not chatter.
Snoqualmie Falls
Next was Snoqualmie Pass, the mountain with snow. There are big billboard kind of things on the sides of roads which provide live update on traffic, weather etc and unfortunately, there came this warning ‘Gusty wind ahead’ and my sister in law said we better cancel the trip and come another day. But I did not agree to that. This resulted in her handing over the steering to me. I was driving that car for the first time, the steering has play, the wind was gusty, as they said, but luckily for me, there weren’t any snow or ice on the road which could have been a spoilsport.Finally we reached there and it was a fantastic view.
Lots of people were doing skiing and snowboarding.
At Snoqualmie Pass
Since we did not bring any of those equipments (sister in law knows how to ski and snowboard) I did not try anything funny (‘thank God!’ Said my poor old knees).
Way back home, I saw a young homeless man begging, hanging a placard in his neck which read: ’ Anything will help’…and came to know that it’s not a rare scene in the US.
Sunday, December 27, 2009.
Which is the easiest way to have a look around the Seattle city? Ride the Ducks !.
Space Needle
This city tour is operated by ‘Ride the Ducks’ (they have service in many other cities including San Francisco, which is about an hour’s drive from my apartment in Fremont).Duck is an amphibian. It can travel both in land and water. The design is taken from the DUKW (pronounced as ‘duck’), an amphibian truck designed by the General Motors during the World War II to transport goods and troops over land and water.Now Ride the Ducks manufactures its own vehicle.
The Captains of these ducks are all funny. They sing, crack jokes and entertain us throughout the journey, apart from providing other information about Seattle. I liked my captain very much. He was a real entertainer. The ride starts from (near) the famous Space Needle and takes us through the major streets. Seattle has lots of Starbucks, including the very first Starbucks in the world. The duck takes us to the Lake Union, which is a fresh water lake. We can see lots of private yachts and boats parked there .It takes about one and a half hours to finish the ride. I really enjoyed the ride. Unfortunately, this time too I wasn’t wearing any coat and at some point of time, I even shivered…yes, it was a real cold day.
Though the duck went through the Pike Place market, we paid a visit there ourselves.
This market is near the Elliott Bay waterfront. This is one of the oldest farmer’s markets in the US. This place attracts around 10 million visitors in a year. There are lots of shops selling many different items. One fish shop
seemed to be an attraction for many visitors. The first ever Starbucks is here. There was a crowd inside and outside hence I shyed away from taking a picture standing just in front of it (or have a coffee from there). This market place has some long history too.
We went to one Turkish restaurant. May be we visited at an odd hour coz there was only one lady to attend all the customers and hence we had to wait for some time. I ate Baklava and Spinach Borek. Baklava, the sweet, had some similarity to one of the Indian sweets.
We paid a visit to the Pacific Place mall too. This is one of the premium malls in Seattle. We went to the Bose store and experienced a demo of their home theatre system which was awesome. Since it was holiday season, there was live music. The lady who sang the songs ended it with ‘Jingle bells’.
We had dinner from an Ethiopian restaurant. This was a different experience. I never thought of having Ethiopian food in my life. I ate something called ‘Injera’ which is one of the most popular foods in Ethiopian cuisine. This was similar to our ‘dosa’ and ‘aappam’. I really liked the tea served by them.
Monday, 28 December 2009.
Spent the whole day at home….finally, to the purpose of the visit..sort, pack, work..
Tuesday, 29 December 2009.
This is the day of one of my dreams coming true. Visiting the final resting place of the legend Bruce Lee. When I had this dream of visiting his grave, I had no idea how it is going to happen; after all, from where the funds will come? I was in India and we had no US plans that time. But I had this strong wish to visit the grave, which was in Lake View cemetery (I passed Volunteer Park too, but did not go inside the Park), Seattle. I really really wanted to visit it someday.
When I really stood in front of his grave, my head/mind became blank.
It was hard to believe that finally I am standing there for real. I don’t know how to describe this moment….I thanked my Guru because it was one of his teachings that inspired me to keep such a big dream in my mind.
Space needle is one of the major tourist attractions in Seattle but we did not visit it or took the elevator in the needle. Instead, sister –in-law took us to her office building, the Columbia Center, which is the tallest building (937 feet) in Seattle downtown, taller than the Space Needle (605 feet). Thus we got a wonderful view of the Seattle.
Space Needle and Seattle seen from Columbia Center
It was really beautiful.On my way back, I bought roasted chestnut from a street vendor. He was a nice guy and the street was beautiful coz of the decorations. I wished there were snow too. Then it would have been a magnificent view.
We travelled in a bus. The most interesting thing about Seattle is that the bus is free in the downtown area. It was hard to believe. May be Bill Gates is supporting them a lot. Since we caught the bus not from the downtown, we paid ($2 per tkt). It included a return trip too but we had to hire a taxi since we were in a hurry and we already wasted enough time walking here and there and eating chestnut..
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Woke up (as if I slept nicely, huh!) at 4 am with headache.Here in these weather conditions, if we do not drink enough water, it can result in headache. We are going back to Fremont by car. We had some work in city of Vancouver (Washington, not Canada) Motor Vehicles Department. That building and surrounding area was marvelous... everything covered in snow. It was just like the white Christmas I have seen in pictures and movies. Unfortunately, I did not take not even a single picture; one reason for my bad mood was my headache. But from Vancouver till my house, it was me who drove the car (over 1000 km).The drive was really good. It was scenic too. But we did not stop for any sightseeing since we had planned to reach home before midnight. This again is coz we had some other work next day morning.
This was the longest drive I ever did, so far, in single stretch. We saw lots of snow and ice on our way. Many mountains were covered in snow. Luckily for us, there wasn’t any fresh snow fall on our way. I stopped the car at one restroom, stepped out of the car without wearing gloves and there it is….it was some minus temperature and my hands got almost frozen. But I enjoyed it. Though I was wearing a coat, it was really cold. And the view from that place was superb. Moon and snow covered mountains..Mother Nature is really beautiful.
Reached home around 9.30 pm. We prepared some express dinner and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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