TJ on February 24th, 2013

The title of this posting was the headline of an article in an Indian publication. Indians have a reputation for being frugal or thrifty …. though some would describe them as being cheap. Perhaps some of the explanation is because of the absence of any social safety net in India which causes people to feel […]

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TJ on September 29th, 2012

Those of us who live outside of India occasionally express amazement because one can go to relatively remote locations around the world and one still finds Indians who reside in those countries. In fact – and I don’t know for sure if this is accurate – I read that Indians are to be found residing, […]

Continue reading about Random thoughts and facts about the Indian diaspora

One of the cultural divides that confronts immigrants to the US and possibly other Western nations is the perspective on career choices when it comes to their children. When I was growing up in Kenya and what happens to this day in India is that children are inculcated with a mind-set that one’s choice of […]

Continue reading about To go or not to go to college ….. that is the question

TJ on May 14th, 2012

I must confess that I am not overly enamored by some of the holidays celebrated in the US mainly because of the extent of commercialization that occurs. My biggest gripe is about Christmas which has lost all of its real meaning because of rampant commercialization – and I commented on this in in a prior […]

Continue reading about Mother’s Day ….. past and present

I love You Tube and its endless variety of offerings. I also cordially dislike flying – everything about it infuriates me ranging from the security hassles at the airport, the less than customer friendly airline service, the cramped seating, the full flights and just about every thing that one associates with flying nowadays. I did […]

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TJ on October 28th, 2011

Let me first acknowledge that I have never been a fan of Apple products. However, this is not because I have a problem with the product as much as the fact that I have always felt that they were over-priced. A Dell PC does all that I need to do at a third of the […]

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TJ on October 23rd, 2011

Part of my regular TV viewing is a show that airs on weekdays called “Morning Joe”. It focuses mainly on political events but also has a hodge podge of other issues. It is hosted by Joe Scarborough, a former Republican Congressman from Florida and Mika Brezinski, the daughter of Zbigniew Brezinski, the former National Security […]

Continue reading about From the sublime to the ridiculous

TJ on September 11th, 2011

The attack on 9/11 is one of those events similar to the assassination of JFK, the Challenger explosion and other significant events ………. it is one of those occasions that one remembers exactly where one was when the event occurred. I was at home when my step-daughter, Anu, who was then staying with us called […]

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Senator Everett Dirksen, the highly regarded former Republican senator from Illinois, is supposed to have said during a speech arguing for restraints in spending: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money”. If Dirksen were alive today he would say the same thing but it would no longer be […]

Continue reading about “You can fool some of the people all of the time”

There is a fascinating trend developing in the US – still in its infancy – but one that could see rapid growth. It has been labeled “concierge medicine” and is the result of a variety of factors: consumer demand, consumer frustration, financial incentives for physicians, the impact of managed care, reduced reimbursement and the shortage […]

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TJ on December 24th, 2009

I recently posted that Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday of the year. We are now into the Christmas holiday season and I would have to say it ranks low on my list of favored holidays. This is all the more surprising because when I was growing up in Kenya, Christmas was a holiday that I […]

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TJ on October 3rd, 2009

It was Euripedes who said: “Those whom the Gods seek to destroy they first make mad.” It is a quotation that seems appropo as one sees the far right-wing in the US getting increasingly unhinged. Having lived in the US for almost 38 years, I have never come across a time when things were as […]

Continue reading about A military coup in the US?

To quote the inimitable Yogi Berra: “It feels like deja-vu all over again”! When Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, uttered the infamous phrase – “greed is good” – during the 1987 movie, “Wall Street”, shown in the above video clip, he went on to say: “Greed, you mark my words, will not only save […]

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