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 posting on this blog. The one exception is Mother’s Day which – although also commercialized heavily – is an occasion that I quite enjoy celebrating because it celebrates mothers. Of course, both in India and in Kenya, there was no such thing as Mother’s Day, though I understand that this is changing in the major cities in India and much of the developing world where Western influence is being felt. I wish there were something similar in Kenya when my mother was alive.
I love the idea of dedicating a day to celebrate and honor one’s mother. Usually our routine does not change much. I make coffee for Mini …… but then that is nothing unusual since I do that every day given that I am an early riser. But we do take her out to a special lunch and we try and make sure that she does not have to do any cooking despite her protestations! Where we take her for lunch is a surprise and she does not really know until we get to the restaurant. Until last year we did this together with Saira and family but now that she has twins who are just over a year old as well as another offspring who is not quite four years, the idea of going to a restaurant with all the kids is a bit overwhelming!
This year’s celebration of Mother’s Day was a change from the usual. We got back yesterday evening from a weekend in Atlantic City where we celebrated Mother’s Day with Mini. My role was limited because it was something that her children took the initiative in organizing and funding the occasion. My role was limited to suggesting it as a possible venue because I knew that it was something Mini would really enjoy since she loves playing the slots. We stayed at a very nice resort called “The Seaview” which is especially known for its golf courses. Various celebrities have stayed at the Seaview. Nods to the Seaview’s history can be seen in the plethora of framed photographs lining the walls. There’s a photo of Grace Kelly, whose Sweet 16 was held in the Oval Room (her father was a member at Seaview in 1946 during the days when it was a private club).
Seaview Resort
There are photo displays recognizing Presidents Harding, Truman, Eisenhower and Nixon, all of whom played golf at the Seaview. Other famous guests included, in 1940, Jimmy Demaret, Ben Hogan, Bing Crosby and Gene Sarazen, who all graced the greens at Seaview during a tournament.
Those whose passion is music, not golf or royalty, will be interested to know that The Rolling Stones were registered guests at the Seaview for 10 days in 1989, during their Steel Wheels tour. At the time, lead singer Mick Jagger was said to have met music legend Eric Clapton for lunch in the Grille Room. And music legend Bob Dylan also stayed there around the same time, registered under his pseudonym “Justin Case”.
Mini at Trump Tajmahal
Mini did not have a clue what was in store for her on Mother’s Day. It was a surprise until a couple of days prior to departing for Atlantic City. To make matters better she actually won some money! She thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent there; we (Amit and I) did so as well though neither of us were into gambling but it was fun to see the thrill Mini got from playing the slots! We also had a great dinner at “Angelo’s Fairmount Tavern” which is famous for its Italian cuisine – huge portions of authentic food. We ordered two entrees between the three of us and yet there were left-overs. We also had dinner at a Malaysian restaurant called the “New Melaka Restaurant” – it is a family run “hole in the wall” place but the food was out of this world! I’d recommend both these places to anyone who visits Atlantic City!
I decided to learn a little more about the origins of Mother’s Day …. something that I would not have thought of doing had it not been for how we spent the weekend and the fact that I maintain a blog!
Tags: Angelo's Fairmount Tavern, commercialization of Mother's Day, Egyptian and Roman celebrations honoring Isis, history of Mother's Day in the US, Mothering Day in England, Mothers Day in Kenya, New Melaka Restaurant, Seaview Resort in New Jersey, spending by category for Mother's Day
Concepts of beauty have varied among cultures and even within the same culture over a span of time. A few decades ago an attractive woman was a more full-bodied and rounded individual than would be the case today.
Nargis
Most ads and commercials today focus on ways to lose weight using various diets and dietary products. Of course, this is because of the obesity epidemic that has impacted the US and most Western countries. It is ironical that at a time when the weight of the average woman has risen considerably over the last 50 years, the perspective of what constitutes an ideal weight and figure has gone down in that very same period.
It is difficult to believe, given today’s focus on slimness and weight loss there was a time not so long ago when the focus of advertisements was on selling women on products that would enable them to GAIN weight and develop a more full figure! It seems an almost alien concept in today’s environment given that an almost rail-thin appearance is the goal and objective of celebrities who view it as the epitome of beauty and a perfect figure. 
Keep in mind that in the 40s’ 50s’ and even the early part of the 60s’ the celebrities who were heralded for their beauty were individuals like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Rita Hayworth. These women were each viewed as having attractive figures despite being “full bodied” – and by today’s standards among celebrities they would be viewed as needing to lose weight! 
Things began changing in the mid-sixties when Twiggy (shown on the left) became a fashion icon of sorts with a figure that matched her name – although at the time many people thought that her almost emaciated appearance did not make her particularly attractive. Perhaps it was the advent of the mini-skirt which helped promote the notion of slimness synonymous with attractiveness. The emphasis on thinness gathered steam in the seventies and especially the eighties for reasons that are not easily fathomable. It has been argued by some that the desirability of having a fuller and well-rounded body was in the aftermath of the Great Depression and World War II when there were shortages of a lot of foods and rationing was in effect and inadequate nutrition was not uncommon. People became thin and it was viewed as an indication of privation. So someone who was more well-rounded was viewed as being less impacted by these hardships.
It is an explanation that makes sense because in the context of Indian attitudes to weight, I know that in the fifties and sixties it was generally viewed as a compliment to tell someone they had put on weight because most people tended to be thin to a point of looking almost malnourished – even if they were not! Being on the heavy side was associated with being healthy in those days and also being prosperous. It is not the same any longer in India where there is increased focus on weight loss as the obesity epidemic makes itself felt even in India with the advent of fast food and limited physical activity.
Whatever the reasons for the sea-change in attitudes in the West, it is interesting to view the ads shown below that used to appear regularly extolling women on the positives of gaining weight and how to go about doing so!
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Tags: a time when women were encouraged to gain weight, celebrity obsession with thinness, changing attitudes to the ideal female figure, obesity in the US and India, today's obsession with thinness
I don’t know if Malayalees are unique in their choice of names for adults and children.
When I lived in Kenya in the fifties and early sixties, there were relatively few families from Kerala and everyone knew each other within the community. But even within the relatively small community, there were some interesting variations on names. For example, my father was referred to as Allidina Joseph to differentiate him from another individual with the same name who was called Agakhan Joseph – my father worked at Allidina Visram High School and the other Joseph worked at the Agakhan School. There were two people called Thomas – and to differentiate between them one was called Aluminium Thomas and the other was Agakhan Thomas. The former worked at the Kenya Aluminium Company and the other worked at the Agakhan School. Then we had a Business George — because he operated a private business!
My late cousin, KC Alexander, was called Baby by family and Mallu friends – he was likely given that nickname when he was a baby and it stuck. It was perfectly normal to us but a source of amusement to British friends and associates with whom he shared this information! His wife’s nick-name was Dedi – the origin of which was a function of her father’s religious conviction. When she was born, her father was reading the bible and saw the word “dedicated”. He used the first four letters of that word and she became “Dedi”!
My parents were really quite run of the mill when it came to naming their children: other than my younger sister, Fifi, all the other children have fairly mundane names. Even Fifi’s rather more exotic name was because the mid-wife who delivered her in Mombasa was from the Seychelles – a Mrs Hooker who spoke French and thought she was the cutest baby. She would refer to her as “ma fifi” constantly ie “my fifi”. There are several possible explanations for that name and two are quite credible. Apparently Fifi is interchangeable with Josephine in French – and give that our last name is “Joseph”, that seems like one possible explanation. It is also used in French to mean “little girl” … so that could be the reason.
But my parents were not typical of Syrian Christian Mallu parents who can be remarkably creative when it comes to naming their offspring as will be evident below………..
Also, I don’t know if this is unique to Kerala or whether it happens in other parts of India but private bus owners frequently express their pride in their children by naming their buses with the names of their offspring. One sees this frequently in Kerala as shown in the image on the right.
Of course, if there are several children and there is ownership of only one bus, parents have to get creative and they do something like the bus shown below and display the names of multiple children. You’ll note that “Rakesh” – a male name – enjoys greater prominence compared to “Asha” and “Kiran” who are female! Now these names are rather not commonly used in Kerala and seem to be more suggestive of names used in North India … in which case, this custom of prominently displaying the names of children on a privately owned bus seems to extend beyond Kerala!
A good explanation I have seen for the names that Malaylees name their children appears below. I’d love to take credit for authoring it but quite honestly it has been been making the rounds both in emails and also appears on several websites. It is a light-hearted explanation for the origins for some of the unusual names one comes across and despite the humor, there is a semblance of truth to it. For non-Mallus who have wondered about the origins of some of the names associated with Mallus, you are now fully in the know!
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: buses in Kerala named after children, creativeness of Malayalee parents with names, Itty Boben Jacob Elias Kuruvilla, Mallu names, modification of Syrian Christian names in Kenya, origin of mallu names
We love cruising and have been on fourteen cruises since I arrived in the US. These have included several cruises in the Caribbean as well as ones to Alaska, the Mediterranean, the Mexican Riviera and the Yangtze river in China. Our last cruise was with my brother Peter and his family and it was on one of the largest cruise ships in the world…….the Carnival Dream which was 1000 feet in length, over 128,000 tons and accommodated more than 5000 passengers and crew!
Carnival Dream
But this posting is about a very different type of experience on a couple of ships – far removed from today’s cruises. It was a ship that was used to provide basic transportation between India and Kenya. This was no cruise with all of the amenities I described above – though I have wondered on occasion whether my love for cruises is in any way related to the experiences recounted below.
The ships were operated by the British India Steam Navigation Company also known as the BI Line. There were several of these ships that plied the India to East Africa sea lanes. The better known ones were the Karanja, Amra, Kampala, State of Bombay, Muzzaffari and the Aronda! Most Indians who emigrated to East Africa from India from the 1930s’ to the 60s’ most likely arrived on one of these ships. All BI ships were named after places or areas where the company traded. One that I sailed on – the SS Amra – is named after a village east of Benares in Uttar Pradesh. Amra is also the name of a flowering tree that grows at high altitudes.
There were generally three classes of travel on these ships: there were a limited number of first class cabins usually occupied by Europeans (a term used in Kenya to describe anyone who was white), two grades of second class (2nd/A and 2nd/B) and the vast majority of the passengers were in deck class which was akin to multiple over-crowded dorms located in various parts of the ship.
I arrived in Mombasa in 1949 with my mother, my elder sister and brother on the SS Khandalla. I was three years old and remember nothing of that voyage. My father – who was already in Mombasa – told me that one of his lasting memories was the sight of us coming down the gangway at the port in Mombasa. My mother was carrying a bag in one hand and was holding on to my elder brother with the other hand. My sister was carrying me. My mother would always talk with horror about that voyage – apparently sea-sickness was rife and the overall conditions were horrendous.
Over a decade later a similar voyage on another of the BI ships was described as “full of six hundred vomiting Indian families fleeing East Africa because of the country’s (Kenya’s) upcoming independence”. So sea-sickness was very much part of the experience and some were hit harder than others especially if the seas were rough. It likely did not make things any easier for my mother given that she was traveling with three children. We all traveled deck class which was the least expensive method of travel – and the most crowded and least comfortable. Ventilation was poor and much depended on where within the deck one had a berth. Passengers to bring their own bedding since the ship would not provide it! There were common toilets and bathrooms …… just the most basic of amenities. It was essentially transportation and food! I believe the Khandalla was sold for salvage not long after that voyage.
But my most memorable voyages were on the SS Amra.
SS Amra
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: BI Lines, Bishop Cottons Boys School, British India Steam Navigation Company, deck class travel, passengers from the Seychelles, SS Amra, SS Khandalla, traveling by sea from Kenya to India
A few months ago, I posted about the crash of Pan Am Flight 217 in 1968 while en route to Caracas, Venezuela and more specifically about a friend, Franciska Buyers, who was an air stewardess on that flight. More about Franciska and my relationship to her and her family appears on this link.
When I first posted about that flight and the tragedy that befell Pan Am 217, it was intended more as a personal tribute to Franciska than anything else. There was nothing on the net that was readily available about her and many of the others on that flight. It was a pleasant surprise when several people commented on that post and cited the names of people close to them who died in that crash. People expressed their appreciation for the post and the very fact that over 43 years later the tragedy was still remembered. There were people who offered touching recollections about those who died.
One person whose comments brought back memories was from Cameron Kane, the brother of yet another member of the crew -Katherine Mary Kane- who was a close friend of Franciska. Here are some of his comments:
“I am the youngest brother to Katherine Mary Kane. My sister, Katherine was a close friend of Franciska’s. Katherine attended the University of Bordeaux to study French and Art History. I think they met there. After college they rented an apartment together on the upper east side of New York City. They both got jobs at Pan Am in May 1968 with some assistance from my father who had connections to the airline. They started flying in August on separate routes but wanted to fly together. They managed to do that in the late autumn. I had dinner with them in NYC a few weeks before the accident. We had a good time with lots of laughter and wit in the glamor of a New York City evening.
I remember Franciska was a beautiful young lady. I have a picture of them both in uniform walking down my parent’s driveway in front of the flowering crab-apple tree. She was stunning! I remember wishing I were older so that I could impress her but I was just the little brother.
The accident ripped Katherine out of my life. When I was born in 1952 my sister would climb into the crib to cuddle me through the night. About 2 years after flight 217 went down I went into Katherine’s room looking for something. As I stood there for a moment a finger poked me hard in the shoulder blade. I turned around expecting to see a friend but saw no one. Dumb me, I scratched my head and started on my errand when I stopped and looked up; and looked around and said something like “Jesus Christ! Is that you Katherine?” Not a word, not a movement and no apparition. I was disappointed that there were no other fireworks but upon reflection I was grateful for being the recipient of a significant gesture. For all of you who have added up the odds and decided this life on earth is one lucky splatter in the universe, I’ll say: “This life is just the tip of the iceberg and there’s a lot more coming!”
I thank you for posting your recollections and I thank the people who gave comments. Each remembrance fills in a piece of the puzzle for me and I see that other people also grieve over this tragedy long ago.”
During one of my relocations within the US related to my job, a box containing personal papers and pictures was lost by the movers. It included letters from my parents – now both deceased. Among the pictures lost were several of Franciska and other members of her family. Cameron kindly sent me a picture taken in 1968 of Franciska with his sister Katherine in their uniforms. I sought and received his consent to post the picture on this blog. My thanks to Cameron for providing this picture which appears below.
I am glad to be able to recognize Katherine in a posthumous tribute to the victims of that crash.
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I am partial to most Indian foods …… no great surprise given my Indian heritage. During our recent stay in Kerala one of the pluses was being able to eat home cooked meals using the freshest ingredients, vegetables and fish/meat. We would buy king fish from a government approved vendor who brought a variety of fish, prawns and other shell fish each evening displayed on a cart. The vendor had someone who would clean and slice the fish based on specific requirements. The fish was so fresh that when it was cut for cleaning, it would frequently still ooze blood!
We ate very limited amounts of meat and chicken while in Kerala, but even these were literally from animals or poultry slaughtered the same day and in the case of chicken it was done in one’s presence.
But my favorite meal by far was a typical South Indian breakfast consisting of idli, coconut chutney and kadala (a spicy black-gram “stew”)! The idli was delivered each morning by an older Brahmin guy who would commute by motorcycle and dish out the required number of idlis to each customer from a container he carried with him. He and his wife made the idlis at home each morning for sale to his customers.
ldili & Vada
Kadala
Since returning from India two weeks ago, we have been trying to stay with the same breakfast except that we have no Brahmin vendor to deliver the idlis and no Risa to prepare the garnishings to go with the idlis! But my cousin in Cochin gifted us with a heavy duty Preethi Indian blender/mixer/grinder which we brought to the US. Indian blenders/grinders are geared to Indian cuisine and are able to do a grinding job in a way that American or Western blenders cannot. After multiple efforts, we finally managed to get the idlis to a consistency and taste that is close to that of our Brahmin vendor in Kerala. Idlis are easily digested and with the kadala and other garnishings they are fairly balanced in terms of nutritions – though certainly not suited for someone on a low-carb diet!!
In India breakfast is regarded as one of the most important meals and in that respect it must appeal to dietitians who herald the importance of every one having a good breakfast. But unlike the idli, most Indian breakfasts are not the healthiest because of the oil and ghee that is part of the preparation. What gets served for breakfast varies within different regions of India – and the diversity is striking and in some ways is a microcosm of India as a country.
Ghuguni
In East India (Orissa,Bengal) the most popular breakfast are idli, bara, puri, and upama. These are served with ghuguni (peas curry) or potato curry and also sweets like rasogala and chenapoda.
Appam
In South India, the most popular breakfast is an assortment with several possible main dishes, such as idlis, vadas, dosas, salty pongal, and chapatis. These are most often served with hot sambar and at least one kind of chutney. This is the typical breakfast in Tamilnadu. Kerala breakast includes puttu (eaten with kadala and/or ripe bananas), appam and stew, and other popular breakfast items like idli and dosa.
Stuffed Paratha
The usual North Indian breakfast is wheat based unlike that in the South that is rice based. It consists of stuffed parathas or unstuffed parathas with fresh butter, cooked spicy vegetables — especially aloo sabzi. Puri and chholey is also a popular north-Indian breakfast, along with rajma-chawal. Popular accompaniments include sweets like jalebi, halwa, and sweetened milk. Samosas, and combination of jalebi with yogurt (dahi-jalebi) comprise stand-alone breakfast items in U.P. and its surrounding parts.
Thepla
Gujarati breakfast items include haandvo, dhokla, sev-khamni, theplas (a form of paratha), bhaakhri and assorted hard and crispy masala puris with pickles. There is a marked difference in flavor between the Gujarati breakfast items and those outlined above. Tea is a staple item in breakfast.
Maharshtrian breakfast dishes consist mainly of poha with potato or onion, brinjal etc, upama, sheera with banana or mango, thalipeeth with either onion or grated cabbage or grated carrot, raddish etc
Poha
In Hyderabad it is kitchri (yellow rice with dal) with keema or khagina (scrambled egg with onions and tomatoes), thil ki chutney (sesame and peanut chutney) and kata (imli water with raw onions and fried zeera, hara masala) with pappad.
Khagina
In urban areas, omelettes and simple butter sandwiches are becoming a popular breakfast food as are cereals and other Western breakfast favorites. Compared to the typical Indian breakfast fare, the western breakfast seems remarkably uncomplicated! But the typical Indian breakfast does share one thing in common with its Western counterpart – it tends to be oily and calorie laden! But unlike the Western breakfast that tends to include meat items – sausage, bacon, etc – the Indian breakfast, almost universally is vegetarian.
As is evident the variety and range of items served for breakfast in India depending on the region seems almost limitless. There has been some migration between regions of different cuisines …… idlis and dosas have become part of the fare all over India and is no longer confined to the South and puri-bhaji is served frequently in restaurants in the South although they are uniquely North Indian dishes.
A confession: I started writing this post, prior to breakfast and after a morning walk ….. returning home with hunger pangs ……. so it, perhaps, explains the focus on food!
Tags: Eastern India breakfast, Gujarati breakfast, Indian breakfast, North Indian breakfast, South Indian breakfast
Today marks three years since I started this blog. During this period there have been 74 posts on a variety of subjects which have generated 334 comments from different readers. The blog has had well over 24,000 hits – most were during the second and third years of the blog.
This is not a high traffic blog – most blogs that cover a variety of unrelated subjects tend to have a limited following. The traffic this blog has experienced is relatively good given the generalized nature of the blog. The blogs that have repeat visitors are those that address a specific subject whether it is travel, computers, investments, cuisine, humor, children or anything that is focused on a specific area of interest. Most visitors to this blog are those who googled a specific subject and they literally come from all over the world. However, they don’t tend to be repeat visitors – but I knew when I started this blog that the regular readership would be limited.
As my nephew, Vivek, said half-jokingly in an email, commenting on the range of subjects covered: “I can’t think of too many blogs that would cover the Tudors and Nair weddings, a couple of entries later”!
The post that generated the most comments by far was the one that I did on Allidina Visram High School – my alma mater – and they were mainly from alumni of the school around the time frame when Kenya was still a colony of Britain. The posting that generated the most hits in the shortest period of time was the most recent one about the controversy relating to Smith College. Perhaps, the saddest and most poignant was a comment by the son of the pilot of the Pan Am flight which crashed in 1968 – I had a friend who died on that flight. Then there was the post which generated a gracious comment from the bride whose wedding I criticized as being overly lavish.
There have been periods when I have taken extended breaks from posting …….. more as a result of laziness than anything else. I had hoped to average about three posts a month and I would likely have achieved this goal had it not been for the months that I went silent.
When I started this blog, I was intrigued by the whole concept of blogging. I decided that it would be a good vehicle to offer a personal perspective about things that had garnered my attention. I had already started writing a series of personal and private letters to my children which I intended to share with them in the future. As I wrote these letters, I realized that while some of what I wrote was too personal to include in a public blog, there was other information that could reasonably be shared with others …… and the title of this blog reflected the nature of these writings: namely, a series of personal reflections, ruminations, recollections and a few rants and raves!
I have never really made any effort to publicize this blog other than to include the link to it below my signature in the emails that I exchange with family and friends. One thing that does surprise me is how high this blog ranks on google searches. I have no idea why this happens – it is certainly not anything that I have sought to do to improve the ranking of the blog. But the high ranking certainly explains the wide range of hits that the blog receives from all over the world. If there is one thing that I would like to do differently it is to reduce the length of some of the posts – it would certainly reduce the time I spend on posting. The average post takes me about one hour to complete ….. not a lot of time but shorter posts would likely lessen the time it takes.
So this blog moves into the fourth year of its existence…….
I was shocked to hear about the death of Steve Bridges whose uncanny impressions of George W Bush were hilarious and always done without any malice. He was only 49 years old.
As I watched one of his more memorable imitations of Bush at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner – an annual fixture of Washington DC, during which there is well-intentioned fun made of the president and other public figures – one of the thoughts that passed my mind is that this sort of thing can only happen in the West. One cannot imagine that this would occur in most developing countries without the comedian facing serious repercussions. Perhaps it is a mark of the political maturity of a country when one can poke fun at its leaders without fear of retribution. Even in India with its very democratic traditions, it is difficult to imagine the prime minister or president participating in this sort of event. Of course, the likelihood of this occurring in countries with a more autocratic form of government is even more remote.
However, this posting is really not intended to be a commentary on the willingness of different countries to tolerate humor directed at its leaders but more a remembrance of a remarkable comedian who died prematurely and brought a lot of laughter with his impressions. One of the most memorable imitations he did was the one mentioned above at the Correspondents Dinner and it was done with the full cooperation of Bush. It is well worth watching …… and for those not familiar with some of the intricacies of US politics, there is a reference in the clip below to Dick Cheney and it has to do with the time when he accidentally shot a lawyer friend who went hunting with him.
Less known is Bridges imitation of Barack Obama ….. it gives on a sense of how very talented an impressionist he was:
And this was what Bridges really looked like without the make-up!
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Tags: Steve Bridges at White House Correspondents Association Dinner, Steve Bridges imitating George W Bush, Steve Bridges imitating Obama
A firestorm recently erupted over a letter written by a Smith College alumna, Anne Spurzem, whose brazen comments were a mix of bigotry, classism, snobbery, ignorance, inaccuracies, misinformation and outright nastiness that was directed at the admission policies of the college in recent years.
Smith College is part of the “Seven Sisters”, a group of liberal arts colleges that have been historically women’s colleges. The others are Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College, Vassar College, and Wellesley College. Radcliffe (which merged with Harvard College) and Vassar (which is now coeducational) are no longer women’s colleges.
Smith’s alumnae have included some eminent women including Gloria Steinam, Betty Friedan, Julia Child and Sylvia Plath. In fact, just last Sunday, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, a Pakistani who also went to Smith, won an Oscar for her documentary film, “Saving Face”.
Anne Spurzem’s letter to Smith College’s “Sophian” publication, is quoted verbatim below:
To the Editor,
I am the president of the Smith Club of Westchester County. I enjoy reading the Sophian online because it helps me stay abreast of developments at the school.
I read your article about [President] Carol [Christ]’s resignation and it had some interesting statistics. It mentioned the percentage increase in the population of women of color and foreign students. The gist of the article was that one of Carol’s objectives coming into the position was to increase diversity and the article gave statistics that showed that she did.
As someone who has followed admissions for many years, I can tell you how the school is viewed by students in Westchester and Fairfield Counties. First, these counties are some of the wealthiest in the country. The children have parents who are highly educated and accomplished and have high household incomes. The children are programmed from day one to get into Ivy League schools.
To this demographic, Smith is a safety school. Also, very few of these students want to go to a single sex school. With the exception of Wellesley, it is not hard to get into the Seven Sisters any more. The reason why Wellesley is more selective is because it is smaller than Smith and in a better geographic location – Boston beats Northampton.
The people who are attending Smith these days are A) lesbians or B) international students who get financial aid or C) low-income women of color who are the first generation in their family to go to college and will go to any school that gives them enough money. Carol emphasizes that this is one of her goals, and so that’s why the school needs more money for scholarships or D) white heterosexual girls who can’t get into Ivy League schools.
Smith no longer looks at SATs because if it did, it would have to report them to U.S. News & World Report. Low-income black and Hispanic students generally have lower SATs than whites or Asians of any income bracket. This is an acknowledged fact because they don’t have access to expensive prep classes or private tutors.
To accomplish [President Christ’s] mission of diversity, the school is underweighting SAT scores. This phenomenon has been widely discussed in the New York Times Education section. If you reduce your standards for grades and scores, you drop in the rankings, although you have accomplished a noble social objective. Smith has one of the highest diversity rates in the country.
I can tell you that the days of white, wealthy, upper-class students from prep schools in cashmere coats and pearls who marry Amherst men are over. This is unfortunate because it is this demographic that puts their name on buildings, donates great art and subsidizes scholarships.
-Anne Spurzem ’84
What started as a heated controversy sparked by Ms Spurzem’s letter mainly involving Smith’s current students, alumnae and a sprinkling of those who attended other colleges making up the Seven Sisters now shows signs of going viral.
My daughter, Saira, who went to Smith – class of ’91 – made me aware of Spurzem’s letter and the reaction to it at a website that was started specifically to invite comments about Spurzem’s inflammatory and outrageous letter. The site, Pearls & Cashmere, encouraged those commenting to include a picture preferably wearing cashmere and pearls to mock Spurzem’s rant about the days of cashmere coats and pearls having coming to an end – it got a host of responses!
Mocking Spurzem's comments (courtesy "Pearls & Cashmere")
The Sophian was so inundated with responses – some angry and others expressing dismay and sadness – it removed the letter and comments temporarily because of alleged deterioration in the performance of the website because of the increased traffic.
Tags: Anne Spurzem, Carol Christ's focus on diversity at Smith college, cashmere coats and pearls, diversity at Smith college, impact of prep courses on SAT scores, importance of Ivy League colleges in Westchester and Fairfield counties, Smith college, Sophia Smith
K. Kamaraj
It is rare indeed for a leader to have the attributes of humility, loyalty and honesty and to be an effective leader but such a man was Kumaraswamy Kamaraj, a former chief minister of Tamil Nadu – formerly known as Madras state – and subsequently a key advisor to Jawaharlal Nehru. He was a man with limited formal education who rose from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of power such that he was at one time viewed as the “king maker” in India. His humility and loyalty came to my attention through an anecdote about Kamaraj related to me by my first cousin, Dr Alexander Joseph, who was a young teenager when it occurred. It is the type of story that I love ………… and the fact that it involved my maternal grandmother made it all the more appealing. But first by way of introduction………..
My grandfather, Barrister George Joseph, was active in the freedom movement in India through the 1920s’ and 30s’. He was one of the most prominent South Indians involved in the movement and certainly the most prominent Kerala Christian. He was intimately involved with some of the giants of the movement – Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Vallabhai Patel, etc – and was jailed by the British with some of these individuals for his agitation against colonial rule. He is mentioned in Nehru’s autobiography and my brother, George Gheverghese Joseph, wrote a biography of our grandfather – “George Joseph: The Life And Times Of A Kerala Christian Nationalist” – which has been well received. His premature death in 1938 resulted in his role in the freedom movement not being given the recognition that it deserves.
Barrister George Joseph
My grandfather, who practised as a barrister in Madurai, was intimately involved with Gandhi who stayed at his house in Madurai on several occasions. He was introduced to Gandhi by Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari) in 1919. The relationship between George Joseph and Gandhi was one that lasted to his death in 1938 – although there were issues on which they vehemently disagreed.
However the focus of this post is Barrister George Joseph’s close relationship with the late Kumarasamy Kamaraj whom the latter viewed as a mentor. An excerpt from an article in the Hindu says:
“Joseph had a special relationship with Kamaraj. As a youngster, Kamaraj was busy with Joseph in organising demonstrations against Simon Commission and successfully organised thousands of volunteers near Tirumalai Naicker Mahal. When Kamaraj was implicated in the ‘Virudhunagar Conspiracy Case’ in 1933, Joseph and Varadarajulu Naidu argued on his behalf and proved the charges to be baseless.”
The role that George Joseph played in the acquittal of Kamaraj in the Virudhunagar case cemented an already close relationship between the two men.
More about the relationship between Kamaraj and George Joseph is encapsulated in an excerpt from this link:
“Importantly his (Kamraj’s)approach to governance and party control was never tainted with religious overtones and a secular commitment was natural and integral to his mission in life. Among his cherished political mentors, Kamaraj held George Joseph, a Kerala Christian nationalist who chose Madurai as his base for practising law and for his political activities, in high esteem.
Kamaraj’s association with George Joseph began early and grew in strength from the days when Kamaraj frequented political meetings addressed by George Joseph in Virudhunagar. It continued through the period of his involvement in the Vaikom Satyagraha then led by George Joseph, to the organising of demonstrations against the Simon Commission along with Joseph. It was George Joseph who defended Kamaraj and got him released when he was accused of making bombs and implicated in the Virudhunagar Conspiracy case. Profoundly fond of George Joseph and his family, Kamaraj continued to pay visits to the Joseph family especially his wife Susannah, even with his busy itinerary as chief minister.”
Tags: "George Joseph:The Life And Times of a Kerala Christian Nationalist", Barrister George Joseph, Dr Alexander Joseph, freedom fighter, George Gheverghese Joseph, Kamaraj pays respects to Susannah Joseph, Kamaraj's acquittal in Varadarajulu Naidu, Kamaraj's simplicity and humility, Moncy Joseph, R. Bhaskaran, statue of Barrister George Joseph at Yanaikkal junction in Madurai, Virudhunagar Conspiracy Case
“Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” was a best seller in the nineties by John Gray that sold over 7 million copies. It essentially sought to highlight the differences between men and women in dealing with problems and issues and how it affects relationships, etc. To segue from this to the focus of this post is, admittedly, a bit of a leap but one cannot help notice how male and female dogs react differently to situations. In fact, this is true of other species of animals as well.
We have two German Shepherd dogs, Max and Kaya; actually, Kaya belongs to Saira and Richard – my daughter and son-in-law. But Saira describes the ownership of the dogs as being analogous to a “joint custody” arrangement because they are kept together all the time. When we are in Northern Virginia, we usually have physical custody of the dogs and when we are away – as is the case right now – Saira and Richard keep them at their house. We try and keep the dogs together because they have been companions to each other since they were puppies.
What triggered this particular post is a picture that Saira sent me of Kaya with my younger grand-children. She is laying on the floor very contentedly with the grand-kids taking all sorts of liberties with her and she is happily oblivious of what is going on. In the background, you can see the front paws of Max whose attitude appears to be one of wanting not to totally miss out on all that is going on but at the same time he is not about to allow himself to be subjected to the Kaya “treatment” from the kids.
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Both the dogs are attached to the kids and protective of them but when the twins – Praveen and Prakash who are 15 months old – get upset, it is Kaya who becomes a shade frenzied.
The differences in the way Max and Kaya react to varying situations are striking and is the reason why I used the Mars/Venus analogy. I don’t want to over-emphasize the gender difference too much because although there are differences in the way male and female dogs react, to some extent it also depends on the dogs and their individual traits. However, Kaya’s maternal instinct seems to come to the fore in her dealing with the kids. Max seems to be an observer – staying close enough but not about to allow himself to be “accosted”! But the protective nature of both surfaced for example when my grand-daughter, Deepali, was sledding in the snow in their back yard. As she slid down, both dogs were running on either side of her, keeping pace with her sled as if to make sure that she was safe as is evident in this short video clip.
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Kaya, as those how have come into contact with her know, is not the brightest of dogs – Saira refers to her as a “special needs” case – but she is a very sweet-natured dog. Max is intelligent and a quick learner and affectionate but does keep his distance if he thinks he is going to be hassled. But it is Kaya who is the more alert of the two – she is the one who is first aware of anyone or anything that is in our yard and will react first by barking with Max following suit but being the more aggressive one after Kaya has sounded the alarm. This is very evident when both the dogs are on the deck in our backyard. Kaya first spots the deer that come to our backyard and barks and Max will bound down the deck and chase the deer even as Kaya just observes. It is almost as if she is saying: “I saw them first ………. now you deal with it!”
Contrast the earlier image of Kaya laying contentedly on the floor while the kids were playing with her with the video clip below where Max takes a limited amount of close interfacing with one of the kids and then pretty much decides that’s enough and moves away:
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Anyway, just a few observations about our two dogs ……… perhaps there is nothing much that should be read into how they react to various situations or perhaps John Gray should collaborate with an expert on dogs and produce a canine equivalent of Mars and Venus!
Incidentally, the children are never left to play unsupervised with the dogs because although they are very gentle and protective of the children and the family, in the ultimate analysis they are dogs and can be unpredictable.
Tags: "Men are from Mars Women are from Venus", John Gray, reaction of male versus female dogs to situations
“The young perish and the old linger …………….. no parent should have to bury their child”
Theoden in “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”
When my mother was terminally ill with cancer in 1964, her mother who was then in her late sixties would tell me that she (my grandmother) would like to die. I could not relate to her comment and when I asked her the reason she would merely say that she had lived long enough and was ready to meet her Maker – my grandmother was a deeply spiritual person who believed that what awaited her after death was immeasurably better than her life on earth. It was my aunt Maya Thomas – my mother’s younger sister – who during one of these conversations said in her mother’s presence, half laughing but insightfully that the reason my grandmother expressed this sentiment was that she did not ever want to have to deal with the prospect of having another of her children predeceasing her. My grandmother did not disagree and her pained reaction made it crystal clear that was indeed her motivation in wishing she could die soon. She went on to live another seven years after my mother passed away and did not have to bury any of her other children.
I was then 18 years old and could not fully relate to my grandmother’s sentiments. I think one has to be a parent to comprehend the emotions a parent must go through when dealing with the prospect of a child predeceasing them.
Parents having to bury their children just does not seem like the natural order of things ………… and unless one goes through the experience it is difficult to comprehend the pain that a parent experiences. Fortunately, I have never had to go through this trauma and it is my earnest hope and prayer that I never have to do so.
The movie (and book), “I Dreamed of Africa” is based on the true story of Kuki Gallman, who moved to Kenya with her family in 1972 to start a cattle ranch. Gallman (played by Kim Basinger) lost her husband, Paolo, in a car accident and then three years later her 17-year old son Emanuele died of a snake bite from a puff adder while trying to extract viper venom for antiserum. At her son’s funeral she said:
“To bury a husband was hard. To bury my son is against nature………..and a pain which words cannot tell”
All of this came to mind recently because a relative of mine – Priyabal Joseph (Mona) and his wife, Susheela – had to go through this experience. Their son, Vijay, died after he choked on his food and by the time he received medical attention he had suffered irreversible brain damage. He was kept alive on a ventilator for a few weeks but after they were told that that there was no hope they had to make the heart-breaking decision to take him off of life support.
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After Vijay’s funeral, Mona shared with several family members a eulogy that his daughter, Anita Newsom, gave at his funeral. In days gone by, Mona had told me that Vijay who was autistic – and who I had never met – was especially close to his sister. He shared this information with me at the time when Anita was relocating from California to Ohio for employment reasons. Mona was saddened that his daughter would be moving so far away but he said that the one who was going to be the most affected would be Vijay because he was so attached to her.
Tags: "I Dreamed of Africa", "The young perish and the old linger", Anita Easaw, Anita Newsom, Ben Easaw, Enis Easaw_Mamutil, eulogy for a brother, Kim Basinger as Kuki Gallman, Kuki Gallman, Maya Thomas, Priyabal Joseph, Vijay Joseph
Life in Kerala – and, for that matter in India – involves a lot more social interaction than occurs in the West. This interaction occurs in different settings but one that occurs with frequency is attendance at baptisms, engagements, marriages and funerals. Birthdays seem to be less frequently celebrated except for special occasions like the first birthday of a child or the sixtieth birthday of an adult – the latter is considered a significant milestone in Kerala and in Hindu tradition and referred to as sashti poorthi. Since coming to Kerala we have been invited to several of these occasions.
This past weekend, we went to Trivandrum to attend an engagement on Saturday and a wedding on Sunday. Nothing remarkable about this except that for me it was the first Nair wedding I have attended and the second Nair engagement. The Nairs, of course, are part of the Hindu community in Kerala – it used to be a completely matriarchal group but with the passage of time, the Nairs have, for the most part, gone mainstream and the matriarchal element has receded to the background. The interesting thing for me – quite apart from the novelty of the experience – was how it contrasted with the typical Syrian Christian wedding in Kerala.
Mini is from the Nair community and the engagement that we attended was that of her late sister’s grandson, Tushi to Athira. His father, Gopal, is Mini’s nephew and he is married to Susheela who is close to Mini. Since Mini was the only maternal aunt present – and, in effect, a proxy grandmother – she and I were viewed and treated with deference. The most remarkable thing about both the engagement and – the marriage of another couple that we attended the following day – is the simplicity and brevity of the ceremonies.
The engagement ceremony started with Athira and Tushi being led around to the older relatives and pay their respects by touching the feet of the various individuals while the recipients would bless the couple. Mini, given her role, was one of the primary guests whose blessing was sought – and I was accorded the same attention by virtue of the fact that I am her husband. As they did so, I must confess the thought that passed my mind was that I wished I had polished my Rockport sandals that were a little grubby from the dust that is an inevitable part of life in Kerala!!
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Athira being led by her mother as she paid her respects and sought the blessing of the older relatives
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During the engagement, the fathers of the groom and bride sat cross-legged on the floor of a raised platform facing each other and exchanged the written horoscopes of the groom and bride – in effect, the bride’s father gave the groom’s father the horoscope of the bride and the groom’s father gave the bride’s father the horoscope of the groom. Of course, these horoscopes had been shared previously to ensure that the stars were in alignment thus enhancing the prospects that the marriage would be a happy one.
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Fathers exchanging horoscopes
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Following this, the two fathers vacated their seats and the bridegroom and the bride took their place. The groom and bride put a ring on each other’s finger on the right hand – a custom that is not part of the typical Nair engagement but is something that has been borrowed and adapted from the West!
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Tushi placing ring on Athira’s finger
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Tags: absence of religious ceremony at Nair weddings, Harsha and Sukirth's wedding, importance of horoscopes at Nair weddings, Malayalam actress Kartika, Nair engagements, Nair weddings, simplicity of Nair weddings, Tushi and Athira's engagement
What are the odds of someone being born in the 18th century having grandchildren – yes, GRANDCHILDREN – who are alive in the 21st century? Pretty infinitesimal most people would say and they would be right. But a confluence of factors resulted in just such a thing happening with none other than the tenth president of the United States – John Tyler!
John Tyler was born in 1790 and has grand-children who are still living today, 222 years after the birth of their grand-father!
Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison who died after 32 days in office from pneumonia. He was born at a time when Napoleon Bonaparte was busy conquering Europe! To offer further context to historical events that occurred around the time Tyler was born consider that these events were occurring: in the year he was born, George Washington was sworn in as president for the first time, Thomas Jefferson was the first secretary of state, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined in 1793, mutineers from the Bounty were settling in Pitcairn Island and Tipu Sultan was at the height of his power and the British under Cornwallis were waging war to defeat him.
John Tyler – 10th president of the US
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So how did it come about that Tyler has grandchildren living well over two centuries after his birth? Tyler married Julia Gardiner – his second wife – in 1820. She was then 24 years old and thirty years his junior.
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Julia Gardiner – wife of John Tyler and First Lady
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She gave birth in 1853 (when Tyler was 63 years old) to a son, Lyon Gardiner Tyler. This son, Lyon, in turn, married two times – his second wife Sue Ruffin was born in 1889 – and he married her in 1923 when he was 70 years old and she was in her thirties .
Sue Ruffin Tyler gave birth to two sons – Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1925 and Harrison Ruffin Tyler in 1928. These are the grandsons of former president John Tyler and they are both in their eighties today!!
Grandson Harrison Tyler – 10th president of the US
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Grandson Lyon Tyler
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Truly remarkable and difficult to imagine that grand-children could be alive 222 years after the birth of their grandfather but it happened because of a confluence of factors – the former president having a son when he was in his sixties and that son then fathering his children when he was in his seventies!
This family tree gives a pictorial illustration of the relationships:
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(Images – courtesy of the Daily Mail)
Tags: Harrison Ruffin Tyler, John Tyler grandsons, John Tyler's grandsons alive over 222 years after Tyler was born, Julia Gardiner Tyler, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Sue Ruffin Tyler
Yes, we are back in Cochin, Kerala where we spend our winters away from the frigid temperatures of Virginia. I start every trip with a sense of dread over the the long flight from the US to India – a good 17 hours of flying time – but once I am here there is almost a sense of exhilaration. This is all the more remarkable given that I have spent very little time in India over the course of my life and even less time in Kerala. So I am not able to explain the attraction that Kerala has for me. It is clearly not just the warm weather – since there are other places in the US and elsewhere that offers the same.
With each trip there is exposure to the positives and negatives of living in Kerala. I am overwhelmed by the friendliness of relative strangers who I encounter during my morning and evening walks – not just friendliness but a warmth that is just extraordinary, especially for someone who has spent much of his life in the West. We routinely get invited by strangers we meet to come and visit them at their homes – and these are not just courtesy invitations but are quite genuine. When we have occasionally responded to such invitations we have been treated with a warmth and hospitality that clearly suggests that they are glad we came to visit them. On a train journey from Cochin to Trivandrum, I was seated next to this middle-aged gentleman and while conversing with him he informed me that his daughter was getting married in about a week’s time – and not long thereafter he invited us to attend his daughter’s wedding and the reception indicating that it would be an honor if we would join them for the happy occasion. We declined the invitation pleading a conflict but the invitation was sincere and I was a little flabbergasted by it – again relating it to Western norms where such invitations are given quite selectively.
My natural sense of caution when I receive such invitations causes me to wonder whether there is some hidden agenda ….. and I am pleasantly surprised to find there is none.
Then there are the more “interesting” situations which would be viewed as offensive in the West but is accepted as the norm in Kerala. I was walking one evening shortly after we arrived here when we ran into one of our neighbors originally from Tamil Nadu who greeted me warmly and smilingly proceeded to tell me: “you have become fat!” – and asked me whether I had stopped walking regularly like I used to do. He was certainly correct that I had put on a few pounds and he certainly did not mean to be offensive – it was his way of telling me that I’d put on a little weight since our last visit! But I do recall a second generation Indian teenager and US resident who was hugely offended when relatives would comment on her somewhat plump appearance in quite candid terms.
Our stay here which has so far lasted a mere ten days has been fairly busy in that I had my sisters Fifi and Ashwathi visit us with their families and stay with us – the former lives in Australia and the latter in Chennai. We had a wonderful time with them reminiscing over old times and chatting about life in their respective abodes. It was also good to have Ashwathi visit us for the first time since we bought the flat and offer her a small measure of the hospitality that she routinely accords to us when we visit her in Chennai.
We were fortunate in having bought a well-located flat with a great floor plan that has a terrific view and is in one of the more desirable areas of Cochin – an area called Panampilly Nagar. It helps to make our stay more comfortable. It is large by Indian standards at 1900 square feet although small in relation to our house in the US. It does make us realize that we have way too much house in the US and that one can be very comfortable with a lot less space.
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Tags: "God's country", "quotation murders", domestic help in Kerala, hospitality of Indians and Keralites, life in Cochin, orgin of phrase "God's own country" to describe Kerala, unique terminology in India
Some interesting facts and trivia about US presidents:
Eight presidents were born before the founding of the nation
Every president was born in one of only nineteen (arguably twenty) of the fifty states: these states are Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and Virgina. The arguable one is that some believe Andrew Jackson was born in South Carolina and not North Carolina. Of the nineteen, thirteen states produced a single president – so the remaining six states produced multiple presidents. The most presidents -eight – were born in Virginia. Surprisingly, only one president – Richard Nixon was born in California – despite California’s size, economy and influence.
Eleven presidents – the largest number – were Episcopalian. The next largest group of presidents were Presbyterian. There was only one Roman Catholic – JFK.
Only fifteen presidents DID NOT preside over a war or other hostilities involving US troops. In other words, twenty nine presidents presided over a war or wars while in office – in some instances it may have been a war that started with a predecessor. Jimmy Carter was the last president not to be involved in any war or hostility. Clinton ordered action involving US troops to stop the massacre of Muslims in Kosovo and Bosnia. Reagan ordered military strikes/intervention against Libya, Grenada and Lebanon. His administration was actively involved in providing military assistance against the Sandanistas in Nicaragua. Both Bushes went to war with Iraq and George W also took military action against Afghanistan. Obama inherited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and also intervened militarily in Libya.
Nineteen presidents had been the governor of a state prior to becoming president
Twenty three presidents were lawyers and eight were former teachers
Fourteen presidents had previously served as vice presidents
The only president not elected to that office nor elected as vice president was Gerald Ford who was appointed VP and succeeded Nixon upon his resignation. Nixon was the only president to ever resign from office.
Nine vice presidents became president as a result of the death or resignation of a president
Tags: assasinated presidents, attempted assassination against presidents, facts about us presidents, presidents who had extra-marital affairs, presidents who presided over wars, presidents with black heritage, religion of presidents, states that have produced presidents, trivia about US presidents
Spelling bees are fascinating and puzzling. The former because it is a pleasure to see young children being successfully tutored to a point that they are able to spell the most esoteric words which most people have never heard before and certainly few would use in either oral or written communication. It is the limited value in learning these rarely used words that makes the whole competition puzzling – these kids, their parents and tutors must spend endless hours and perhaps money trying to master these words. It reminds me of the old joke by Billy Connolly: “I don’t know why I should have to learn Algebra… I’m never likely to go there.” But Algebra will be more likely to be useful than most of these rarely used words. But, nonetheless, spelling bees are fun and one cannot but help admire the dedication of these kids in getting to a point where they compete in a national competition like the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Spelling bees are thought to have originated in the US though today these competions are held in various countries including the UK, Australia, Mexico, India, Canada and other countries. The first winner of an official spelling bee occurred in 1925 when Frank Neuhauser, then 11 years old, won the 1st National Spelling Bee, in Washington DC. The 9 finalists were invited to meet Calvin Coolidge at the White House, a tradition followed by presidents for most of the ensuing years of the contest.
In recent years, the national spelling bee held in the US has included contestants from other countries including Canada, the Caribbean and New Zealand.
For some reason I am not able to fathom Indian-American (South Asian) children have won the championship in seven of the last twelve years. This is all the more remarkable when one considers that South Asians represent less than 5% if the US population.
Although these spelling bees are pretty serious events with a lot of tension especially for the contestants they occasionally result in some quite humorous and unusual situations.
For example, here 2008 Scripps’ National Spelling Bee champion Sameer Mishra initially misheard the word and thought it was a word that suggested a less than edifying meaning! His relief when he realized what the word really was is apparent and hilarious.
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In this next clip, Kennyi Aouad is given a word he has obviously never heard before and cannot control his amusement at the very word!
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Andrew Lay of North Carolina is asked to spell a word that sounds like “niggas” – a word that is definitely not politically correct to say especially on a nationally televised forum. He asks for the meaning of the word and that does not help – in fact, it seems to confirm his fear that the word is just what he does not want to say. He finally spells it like it is pronounced and to his amazement and relief it turns out that he got it correct.
Tags: "I don't know why I should have to learn Algebra... I'm never likely to go there" -- Billy Connolly, Akshay Buddiga faints, Andrew Lay and "niggas", Calvin Coolidge and spelling bees, Frank Neuhauser, indians winnng spelling bees, Katie Seymour seeks help with spelling, Kennyi Aouad, Kiran Chethry interviewing Evan O’Dorney, Rebecca Sealfon, Sameer Mishra, South Asians dominate recent spelling bees
I am a political junkie and have been one since I was a teenager in Kenya during the height of the independence movement in that country. To give you a sense of how much of a political junkie I was even then, I attended a political gathering with my parents being addressed by Tom Mboya and Mwai Kibaki at a time when the release of Jomo Kenyatta was being sought from detention. ,After the speeches were over and hundreds of people were awaiting the departure of Mboya and Kibaki, I got around the police cordons and entered the building where Mboya and Kibaki were drinking tea after their speeches. I recall class mates of mine yelling out to me as I got through police cordon to get back but it did not stop me. What was my motivation? It was a time when I used to collect autographs and I wanted to get an autograph of Mboya. In the process I actually got two autographs of Mboya and one of Kibaki. I still have the autographs I collected that day around 1960! I was a rather precocious teenager. Kenyatta later became the first president of an independent Kenya, Mboya was a cabinet minister in Kenyatta’s government and was assassinated in circumstances that some feel was orchestrated by Kenyatta’s supporters who viewed Mboya as a threat and Kibaki went on to become the president of Kenya.
All of the above is to illustrate my interest in politics which continued when I moved to England for my higher studies, the stint I spent in India in 1970 and after I came to the US in 1971. I avidly follow debates that are part of the nomination process for president and then when the nominees have been selected, I follow the presidential debates.
Debates for the nomination and the presidency usually follow a fairly scripted format where there are few surprises. They therefore usually don’t have any game changing moments but once in a while something happens which becomes a decisive turning point in the process. Which brings me to yesterday’s debate to select the Republican nominee to run against Barack Obama – a debate that had precisely one of those moments which will doubtless be an instance of such a “game changer”.
Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, who upon his entry into the race for the nomination was viewed as a favorite among conservatives was discussing various ways of cutting federal expenses and he literally experienced a “brain freeze” and could not name one of the agencies he said was part of the plan. Of itself, it would likely not have been a disaster but coming as it did on top of several rather poor performances in prior debates, the video of his flubbing the answer went viral on Youtube and most pundits think that his chances of becoming the nominee are pretty much doomed. Here is the video of Perry’s gaffe:
Tags: Al Gore invades George Bush's space during 2000 debate, Gerald Ford's gaffe regarding Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki, Rick Perry blows debate, Ronald Reagan makes a joke about his age, Ronald Reagan's comment about Walter Mondale's age., Tom Mboya freedom movement, turning points in debates
I am not an Anglophile …….. in fact, I probably have something of a bias against things one associates with the English. My attitude is largely because of the time I spent in the the UK as a student in the sixties when discrimination against anyone who was not white was rife in just about evey facet of life including employment, housing and social acceptance. Things have changed today in the UK – admittedly there is still some discrimination though it is not the sort of blatant bigotry that one saw in the sixties.
I have always been somewhat puzzled by the average American’s fascination and admiration of all things British from the accent to the Royal family and various trappings associated with the pageantry that typifies English ceremonies. It is all the more ironical since the British tend to be quite condescending to most things American – of course, the British who emigrate to the US often choose to live here permanently even as they put down Americans and talk longingly about the wonderful life they left behind in the UK!
Given all of the above, my fascination with some facets of British history is a contradiction of sorts. I cannot explain it other than perhaps attributing it to the fact that history was one of my favorite subjects when I was in high school in Kenya at a time when it was still a colony of Britain. The curriculum was very much oriented to British history and the perspective was very much from a British standpoint at a time when they still were very much a colonial power. In high school we were exposed to only a minimal extent to Indian history or the history of any other country for that matter. To the extent that there was exposure to the history of other countries it was because the British were involved in those countries!
My primary interest is in British history during the Tudor era and especially Henry VIII and Elizabeth I – I have minimal interest in today’s royal family and I find it an irritant how Americans seem to revel in things associated with British royalty whether it be the soap opera with Diana and more recently with William and Kate and even the goings on about Pippa – Kate’s sister who has little going for her other than being William’s sister-in-law!
I bring this up because the past few days I have been watching the series “The Tudors” that aired on Showtime a couple of years ago. In years gone by, I have watched related movies or TV programs such as the “The Six Wives of Heny VIII”, “Anne of the Thousand Days” that I first saw in New Delhi in 1971 and the brilliant “A Man for all Seasons” which focused on the life of Thomas More and his ill-fated opposition to Heny VIII’s divorce of Katherine of Aragon. I have also enjoyed the various presentations about Elizabeth I.
I find Henry VIII a fascinating character. He was larger than life, very athletic and lived life to the fullest. He succeeded to the crown at a time when his position had not been consolidated fully and, given the times he lived in, the notion that Britain could be ruled by a woman was something that he could not envisage – and who can blame him. It was a different era and to compare the role of a woman today with what it was in the 16th century is absurd. Of course the irony is that his daughter, Elizabeth I, ended up being one of the great monarchs in British history!
I find the dynamics of that time with the political rivalries between the monarch of Britain, France and Spain fascinating – and the fleeting loyalties that existed when it came to alliances. Then we have the role of the Pope which was almost entirely geared to the repercussions that would result to the papacy if he offended any of the monarchs. Henry’s annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon by the Pope would likely have gone through without a hitch had it not been for the control that Spanish monarch, who was related to Katherine, exercised over the Pope.
The hapless Katherine, loved by the English people, and who loved her husband despite his many infidelities and flaws could not save herself from her fate because she did not produce a male heir and was past child-bearing age. She viewed Henry’s many mistresses as just passing passions which would come and go …… and she was right until it came to Anne Boleyn. Katherine viewed Anne as just another passing fancy that Henry would tire of like he did with numerous other women.
Anne Boleyn is perhaps the most fascinating of Henry’s wives She has been played by several actresses but one of the most memorable is the performance of Genevieve Bujold in that role in “Anne of the Thousand Days”. She won the Golden Globe award for Best Actress and was nominated for an Academy award for Best Actress. My favorite scene in which she appears is the one below. By way of introduction to the scene, Anne has been imprisioned in the Tower of London and is awaiting trial on multiple charges including trumped up charges of infidelity and if found guilty she would be executed. Henry, played by Richard Burton, unexpectedly visits her at the Tower.
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Just for the record, the historians do not believe that Henry ever visited Anne after she was imprisioned at the Tower. So there is some dramatic license taken in the scene above intended to show Anne’s feisty nature and her strong personality.
Tags: "The Anne Boleyn Files", American and British attitudes to each other, Anne Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's downfall, Anne Boleyn's speech before her execution, Anne of the Thousand Days, Genevieve Bujold as Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's break with Rome and the papacy, Richard Burton as Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More
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 price. Perhaps the Apple operating system is less buggy and the interface is more streamlined. I will also concede that the three members of my family who are computer savvy – namely my son, my son-in-law and my younger brother – are unreservedly Apple fans.
Having said this, it does not take away from the fact that the late Steve Jobs was a creative genius. I have heard comparisons of Jobs’ creative talents with that of Thomas Edison and I suspect that it is not too far off the mark. The description of Jobs as “a genius and a jerk” is a loose paraphrasing of how Walter Isaacson, the author of the recent best selling biography of Jobs, describes him – a description that others have used since his biography was released.
Isaacson was co-opted by Jobs to write his biography and he (Jobs) was encouraged by wife, Laurene, to make sure that any biography had both his positive and negative attributes. Jobs did just that and so the end result is one that shows a man of great talents and great flaws. Jobs always claimed that although he could be scathing in his criticism of others, he was willing to accept the same of himself. He died before the release of the biography so we will never know how he would have reacted to what Isaacson said about him. The one clue we have is when he told Isacson shortly before he died that he (Jobs) assumed that there would be unflattering things said about him that he would not like – which Issacson affirmed. Whereupon Jobs said that he would not read the biography for a year to allow his passions to cool down.
Isaacson describes Jobs as capable of being downright obnoxious and mean in his dealings with people. He could be petty and almost unreasonably demanding, insensitive to others even though he was himself a sensitive person and displayed his own emotions openly. Despite his unreasonableness and lack of management skills in the conventional sense, he was capable of engendering tremendous loyalty – and even affection – from those who worked for him. Several key executives stayed with him through the years. Even in his personal life, these contradictions would surface: for years he would not accept a daughter. Lisa, that he fathered when he was single from a woman with whom he was involved. He continued to suggest that he might not be her father even after a paternity test proved he was. Though he later reconciled with her and they became close. This is all the more amazing because he was himself given up for adoption because his birth parents did not want the responsibility of raising him. His biographer has said that this rejection by his birth parents had a profound effect on him and probably shaped many aspects of his personality both positive and negative.
His relationship with women in general showed the same erratic and insensitive streak that he did in other facets of his life. Maureen Dowd offers a less than flattering perspective of his attitude and behavior to women:
“Chrisann Brennan, the mother of Jobs’s oldest child, Lisa, told Isaacson that being put up for adoption left Jobs “full of broken glass.” He very belatedly acknowledged Lisa and their relationship was built, Isaacson says, on “layers of resentment.”
He could be hard on women. Two exes scrawled mean messages on his walls. As soon as he learned that his beautiful, willowy, blonde girlfriend, Laurene Powell, was pregnant in 1991, he began musing that he might still be in love with the previous beautiful, willowy, blonde girlfriend, Tina Redse.
“He surprised a wide swath of friends and even acquaintances by asking them what he should do,” Isaacson writes. “ ‘Who was prettier,’ he would ask, ‘Tina or Laurene?’ ” And “who should he marry?”
Isaacson notes that Jobs could be distant at times with the two daughters he had with Laurene (though not the son). When one daughter dreamed of going to the Oscars with him, he blew her off.
Andy Hertzfeld, a friend and former Apple engineer, lent Lisa $20,000 when she thought her father was not going to pay her Harvard tuition. Jobs paid it back to his friend, but Lisa did not invite him to her Harvard graduation.
“The key question about Steve is why he can’t control himself at times from being so reflexively cruel and harmful to some people,” Hertzfeld said. “That goes back to being abandoned at birth.”
He almost always wore black turtlenecks and jeans. (Early on, he scorned deodorant and went barefoot and had a disturbing habit of soaking his feet in the office toilet.)
Yet he sometimes tried to ply his exquisite taste to remake the women in his life.
When he was dating the much older Joan Baez — enthralled by her relationship with his idol, Bob Dylan — he drove her to a Ralph Lauren store in the Stanford mall to show her a red dress that would be “perfect” for her. But one of the world’s richest men merely showed her the dress, even after she told him she “couldn’t really afford it,” while he bought shirts.
When he met his sister, Mona Simpson, a struggling novelist, as an adult, he berated her for not wearing clothes that were “fetching enough” and then sent her a box of Issey Miyake pantsuits “in flattering colors,” she said.”
Tags: Chrisann Brennan, Issacson's biography of Jobs, Jobs and Joan Baez, Jobs attitude to women, Laurene Powell, Steve Jobs. Maureen Dowd, Tina Redse
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 Advisor to President Carter. Scarborough represents what may be referred to as a moderately conservative view – although some Republicans consider him to be a RINO ie a “Republican in Name Only” – and Brezinski is an uninhibited and unreserved liberal. Scarborough will accord credit to Obama at times and is critical of the “crazy right” as evidenced in this video clip.
Which brings me to the current race for the Republican presidential nomination of which Scarborough aptly said:
“All the world is a stage and in this year’s GOP presidential race, it is a reality show soundstage cluttered with clownish characters auditioning for the role of commander in chief.”
Scarborough went on to say about Herman Cain, the current front runner in polls:
“All of this leads us to Herman Cain, a man so woefully ill-prepared for the presidency that his lone economic adviser brags about being ignorant of economic theory with as much gusto as candidate Cain mocks those who would suggest he knows little about world politics.
“When they ask me, ‘Who is President of UBEKI-beki-beki-becki-stan, stan, I am going to say ‘Do you know?’”
Then we have Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, who comes across as a cowboy and was described by a commentator as being “George Bush without the brains”. Perry, in various speeches, seemed to call for the hanging of Ben Bernanke for treason along with the secession of Texas!
There are a variety of likely explanations for some of the actions of the so called “crazy right” and much of it is probably linked to the dismal state of the economy. The US has serious problems and there is no apparent easy solution. For the first time, the majority of Americans believe that the next generation will likely have a lower standard of living than the current generation – something that has never happened before. There was a time when parents would tell their children that if they worked hard and did well in their studies and went to a good college, they could one day own a big house or a very desirable car or go on vacations to exotic places. This is no longer the case as many college graduates, some from highly regarded colleges, cannot find jobs and when they can find a job, it might not pay enough to maintain a decent standard of living and repay their sizable student loans.
Tags: "George Bush without the brains", 2012 Republican presidential primaries, 9-9-9, Herman Cain, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brezinski, Morning Joe, Rick Perry
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 out to me that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. At the time the reports indicated that it was an accident involving a small plane. It was when the second plane struck the twin tower of the WTC that it was clear that this was a terrorist attack. I sat glued to the TV thereafter following every development …… it seemed like the world had gone mad.
I knew one person who was killed on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Ian Gray, an Englishman who arrived in the US a couple of years prior to my arrival and was a colleague of mine at Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Chicago. I lost touch with Ian in the late seventies and knew nothing about his whereabouts until I read of his death and recognized him in a picture that was published.
In its aftermath the ramifications are still reverberating in the US and around the world. We had wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – the former entirely justified IMO and the latter which made no sense to me then or now. We still have troops in both countries and there seems to be no end in sight. It is easier to start a war than to extricate oneself from it once it starts. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed in both countries and several thousand US troops have also died and tens of thousands have been injured. The wars have cost the US trillions of dollars and we continue to pay for those hostilities.
George W Bush, the president who ordered the hostilities is viewed as a failure mainly because those wars and the impact it had on the US and continues to this day. It marked the zenith of US power and the decline that began with the attack and the wars continues to this day as the economic power of the US is dissipated. Hillary Clinton who would likely have been president today lost the nomination mainly because she had voted in favor of the war with Iraq – a war that turned to have been fought under false pretenses. Obama won the nomination in large measure because he gave a speech opposing the war which he cited repeatedly as showing that he had the right judgment when it came to crucial decisions … he was then a state senator in Illinois and so was not in the US Senate where he would have had to vote either for or against the war. There were of course other factors behind Obama’s success in winning the presidency but it was his opposition to the war and Hillary C’s support of it that was instrumental in the the former winning the Democratic party’s nomination.
I did not watch the TV specials marking the 10th anniversary but a couple of days prior to the anniversary, I did check out a couple of websites that had been established for several years marking the event. One was a memorial set up by Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street firm, located in the WTC around the location where the planes crashed into the building . A page had been set up for each employee who was killed in the attack ………. over 200 employees from Cantor Fitzgerald were killed on 9/11. People who knew the employees could record their memories and thoughts about the person who was killed. Some of the accounts especially by family members was deeply moving and I found myself unable to read more than a few of these tributes.
I had heard about people jumping from the higher floors of the WTC to a certain death …. I guess it was a choice between a certain death from the flames and smoke or an almost certain death jumping. One could not help wonder about the thoughts that went through the minds of those who jumped – a choice between the lesser of two evils in a sense.
The image of people jumping was personified by a picture taken by an AP photographer, Richard Drew, and referred to as “the falling man”. At the time it was a controversial image when it was published by the media.
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Tom Junod, in Esquire, describes the image as follows:
“In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it. If he were not falling, he might very well be flying. He appears relaxed, hurtling through the air. He appears comfortable in the grip of unimaginable motion. He does not appear intimidated by gravity’s divine suction or by what awaits him. His arms are by his side, only slightly outriggered. His left leg is bent at the knee, almost casually. His white shirt, or jacket, or frock, is billowing free of his black pants. His black high-tops are still on his feet.
Tags: "the falling man" Tom Junod, Cantor Fitzgerald, Ian Gray, people jumping from World Trade Center, Richard Drew
We got back earlier tonight from a celebration of Independence Day with the usual fireworks display.
The longer I have lived in the US, the more I have come to appreciate the greatness of the country and its people. Sure, we make our share of mistakes but there is no other country in the world that so many people aspire to live in, if they just had the opportunity.
There is no question in my mind, that my decision to come to the US in 1971 was one of the best decisions I ever made for myself and my family. I was able to sponsor my brother and his family and I know that he feels the same way about this country and what it has offered to him and his family. Having lived for varying lengths of time in India, Kenya and the United Kingdom, there is no question in my mind that I have the greatest sense of “belonging” to the US – and this is not a knock on any of the other countries where I have lived. Each of those countries were important in molding me into what I am today!
The US has been correctly described as a land of opportunity and a nation of immigrants; unlike other countries, it is generally welcoming of immigrants and the dynamism of the country is in large measure because of these immigrants. As Mort Zuckerman said about the US:
“Immigrants come to America for many reasons, but mainly they come because it’s the land of opportunity and upward mobility where achievement is more important than inheritance. Uprooting themselves from the familiarity of family, community, and even language and culture, they are self-selected risk-takers, which is why they tend to be hardworking, self-starting, creative, and smart. It’s also why immigration has been such an economic plus for America and why so many of us look so favorably on legal immigrants.”
So, my posting for today is a tribute to USA
Her shining beacon held aloft.
above a radiant crown,
sending the light of liberty
across the seas
inviting the huddled masses,
the forlorn, the impoverished,
the down-trodden, the imprisoned,
the beleaguered,
those who suffered, subsisted,
survived and endured
conditions of tyranny, brutality and oppression
yearning to breathe free.
Respecting the laws of this land,
many came and answered the call,
to see for themselves,
and seek out what had been
offered and promised:
chances to be able to live a life
worth living,
finding, however, that it came with
tasks and duties to be mastered,
that freedom sought
was not just free for the taking.
Freedom came with a guarantee,
for all willing to pay the price
of commitment and dedication
to the causes of liberty.
Let no-one compromise,
shortchange, undercut or circumvent
the profound meaning
of the message of liberty.
Let no-one betray the promises made
given, earned and guaranteed
Let those in government at all levels
abide by the rules and laws,
statutes and edicts,
respecting the imitations of power, upholding
The Constitution of the United States,
and
The Bill of Rights.
doing their sworn duties
to protect and defend our rights
to life, liberty and justice for all
Remember today
all who had gone before,
and who had sacrificed,
not for transient causes,
but for the perpetuity and permanence
of liberty and freedom.
Celebrate the day
with sincere thoughts
of rededication and loyalty.
Lady Liberty,
noble, serene, and confident,
will show you the way!
Just look for the beacon
held high,
shining the light of liberty
for all to see
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Thanks to Gerhard A. Fürst for providing the above tribute
On December 12, 1968, Pan Am Flight 217, a Boeing 707, crashed near Caracas, Venezuela and all 51 passengers on board were killed. One of the crew members – an air stewardess as they were then called – was Franciska Buyers who must have been 23 years old at the time.
All this came to mind yesterday when I happened to google, as I some times do, trying to locate people I used to know when I lived in London as a student in the sixties. I was searching for Anton Buyers, Franciska’s younger brother who was a student at Cambridge University when she was killed. I did not locate him but when I did a search relating to the circumstances of the crash of Pan Am 217, lo and behold, I found several references to that ill-fated flight. In fact, I did not know the flight number but knew that it crashed near Venezuela towards the end of 1968.
So why am I writing about Franciska – she was not an old flame though she was a friend. But only three of the victims of the crash were named in the google searches that I did – there was no mention of Franciska and I decided that, with this posting, I would remedy the situation. The named victims – sometimes an almost cursory mention – included a moving account by, Brian, the son of the first officer on the flight, William Canell who was only eight months old when his father was killed. There was mention of the name of the captain, Sid Stillwaugh. Finally, a reference to one of the passengers Olga Antonetti, a former Miss Venezuela.
I did finally locate mention of Franciska’s name in the St. Petersburg Times, dated December 14, 1968, available on the web = though itis not something that would surface in most searches. Also mentioned are other names including stewardess trainee M. Ambrey who was believed to be on her maiden flight in her new role. Other victims names also appear in this newspaper report.
Brian Cannell, the son of the first officer on the flight, in a gesture of remembrance of his father, constructed a model of the Boeing plane complete with its “Clipper Malay” name – a couple of images appear below.
Tags: Anton Buyers, Brian Cannell, Franciska Buyers, Katherine Kane, list of passengers and crew on Pan Am Flight 217, Miss Venezuela. 1962, Olga Antonetti, Pan Am Flight 217, Sid Stillwaugh, William Cannell
Jobs, Hitchens, faith and near death experiences
I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of the “near death experience” – known by the acronym NDE. Perhaps it is my belief in an after-life – even though I am not sure what form it takes – which accounts for this interest. After all, for someone who believes in an after life the reports of what happens in NDEs’ seems to offer some sort of affirmation of what happens after death.
There are also scientific explanations that seek to debunk the spiritual explanations of such experiences. Scientists suggest that NDEs’ are attributable to physical causes such as brain chemistry (neural noise, hypoxia, etc.), psychological states (wish fulfillment or reliving the birth trauma), and sociological factors (religious fantasies based on social conditioning). But neither side is able to prove conclusively what these NDEs’ really represent – whether spiritual or something capable of a more scientific explanation. Perhaps it is just as well since it allows people to place their faith in whatever suits their purpose.
What happens during a NDE varies and the traits of a classical NDE may include one or more of the following: a sense/awareness of being dead, a sense of peace, well-being and painlessness, a feeling of being removed from the world, an out-of-body experience involving a perception of one’s body from an outside position including sometimes observing doctors and nurses performing medical resuscitation efforts, a “tunnel experience” frequently including a rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light, an intense feeling of unconditional love, encountering “Beings of Light” or other spiritual beings, being reunited with deceased loved ones, approaching a border, a decision by oneself or others to return to one’s body, often accompanied by a reluctance to return and other similar emotions.
Anyway, all of this came to mind as I read about the death of two individuals – the first was Steve Jobs and the other was Christopher Hitchens . They were two very different individuals who left their marks in different arenas and both were men I admired although in the case of Hitchens I was less than enthused by his support of the war in Iraq which I found to be quite inexplicable given his general views – after all, Hitchen was a man who wanted Heny Kissinger charged and tried for war crimes because of his involvement in the Vietnam war and Cambodian incursion. Hitchens was horrified by the fatwa imposed on his friend, Salman Rushdie, by the Ayatollah Khomenei which resulted in Rushdie having to go into hiding for years. Perhaps, Hitchens perceived that what happened to Rushdie was the direct result of Muslim fundamentalism and extremism and felt that the West needed to take a stronger stance against Muslim countries who were inclined to sponsor terrorism.
Hitchens was a brilliant writer, polemicist and provocateur. I loved reading his columns – he was incredibly articulate, had a gift when it came to expressing himself whether in writing or orally and was very blunt without regard for political correctness. He was an atheist – vocally so – and wrote a book “God is not great” which was really a play on Muslim proclamations of “Allah u Akbar” which literally means “God is great”. He was deeply critical of phoney evangelists – and religious leaders of other faiths – who would proclaim piety at the very same time that they showed little compassion or tolerance for those with whom he disagreed.
A perfect illustration of his bluntness and unwillingness to observe the niceties of custom was his exchanges with Sean Hannity – a right-wing talk show host – when Rev Jerry Falwell died. Hannity tried to shout him down as he often does with those he disagrees but Hitchens was not having any of it and got the better of him as he calmly addressed why he said what he did about Falwell:
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Hitchens, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus about a year ago and was touched by the numerous messages he received from Christians and others who said they would pray for his recovery – he was struck by the magnanimity of those who he had ridiculed over the years because of their faith. He expressed his gratitude but never wavered to the very end in his atheistic beliefs.
Steve Jobs, on the other hand, while not known for being vocal about his faith was confirmed as a Lutheran but during his hippie days he visited ashrams in India during the 70′s and returned to the States as a Buddhist. This was not just a passing fancy because he was married to his wife at Yosemite National Park by Kobin Chino Otogowa, a Zen Buddhist monk. There were indirect allusions to his faith after he first became ill – especially in the address he gave at the commencement address at Stanford University.
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Tags: "God is not great", Christopher Hitchens and atheism, Hitchen's comments regarding Falwell's death, Hitchens interview with Sean Hannity, Jobs last words, Kobin Chino Otogowa, Mona Simpson's eulogy, near death experience, nirvikalpa samadhi