-
Three years and counting……
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,…
-
Steve Bridges: RIP
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…
-
Alas, no more cashmere coats & pearls for Smithies!
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…
-
Kumaraswamy Kamaraj’s loyalty and humility
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…
-
Men are from Mars, women are from Venus ……. is there a canine equivalent?
“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…
-
“No parent should have to bury their child”
“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.…
-
Nair weddings – the antithesis of conspicuous consumption
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…
-
More presidential trivia – but a truly remarkable fact
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…
-
Back in “God’s own country”
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 –…
-
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…
-
East is east and west is west ………. when it comes to mourning
It was Rudyard Kipling who said that east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet. Kipling was referring to India which was then the jewel in the British empire and Kipling, like other colonial apologists, maintained that the cultural bridge between Indians and the British could never be bridged. This came to mind a few days ago when Kim Jong Il, the president of North Korea, died and there was a sense of shock and surprise in the US media over the public expressions of grief. There was much speculation that the grief was, at least in part, contrived and although that cannot be ruled…
-
David Carroll, United Airlines and social media at its best!
I love You Tube and its endless variety of offerings. I also cordially dislike flying – everything about it infuriates me ranging from the security hassles at the airport, the less than customer friendly airline service, the cramped seating, the full flights and just about every thing that one associates with flying nowadays. I did not always feel this way about flying – there was a time in the eighties when I flew several days a week as part of my job. It was a different era then and many of the frustrations associated with flying today were not there then or to the extent they were, it was relatively…
-
Facts and trivia about US presidents
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…
-
Funny – and not so funny moments – during spelling bees
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…
-
Turning points in presidential debates
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…
-
The Tudors, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
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…
-
“A genius and a jerk”
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…
-
From the sublime to the ridiculous
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…
-
The 10th anniversary of 9/11
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…
-
No audio on Youtube and other flash video
Given the positive reaction that my posting regarding a temporary fix to a laptop’s battery not charging, I thought I would share my resolution of another problem I confronted with my laptop. I lost audio when trying to play anything on Youtube or any other site that used flash video – most people use Adobe – but had normal audio in all other respects. I googled this endlessly and tried various fixes without success. In the process I also discovered that this was a problem that many other computer users reported and most expressed frustration about the lack of a satisfactory solution either on Microsoft’s website or that of Adobe.…
-
July 4, 2011: Reflections about my adopted country
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…
-
Pan Am Flight 217, ‘Clipper Malay’ – Franciska Buyers remembered
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…
-
“You can fool some of the people all of the time”
Senator Everett Dirksen, the highly regarded former Republican senator from Illinois, is supposed to have said during a speech arguing for restraints in spending: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money”. If Dirksen were alive today he would say the same thing but it would no longer be talk of billions as much as trillions. We have a budget that is out of control – just about everyone agrees on this – but that is where the agreement ceases. How to fix the problem is one that neither party can find common ground. Yesterday, I heard former Senator Alan Simpson – a Republican…
-
Concierge Medicine – a passing fad or a growing trend?
There is a fascinating trend developing in the US – still in its infancy – but one that could see rapid growth. It has been labeled “concierge medicine” and is the result of a variety of factors: consumer demand, consumer frustration, financial incentives for physicians, the impact of managed care, reduced reimbursement and the shortage of good primary care physicians. Basically, the way it works is for patients interested in such an arrangement to pay their physician a retainer of say $1500 annually – in return for which, they get priority in being able to see their doctor usually the same day, ready phone access to the doctor directly and…
-
“To err is human, to forgive, canine”
I have already posted about my affinity for dogs and how among my siblings, I am the one who is the most attached to them – a couple of my siblings react to dogs with emotions ranging from distaste to disapproval. My children have mixed feelings about them – one is quite fond of them and the other two are fond of them as long as they don’t have to take care of them! The role of working dogs is well known: they have from time immemorial been used by humans in various capacities whether as seeing eye dogs, detecting explosives or drugs, pulling sleds, police work, search and rescue,…
-
A follow-up to my last post…………
Just a quick follow-up to my last post “Dell laptop problem: “Plugged in battery not charging”: The fix I posted ceased to work on my laptop. I contacted Dell since the laptop is still under warranty and a technician was sent on a service call to replace the motherboard and the A/C adapter. The technician started the laptop using the new adapter and the problem disappeard. When he attempted to use the old adapter, the problem returned which seemed to confirm that the issue was with the A/C adapter. So it turned out to be a relatively simple fix and it was not necessary to replace the motherboard though he…
-
Dell laptop problem: “Plugged in battery not charging”
My posting today is a total departure from the usual subjects and issues on which I comment. I have been beset with a problem on my laptop – a Dell Inspiron 1764 – which Google searches have shown to be a relatively common problem affecting laptops irrespective of the manufacturer – and therefore not confined to Dell. I use Windows 7 but the problem also affects other operating systems such as Vista and XP. What happens is that when one tries to charge the battery a message appears that an incompatible adapter is being used and therefore the battery is not charging. However, power is being transmitted to the laptop…
-
“Goa Machi Kathore”
Growing up in Mombasa, Kenya as a young boy I was occasionally teased by North Indian kids with the expression “Goa machi kathore” – these were kids usually with origins from Punjab and Gujarat. The term was meant to be derogatory and was a reference to the fact that Goans liked to eat a lot of fish! Now why Goans would be singled out and be subject to disparaging comments because of their affinity for eating fish is a mystery to me today especially since the Bengalis are also avid fish eaters! But at the time, one did not go into such subtleties – one merely responded with some sort…
-
My Colonoscopy: Dave Barry Redux
It has been a while since I updated this blog – attributable to laziness more than anything else after we returned from Cochin back to the US. There have been events which I wanted to write about but for some reason never got around to doing so. So it may seem a little odd that my first entry after a four month hiatus should be about a colonoscopy I had last week. But as you read on, you will see why I felt that a light-hearted account with the help of Dave Barry is a good way to restart the blog. For those who live outside the US who are…
-
The Queen’s English? Bah Humbug!
Living in India for any length of time has its challenges. I came to the realization several years ago that if one does not go with the flow, it can be frustrating to a point that one becomes exasperated. At a basic level one must accept that one is not living in the West where certain conveniences and protocols are the norm – to expect to find a life-style akin to the US in India is a recipe for disillusionment. There are also some cultural differences and customs/etiquette which can be amusing and at other times disconcerting to someone who visits from the West. For example, it took me a…