"Please do the needful"

Its an Indian term, its an all-encompassing Indian term; its used when you know specifically what you need done (or need to do) and still say, "do the needful"; its also used when you don't really know what needs to be done, but leave it to the better judgement of the other person, and say, "do the needful". I find myself very tempted to use the term at the end of business emails and somehow manage to rephrase.

To satiate my nostalgia and home-sickness, this is a post about my hometown, Bangalore**. Bangalore is now the Showpiece of the Indian Economy. When the Premier of China visited India few months back, he didn't go to the capital Delhi first, or even the finance hub Bombay, he was most intrigued by the goings-on in Bangalore, the IT Capital of India. B'lore is where most of the IT work going to India gets outsourced; where multinationals are setting up shop at a phenomenal rate; where most of the outsourced calls get answered from; the land of the IT giants, Infosys and Wipro; the city that Tom Friedman of the nytimes spent a few months in last year and got the inspiration for his book, "The World is Flat"; the Indian city with the highest hotel rates; the fastest growing city in Asia (and if there's a city growing faster anywhere else in the world, I dont know about it)...but that's not the B'lore I know..

In spite of being born in Madras (now, Chennai), since I grew up in B'lore, I consider myself a Bangalorean. B'lore then was the Garden City of India. A relaxed, laidback town, boasting of very good infrastructure and planning (ironic, eh?), great weather all year through, clean air, and a great bunch of people. It was the land of "solpa adjust madi" (loosely translated, "please adjust") - it would take a lot to hassle a B'lorean. A typical Bangalorean was a simple straight-forward soul, without the slyness associated with the neighboring Tamilian or the Malayali, a happy-go-lucky character enjoying his city. Sadly(?), Bangalore today has more people from other parts of the country and the world than actual Bangaloreans.

Hard to say why the IT boom exploded in B'lore - we don't claim to have the best Engineering institutes in the country, there is no shortage of talented people alright, but its not like we had all the talented people in India concentrated there...then what was the reason? I think it was because of some right political/diplomatic moves by the local/central governments and Messrs. Narayana Murthy & Asim Premi starting up Infosys & Wipro in Bangalore.

Bangalore finds itself at a very crucial juncture now - the way things go for the next 2-3 years could decide where the city is going to head in the long run. Bangalore wasn't planned for this many people, period! The city is choking under the IT boom. It was a case of too much, too fast. It doesn't yet have an International airport and hopes to have one in 2-3 years, public transport is inadequate, roads were not meant to handle the traffic volumes it has to contend with now. I was very impressed with the collaboration between the local govt and the IT biggies, Infosys and Wipro, to come together, and work together, to improve the city. Rarely have I seen the industry be such an active participant in the development of a city. But the local and the central govt have to get their act together in the next 2-3 years. If they miss the chance now, it will just turn into this one big mess!

Infrastructure apart, Bangalore shouldn't forget the softer aspects of a community. It shouldn't go about cutting down trees and forests at a maniacal rate to expand horizontally. Its time for skyscrapers in B'lore - the city needs to grow vertically now..and maintain the greenery that B'lore was once famous for - we don't need another concrete jungle, if we can avoid it. Its amazing to see the greenery in Gotham, for instance. Back then, B'lore was cutting edge with music in India - the indie scene, the big concerts - that hasn't changed, and that's great. I saw a decent interest in theater in India, not to the extent seen in Bombay, but there is potential. Bangalore has never been much of a movie-city - the standard of their local movies suck to be honest and Bangaloreans would rather listen to good rock in a bar, drink some beer, or sip coffee in one of their coffee lounges, than watch a movie in a theater, most afternoons. For a movie buff like me, I would be quite keen to see how this changes in the next 2-3 yrs. I think there is *great* potential for an indie movie market in Bangalore (smart, socially-conscious, very large middle class), both Indian and world films. I would be keen to see if someone really taps into that in the near future.

I want to go back "home" eventually and "home" for me will always be B'lore. But sadly, the Bangalore I have in my mind is but an image, its a thing of the past. B'lore has the best chance for imbibing the best of the west with their inherent goodness; to provide state-of-the-art western lifestyles with the "solpa adjust madi" culture - that would be something great to back to. I will keenly be following from afar how B'lore "progresses" over the next 2-3-4-5 years. Till then, all I have to say is, "please do the needful"

** - A line I liked recently, the Quote of the Day - "when you are unsure where you are going, go back to your roots."

Indian George Clooney

Under severe pressure to post an entry, I couldn't do any better :)
This is what a certain lady said I looked like, "under the light" (and "influence", if I may add..:)), an Indian George Clooney.

Of late, have become a fan of the guy (no, not because I am supposed to look like him) - I like how he mixes his commercial flicks (Ocean's XI, XII, etc.) with his more creative, challenging, meaningful ventures (Traffic, Good Night and Good Luck, most recently Syriana, etc.)

Good Night and Good Luck was very nicely done - I didn't know much about McCarthy-ism before the movie and was insightful. His latest, Syriana - in one word, demanding! Full of plots, sub-plots, multiple stories in multiple threads (like Traffic, Crash), linked together by what they call, the earth's greatest natural resource, OIL. I was very keen to watch the movie as soon as it released because of its relevance in today's world - the middle-east and oil is at the center of the 'developed world's' foreign policy. There were 4 major threads - Clooney as a CIA agent who gets screwed over by his bosses, Matt Damon as an analyst working with a Saudi prince, Jeffrey Wright as a merger advisor, and 2 naive, simple, decent pakistani kids. Of them all, the merger story was the one that really drove the point home for me - only can only imagine the kind of corruption ("Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why we win" screams a character in the movie) and under-the-table nonsense that goes in some of these major mergers and acquisitions. Mergers are not always a good thing - competition keeps people honest, with mergers and monopoly can sometimes come a slackness in standards and ethics.

A similar movie that I saw about the dirty collusion of corporation and government was Constant Gardener (it had Rachel Weisz in it - to me, one of the most beautiful women - the looks, accent..) - this one was about the other big corporation that people find easy to hate, the pharmaceuticals. It deals with the issue of pharmaceuticals using Africa to test out their meds on. The "justification" is that these people don't have any meds anyway, how does it matter if pharmaceuticals dump their past-expiry-date meds to write off tax benefits or *test* a new cure for TB on these people. Am not in a position to comment on the legitimacy of these claims, but the movie offers a great view of Africa - cinematography was excellent - great shots of the continent. On another level, it also made me realize (and revisit) the futility of trying to completely understand someone, a significant other, or a closed one. Ironically, all this *testing* that these Western pharamceuticals supposedly do and we still have to put through boring medicine ads on tv that finish in a flurry with, "Side-effects may include drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, loss of appetite, loss of sleep, constipation...and anything that we have not yet tested for on African kids"

You get as you deserve..

..or do you really? What is my motivation to do any good? Isn't it just easier to slack, not do any good, or even just be bad (can I be corny and quote the great 21st century philosopher, Brian Adams, and say "if you wanna be bad, you gotta be good" :))? Why do any good? Are better things going to happen to me then? But, is that always the case? Haven't we all seen those people who get dealt a terrible hand "undeservedly", the guy whose family was blown in a bomb blast somewhere in the world for no fault of theirs? Why??

The much-abused Indian philosophical concept of Karma says that things we do now dictate our further lives and our behavior in previous lives dictate our lives right now (this is my understanding and interpretation of the concept, if you beg to disagree, would like to know your take on it). So, do good now so your next life will be a good one, but you are helpless about things that happen to you now because that's been pre-ordained already. As far as a convincing, complete theory goes, this is right up there, but I don't want to believe it - I think its defeatist! To just sit back and say, things this life are pre-determined for me already has brutal helplessness written all over it. But the Bhagvad Gita also says, "do good, without expecting results" - I think that approach requires greater amount of nobility than I may be capable of :)

My philosophy as I go through my mundane existence is, "life is a great leveller" - helps keep me stable. When things don't go well, its comforting to think a better day might be around soon, and lifewise, when you are having a top day, keeps you on the ground to think that it won't always be this way, and might as well enjoy it while it lasts. Its all relative right, even a crippled beggar has a "better day" when he earns more money, gets better food, etc - sounds harsh I know, but you see the drift..

But then, is any attempt to assign any justification or symmetry to the ways of life just plain futile?! I don't know - whatever - my dabble at some philosphy here..

New laptop :)

Got it day-before - luvin it! Check it out - Toshiba Satellite - click on Product Tour and see the Features. Went crazy customizing it! Haven't tilted it yet into a tablet (because Toshiba haven't shipped my pens yet), that should be even better!

But anyway, now I don't have an excuse for my sporadic blogging - hope to be more regular.

A few minor quirks

We've all got those. Here is my disclaimer, my Lewis Black tirade:
1. Don't call me and ask me directions to the last place we went together because now you want to go with *someone else* and you cant seem to find the place again and you are lost! When I put my annoyance aside and try to help you, you could get on my nerves further by giving me totally unhelpful co-ordinates - "I am outside THE Starbucks" (the only co-ordinate worse than that would be "I am at the intersection of Cross and Don't Cross"). Don't do that - please

2. To strike an "Indian connection" don't talk about elephants or cows on roads - please...don't do that..(all those "crossover" Indian movie makers who make movies about India (like Bride & Prejudice) showing elephants and cows - just pray you are not my first celebrity sighting in NY)

3. When you find out I am from Bangalore and I work in IT in NYC, in a disgusting display of global know-how and wit, dont say, "then what are you doing here?" I don't claim to know where I am going and what I am doing here, but I sure as hell don't need you to bring it up!

4. If you are hanging out with me on a Sat night and you arrive without an ID, I will enter that bar and leave you behind! What were you thinking?!

5. I like ironing, I believe its quality alone time. But when I tell you that in an attempt to show off how everything about me is not normal, dont give me that "wise-crack", "haha, maybe I should give you my shirts/blouses too". Let me just say I like to smell my shirts before/after I iron them. Do you still want me to lay hands on your clothes (with or without you? :))?

Lights, Camera...umm..wait a min..

The War Within is a movie that should not have been made!

I saw 2 movies last week based on suicide bombers - The War Within is about a terrorist from Pakistan blowing up Grand Central and Paradise Now (my visit to the NY Film Festival this year) is about a terrorist from Palestine blowing himself up in Tel Aviv, Israel. While The War Within presented the hard facts without any sugar coating (or subtlety), I was impressed with how Paradise Now (mainstream Warner Bros released this movie in the US btw!) managed to incorporate a fair dose of humor into such a dark topic and delved more into the terrorist's psyche. Was lucky to sit through for a Q&A session with the director and lead cast of Paradise Now and to hear about the director's extensive research, including reading the Bible (which he claimed cited the 1st suicide attempt in religious texts, that of Samson...I wouldn't know..).

I don't think we are ready for movies like this. With fear being instilled very strongly in most of this country (and NY specifically), with taglines like, "When you see something, say something" doing the rounds, when an abandoned dark bottle or suitcase causes subway evacuations, when a "suspicisous" man with a long trenchcoat makes people call the cops without legitimate reasons for fear, we do not need movies like this presenting us with hard facts on how and why people turn to terrorism and how they could go about blowing places up. But then, freedom of speech says an artist must be able to express whatever he wants to. This, to me, is the 1st signs of suicide bombers and terrorism featuring in movies, post 9/11. Just like the Cold War provoked decades of spy thrillers and such in movies and writing, we may be coming up for a few years of terrorism-themed books and movies (exciting pursuits in Tora-Bora, Arab royalty, you can imagine the kind of stories this theme presents to artists), but are we ready for it? It makes me cringe and feel uncomfortable, I am not!

While on the topic, these terror alerts (thank God they did away with those color codes - that was an insult to human intelligence!) every now & then and warnings of potential subway attacks on a Sunday (!!!) - are these just politicians screaming "wolf!" to use fear as a tool as and when they need, is it anything more than a disclaimer to cover their behinds, can we do anything about it, should they be informing (scaring) the public about these things or handling it efficiently on their own?!

Writing..

Re-discovered the joys of reading over the last month or so. Just put down the latest book by Shashi Tharoor called Bookless in Baghdad - it's a collection of essays about writing and (Indian) writers. Am a big Shashi Tharoor fan, having read 2 of his earlier works. I read India - From Midnight to the Millenium first, was mighty impressed, and then The Great Indian Novel was even better. The Great Indian Novel superimposes characters from the Mahabharatha on the Indian freedom struggle and beyond (Gandhi is Bhishma, Karna is Jinnah..you get the point..) - it's a great way to retell a myth, fusing it with history. His writing really speaks to people like me - he was born in London, brought up completely in urban India and now lives in NY and works for the UN. All his books and writing so far is about India and emphasises how one can be Indian, at heart, living outside of India. He has this line in Bookless.. which goes, "one has to get out of the frame to see the whole picture" (which is debatable, but very comforting and redeeming nevertheless for someone like me).

In his review of different writers in Bookless.., I completely agree with his take on R.K. Narayan (too simplified, made me wonder if I was missing something that everyone was loving about his books, much like what I feel about New Yorker now - come on, isn't most of the stuff there plain pretentious cra*?), V.S. Naipaul (I like a conclusion in a novel, that's just me - once I finished his book, it left me thinking that maybe he didn't really incorporate that thing called "conclusion" in the structure of his book; I'd like to read Father & Son though), & Salman Rusdhie (sheer admiration - excited about reading, Shalimar the Clown, his latest, next).

Indian writers in English have a flair and a fascination for the language, its like a kid being all excited about a newly acquired skill. It was the best Colonial influence that the Britishers left us back with. We have a fascination for long sentences, packing a lot in a single sentence, going on and on, comma after comma, making the reader crave that full-stop (like this :) - someone I spoke to about this believed it was because we fear that we may lose the thought if we didn't get it down asap in one BIG sentence - not sure if I subscribe to that theory, but anyway..). We fill our writing with convoluted, arcane words and imagination - most Indian writers would prefer to take the prettier, scenic, curvy, convoluted path to get an idea across rather than a crisp short-cut.

In that respect my writing (this thing that I do here :)) is all Indian (my pathetic attempt to put myself in the same bracket as Salman Rushdie :)) - brevity is not really my strength (if you've made it this far into this posting, you definitely have realized that by now), humor is subtle (at best!). I like having a main train of thought with a parallel, related line within ( ) (I think I sometimes put more within ( ) than out of it (and the programmer in me wants to have mulitple levels of nesting of ( ))).

I should bring my indulgence to a close now - last, but definitely not the least (trite, trite!!), thanks for spending your time here - I mean there is so much else you could be doing, even if you decide to read/browse, there is so much out there for you to choose from, the fact that you chose to come here and read through a posting like this means a lot to me.

1st year Report Card

Over a yr in NY now - submitted below, my take on "The City (..so nice, its spelt twice; New York, New York" - in case, you missed the 1st time I threw that quote out - Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate):

What amazes me: subways have beeen around for 101 yrs? They haven't changed much since, have they? :) If you get a chance, check out the obsolete switching mechanism at the W4 station, F line, platform end - whoaaa..

What still amazes me: forgive me for being trite - the diversity - more than being a melting pot, its a place where you can maintain your own identity, without trying too hard to fit in.

What amuses me: the number of grumbling single people living in a City culture which encourages being single (people stay single in NY only because they *want* to). NY claims to have 1.8 million single women to 1.4 million single men. As I like to extrapolate, if I was the last single guy in the City.. :) ..I'd have 400,001 women to choose from!

What I'd wish was different: cleaner? NY is the 2nd dirtiest city in the US..behind Chicago..

What I admire most: parks in NY - for an island so small, supporting that many people, with such a high density, to make the effort to make sure there are enough parks and greenery around talks volumes about planning. I'd love it if powers-to-be in Bangalore keeps like this in mind as it goes about merrily expanding at a maniacal pace right now.

What I've enjoyed most culturally: Indie movies* - have gone berserk in the last year. Top pick would definitely have to be Born Into Brothels, with Old Boy, Black Friday, & I Heart Huckabees right up there.

What I want to do more of: Off-broadway theater and indie music concerts - nothing like the live thing. Any day, prefer theater to movies - should get plugged into this a lot more - looking for like-minded people.

Favorite NY spot: Union Square - to stand there in the middle and look around, gives me the goose bumps - its my "can you believe you are actually in NY" spot.

Top did-you-know about NY: the breadth of Manhattan is just 2 miles - 2 miles!! That's it! And the length is 13 mi - still not much..

Favorite quote: NY is like a yarn of wool - one wonders how something that is wound up in so many different ways stays put as one ball. Think I read this in some Park Slope newsletter. I can also think of so many things that are so wrong about Gotham City, infrastructurally and otherwise, but it keeps sprinting along somehow..

Favorite Personal Quote: (which I often emplot to annoy people in other parts of the country) Every city is a wannabe (and gonnabe) New York; the latter gonnabe bit - when any city "advances" this much, I believe it will look something like this.

What next: move from wonderful Park Slope, Brooklyn to New York, New York

* - to digress, what qualifies for "indie movies" - anything that includes people doing lots of drugs, tons of sex, brooding a lot qualifies for decent indie movie; unless of course, its foreign. If its foreign, its got to be great, no questions :)

Google destroys everything it can't index

That was an Onion article a while back - not true, don't worry. But it bothers me that google now searches through blogs. Not me, but many maintain blogs to establish an unknown identity online - they'll just have to out-think the google PhD's now to stay anonymous.

I don't trust gmail - it scares me that my emails are being "read through" to drop ads on the side, meeting my "preferences". I read somewhere (as always, forgot *where* I read it, no it wasn't onion :)) that google is the new Microsoft - the company everyone loves to hate in silicon valley - google didn't endear themselves to me by making my blog accessible to anyone who searches for "bernoulli ashes" (don't ask me why anyone would do that :))

"Oh, so what did you think?"

Have succumbed twice to this fad of reading the most popular book doing the rounds - the last time it was Da Vinci Code, now it is Freakonomics - everyone either just read it, has an opinion on it, is meaning to read it, saw someone reading it - no exaggeration, last wkend, traveling with it in hand, I had 4 strangers make conversation with me about the book (and considering 3 of them were women and 2 of them good looking at that, gimme more of these books! :)).

It's a quick page-turner, easy-to-read, interesting book. The authors accumulate huge amount of statistics, plough through the data aloud with the reader, and arrive at an often-unexpected conclusion that leaves me raising an eyebrow sometimes. My favorite pieces were the one on the clinical dismantling of the Ku Klux Klan and the "audit report" (and such functioning financials) of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation accumulated by a very brave, certain, Sudhir Venkatesh. The analysis to prove teachers cheat too was nicely done. The pieces on abortion (being a never-before-cited reason for crime rates falling in the late 90's..yes! - most quotable piece from the book though..) and parenting left me a tad unconvinced.

Its also one of those great cocktail party books - picture this - wine in hand, art in the background, impeccably dressed in black, exhausted talking about weather, war, Katrina, and the President, now what?..Freakonomics; eliciting the response, "oh, so what did you think?"

Random indeed...

Over the last few hours some quotes/lines that stayed stuck in my head..

The highest tree catches the strongest winds - Peter Roebuck, Ashes 5th test preview
Emotion is the absolute enemy of rational thinking - Stephen Levitt, Freakonomics
Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection - Jim Morrison, The End
They share a drink called loneliness, but its better than drinking alone - Billy Joel, Piano Man

OverHeardInNY

Homeboy #1: Yeah, ever since he got that raise, he been livin' all grand and shit.
Homeboy #2: Oh yeah?
Homeboy #1: Yeah, yo! Nigga got 3-ply toilet paper an' shit!

--Q46 bus

Girl: Why are you so upset? You told me to try new things.
Guy: I didn't mean ecstasy!

--Times Square

OverHeardInNY - Check this out!

There is only so much..

..oil on this planet! Will people come to terms with it and move on? We can find ways to send man to the moon and beyond, we can't find alternate sources of energy? Or even if we have alternate sources of energy, why don't we deploy them? What is Detroit and the rest of the automobile industry waiting for? How many more wars is this oil greed going to ignite? Will the stock market think maturely about rising oil prices, accept it, and move on?

When I went to the Automobile Fair in NY few months back, I was very keen to see the alternative fuel options out in the market by the major car makers - they weren't bad - there are options out there. What we need is incentives. People will start moving to alternate sources soon (as oil prices inch higher), but an incentive like - "drive a fuel efficient car and you get to use the car-pool lane" or "you pay lesser tolls, lesser for parking" - might get the middle-class thinking and give the process a much-needed boost.

A top commodities analyst at a major investment bank made the prediction a few months back that oil prices would reach 105$ a barrel. At a time when the prices were hovering just under 50$ a barrel, it seemed a bold/nonsensical prediction. The price has only gone up since then and registered an all-time high of 68$ this week.

Cricket - Ashes

One of the most hyped up series in recent memory (BBC ran a countdown on its sports page 'xxx days to go for the Ashes', counting down from 100!), lives up after all. 3 tests down, 1-1, England show they can give Aussies a fight and more (a scare!). A series right up there with the Aussie tour to India in 2001. The new Botham, Freddie Flintoff leading the English charge. English bowling as a unit proving to be superior to Aussie bowling (who have the 2 best bowlers in the world, McGrath & Warne), courtesy an art they once cried foul about - reverse swing (interestingly, a certain Waqar Younis taught Simon Jones how to bowl reverse swing when they played together for Glamorgan - the guy picked it up quite well, didn't he - Jones now teaches Reverse Swing 101 for the other English bowlers. Brett Lee peeps into the class to see if he can pick up something too).

A 10-day break gives the Aussies a chance to get back to the press and claim moral victories in a draw (not saying draws cant be moral victories, just surprised the mighty Aussies are saying it). It comes down to England denying Aussies any further wins in the remaining 2 matches, and pulling off at least one win themselves - am clearly an English supporter here, but I think its going to be very hard. I think England are one batsman short and their bowlers have been making up for it - am scared the strategy will fall apart if the Aussie batting grinds it out to a big score. Any bowler is better than a struggling Gillespie for Aus and Shaun Tait might give them additional firepower to attack the somewhat-short English batting lineup.

Some of the greatest Test cricket in recent memory - hope the remaining 2 matches live up to it as well..

To tip or not to tip, thats the question

Extrapolating on an op-ed piece by a certain Steven A. Shaw in the nytimes (for those who want to/can read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/opinion/10shaw.html), tipping to me seems European, elitist - it is something you give when you feel nice about your service (generally, when you feel nice - period!). Seems to a customer that it provides a waiter/waitress an incentive to work harder, impress you. Now, I have at some point in my life worked as a waiter also - I have tried to impress the customer to make a few bucks over my pathetic hourly. The system works; but, its not capitalistic!

When you order food from the menu, with the prices next to the items, it gives you at best, a ballpark figure of what your bill could be - there is the money for the food, then the tax, then a possible service charge (aka gratuity..?), or a suggested tip, or a tip-from-the-heart - I don't know - its hard! What if you had a figure next to a bottle of wine, which you know is all you were gonna pay for the last drop in there - tax, tip, all added. Wouldn't it make both the customer's life AND the waiter's life easier and more straightforward? The downside to that (the customer thinks), what happens to the waiter's incentive to perform well now, to impress you - can he/she spit in your food (in front of you!), safe in the knowledge that a portion of what you pay is gonna land up in his/her pocket anyway? Hmm..

My take having seen both sides of the tipping divide (pun'ny) (finally!) - the tip being added to the menu prices is better for the waiter - permit me to explain - in almost all restaurants, all your tip money goes into a pool, which is split up between the waiters, chefs, cleaners, etc. at the end of the day. Further, (from personal experience), the higher in the hierarchy you are in the "food chain" (ooh..in form here), the bigger your slice of the pie (irrespective of your contribution to the pool). Not surprising really! So that waiter who impressed you with his/her finest behavior, touching you as she spoke, giggling, filling up your glass promptly, she/he ain't getting what you thought they deserved. Also, I believe there are more bad tippers out there than good ones - so by standardizing the tip amount and adding it to the price, the waiters stand to gain - their pool will *definitely* become bigger.

On the contrary, having a tipping practice is good for the customer - makes going to a restaurant and dining a more interesting, talk-able experience (my favorite talking point as I sign the cheque and draw the chair out for the lady), makes you feel like the waiters are out to impress you. Adding it to the menu would deprive the customer of a chance to impress his co-diners of his/her generosity/largesse.

In conclusion, there are always going to be places that make you tip, some that force it on you - just laying out both sides for you..

Home-grown terrorists? Oh really?

The British media and administration seemed surprised to learn the bombers of 7/11 were home-grown muslims. Oh really? You didn't see that one coming?!

The sense of alienation that an immigrant community may face in a country can drive the members of the immigrant community to drastic measures like this. It's a pity I cant post nytimes links here (requires registration and articles older than 2 weeks are archived for a pay-only service), but Tom Friedman had a couple of very good articles analysing this scenario (now, who isn't analyzing this scenario these days, even *I am*!) which resonated with my thoughts on it too.

Suketu Mehta (who, if I may show off, I met during a film-festival, where he introduced the movie, Bombay, and stayed on to speak with some of us after the show), an Indian author, had a real good op-ed piece where he said the US could use the Indian immigrant community here help them understand the psyche of the Indian commuity in India (with reference to why American jobs are going overseas to India and what we have to do better/differently here in the US) and similarly, the muslim immigrant community could help us understant the psyche of the muslim communities all over. To stereotype and typecast may be one of the most dangerous things at this point.

Every muslim doesn't wanna blow up people - the greatest majority are god-fearing, simple people like you and I who would rather take a subway without the fear of getting blown up. I sincerely believe that a solution lies in not just searching through bags in the subway, but striking the problem at its root, and understanding why someone would wanna do what they do, and addressing that issue. Wonder if it'll happen though..

In the same ballpark of immigrant communities, a great movie I saw recently, Crash - big cast; good acting; strong, powerful dialogues and punch-lines. It beautifully explores the typecasting and stereo-typing that happens in societies all over and without being preachy, very subtly gets the point through.

Passion

Was watching this girl play the violin in a small band in a neighborhood bar near my place - eyes closed, in deepest concentration and focus, completely enjoying what she was doing, totally lost in the music she was creating - made me wonder, is there I would do with that much passion (passing the notable exception of, of course..you know...)??

This summer, I have found love-unknown in fast bowling - always been a batter in school who chips in with slow-medium and attempted leg-spinners now and then. But, playing for the East Meadow Cricket Club in Manhattan, inspired by my captain's faith in my fast bowling abilities, have turned into a hostile opening bowler. Have realized that once I hit a rhythm, I thoroughly enjoy running in, and letting it rip! Cricket has got to be about the only thing that I would exhibit anywhere near as much passion for as that girl-playing-the-violin-that-night.

Watch out for the follow-up to this posting - the-girl-who-played-the-violin-and-stole-my-heart-that-night! :)

Bernoulli be damned!

Ashes 2005 1st Test (between Eng and Aus) - day 3 - Australia trying everything to stamp their control of the match, England as defiant as can be, Shane Warne marking his run-up - from there on, any doubt of which the side in control was, was dispelled! After watching several very ordinary games of cricket involving the Indians last season, to see cricket of such high quality made it worth the time and effort.

Have always been a wannabe leg-spinner - to see Warne plan his wickets out was beautiful. He bowled some square turners well outside off-stump to young Ian Bell (who was playing Warne for the 1st time in test cricket!), to let him get a good sighter of how much turn he was capable of extracting. Ian Bell responded by coming down the wicket and driving Warne through covers a couple of times, confident that he had gotten a measure of the turn. The Master then bowled one just a little shorter and let it rip straight - Bell was caught with his hand and bat up in the air, and pathetically found lbw in front of the stumps. And then one ball to G. Jones that pitched on the rough well outside leg, cut across the batsman, missed off stump, and Gilchrist collected it near his neck - Bernoulli did his best to describe the dynamics of air resistance on a moving substance, but even he may have been stumped by that one - wow! (actually it was Magnus G., but heck, the title doesn't sound that good without Bernoulli!)

I still am supporting England for the Ashes, but may just be one more case of heart-says-England-mind-says-Australia..hope not..come on, England

Seinfeld

By far, my favorite sitcom! Thank god there are enough people around me who have watched enough episodes, who can relate to all my Seinfeld context wisecracks (yaadi-yaadi-yaada, John Boyd's car, hot tea at NYC marathon, etc. etc.). Climbing up the ladder to the 2nd spot on my sitcom list, Curb Your Enthusiasm by Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) - based in the other coast, sometimes makes you cringe in your seat with some of the uncomfortable humor, but the man's hilarious! And then there are all the talk-shows - Letterman, John Stewart, Bill Maher, Jay Leno, Ali G (HOW does this guy manage to con a UN Sec General, Bhutrous Bhutrous Ghali to give him an interview and ask him if the French are funny, I don't know). Put all that together and you get 5 weekday evenings of mindless, mind-numbing, end-of-day-television-viewing of comedies!

Spread my name..

Last Saturday, I was involved in one more of those days of community service. The company I work for (for those who don't know me, I work in a music recording studio in the East Village, Manhattan; for those who know me, oh well, you know..) fielded a team of volunteers to help organize a dance event under the Brooklyn/Manhattan Bridge - bringing modern dance out in the community. Among more noble things that I could have done with my time in community service, I chose this as a fun opportunity to check out this area called DUMBO (Downpass Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and hang out with artsy people in the area. Was a great day out! The organizers & performers had us hand out fliers/brochures in the neighborhood and they were nice enough to include the volunteering team captains' names in the fliers (one of two of the captains was yours truly - probably cost 'em few bucks extra to include ALL of my name in there :) - again, inside joke to those who know me and ALL of my last name - sorry!). Felt good being involved in that event and got some free publicity in the DUMBO area (fliers with my name in it, I mean..) - gives me enough opening lines if I were to ever hang out in the bars in the area again! :)