Sunday dinner was at Chaat Cafe. As usual, I had the Paneer Wrap. It was delicious! I actually wanted the Paneer Makhani dinner, but they were sold out of it.
But I was quite full and very satisfied, so it was alright! Met with some other friends who I have not had a chance to meet since we started this project in San Diego, and one of them is going to have a baby any time. So wanted to meet them before they disappear for a while.
Good fun, and a good end to the weekend. Unfortunately though, it was the end of the weekend.
So while we were taking care of some boring chores, we also caught up on the recorded TV shows that I had missed during the week.
I am amazed at how good American Dreams is, and baffled when I see the ratings. Someone at NBC is not doing their job of promoting this show well enough. It has rich writing, good acting and the setting is perfect for a comparison with what is going on in the US today. The backdrop in the show is Vietnam, and we have Iraq right now.
The issues are similar too - like stopping war being considered ‘commie’, soldiers getting a ‘killer’ mentality and not feeling well doing ‘normal’ stuff, etc.
It is a great show, and if you read this and are not watching it, please watch it and pass this message along to anyone else you know. It is on at 8pm every Sunday night.
The family, just in case you want a quick intro:
Jack Pryor and Helen Pryor - parents of JJ, Meg, Patty and Will.
Jack owns a Radio/TV store and is going to run for City Council in Philly.
Helen works at a travel agency - there was quite a stir in the family that they showed in the previous season, when Helen decides to start working. It was considered almost like an insult to Jack, but he understood and let her work.
Patty is the chirpy younger daughter, who is shown to be oversmart and over achieving.
Meg is the so-called feature of the show (it was going to be called Miss American Pie), and is in the junior year of high school and is against the war and has her own thoughts which almost always collide with her dad’s. Last season she went out with a guy from U. Penn., and was heart-broken. Now, she is campaigning to end the war.
Will is the youngest kid, and has polio. Last season, they had an operation done on his leg which apparently will let him walk without crutches. He is the innocent one in the family, and is in total awe of his brother JJ.
JJ, the eldest kid, worked hard, but after getting rejected from Notre Dame on a football scholarship for lying about a previous injury, he decided to quit college and join the Marines. He was then shipped to Vietnam and is shown there since the last season.
Roxanne, Meg’s rebellious best friend is a great character shown as a carefree kid with divorced parents who spends more time at the Pryors' than her own family. She gives ‘boy advice’ to everyone and is even shown smoking in the rest rooms in the Catholic school that they are shown going to.
Beth is JJ’s ex-girlfriend and they have had their breakups and reunions, but currently they are broken up. But the twist is that she is having his baby and that is another big thing in that era. To be having a baby without marrying the guy. She split with JJ because JJ did not want to come back when he could have, at the end of his tour of duty.
There is also Henry, who works with Jack Pryor in the store and is now a partner (another set of issues - race and the glass ceiling issue). Henry’s son Sam is a smart kid with athletic abilities and is Meg’s good friend. They almost showed a romance between them, but stopped short of it. But he believes in similar principles as Meg, and as a result they end up spending a lot of time together for similar interests like listening to records at the booth in the record store.
Henry’s wife died of cancer last season, and now he is shown supporting his two kids - Sam and Angela.
I hope you read all the way up to here, and I also hope that this gives you enough of a background to start seeing the show. Please pass this message along to as many people as you know.
Met with two friends and their wives on Sunday morning for brunch at Hobees. As usual, the breakfast was good. And the coffee cake - yum!
Had a good time with the guys, and one took off to go back home to Laguna, and the other, from the Sacramento area, decided to spend the Sunday morning/afternoon in Santa Cruz.
Good for them, because we went back home and had some chores to get done :-(
Went to a church wedding on Saturday. It was my first time. It was so different from the other weddings I have been to - Indian weddings with a lot of noise and of course, a lot of people.
This one was quiet, peaceful and with about 150 people. Indian weddings would have 150 people just in the family on one side! :-)
The ceremony was over relatively quickly, about 40 minutes, and it was quite nice to see that the groom (my buddy from USC) was quite composed and did not show any nerves. The lady who sang a couple of songs had an incredible voice, and the readings that the bride and the groom chose, were quite good too.
After the wedding, we headed out to the hotel where the reception was hosted. The sit-down dinner and dancing, I have seen before. It is now quite common to see such receptions at Indian weddings in the US. Not that I have been to many such weddings, but I have heard and its similar.
Met up with some good friends from USC, and had a good time chatting with them. Two of my friends (one was my roommate) were groomsmen, so they were busy with the ushering and stuff during the ceremony as well as the reception. Of course, when it was time for dinner, they sat at their assigned tables.
The wedding was at 5pm, and we were asked to be there by 4.30pm. I am not sure if the Americans go by ‘auspiscious time’ and stuff (mahurat) but everything started promptly on time, and got over as per the program given to us. The reception went on till at least 11pm, when we left.
We decided to meet with some of the friends the next day, for brunch near our house, at Hobee’s.
Oklahoma closes in even more, but USC survives another week at #1. I almost think that it may be better to be #2 without a loss. Let them drop USC to #2, and thus take all the pressure off.
Wow. What a game. USC beat Cal but it was heart-breaking for Cal. I think they deserved to win that game - they completely outplayed us in all departments except special teams. But on the other hand, that is what great teams are made of - stepping up when it matters the most, and winning ugly games.
The last defensive stand was impressive. I know a lot of writers have switched their #1 but between Oklahoma beating Texas 12-0 (only 12 points considering the potent offense), and USC beating a National Championship-caliber Cal 23-17, there is not much difference. I would keep USC at #1 just because they won a tough game. Remember Ohio State 2 years back? They stuck at #1 even when they kept winning dirty games against not-so-great teams.
The writers have an obvious bias against the Pac-10 and they tend to give less credit to such games, but I guess it does not really matter. If USC takes care of business every game, and stays healthy, there is nothing that can come in the way of the Rose Bowl, or maybe the National Championship even.
On the health note, Steve Smith may be out for the season. Now, that just sucks. He was just beginning to show his true talent and start threatening to be the go-to guy after Bush, but sadly, he has a fractured fibula. Damn.
Hope the rest of the crew steps up and performs. McFoy and Jarrett have even bigger responsibilities. And the tight ends are now going to be critical.
Let’s see what happens. Arizona State next. They are also unbeaten and they are also racking up points. Once again, I think USC is fortunate that this game is at home.
And after that, more tests lie ahead - Notre Dame, ucla are both doing well. It’s not going to be easy. No one said it was going to be. Good luck, and wood is knocked, and fingers are crossed.
I am finally realizing, in person, that Southwest Airlines is truly a shuttle-bus type of a service. The crowds at the Southwest gates are just like the crowds we see in the bus stations in India. People sitting on the floor in the zone lines A/B/C and reading, eating, doing whatever else. The lines start getting longer and longer as time to board approches.
And of course, Friday nights have their usual delays. Last Friday, I did not realize I had taken a later flight than usual, and the other person with me had the usual flight. The difference between the two was one hour. So I went up to the gate and asked them to put me up for standby on the earlier flight. She told me that the flight was anyway 30 minutes late, so it is not going to be of much help.
That flight, as I found out then, is actually an Phoenix-SD-San Jose flight, and if that inbound flight is delayed, this one is too. So we decided to change that flight and just go out at 7.25pm every time we go back. Which means, we reach San Jose only at 8.45pm, not 7.45pm. Bummer. Hopefully, I’ll be coming back in 4 days soon, not 5. So 1 hour here or there won’t be critical.
Anyway, I think I have finally gotten into the routine of the check-in, security, board, orange juice/ginger ale/peantus, pick up bags, take shuttle to rental car, pick up car, check in to hotel, work, come back, unpack, work, work, work, check out, fill gas, return rental, take shuttle back, check in, board, oj/ginger ale/peanuts, pick up bag and go home. It’s not so bad.
Time just seems to fly by because the week goes by with work, and the weekend goes by even quicker. There is no time to stop and relax. Hopefully 2 weeks of Christmas will be well used. I am not counting my 2 weeks vacation to go to India during Thanksgiving as relaxation, because a. Wife may not be there and b. TWO weddings to attend.
Because when I go back home, I like to spend most time with my wife and not on the computer. It is better to blog from work, or in the hotel after work. Anyway, after work there is no much to do :-)
What’s wrong with Rahul Dravid? For a guy of his class and consistency, it is unbelievably large number of single digit (or duck) innings of late. Of course, I am talking of one dayers mostly, since this is the first test of the year.
With 316/5 for Australia at the end of the day 1, India was in it as much as Australia was. Michael Clarke is a great find for Australia, like many others before him, and I think he is a good fit for the hole left by Steve Waugh.
He and Gilchrist were able to not only avoid giving India any early advantage, but at the end, took the game away from India. 474 is a total that ensures that Australia will not lose this match. And given the fact that it was only the second day, it almost means India will lose the match.
Oh, and then the typical (of old) Indian collapse started. Sehwag was lucky to be let off and he scored some runs, but as usual gave up his wicket when he should not have. Chopra’s career is practically over maybe after the next match. The Wall is in an unusual slump nowadays, and Laxman was taken by Warne, as the Aussies have been talking about all the time.
Ganguly was ok, but Yuvraj failed. Again. At the end, at 150/6, we are again staring at a follow on. And hence, avoiding an innings defeat is now the first goal. And that’s sad. Bhajji got a 5-for, but ultimately, it was no good at all. He should have been able to get the breakthroughs when we needed.
Now it is up to the tail to avoid the follow on and then some good bowling and hopefully a better batting performance.
Or, what seems more likely, a follow on performance, which better be improved over the first innings performance.
0-1 down in the series in 3.5 days. Much like the 2001 series.
George Bush goes to a primary school to talk about the war. After talking for a while he tells the children to go ahead and ask about anything. A little boy puts up his hand and George says: Yes, son, whats your name?
Bob.
And what is your question Bob?
Well I have three questions.
1. Why did the US invade Iraq without the support of the UN?
2.Why are you president if Al Gore got more votes than you?
3.What happened to Osama Bin Laden?
Just as he finishes his questions, the schoolbell rings and George says to the kids that they’ll continue after the break.
When the breaks over George says: -Ehm, where were we? Ah, right questions! A little girl puts up her hand. George points at her and says: what’s your name then?
Sally.
And what’s your question Sally?
Well, I have 5 questions.
1. Why did the US invade Iraqwithout the support of the UN?
2. Why are you president if Al Gore got more votes than you?
3. What happened to Osama Bin Laden?
4. Why did the school bell ring 20 minutes before it usually does?
5. Where is Bob?
So far we’ve been situated in a conference room at the client’s office. It is nice, because even though it is the two of us, we are in a closed room and we can talk about whatever we want.
But from Monday onwards, we are getting 2 cubes and an office. I will be in one of the cubes, which means:
1. Constant distraction of people walking by
2. No ‘normal voice’ talking
3. No talking
4. No random browsing :-)
Well, at least I will have a telephone extension and a pretty decent workstation. Let’s see how it is…
SPM (earlier blog: http://rdfan.blogspot.com) has started a new blog, aimed at amateur investors in the stocks and mutual funds markets.
While more specifically focussed to the Indian stock markets, as he says there, the principles are likely to be relevant elsewhere too. If you are interested, you can follow his once-a-week articles on the new blog at http://sundaystocks.blogspot.com or you can even subscribe to his articles and get them as a weekly email, by sending a blank email
to: sundaystocks-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
And now my mailbox is wayyyyyyy beyond manageable. I need to probably spend 3-4 hours at a stretch, go through the mails, discard crap and file away unimportant stuff and get back to a manageable limit.
Its just that it is so boring to do, I would rather do it ‘later’.
Planning to attend a friend’s wedding this weekend. Luckily it is Palo Alto, so we don’t have to fly anywhere. The wedding starts at 5pm, and earlier in the day, at 12.30pm, USC is hosting Cal. One of the best games of the season!
And most of the guys attending the wedding are from USC. We hope to get together and watch the game. Should be fun!
Time does fly over here at work. Even though we start at 7am, before we know it, it is time for lunch. And soon enough, it is 6pm and time to leave.
Not sure if my previous project was too devoid of ‘action’ or what, but there’s just so much stuff going on over here that I just cannot believe how time is passing by.
Needless to say, I have neither been able to contact the Gujju lady for homemade lunch/dinner nor been able to do anything outside of work in the evenings. The hotel has a fitness center, and because I have been missing my squash, I think I may start doing some exercise there. Sitting around like a potato all day will surely not help my fitness.
I missed the season opener, because we were out in LA and I completely forgot about it. But I will check it out this weekend, because it was taped at home.
“It was Congressman Cheney, after all — not Senator Kerry — who contradicted his own party during the height of the Cold War and called for President Ronald Reagan to “take a whack” at defense spending. It was Defense Secretary Cheney — not Senator Kerry — who in 1992 blocked critical intelligence reforms and bragged to Congress about gutting defense spending. His blustery rhetoric is designed not only to distort Kerry’s record but to hide his own."
But I can’t help it. Bumped into some pretty conservative blogs (thanks to the ‘Next Blog’ feature) and got really stirred up to give the ‘other’ point of view.
But here is a very very funny piece from salon.com (I copied and pasted it for convenience):
“He forgot Poland, Jim Bob! And Great Britain is two words!" The Bush/Kerry debate in translation.
- - - - - - - - - - - - By Joyce McGreevy
printe-mail
Oct. 1, 2004 | JIM LEHRER OF PBS: Good evening from the University of Miami. I am not Dan Rather. We interrupt our usual pledge drive to welcome you to the 2004 “He said/He said” between President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry.
For each question there is a two-minute response, a 90-second rebuttal, a 10-second eye roll, and a split-second expletive under the breath. There is an audience here, but they will remain absolutely silent, just as if they were attending a rally for the Bush/Cheney campaign.
The first question goes to you, Senator Kerry. Do you believe you could do a better job than President Bush in preventing another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States?
KERRY: Duh.
LEHRER: Mr. President, you have a rebuttal.
BUSH: Jimmy, let me put my brand on September the 11th. September the 11th been very, very good to me, and I just want to say thank you to the people of September the 11th. Ever since, seems to me we’ve been safer. Got the multi-pronged thing going on, lots of extra prongs. So like I’ve been telling the American people, put a fork in it, Iraq’s done. But if my opponent had his way, we would never even have jumped out of the fire into the frying pan.
We got lots to be proud of. We pursue al-Qaida wherever al-Qaida hides. Could be anywhere. We caught Cat Stevens. Ten million people registered to vote in Afghanistan in the upcoming presidential election. That’s more voters than Jeb’s gonna let cast a ballot in Florida.
In Iraq, we didn’t just see a threat, we were the threat, and we took the threat of ourselves seriously. Because that’s what you’ve got to do, otherwise you’re just an idle threat and nothing’s going to come of it, see. Saddam Hussein and Martha Stewart now sit in a prison cell. It’s a good thing. I think the American people can see that I stand for something.
We’re pursuing freedom around the world. We’ll find it, hunt it down. Free nations got a role to play, helping us achieve the peace we want. And we don’t want all that much.
LEHRER: Response, Senator Kerry.
KERRY: We have to be smart, Jim.
LEHRER: Mr. President?
BUSH: I think I can speak to my own ignorance, thank you. I am the president. Everybody says so. I went to the United Nations. I didn’t need anybody to tell me to go to the United Nations. I just decided to go there myself. I learned off the address.
LEHRER: New question, Mr. President. Two minutes.
BUSH: How long was my last press conference? Oh, sorry, Jimbo, sort of got you mixed up with Trebek there.
LEHRER: What about Senator Kerry’s point, the comparison he drew between the priorities of going after Osama bin Laden and going after Saddam Hussein?
BUSH: Jimbalaya ol' pal, we can do whatever the hell we want. Everybody knows that. But matter of fact, this is a global effort. My globe, my effort.
Now in a bit, my opponent’s going to yammer about passing some “global test,” and I’m going to poke fun at that, Jimmy Dean, because frankly I was too busy at Yale or wherever it was for some fancy-pants global test, and a hunnerd bucks says Tweeter had it covered anyway, didn’t you, Tweeter?
But did my opponent serve on the front lines of a football field? Anybody ever see him at cheerleading duty? We’re facing a bunch of folks who hate us for our cheerleading. Iraq is where it’s at. Gimme an “I”! Gimme a bunch of them other letters, too.
LEHRER: Senator Kerry, 5 seconds.
KERRY: Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror before the president invaded it.
BUSH: Can I respond to that?
LEHRER: I doubt it.
BUSH: How can you lead this country to succeed in Iraq unless you’re in Iraq to begin with? It’s just common sense, Jim-Jam!
LEHRER: Senator Kerry, what would you do to increase the homeland security of the United States?
KERRY: Jim, this president thought it was more important to give the wealthiest people in America a tax cut rather than invest in homeland security. I believe in protecting America first.
LEHRER: Mr. President.
BUSH: How he’s going to pay for all these promises if he’s not willing to make rich folks even richer, run up the biggest deficit in history, and put 2.8 million people out of work? It’s like a huge … gap. Can you see the gap, Jim-bob?
LEHRER: Yes, it’s very … apparent, sir.
BUSH: Jim-a-ling, the way to protect this homeland is to stay on the offense. I believe we’ve been very offensive. We got the FBI almost talking to each other. We’re having fun trying out some counterterrorism stuff. I been home 38 times just to clear brush out of the way. If there’s any terrorists in there, I’ll find ‘em. Barney’ll find ‘em.
LEHRER: OK. Here on earth, Senator?
KERRY: We didn’t need that tax cut. America needed to be safe.
BUSH: Hey! I wake up every day thinking, “How do I protect America? How?” Then somebody tells me. And they bring me breakfast. That’s my job. I’m the president. I work with Director Mueller of the FBI. Director Mueller comes in to my office when I’m in Washington just eating my eggs. He comes every morning. He talks to me about how to protect us. I like Director Mueller. He is nice to me.
LEHRER: Mr. President, what criteria would you use to determine when to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq?
BUSH: Let me tell you something I DO know, Diamond Jim. The way for Iraqi people to be safe is for every Iraqi who wants a job to have a job. And health care, a first-class education, clean water. We’re turning a corner – mortaring every corner – cornering mourners. Somethin’ like that.
And so the best indication about when we can bring our troops home – which I really want to do – but I don’t want to do so for the sake of bringing them home – I want to do so because we’ve achieved an objective – and that’s not the issue here – is, say, did you hear the one about the OB-GYNs who weren’t able to practice their love with women all over this country?
LEHRER: Just 31 more days of this, Senator Kerry.
KERRY: Thank you, Jim.
LEHRER: Sir?
BUSH: I think it’s worthy for a follow-up.
LEHRER: You do that, sir.
BUSH: My opponent says help is on the way, but what kind of message does that send to the troops that I have committed to harm’s way?
LEHRER: Senator Kerry, was the rush to war a colossal misjudgment or has the quagmire been a catastrophic success?
BUSH: Wait, I know this one!
KERRY: I believe that when you know something’s going wrong, you make it right. I believe that we have to win this. The president and I have always agreed on that.
BUSH: Hey, look what I can do with my upper lip.
KERRY: But I also laid out a very strict series of things we needed to do in order to proceed from a position of strength. They didn’t do the planning.
BUSH: But what I really like, see, is this thing with the tongue.
KERRY: When the Secretary General Kofi Annan offered the United Nations, he said, “No, no, we’ll go do this alone."
BUSH: Nuh-huh! Rummy was there, too. Where is Rummy?
KERRY: To save Halliburton the spoils of war, they actually issued a memorandum from the Defense Department saying, “If you weren’t with us in the war, don’t bother applying for any construction.” That’s not a way to invite people.
BUSH: Is so!
LEHRER: Ninety seconds, Mr. President, not including time to pack a few things.
BUSH: My opponent says we didn’t have any allies in this war. What’s he say to Alexander Kwasniewski of Poland? Hey, I just said “Kwasniewski”! Not so dumb now, hey, Dad?
LEHRER: Will you be purchasing your bus ticket on Trailways or Greyhound, Mr. President?
BUSH: Jiminy, I know how these people think. I deal with them all the time. I sit down with the world leaders frequently and talk to them on the phone, frequently. I have a phone and a thing that I sit down on and everything. Karl got it for me.
Those combat guys are not going to follow somebody who says, “This is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time.” They’re going to follow me to the wrong war at the wrong time, and, for the record, I actually know where the wrong place is.
LEHRER: Wrap him up, Senator. I’ve got a remaindered book to write.
KERRY: At the United Nations, Kofi Annan offered help after Baghdad fell. And we never picked him up on that. Secondly, when we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain, Australia and the United States. That’s not a grand coalition. We can do better.
BUSH: Poland! He forgot Poland! And Great Britain is two words!
LEHRER: Mr. President, your ride is here. But first, you have said there was a, quote, “miscalculation,” of what the conditions would be in postwar Iraq. What was the miscalculation, and how did it happen?
BUSH: No, what I said was, we achieved such a rapid victory, we didn’t have time to whip more of ‘em going in, before they got going out. Then they disappeared, see? But then they came back, so the good news is, now that we’ve achieved such a rapid victory, we can get on with the fighting, and the world is a lot safer, except where all that fighting’s going on. I seen it on the TV screens.
And we’ve got a plan in place. Our intelligence sources tell us that we will find it on the seat of our pants any day now. We’re closing in on it. The plan says there will be elections, just not here. We’re taking the election over there, so Americans don’t have to fight an election here. It is hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy. But going from a democracy to a tyranny – dang, that turned out real easy.
LEHRER: Kick his ass, Senator Kerry?
KERRY: What I’m trying to do is just talk the truth to the American people and to the world. The truth is what good policy is based on. It’s what leadership is based on. First of all, we all know that in his state of the union message, he told Congress about nuclear materials that didn’t exist.
BUSH: La-la-la, la-la-la-la, laaaaa!
KERRY: He misled the American people in his speech when he said we will plan carefully. They obviously didn’t. He misled the American people when he said we’d go to war as a last resort. We did not go as a last resort. And most Americans know the difference.
BUSH: They do not!
LEHRER: Mr. President – ten … nine … eight … .
BUSH: My opponent just said something. That makes him a flip-flopper.
LEHRER: Senator Kerry, a triple Lutz?
KERRY: I’ve had one position, one consistent position, that Saddam Hussein was a threat. There was a right way to disarm him and a wrong way.
BUSH: Flip …
KERRY: And the president chose the wrong way.
BUSH: Flop?
LEHRER: And that ends tonight’s debate. Impossible to predict the outcome, of course. I’m Jim Lehrer. See you at the Inauguration, Sen. Kerry. And George, have fun storming the ranch.
As I wrote earlier, we met with some of my buddies from USC for brunch over the weekend. One of them, an MBA from USC, is currently doing some or all of:
1. Teaching yoga to juvenile delinquents
2. Teaching pre-school
3. Teaching high school
4. Teching junior high
5. Training to be an interpretor for the California court system
6. Traveling to different parts of the world for educating lower classes of people or to learn new stuff from them
7. Trying to be an actor
8. Trying to get a side-job while being an actor
I asked him how he is able to support himself and he said he is living off his savings from the job he had after he graduated. Of course, some of the above pays not-so-bad, so he is able to live with that, but in general, those are not steady jobs, and so he has to dip into his savings every now and then.
For someone with student loan payments outstanding from college, and a great MBA to his credit, to be doing what he is doing, it amazing. I would not be able to give it all up. He has the passion to do what he is doing, and hats off to him for doing that.
