Funny?

I was standing in line to order my lunch at a neighborhood restaurant. Two 50 something white guys were behind me, the line was quite long and slow. One of the guys was checking his blackberry and all of a sudden he burst into a loud laughter. The other guy asks "What's the matter?" The blackberry guy goes "This friend of mine from South Carolina, he is too funny, listen to this one". He goes on to read an email from his phone "On June 25th 2009, Farah Fawcett died after a long battle with cancer. On reaching the Pearly gates she was asked what she wishes? She responded - All I want is all the children on Planet Earth to be safe and healthy. After 4 hours Michael Jackson was declared dead". Both of them started laughing out loud with intermittent remarks of "brilliant", "hilarious", "too funny"!!
Funny? You decide!

Did anyone ever consider?

This scene has become a regular staple since the war in Iraq started in 2003. I am all for bringing the soldiers back and reuniting them with their loved ones. What I do not get is the overtly public display in a classroom full of kids. Did the media or whoever stages these reunions ever consider what impact it must have on the other kids in that classroom whose a) fathers are still serving in the war or b) who never had a father or c) who lost a father or d) who live with a divorced parent?
Is it fair for those kids to have to experience this? Are they mature enough to partake in the joy of their classmate or does it make them long for their own father that much more?

Outraged - AGAIN

The American television did it again. The French Open men's semis are not being telecast live on any channels - NONE!! Why? I do not know - a) Days of our lives , Dr. Phil and Ellen are more important , b) no American is left in the French Open draw, c) the Americans don't care about the French d) all of the above. In this day and age in a country like the United States, I had to rely on searching on the net for a live feed. More such outrageousness of the past here and here. Wonder, if I will ever get to see international sporting events live before I die or leave the United States?

8 Countries in 5 hours

On Saturday, May 9th 2009, embassies of the European Union in Washington DC opened their doors for the public. I was looking forward to the day and was planning to visit as many of them as I possibly could. A could not accompany me and the thought of walking around on Mass Ave by myself on a hot muggy day wasn't quite appealing. Thankfully, E and E joined me and saved the day for me.
The entire experience was a lot more fun and rewarding than I had anticipated - the art work and furniture in the residence of the Dutch ambassador, the exquisite wood panelled walls of the embassy of Luxembourg, a walk in the manicured gardens of the British Embassy, learning more about Slovenia and Latvia while sampling their baked goods etc. However, the two highlights of the entire tour were the visit to the Italian embassy and the embassy of Portugal.

At the Italian embassy, I had randomly picked up a tourism brochure of the region of Veneto and was browsing through the many photos of the landmarks of that region, when E pointed to a picture of a beautiful sun-soaked piazza of a small Italian town, Marostica and said that she and E got married right there. Now for someone who comes from a nondescript plains of Central India, this is a whole different level of cool. I do not know of anyone else who can claim being married at a place featured in a tourism brochure. Bellissimo!!
The second highlight was the visit to the embassy of Portugal. After waiting for about an hour in the line outside the embassy in the hot Sun, we were let inside and while we were whispering under our breath that this better be worth the wait and the sunburns, the usher informed us that the Ambassador himself will be addressing us. We were escorted inside his office and he spoke to us for a good 20 minutes, patiently explaining us the glorious history of Portugal (mostly the sea explorations), his functions as the Ambassador and the relations of Portugal with the United States. He was gracious, witty and patient in answering our questions - even after a lady from our group almost offended him by asking if the Dutch colonized Portugal! Later on, he stopped me and had a one on one conversation about his friendship with the previous Indian Ambassador to the US and his fondness towards the Indian culture. The Port wine we sampled after that brief rendezvous tasted sweeter than it actually was.
If you ever find yourself in DC in the month of May, watch out for the events calendar for this once in a year opportunity. Not only will you be glad you did it, but you can boast that you visited a handful of countries in a span of hours - we did 8 in 5 hours. Anyone keeping records?

The Writer's Almanac & the best way to spend 5 minutes

If you did not already know, I am a sucker for NPR (National Public Radio). The days when I would drive to or from work, I would look forward to spending time with Steve Inskeep, Melissa Block, Michele Norris, Robert Siegel, Terri Gross and the others. There were times, when I would just sit in the car even after reaching my destination, waiting for a story to finish. There were times when I had completely missed my exit listening to Fresh Air with Terri Gross. Anyway, the five minutes that I would crave the most and would time my drive home around these five minutes was the "Writer's Almanac" by Garrison Keillor. It's a 5 minutes daily episode about writers, or poets or other literary fellas who were born that day, or died that day or did something of importance on that date. Sounds dull, innit? Only until you hear it! Garrison Keillor usually narrates a poem at the end of the opening narration of the historical account of writers from that date and then ends the episode with his registered trademark line:
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®
In Harrisburg, the Writer's Almanac would be aired at 7 PM and it would mostly coincide with my drive home on weekdays. Now, I walk to work and the timing of the show does not match. I end up reading the script at the show's website, but it's not the same, is it? The voice in my head when I read it does not sound remotely like Garrison Keillor. His rendition of "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch" line is just what I need to end my work day, any work day. It instills the right dose of hope and goodness to all that we do in a day.

H Y P O C R I S Y

Michael Phelps and his marijuana bong has created such a frenzy. I for one do not understand the furore, he was let go for a DUI (which IMO is much much much more serious and potentially harmful to others than smoking a doobie once a while) and here people are shunning him for a silly frivolous act of youthful behavior. This society, media and the holier-than-thou-high-sugar-cereal maker Kelloggs' (which btw is fattening our kids at an alarming rate) needs to take a chill pill. Let the kid be! And please oh so please legalize marijuana - the Govt will save so much money and time on fighting something which is a futile battle. Stupid, moronic and ridiculous drug laws which allows for hallucinogenic drugs to babies and kids and bans weed. Phelps, you are still the olympic super star to me. Pass me the joint!

Obama's Inauguration - The Party is OVER

He is now the 44th President, Change is here, Yes We Can is now Yes We Did. The party is over, it's time to get to work and make true of the promises made. The task is daunting, the momentum is there and the people are inspired. Let's start by picking up the trash - literally and figuratively.

(The street outside my apartment in the aftermath)

Obama's Inauguration - 1 day to go

The stage is set, everything's in place. We (A and I) went for a walk on the National Mall today evening. There was clear electricity in the air - you could almost touch it. All news channels from all corners of the country and abroad have set up their camps on the mall. Walking on the mall gives a feeling of being under a mega wedding pandal or at a sarvajanik Ganeshotsav pandal (I know it's a silly analogy, but that's exactly what I felt tonight).

Inauguration of Barack Obama - 01192009

Obama's Inauguration - 2 days to go

January 18th 2009, two days to go before the big day. The city is now a fortress, streets are closing, humvees on every other street corner, air force planes and choppers are hovering at regular intervals. Security forces are everywhere - cars, motorcycles, horses, segways, bikes, on foot and in the sky.

Today, the stars descended at the National Mall for HBO's Concert of one - Beyonce, Denzel Washington, Samuel Jackson, Tiger Woods, Tom Hanks, Shakira, Bruce Springsten, U2, Garth Brooks, Steve Carrell, Jamie Foxx, Laura Linney, Kal Penn, George Lopez, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Sheryl Crow and many many more. There was a sea of hon the grounds and electricity in the air. The President Elect with his family and the VP Elect with his family were present at this celebration. It was a great day to be at the National Mall.

More photos here:

The Concert of One

Obama's Inauguration - 5 days to go

I work as the Diversity & Inclusion lead for my office. What does that mean you might ask? Well, Deloitte as a firm is huge on Diversity and Inclusion (as are most firms these days). Given the size of the organization, each office has a lead who is responsible to be the champion in ensuring that the firm-wide message is communicated to all the employees and that no person ever feels "left out" because of his race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, living situation etc. This is a role which demands creativity and calls for finding innovative ways to celebrate the differences amongst all of us. Anyway, so as a part of this, we (me along with some of my colleagues who sit on the Diversity Council) are planning to create a three-five minutes video on the evolution of the Black population in this country - from slavery to Presidency. This video will then be shown at our next office wide staff meeting (February 6th). I guess, I have some work cut out for me on 1/20 then - must capture many relevant photos and videos. Thinking of interviewing random people on the streets and capturing their reactions. Any other ideas?

Obama's Inauguration - 6 days to go

Next Tuesday, in 6 days, America will witness the swearing in of it's first Black President. The entire city of Washington is buzzing with a frenzy of activities - the kind of activity you experience in the days preceding a wedding in your immediate family. The entire District feels like one big family preparing and getting ready for this event. Even the roadside bums are part of the buzz. I will be posting each day a bit of my experiences of these once in a lifetime event.

I am currently working on an engagement for the Child and Family Services Agency for the Government of the District of Columbia. It is one of the mission critical agencies for any State or Federal Government since it deals with Child Protection Services (protecting children against abuse and neglect). As a result of the unprecedented crowds that are expected over the 1/17:1/21 period, the agency along with the rest of the Government organizations is preparing for the worst. Disaster recovery simulations are taking place across all organizations, a chain of command and emergency communication channels are being established. For CFSA, their on the field staff are Social Workers employed to conduct investigations and attend to calls of child abuse or neglect calls received by the child abuse hotline. Over the inaugural weekend, the US Secret Service has issued myriad street closures which will hamper the social workers from reaching the locations where the alleged event has occurred. The agency is taking unprecedented measures to allow the workers to get to these children and take appropriate actions such as: posting social workers in the most vulnerable of the neighborhoods, providing wireless access to it's information systems, PDAs etc. Getting to experience this and being a part of these preparations (even though it's a tiny tiny tiny portion of it) gives me a feeling of being a "part" of it. Going back to the immediate family wedding analogy- remember when you were ten and your uncle was getting married and you were asked to bring a basket of flowers from one room to the other, you felt like that was the most important task EVER and that it could play a huge role in making or breaking the event? Yeah, it's that feeling all over again.

Here are two pictures I managed to take at a Metro station, corporate America is cashing in on the "change" matra. What's IKEA furniture got to do with "Change"? Huh!

If you want detailed information of the inaugural weekend, this is the best place: Washington Post's Inaguration Central. More tomorrow.

Friedman on Mumbai and Pakistan

I have already confessed my love for Friedman's op-ed in NY Times. His recent article on the Mumbai attacks "Calling all Pakistanis" is one of the very few logical viewpoints about the India-Pakistan situation, from the Western media. (For most part, the Western media has very little clue about the Geopolitics of that part of the world and tries to treat it as if it's curable using Advils and Tylenols. Exhibit A: Wolf "the" Blitzer).
Quoting Friedman:
"When Pakistanis and other Muslims are willing to take to the streets, even suffer death, to protest an insulting cartoon published in Denmark, is it fair to ask: Who in the Muslim world, who in Pakistan, is ready to take to the streets to protest the mass murders of real people, not cartoon characters, right next door in Mumbai?"

POSSIBLE

What happened in the late hours of November 4th 2008 only cemented the fact that anything is possible in this country built on the philosophy of - "You will be given every opportunity to be whatever you want to be". More power to Democracy and People's Will and Faith in Dreams.

Standing in the Bread Line

Me and A took this picture of us standing in the Bread Line at the FDR memorial in Washington, DC. This was meant to be just a fun photo opp, but with the current economic crisis, who knows this might be a reality for a lot of folks out there. Hoping that "This too shall pass"!

The Third Election

The November 2008 Presidential election would be the third for me. Seeing yesterday’s resounding speech by Obama and talking to a friend of mine about the ongoing political games in the country made me think about my perception of these elections. As far as I can remember, I have never been overtly interested in politics and elections. In my teenage days I was quite callous to politics even though all the adult members in my joint family were quite opinionated politically and had different beliefs and loyalties to different political parties. I turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to all the discussions and debates around me. I wouldn’t say that over the years since then interest has increased, however I can now say that I understand (if only at a high level) the political leanings (left vs. right), the election process and the political machinery to a certain extent.
Year 2000: Bush Vs Gore
I was about 8 months old in the country and did not really care about anything other than slowly absorbing the new world around me. The entire primary season, the campaign leading up to the now infamous election results went by completely un-noticed. Only on the day that people started talking about the big Miami-Dade fiasco that I tuned my television from Seinfeld to CNN. I did not understand what the fuss was all about, but just by the looks of it, I liked Al Gore and wanted him to come out victorious. Anyway, we all know what happened and then I got to witness the Gore concession speech. Just because I was living in the Washington DC metro area, I and a couple of friends attended the inauguration of Dubya on a cold January afternoon. The only image that stayed with me from that day is a homeless man holding a huge banner on the National Mall which said “Grand Theft Election”. That was 8 years ago.
Year 2004: Bush Vs Kerry
This time around, I knew how the system worked – the primaries, the caucuses, the debates, the nominations, the conventions and all the other shenanigans. I was living in Harrisburg, PA that year which happened to be the capital of a swing state and hence was under the spotlight in the campaign. My parents were visiting during the primary season and I explained the process to my father. He was quite impressed by the debates, the process and the transparency of the whole thing. He got to see Kerry speak on the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol when Kerry visited the burg. I was also intrigued by the process and was actually looking forward to the election results in November 2008. We all know what happened thereafter. That was 4 years ago.
Year 2008: McCain Vs Obama
I am back in Washington DC this year and I must say I have come a full circle. I have been chatting a lot with a friend about the elections and the candidates etc. Over these conversations I realized that I am back to being that teenager again. I have become apathetic and aloof to this election. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I am not entitled to vote, or it’s not my country. I am still contemplating on what is it that changed? I have simply stopped caring. No candidate or no speech (no matter how rousing or earnest and honest it is) seems to stir me. The outcome of the elections does not matter, how we get to the outcome does not matter and what happens after that does not matter. I am trying to tell myself that it should matter and that all this is not a farce, but every time I try to reason with myself, all I hear is – “What’s the point? What a waste of time!”. I only feel a tremendous hollowness in everything the candidates preach. The ads on TV make me cringe, the slogans and the promises bring an involuntary cynical expression on my face and my hands immediately reach out to the remote to search for any channel that plays “Seinfeld”.

OUTRAGEOUS - Part Deux

I ranted about the ridiculousness of American television broadcasts of international events here. Today the National Broadcast Company did it again. The Beijing Olympics opening ceremony is not being telecast live. Because the execs at GE (parent owner of NBC) in their peacock sized brains can think only about the moolah that will be generated by broadcasting the ceremony during primetime, so the North American audiences can watch it per their convenience at 7:30 PM with their TV dinners and beers and then run to the stores to buy all the fancy products advertised during the broadcast. So all of us peacock-pestered folks will have to wait to watch the spectacle which the 90% of the world population has already experienced. One of those instances when capitalism stinks.

The Candidate

I was out on a walk after dinner today and found myself strolling in the National Mall. It was a hot and muggy evening - typical for DC in July. There was a huge crowd sitting on the lawn facing the US Capitol. A huge white screen was setup on the greens between 4th and 9th streets. It was getting dark and I found out that they were going to screen a movie on that giant white screen. I found a nice patch of green for myself and settled down.

The movie being showed tonight was the 1972 Robert Redford movie "The Candidate". I had not seen it and thought would stick around. There could not have been a better movie in that setting in this political climate. Here goes the plot - spoilers ahead.

The race for the Senator in California is dominated by a sixty something running Republican Senator Jarmon. There is no Democratic nominee who will run against him and his victory is almost certain. Luke, a campaign manager (played by Peter Boyle - the foul mouthed Frank Barone from Raymond) persuades a handsome, dashing, liberal activist -Bill McKay (a brilliant Redford) to join the race. McKay hates politics and politicians (he is the son of the ex-governor and has fallen out with his father for these very reasons). He is happy fighting for the issues that he believes in. Luke promises him that this race will give him an audience for his cause and he can say what he wants to say, after all he is going to loose anyway. McKay falls for it and announces his nomination. Things take a positive turn because of his outspoken and frank speeches, people see a "Change" in him and his numbers start catching up with Jarmons.

The rest of the plot is about how McKay falls prey to the media branding and his voice changes to to a political mush and hollow-speak that he despised to begin with. For example McKay brands himself with the cheesy campaign line "For a Better Way, Bill McKay"!! (it could very well have been "Change"). The movie just goes on to impress the fact that little has changed in 36 years.

The movie is a direct jab at the political machinery prior to any big election. It is all the more relevant today - there are obvious comparisons between Jarmon and Senator McCain : He is old, is experienced and is a Republican. On the other hand McKay is Obama: He is young, inexperienced, handsome, charming and a Democrat. But the movie is not about Republicans or Democrats it's about how individuals loose their individuality in this system of political campaigning. They become the puppets at the hand of the media and the campaigners that surround them.

McKay makes a brilliant inspiring speech in the movie, which has the crowd up on its feet cheering him - he is loving it...he is enjoying every bit of it...he is drunk on the adulation. The speech is played repeatedly on different occasions. On his way to one such campaign event he recites the speech in the car mocking at it...Redford is absolutely brilliant in this bit. Watch it to believe it. That one scene pretty much sums up the entire point of the movie.

In the end when Mckay is declared the winner he pulls Luke in a room and asks him bewildered - "Luke! What do we do now?".

A gibbous moon had risen behind the Capitol dome and the air was filled with the cheers from the crowd. Ironically, in the coming months on these very lawns we will probably witness a "Bill McKay" being sworn in as the Nation's first Black President. "Change" as they say is coming....or is it?

More information on the "Screen on the green" series here.

God and Coca Cola?

SERIOUSLY?
(Open image in a new window)

OUTRAGEOUS

OUTRAGED.....The Wimbledon men's semi-final between Safin and Federer is not being telecast live on any American TV channel. Shame on you ESPN, shame on you NBC. Some ridiculous contract arrangements has prevented ESPN to broadcast the match live and NBC cannot do without their Today's show. So here we are, following the match on wimbledon.com when there are 14,000 channels dedicated to sports in this country. Give me my State controlled Doordarshan any day, they would telecast even the Davis Cup matches live.
DAMN YOU ESPN, DAMN YOU NBC.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Pump More Oil Baby!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/opinion/22friedman.html?ex=1371787200&en=3c18c6b8b5bb4a3e&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

YES...YES....YES!!! I am surprised only this one journalist is talking so loudly about this. With great power comes great responsiblity - cheesy as it may sounds, it's time this country leads by example. Pumping more oil and off-shore drilling ain't the way to go. Why should I be surprised? - short-sightedness and instant gratification is what this Govt stands for anyway. Stimulus checks, phone taps, bomb far-off countries and now - pump more oil.
On his recent trip to Europe Mr Bush was not greeted with many protestors like in his past visits, the reason - he is so unpopular and boring, people don't even want to come out to protest anymore. Leave already.
(Disclaimer - I am not a supporter of the Reps or the Dems, I generally do not believe in Govts, Right or Left, Dems or Reps, BJPs or Congs - more on this on a post I have been working on for a while now)