No country for sales men -updated

The US Vice Presidential debate is about to begin...

here is my prediction...(I can always eat my words later)

US is a country where people are used to buying something that is priced at 299.99, and is on "blowout" sale at 99.99, when any TD and H would know that the real thing is worth 14.99!!

GWB pulled off the "I am stupid", "I am really stupid" routine till he changed it around in a debate where suddenly he pulled some punches with Gore and went on to do the same thing with Kerry..

Is Palin playing the same game?

Let us see..

An update after the debate:

6:02 : Sundar is all excited and posts soemthing on his blog.. turns on TV!
6:04 : San walks by and exclaims "who is she?" and I go "What?" this is Sarah Palin!!! She brushes aside my surprise and goes on her merry way..
6:10 : Palin seems to have no stutter, even knows "facts" , there are numerals thrown in her speech and just when she starts things like "I have only been at this five weeks!"...
6:15 my jaw drops and I am thinking.. (well, Obama has no experience.. but on a chance that McCain has an aneurism after the SEC tells him the real story behind the bailout, will Palin say things like "I have only been at this a few months and I pressed the wrong button"? when she is President.. especially when she gets that call at 3AM!!!!).. anyways, I digress..
6:16:00 : "I have to go Navrathri shopping. there are guests coming tomorrow". When I come back, I don't want to hear a single complaint. Better make sure the kids are ready for bed when I come back!
6:16:05 : !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh

6:16:10 hear front door shut

6:16:15 "Daddy, I want to go somewhere too!" - says the little one!
After some haggling, muting TV, trying to read body language of debaters, then giving Jr. a bath ..

6:45 "I am trying to watch this movie. Seems to be a good movie!" This was Sivappadhigaaram, a movie title that translates to bloody tale, aired on SUN TV (Tamil channel) to commemorate the non-violent Mahatma Gandhi's birthday!!!!

7:40:00 In van on way to blockbuster (turn on radio).. there is an analysis of the debate!!! and snippets of audio! Yippeeeee

7:40:30 Jr. and LO in unison "Socha Hai" podu (play Socha Hai)

7:41 kids, please listen to this. I will quiz you on this. your future depends on what you hear (silence for a few seconds)

7:41:30 SOCHA HAI PODU, NOW !!

7:42 : turn on the CD player...

Sometimes I think that there are little Joe Biden-Sarah Palin debates in our house all the time. In fact, San maybe our home grown version of Sarah Palin! She might make me take down this post, because she is more powerful in all sense compared to me.. but it is true. She does not care much for facts, does not know much about the bailout, congress, etc. etc.. Not that she is not capable of knowing, but chooses not to! While I am busy listening to NPR or any other news radio, her only thought is to wait for a chance to switch to ARR music..

On the other hand I come across as some elitist ass who cares too much instead of going about the day to day living. True, no?

Those of you who managed to see the debate in full, can tell me if the first part of this post held true or not!

Going to take a lesson from San and focus more on Navrathri for the next few days..

The Kondaikadalai vs. pattani debate is of more value than the one that was just missed!

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Bombay Thaali , Madras Thaali or Mini Thaali ?

If your mouth has started to water and your mind is wandering towards Indian restaurant menus, stop right there!

Thaali, aka "the maangalyam" or "the mangal sutra" is the literal thread with which south Indians "tie the knot" during the wedding ceremony!

This post is about the daily issues faced by Indian women and in turn their men, when it comes to wearing the Thaali !

A long long time ago, our wise forefathers decided that the wedding ceremony should involve something more elaborate than the exchange of wedding rings. They were masters at creating rites and rituals. Having the brides dad walk her to the altar, and have a priest do a "precision questioning and answering" session with the bride and groom and then make them exchange rings and kiss in front of everyone, would indeed qualify for a grand finale, but does not work for a wedding that has to last a few days. They had other ideas..

They said :
1. Let us make the Bride sit on her dad's lap
2. Have the groom tie the knot around the brides neck with a sacred thread with a gold medallion in it
3. have the grooms sister stand behind bride and make her put two more knots
4. Insist that the bride wear that medallion on that turmeric coated cotton thread or a permanent gold chain for the rest of her married life to show that she is already taken!

This whole thing has worked for the last few millenia. Maybe the women did not see it as a discomfort, but the modern day south Indian girl almost unanimously seems to complain about "Wearing the Thaali". Almost every married Indian woman I know in the US has some gripe about this issue.

Here are the most common grievances (please note, no woman I know will actually go on the record and say this and they will all discredit what I am about to write, but trust me.. it is true!).

1. The yellow thread looks like a rag or the gold thread is too heavy! Yes, more gold does not necessarily mean more happiness people! In their defense, the gold thread is really heavy. Not a comfortable wear.

2. The million or so little insignias, medallions, pendants hanging from the thread are a noisy cleavage cutting nuisance! Once again, the men have lost a chance to do the right thing here and in the process help themselves. Noise bad.. roughing up a womans soft skin in all the wrong places.. very very bad!

3. This thing cannot be hidden properly when wearing a low cut blowse or a tops and skirt. In short, does not go with anything other than a sari or something with a dupatta! Yeah, I can see that! Maybe that is where our wise forefathers(and foremothers) realized that men naturally look to a womans neck line and when they expect to stare at something, they end up seeing the Thaali and go "oh crap. she is taken already!". Maybe they intentionally insisted that married women display the thaali at all times..

4. This is not the Thaali we wear! Now we get into the Bombay vs. Madras discussion. Something that a Madrasi married to a Madrasi or a Bombayite married to a Bombayiite would never know! What I am about to tell you qualifies as "Ripley's believe it or not" material. There are 3,456,7823 types of Thaali. The two most popular versions are the straight thick gold thread Madras version and the black bead "karugamani" Bombay version! Why people from Bombay have this instead of the single thick gold strand has never been explained to me. All I get is "we wear only this in Bombay. so deal with it". This alone is the subject for many posts. This brings in the mom, the MIL, the wife and all female relatives into the malestorm!

In an attempt to sovle all of the above issues, some wise man (I am sure it was a man who couldnt handle this anymore) came up with the Mini Thaali. A miniature version of the gold pendent which is worn on a slender almost invisible gold chain.

Sleek, silent, smooth on the skin, with a universal appeal to the Madrasi and Bombayite, a real trend setter this one! It makes the wives happy. It makes the mothers and mother-in-law's happy too! They now go and boast about how their daughter or DIL is now wearing a thaali all the times.

If you are a newly married guy, or any dude who is currently going through the Thaali debate at home, much against your will (you possibly couldnt care less), send me a thank you note and I will refer you to all the shops that make the "Mini Thaali"!

Ps. Part of this post was originally a long comment in Terri's blog post... So, I decided to make this a post in itself!

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