Questions

We visited the Livermore temple earlier this weekend. Before we left there was a lot of drama. The little one demanded that we pray at home with all the idols in the prayer shelf. We said "but we want to go to the temple and pray" and she goes "what difference does it make? we drive for one hour, stay there for 20 minutes and drive back in the hot sun for another hour! It is boring to drive like that. I want to just stay at home". 

While fundamentally she was right, we still wanted the temple ambience. Telling her that she was conceptually right somehow worked. She came as a favor to the rest of the family!

The Balaji idol was decorated beautifully with a big white "naamam". The little one goes into to sanctum and asks "Why is he having a big tooth on his forehead?"

She has been preoccupied with a tooth that is about to fall and to her credit, the Naamam with the black line in the middle(usually it is a red thilagam) definitely was not a well defined Naamam.

This reminded me of a conversation we had witnessed many years ago in that same sanctum..

She goes on to whisper a long secret of sorts into the ear of the Nandi (bull) in front of the Shiva idol. She was hugging the thing and everyone was watching her as it was unusual. Guess my mom had told her that if she wants to wish for something, or cannot hold a secret the best place to wish or say secrets is Nandi's ears. I asked her "what did you say to that Nandi for such a long time?" .. "I told him to make Jr. stop bothering me!" . Sure there was more to it than that one sentence.

Jr. was easy on us, but the little one seems to be different in her thinking.  She also seems to be the creative genius in the family. Never stops amazing us with her thought process, be it in the kitchen or at solving problems. 

The good thing is that she takes my side all the time! 

Three questions - many answers

These are questions that are being thrown out there with no expecations.. this is like me shouting at the ocean on Marina Beach in Madras during one of those bouts of extreme helplessness..

The ocean just absorbs my loudest scream so effortlessly. All I get in return is a local sense of calm as the waves lap my feet.

Maybe this post will give me that same feeling. Writing a post and putting it out there on the internet, is in a lot of ways like shouting at the waves. Not that these questions need answering, but putting them out there might give a sense of relief...

1. Is there any mother out there who can go on a polygraph and pass when asked the question "do you love your daughter-in-law as much as you love your daughter?" and she replies "Yes"? (assuming she is not an ex-CIA mom who was trained to beat a polygraph..)

2. Is it safe for any woman to be a homemaker? Are there that many trustworthy men in this world who can be counted on, or should I ask "are there that many trusting women out there? In today's world it is even more difficult for a home maker to find employment (or get employed again after a long break in employment) than it is for a working mom to adapt to being a stay at home mom. This comment is not being raised in the context of the man leaving the woman, but was sparked by thoughts along the lines of the man having poor health, falling sick constantly and by extension, being a prime candidate for disability or death, leaving the woman to take care of the family.

3. Do long distance relationships have a higher chance of failure? Does this higher chance hold true for blood relations also? Is physical proximity a requirement for a blood relationship like a grandparent, parent, child, sibling or are those bonds like the frienships you form in high school or college. You haven't talked to a person for a year and you call them on the phone and you just pick up where you left off.. there is always a welcome smile and open arms. Is it like that for blood relatives? Does "out of sight, out of mind" necessarily translate to "permanently out of mind"?

The neurons fire badly and erratically this week. Hay fever and tylenol allergy sinus may not have much to do with it. The questions keep bouncing inside the head and for some strange reason remind me of a computer game we used to play a long time ago called Jeezball. You box a bunch of bouncing balls into the smallest pockets only to realize that the more you box them in, the more difficult it is to contain them.

The waves might lap at my feet or the unseen Tsunami might throw me over. There are plenty of real and virtual moms, mothers in law around me, working at a home or office and the first two questions are not with respect to anyone in particular. As most or all of you know, I have given up trying to understand women. As long as they understand you, you are fine. Maybe Moses did not part the red sea.. the red sea parted for Moses, the red sea being a lot bigger and all.. same logic.

Question 3 is part of some soul searching.

Three questions, many answers, not necessarily right or wrong answers, just many many different answers!

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Tolearati

That should be a legal word in the dictionary.

We have gliterrati, technorati, etc. so why not? and maybe it should mean "a collective body of people who live and let live"!

In case you are wondering why the request for some data, some things have been bothering me, what with the gloomy weather outside and the blog reading from the last few days.

For example, transporation! A guy who writes a "travelogue" ought to be concerned about the fate of transportation the world over, right?

We have governments monopoly on road building, public transportation, transportation routes, who makes what modes of transport at what cost, the control over the transportation modes on this world economy and environment, not to mention downright apathy on the part of governmnets the world over to provide what the common man needs to navigate today's world!

(all this after reading PK and Sauvik posts within a week and an NPR piece of who is going to be transportation secretary for the USA in the new Obama administration and how he may have a tough time balancing things)

Another example is the hoopla over Valentines day, the fact that it is Saint Valentines day and therefore is a Christian thing, how therefore it is something that Indians should not celebrate, how holding hands in public or kissing is not an "Indian" thing to do, how women going to pubs is against hinduvta, the concept of "hinduvta", how liberal is liberal, how fundamentalist is fundamentalist, how secular is secular, how free is free, how pink is pink, etc. Okay, maybe that last one wasn't on my mind as much as the other questions.

Finally, the last thing that we see is a flood of articles from the Huffington post to the Tehran times and anyone else claiming to provide news, on "India launches cola made from Cow Urine". When do a few folks doing something represent a country or its people in the world. Does the western media know that a majority of the Indian population is endorsing "Gau Jal"?, is there an official press release from the Government of India stating this cola as a product of the government, somehow this is linked to policy, etc.? Similar things happen to countries and people (USA is an equally prime example) where a few people do something and the entire country is supposed to be behind it!

Obviously before some of these thoughts get cleared, there were even more simple questions like what consitutes a minority, why would a majority of people divide themselves and be so polarized over things that happen to a minority of people the world over, within countries, states, why the divisions of what makes the minorities be important in the first place, what are the odds of finding a left handed lesbian pub and god loving woman in Bangalore, etc. etc. Okay, strike that last one out. It was more of an afterhought!

This post cannot continue folks! The brain needs to slow down and work off of some real data to see if all the above questions can be explained statitstically or we just have to resort to grandma sayings, aesops fables and Jataka tales. Maybe this cannot be explained in simple terms and one just has to accept it for what it is.

So, we wait for data and a deeper understanding of what drives all the insanity in this world!

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Humility

Over the last few years, a rare opportunity has come my way of being in charge of operating a unique semiconductor facility. Usually this blog does a better job of separation of work and fate, much better than the governmnet does with separation of church and state. This time however, we have to make an exception and mention something that came up through work.

Every year, a bunch of international military leaders visit my workplace and I get to give them a tour of the facility. They are part of a program through the NDU.

As usual, this year we hosted an amazing bunch of people. (Got to shake hands and take pictures with a Colonel from the Indian Army as well! What a guy! You talk to him for a few seconds and see why he is a leader).

This is the who's who of the military world, and you see that their thought process and questions are very impresive. After spending two hours with them you can kind of figure out the LCM between these guys and you know why they are special.

They all are:

1. good listeners
2. able to "cut to the chase" and "come to the point" with minimum words
3. full of life!
4. practitioners of "give respect and take respect"!

This year, when I finished the last tour of the faciilty, a bunch of them insisted on taking a picture with me, and then gave me a memento of sorts for taking the time to answer all their questions. In a few minutes they made it feel like an award ceremony!

Was so moved by their gesture. Just loved it!

Going to cherish this one for a long long time. The nickname my colleagues have for me at work is "The General" and every year, the irony of that title just sinks in a little deeper. These guys are so humble. Something you would not expect out of top military folks especially the way the movie industry portrays them.

Yes, these are all very macho guys who keep punching each other on the shoulders or hi fi everyone at every opportunity (and they all seem to have learnt the choicest bad words in international languages) but they were listening to every word that was being said in the tour and they asked questions that were thought provoking. Even top CEO's and CTO's who get the fab tour have not asked such questions!

There is so much to learn, so little time!

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Why two sets? (updated)

Jr. was having some fun with an english workbook she got as a gift. This is now our usual routine in the evenings.

Today she had to answer a question which was :

_______ went to swim.

the three choices were

Him
I
i

She figured out that Him was wrong as soon as she read that option.

Then she looked at me and asked me a very profound question.

"Daddy, why do we need two set of letters with all this uppercase and lowercase stuff? Why can't we have just all uppercase or all lowercase?"

I really do not have an answer for that one! Why? Why?

Now, I have a question for my parents!

Was I smart or lazy enough to ask that question when I was learning english? and if I did, were you proud of me?

Why do we need two sets of letters people? Answer me!

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Anon commenter... Just a thought!

THIS IS SHOUTING

THIS IS NOT SHOUTING

i rest my case

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now I have another question.. Does Tamizh have ! in the alphabet, punctuation.. I have to go and read about the history of punctuation marks. Tonight's homework..

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