An eternal question answered

 

Back in India when I was a child, that was the middle of milk revolution and India was importing high yielding milk cattle from Europe and others. Either keeping the breeds pure or mixing them with local cattle for the pure breeds didn’t sustain the extreme temperatures or the tropic weather.

That said, females were milk cows and the question about males were a disaster for the eternal belief that those cows/ox couldn’t be used for tilling land. When probed deeper, answer always was that the foreign cows lacked the hump needed to stop the yoke and beam from sliding down.

I believed the answer till I left the country and realized people in Europe were ploughing even with horses and donkeys, there is no breed of horse that has a hump.

The answer finally came to me when visiting the Billings dairy farm in Vermont. The cattle can’t take the heat and love the nippy cold and will slide on snow and hence the farm had big industrial fans to keep them cooler.

So, the answer was three fold, one is the fact that these cows/ox were not trained for tilling and for generations were bred for milking and training these is a hard task and might take a few generations to get them ready. Second, we needed to change the yoke and beam design for these ox and lastly and most importantly, these cattle were bred for the cold weather for generations and had trouble adjusting to the hotter/tropical weather.

Now, the question can rest in peace.

When popular movies get things wrong

From the other side of the Ocean (I mean India), America is a fascination and been there for ever I would say and to a large extent mis understood. It becomes even worse when mainstream movie makers like Suresh Heblikar, Nagatihalli Chandrashekar or Sethuram get's it completely and illogically wrong.

Lets start with Heblikar, the man is amazing focusing his movies on mental health issues with movies like Kaadina Benki, Prathama Ushakirana and so on. I have great respect for him. But the case I am arguing here is, with the Ushakirana movie, it is illogical because a simple engineer along with his wife who is a complete simpleton and guessing by their kids age must be in early 30s come to America in a simple shirt and pant and her in Saree and return just after 3 years as though they won few million dollars in lottery and like in Avatar, just got transformed to a version only made sense to him in a jiffy. I have spent more than a quarter of a decade here and have friends in all spectrum and in general those who come for such short durations that too such orthodox folks can't even get used to the food let alone culture. Their primary aim is to save up and send home and return rich. Also, for the whole period of 3 years there were no vacations, the couple never went back to see their kids? Of course these are logical questions and that's not for everyone.

For Chandrashekar, in his movie America America the couple in USA manage to buy not a starter home but a huge house within a few years of marriage and that too in posh LA for what would be present day ~$700K. I would like to know from the director if he can find me such a house in middle of LA. or SFO, can't remember. The cassette part is another big miss, all the years it was lying around in USA and never was played. The party scene of Ramesh is laughable for 1995 India had just opened up and America was struggling with effects of Iraq war and conflicts in Africa. The dude loses job and how the hell did he manage to stay in the country, maybe because Trump was not the president then :). There are lot more loop holes but again logic, something to left outside movie halls.

Lastly my favorite (for real) Sethuram. in one of the serials he did his daughter-in-law gets a chance to go to "America" and not his son and she goes with her boss. The boss is also owner of the company and he promises all good behavior but apparently breaks them when he lands here. In short, he starts exploiting her and she returns back to India dejected. The lady was ready to seperate from husband while in India but couldn't muster courage to file a complaint against her boss while in USA?

I am all for entertainment and all for baseless and no logic movies like James Bond or Bourne or our own home brew from YRF but please don't make these stupid and logical mistakes and call it a movie based on real life situations. For the truth is miles away from your fiction.

The saddest reality is movies like these truly formed the public perception back in the day with some conservative families not even wanting to send their children either to study or work abroad or America means instant wealth and not highlighting other struggles like life style adjustment, loneliness and for present day visa issues.

Teaching history in a complex country like India

 I have written quite a few blog posts on India and its history, whether it is rich or poor depends on one's perspective.

One cannot deny it’s a civilizational state with a constant occupation and change and being a country linked by land to both Middle East and Europe has a long history. In fact each and every region of the country has history going back by a thousand years if not more. To top that curriculum designers must account for nation building and highlight the history from Delhi centric perspective too. Last but not the least is the freedom struggle itself which technically started with first war of independence in 1857 and ended with 1947.

Keep in mind, we cannot ignore the world history which is shaping our contemporary world affairs also, at the least world wars 1 and 2 followed by Cold War to fall of Soviet Union to the present day conflicts and the dictatorships and so on.

I am only talking history and haven’t even touched the geography or the constitution/law or what we used to call Civics.

I truly pity the NCERT people for their job is not easy.

While I stated the problem statement here are some suggestions to make it slightly better.

1. Add history and others as a compulsory subjects for grade 11 and 12, adding 2 more years to the system of education helps a lot
2. Like they do in this country, dedicate a year worth in high school to learn about local history meaning in my case history of Karnataka. Dedicate another year on the world history and so on
3. Eliminate switching to Sanskrit or even English as first language in grade 8 and stick to local language or Hindi as first language from beginning to end, advantage is that students would have had great mastery over language and can digest complex literature and I myself learnt a lot with studying Kannada literature which otherwise I would not have learnt. Example : Jhansi rani Laxmi Bai is mentioned in history books but Kitturu Chennamma or Keladi Chennamma were learnt through kannada literature which were part of the curriculum.
4. Stop teaching history as dates and events but focus on drawing parallels and finding what Google likes to call “system analysis” for example how being religious zealots destroyed empires time and again across the globe with no exception. Or my favorite, any kingdom especially the big ones get destroyed by inner rot and court room politics than an external invasion
5. Its been 80 years since independence, at the rate of 12 years of education umpteen batches have passed through, time to teach real history be it about Jihad of Aurangazeb or Inquisitions by Spain in Goa or the Naval revolt of 1947 or how bankrupt England was at end of WW-II that it couldn't really control its "colonies"
6. Constantly I heard that "History is dead subject", this has led to people thinking it is set in stone and cannot be changed and more I have learnt over time, if anything its the opposite. It is as alive as Science and probably as fascinating

Of course all these require systemic changes in thinking and might need new ways of drafting curriculum and training teachers and probably a generation or two to go through.

My fundamental problem with the way I learnt history was, it was sorry to say completely Delhi Centric and sadly when I read Nehru Discovery of India, he was so freaking light on south of the Vindhya’s I was flabbergasted.

As one famous person once said, "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it"

Shivaji, Sambhaji and Maharani Tara

 Having read the 2 books and listened to one book by Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran, I have to admit her story telling skills are amazing. She has the ability to put things in right perspective and not amplifying things beyond required. I picked up her books for Shivaji has been a fascination since early childhood and no history book actually depicted the same properly. To that extent Medha's books are the best for anyone looking for a good clean reference to understand that time and part of history.

I agree Shivaji or Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj was a thorn in the flesh of Mughals starting from Shahjahan to Aurangzeb. Yes our history book dedicated a 2 page chapter on him and the highlight was the title bestowed by Aurangazeb of “Mountain rat” and it was glorified and was called master of guerrilla warfare. Without mentioning any details about his great cavalry or his system of tax collection. I still remember reading about Sher Shah Suri and his tax systems but not about Shivaji and his system and more importantly how his family resisted the Mughals for almost 30 odd years. In context, Aurangzeb ruled for 45 years and 2/3 of the time he spent in southern India either personally or through his generals and one can say the empire got destroyed because of the “Deccan Campaign”.

The entire book of both Sambhaji and Tara (wife of Rama Raja) reminded me that 400 years ago any life unless you are a nobility had no value, you were expendable and animals for sure suffered worse. To an extent if one sees the movie Black Hawk down, one can relate to it. Since nobility was placed so much higher than the rest, it was lot easier to make them corrupt with bribe of a rank or elevation to the next level.

Apart from Aurangazeb’s military tactics and cunningness which one can argue is his sharp mind, it was the buying out of nobility with respect to Bijapur and Hyderabad that led to their defeats. I have to give Bijapur its credit for they did stand against but Golkonda was literally surrendered without much of a fight. One thing that I am not able to understand is the fact that Aurangazeb’s hatred of Shia Muslim was known and even then the Bijapur and Hyderabad surrendered trusting the emperor will keep his promise, which he had time and again had broken. If you want to get an idea of Aurangazeb's cunningness one needs to see how he killed the prince of Mewar with smallpox.

This brings to the important aspect of history, we read all stories of how one army was better in war tactics and so on, my take is if the empire or dynasty was rotten from the inside meaning the top talents are either eliminated or have fled or the king is a rotten soul, all the external force has to do was to give a small nudge and it all falls apart. I need another post to justify my argument and maybe I will do that. Sadly, history only records the outcome of a war or event and leaves out details that led to that outcome.

Another salient aspect that came from reading the books is the fact, again not told in our school books was the fact that no Mughal emperor succeeded without a blood riot and killing his brothers and kin and some times in case of Jehangir, his own son. In a way one can argue it would lead to survival of the fittest but the cost of lives is beyond imagination. Although the Mughals were big emperors in India, the Muslim heirarchy, recognized Caliph who was in Persia and time and again the Caliph used to send reprimands to the Mughal emperor and one of Aurangazeb's son did escape to Persia hoping to get help from Caliph himself to over throw his own dad.

A thing to note, several European historians have noted that Mughals carried their harem and wives along to the battle fields and in case of Deccan campaign it was a total of 18 years when Aurangzeb came down, I am sure there must be kids born through that time and what would happen to them? I am sure someone has done a study of those.

In a way one can say Maratha's survived the Aurangazeb's onslaught for they were not a city but hill forts and hundreds of them all over Maharashtra. if they were like Bijapur or Hyderababd it would have been completely a different story.

Lastly one points to the fact that Sambhaji’s son Shahu was a weak emperor and eventually led to Peshwa’s taking over but the fact that is not told is that poor guy spent his formative years as a captive in Mughal prison.

ps: We all know Talikota war Viijayanagar was destroyed and how come we never learnt about Gilani brothers who placed religion over their kingdom loyalty.

Google says - just trust me

 If you are like me then you do use Google maps for distances that needs timely arrival like school drop off or band pick up and so on. Time and again I have tried to use my brain instead of blindly trusting Google and the success rate of me beating Google is going lower and lower.

Last night thanks to weather patterns. the high school football match ended pretty late and while picking up kid after the match I asked Google to map my way home and its suggestion was to go around town and reach home in 23 minutes and I was like, no my other way would be easier for I could cut across I-35 and hit Mopac and will be home in about same time. I took my route, over rode Google only to get badly stuck in downtown traffic and there was an event that attracted stream of audience that it blocked my way and I had to come back to I-35 and go back towards downtown again for I knew before hand that I-35 south had an accident and was blocked badly. after about 45 minutrs on the road we reached home completely tired.

Yes, Google had the last laugh and yes I could have saved time and energy had I listened to Google Maps in first place :).

More historical ramblings …..

Another one on history and hopefully the last one on this row. The way history is taught in schools is about facts, at 1757 battle of plassey happened and that led to British foothold in the country or that Aurangzeb defeated Sambhaji in 1689 and so on.

The devil is always in the details, in the case of Siraj us Daulah he barely ascended the throne, lasted for a year and was killed in that time and his own general and the finance person took revenge on him. The general was also an old man by those days standards and for the army which pretty much was a decentralized structure back then to back him and not the king is something that is not explicitly stated. On other hand Sambhaji was crowned right after Shivaji death and lasted almost a decade and led successful campaigns against his other Deccan rivals. He and his people stood strong against the might of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. And for a fact he was backed by the army, which was led by his step mothers own brother when some ministers in the council decided to place his 10 year old step brother on the throne.

There are ample such stories when the ruler didn’t take people to confidence he lost the throne in no time or in a short time. Case in point our own Mysore kingdom, Hyder Ali managed to keep the throne for he at the least placed if for name sake ruler from wodeyar family and while his son wanted to do away with it and thanks to his fanaticism for Islam he eventually lost it. Or the Nayakas of Chitradurga when the Dalavayi’s tried to take over the throne as shadow rulers.

Go to the present to Wikipedia you will see exactly opposite, both Siraj ud Daulah and Tipu Sultan are freedom fighters while Sambhaji was a useless son of great Maratha ruler.

Again, it’s not their fault for they quote sources and in case of Sambhaji who are the sources, the Portuguese of Goa for they were forbidden from fanatically spreading Christianity in Goa. Irony is, folks who were happily engaged in slave trade by shipping people of India across the globe blamed Maratha for unthinkable things. Even our own “historians” like Jadhunath Sarkar quote directly from the Jesuits documents without taking it with a few grains if not a load of salt. Or the fact that the same is probably missing or not available in British documents who were right there in Bombay.

Since I am reading about Sambhaji, a hero made famous to me by the movie Chavva and if one looks at mere facts, he defected to Mughals for a year and fought in a battle or two with them and he came back.

But the details of how he was sent away either for safe keeping or what ever else by his own father who was heading on a southern campaign. How he lost his mother at a very early age and father was busy with nation building. The jealousy of the step mother who became even more powerful in the royal household after his grandmother’s death.

The fact that some of the ministers for whatever reason didn’t trust him to be the next king and really wanted to place the young Rajaram on the throne, this begs the question who will be the regent on behalf of the king, the king maker?

Historical Fiction

 I love history and ok with fictionalized versions too for they add some amount of emotions and human aspect to the whole story. Example the story that Sambhaji, son of Shivaji the chatrapathi of Marathas defected to the Mughals and joined them for a couple of years and that’s fact but what was the political conditions that led to this is fleshed out in the book The Life and Death of Sambhaji by Medha Bhaskaran.

Anyways, this one is not about that but something else that caught my attention. I was reading the history of Nayakas of Chitradurga and reading the full line of books by Ta Ra Su. When I was reading his book Vijayothsava he made a statement or rather a paragraph about the ruler of Keladi Somashekara Nayaka, husband of Chennamma of Keladi. That he was the worst womanizer and women in his kingdom were not safe and sort of equated him to the worst of the medieval rulers.

I didn’t buy the story multiple reasons for one, Keladi Chennamma is a very famous historical figure and has earned her name in history for being a righteous ruler who stood against the great Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and was loved by her people till she died and gave their lives to defend their queen against the greatest odds. Also, they did not have a child of their own and Somashekara Nayaka was experimenting with drugs to solve the same is something else I remember reading from childhood days. Lastly with the AI search I got to know another story of how he fell in love with a dancer and ignored the kingdom for her sake.

None of the above says Somashekara Nayaka was a lecherous being in any sense and makes me wonder why Ta Ra Su says so in his book. Yes it’s writers liberty but in the process of showing something great one should not cast wrong impressions about something else which is equally good.

Ps: the childhood memory of reading got triggered when I saw the name Bharame Mavutha in the search

Pps: this story I had a background and hence didn’t believe makes me wonder if other stories where I have zero background how much or Authors liberty has been ingested 🤔

Something to ponder over

 This incident happened when I was rewatching BR Chopra’s Mahabharata and the incident happens between a Brahmin and his eldest daughter. The scenario is in Ekacbakranagari where Bakasura has to be fed and the turn is of the Brahman family.

The story goes, he has 2 kids with eldest being the daughter and son too young to go to the demon. The father decides to go but stopped by the daughter who volunteers herself and the reason the Brahman gives for not sending his daughter is what baffling me.

The man says, daughter is “some one else’s property” she has to marry some day and go with her husband, fair point for patriarchal system then and to this he adds “you are the earth on which new life needs to grow”, I am assuming here he is talking about the progeny and the sperm being the seed and so on.

For the ancient Indian science and the renowned sages/scientists didn’t we know the kid has both mom and dad aspects in it and women is not playing the role of earth alone by providing nourishment but also altering the genetic code of the baby by adding her own to the mix, which if I understand science right earth never does.

Maybe I am overthinking this as always or maybe the dialogues said more and I only remember this.

Anyways, just another post.

Ps: there is a bit of background to the story for I overheard someone saying, if not for this mom I would have been born to someone else with the same dad and that made me think, then you won’t be you, you would be someone else😊

Swiss trip Pointers

 Highlights from the trip

• If you are traveling in peak season say June-July cough up the money and get a first class Swiss travel pass
• Vegetarian food is plenty and almost all restaurants we visited had a veggie burger option and their recipes varied a lot
• In about 3 or 4 areas of Switzerland we had a "Golden India Restaurant" and not sure if they all were from same management
• Watchout for train timings while there for after 8:00PM the frequency reduces from 2 per hour to 1 per hour and sometimes the last train could be at 9:00PM or so
• If you are visiting Zermatt area specifically it is prone to extreme weathers and yes train services can get disrupted and if that happens they do run bus services and just reach the station and see your options
• IF you are in Zermatt area don't look beyond Hotel Romantica for stay, wonderful family owned place with amazing hosts and great breakfast
• The Mantra for Swiss travel was to leave hotel/apartment early and reach venue before 8:30-9;00AM to beat crowds
• Remember its Alpine and weather can change at a moments notice
• Depending on region of Switzerland, you will encounter either French or German and very little Italian and most tourist spots speak good enough English
• Lot of towns and villages take pride in being car free and some of them are only accessible by cable cars or cogwheel trains
• Don't trust Google maps for public transport and instead use the SBB app for it can give the right direction down to the last step to the hotel, won't guide you like step by step but helps a lot and more accurate than Google maps
• The number of modes of transportation the Swiss have built is mind boggling from electric buses, trams to high speed trains to gondolas to cable cars to cogwheel trains and all of them running like a well oiled machine is a feast and treat to marvels of Civil Engineering
• Every single day we accumulated at the least 15000 steps on average
• Coop, don’t know if it’s co-op or coop but they are pretty ubiquitous and they are like the HEB and Walmart hybrid. If they have a restaurant they have the best breakfast for a cheaper price
• If you really want to get a taste of Swiss I highly recommend stay in one of the off places and not the city centers like Zurich or Geneva or Interlaken
• If you are remotely interested in hiking the alps even the simple ones, I highly recommend either a hiking boots or a trail running shoes with Vibram grip sole. Yes there is a difference between with and without the Vibram grip.
• For sure the things in Swiss start late and end early specially in the remote villages and hence plan your day a bit with care
• Sorry to say, I couldn’t develop a taste for Fondue
• Swiss cows are another fun aspect for every single one has a bell around their necks and on the rainy day on top of Grindelwald a herd of them were making a music of their own
• If you are in Mt.Pilatus don’t forget their toboggan ride and if you are adventurous and in shape do their rope course. For sure it’s world class and not for the faint hearted
• Mt. Titlis is good too and does attract a lot of Indian visitors evident from the fact they served Indian food in their cafe
• Zurich hosts the Guinness record holding longest serving vegetarian restaurant Haus Hiltl, worth a visit or more and food is always great there
• Most attractions offer tickets in advance and I highly recommend checking the weather and booking your ticket in advance. Thanks to my wife Sandhya for taking care of it for us, for sure she saved quite a few hours for us.
• If there is 1 hike I recommend it will be the Mannlichen to Kline Scheidegg, beautiful hike with the mountains right in the face. Wengen in general has lots more hikes and maybe in the future we will explore. Of course walking in and around Wengen is a hike in itself.
• Make time and spend the morning for breakfast at the restaurant Piz Gloria yes the bond movie was shot there and the restaurant rotates and I assure you great food. Highly recommend their breakfast. It’s 2 step one is to buy the breakfast and next step reserve a spot too.
• Sundays everything is mostly closed, barring some museums and tourist attractions most shops are closed. 

Kashmir 1947

India and Pakistan were divided back in 1947 and the reasons that led to happen is debatable and whether Gandhi was the main reason or the end of world war 2 was the reason is a debate beyond me (at least for now, I do have some thoughts on the same). My contention here is about Kashmir.

Agreed the Maharaja of Kashmir wanted to do what ever he wanted and Pakistan also wanted a part of it or the whole of it and all the “controversy” surrounding it and how our then esteemed prime minister placed friendship over national interest at the time and how he changed his mind within a few years later and there is enough and more literature around this also.

My concern stems from the fact that the lashkars attack on J and K happened organically. 2 countries were formed on August 14/15 1947 and both countries military was still under the control of British. But by October that year, our neighbor managed to arm the “Lashkars” and send them across the border to attack Kashmir and in turn India. It all happened organically is the lie that I feel has been peddled for us.

Here is my contention, how can a newly formed country with thousands of problems to deal with organize and launch a war? The military was still under the British on both sides of the border and if that were the case, what was the governor general Mr. Batten doing? He had no intelligence and did the Pakistan side of British government went rogue? My theory they had been preparing for a few months before the whole thing and ready to pull the plug when needed, indeed going beyond the simple “the irregulars attacked”.

Nehru went to UN to resolve Kashmir, I would have taken the British to task and maybe take them to the international court for their military which was supposed to be “neutral” did take sides and was active in supporting one side over the other. Unless it was known that British wanted to do it on purpose.

All the history being taught why these simple questions are not raised by the “teachers and scholars”.

A friend of mine says history should not be changed and questioned for it would mean we are questioning our teachers and parents and some one else says History is dead. I question that statement whole heartedly and say that what history lacked when taught to us in schools is the scientific temperament and question things and not accept everything to the face value.

"I am just trying to make sense"

On our recent trip to Switzerland we went to Mt. Titlis and one of the attractions there is an observation deck which is part of a restaurant and it is 50m above the glacier and costs some extra CHF for the same. Of course it becomes free if we spend 100CHF per person. 

While we were looking at the menu at the base we saw another family asking questions to the host and the hostess was explaining it is a deck which takes you 50m above and so on. The guy or mostly the dad was asking questions like what if I just go up and get a 6$ coffee and the hostess was like "you cant make it to the deck", since we had read up we tried to explain to the dude that "its their business model and people pay for it" and the guy turned to us and said "I am just trying to make sense of the cost and trying to justify". 

At that moment, I felt like, "dude, either pay up or leave" you are not the CEO of that hotel, you may not want to pay but others are willing to and hence they have set the price. 

Yes, it did irritate me more for the family was fellow Indian. Don't know from where. 

Technology adaptation in Bali

 For our recent trip to Bali, all the planning was done by Sandhya and I just went as on the tour.

It was a great trip, people were friendly and entry and exit process at airport was smooth and hassle free. There is no tip culture, yet the service is out of this world. I come from India and I can vouch the hospitality in Bali was much better. There is no tipping culture, only experienced once during the whole trip. Of course we stuck to the religious and scenic parts of Bali, Ubud and south Bali.

They are not kidding when they say traffic is bad in Bali, 2 lane roads and lots of tourists and there is no public transport 😊.

Considering the island has 70% population of Hindu’s, but the main diet is pork and meat. They have temples in every household and every village and reserved only for locals. There is no entry for foreigners. One can hire a Balinese and go to the scared areas as their guest.

Believe me, Sandhya managed to book the drivers in Bali through Instagram and WhatsApp. That’s right, the primary form of communication in Bali is WhatsApp and with Apps like Klook one can buy data plans even before landing in Bali and in our case worked seamlessly the whole time.

I used to think Thai food is spicy and Indian food can be made spicy but after tasting Balinese food, I have changed my mind. The spice levels were so high that I could not even put the thing in my mouth without gulping few liters of water.

What amazed me was the amount of technology penetration that has happened in Bali, case in point was the river rafting videos. While we enjoyed the rafts and rapids, there were drones flying at different locations capturing us and also the guide was making pit stops to collect the recordings which were transferred to their servers and downloaded to our phones while we enjoyed the food. I learnt a lot about IOS thanks to Bali trip. Another occasion is the Bali Swing, they have an efficient operation setup with men and women and all photos taken on your mobile and there is no editing and all such but end of the day beautiful pics.

At the end of the day, they are an island blessed with beautiful tropical weather. The island depends on tourism and I think that’s ingrained in the people and making it a perfect travel destination.

Ps: for the first time ever in my life and maybe last time, I stayed at a suite with a name instead of number.

Pps: we didn’t spend our time in party areas of Bali, one tip if I may give you is, if there is plans to visit water falls in Ubud, start as early as possible. Negotiate, negotiate and negotiate.

Dyson service

 I have been owning Dyson Vacuum cleaners for a decade or so now for they are amongst the best in Vacuums out there. And we own 2 of them, one corded and one cordless. Off late our work horse corded one was having issues and I being a "DIY person" I looked up on YouTube and did some cleanup to get performance back or at least I thought so.

A few days later I was told it is still broken or rather not up to mark. Now a quick visual inspection showed few more things broken and it seemed more involved than my simple DIY to replace them let alone finding the required parts.

There were 2 options, spend money and get a new one or see if there is an appliance repair person to fix this. The conservationist in me could not fathom throwing away such a powerful motor.

Thus began the search, I was hoping to find a local mom and pop shop who can repair vacuum cleaners and to my pleasant surprise I found an official Dyson repair shop here in Austin. The reviews seemed encouraging and hence took a chance and did the drive across the river to the shop.

There was another surprise waiting for me when I found 3 other people waiting before me 😊. The service definitely was courteous and cost was also not too much and service was very quick. They even had the spare filters which I couldn’t find anywhere else on the web. All in all a win and win and our beloved Dyson lived to see another day or lived to do more vacuum. 

Aiyyo Shraddha - comedy show

I had seen her reels on YouTube, mostly of her funny takes on tech industry, on Indian middle class family and had seen some of her challenge posts only to have doubts about her stand up comedy ability. I was proved wrong by her on the Friday evening when she stood on the stage here in Austin and performed comedy for a good 2 hours without even taking a sip of water.

When Sandhya told me that Shraddha (Aiyyo Shraddha) is coming and I will book the tickets, I first said yes and expected the whole event not to last more than an hour and on the day of the event we got lined up with 3 other things for our about to graduate middle schooler. But as though it was divine intervention, one after another things fell apart and we were able to go as a family and enjoy one of the best 2 hours of our lives.

Her comedy was so clean and she intertwined all the way past to almost today present with such ease that it was remarkable and for someone like me who grew up in similar background it was totally relatable. More importantly our middle schooler had the best time too, I could hear her burst to laughter almost the whole time.

Listening to her, it was like time and space travel back to my hometown, her ability to intertwine multiple languages from Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and possibly Tulu was mind boggling. As they say, for those 2 hours she owned the stage. The show started sharp on time, I was completely expecting the opposite and had to stand corrected again.

Only grief is that we should have had given her a better welcome meaning a bigger auditorium and may be one more show. I believe she is still touring and if you do get a chance, take my word and go see her in action live on stage. https://www.sominithings.com/

An Engineer by profession and that too E and C (same branch as me) only to blossom out as a world renowned comedian made me question my own view points, I used to hold the view that people should stick with the fields they studied in, maybe they can switch to management. I guess that view point came from the lack mindset coming from India in the 80s and 90s. Anyways that is a discussion for another day.

ps: Daughter had attended another comedy show with Zarna Garg and when asked her opinion, she chose Shraddha hands down.

Dynast in politics

 When I came to America, George W Bush as about to contest against the clinate man and people were calling it as Dynasty in politics. Coming from India (at that time it was the era of Sonia and our man Raga was still not in limelight), I was thinking how can it be a dynasty when son succeeds father, or wife wants to compete in same slot as husband (Clintons). For a dynasty to be called one it has to be multiple generations and not just 1.

Anyways, this post is not about that but about the fact that people in India are equating the same for Indian political landscape and suggesting the Congress control of the party is no different from regional parties where son or daughter tend to run for the office along or after their parents.

I used to share that view point and agree with the same but now that I think about it, our kids learn from what we do on a day to day basis. Example: talking with a friends son, he wanted to do work similar to his dad on some sort of hardware, doctors kids tend to become doctors and Lawyers become one and actors kids try their hand in acting and we all try our best to help our kids in their respective interests. Again example: actors working to launch their kids and Engineers trying to find internship for their kids in the company they are working in and so on.

I had written this draft a while ago and now concluding it, I think with other aspects of life like Engineering or Medicine or any such professional places the number of opportunities are technically unlimited unlike the political landscape where the expansion is almost impossible. 

Sometimes solutions are simple

 The other day I was the vet clinic to drop off our pup for a surgery and it was an early morning (by my standards) drop off and while I was in the line, behind me came a gigantic late model ford truck and since it was a rainy day everybody had headlights on.

This truck the lights were so powerful (maybe they had in high beam) and it was reflecting on the rear view mirror and hurting my eyes. I was almost tempted couple of times to walk out and ask them to turn light off but resisted as it was veterinary clinic and people show up for umpteen different reasons. Besides, I was supposed to leave from there in a couple of minutes.

After a few minutes of this "torture" to my eyes, I realized I could simply fold the mirror towards me and avoid the torture and that's what I did. Easy fix and I did stay there for a few minutes longer than I expected :). 

Democracy India and US

For the first time in my life I got to participate in the democratic process, aka voting. Yes I do regret I never got to vote in my home country. That said, now lets focus on some interesting aspects of democratic process, more importantly difference between the 2 great democracies USA (my adopted country) and India (home country). 

The big difference between the 2 countries that every one knows is that in one we vote for the president and the other we vote for the president directly and in other we vote for the member of parliaments, who then elect the prime minister. 

This much is known to all but the thing that caught me by surprise was the fact that in India, the elected PM and his party has the choice of cabinet members to work with but in USA the president gets to select his cabinet members but almost all other than his chief of staff has to go through senate hearing and need to be confirmed by the senate, albeit simple majority is probably sufficient. Another key difference is the number of cabinet positions are fixed from president to president unlike India where we expand and contract (mostly always expand) based on how many parties are huddled in the coalition.  

In short, the elected leader cannot appoint his own people to work with unless both the senate and house are in control of the president's party. 

If anyone had asked me about the elections in USA before 2020, I would have said 2 things. USA votes for president directly and it is determined by electoral votes and not popular votes, vote in 1 election cycle and I know all the nooks and crannies including what the term Gerrymandering mean :).   

Trace the river

Above pictures, taken from top of a peak in Garner State Park(GSP). Look closely and you can almost trace the path the river is taking flowing through Texas. Want a clue, look for the non green (more like reddish brown) trail in the pics. 

What amazed was that barring a few tens of yards around the river where there are Maples and Oaks tress rest of the area is mostly covered with pointy cedar trees or their relatives. 

The river is Frio river but some reason my old memory has it recorded as Dry Frio river. 

Symbolism in Hindu god depictions

If you are like me, you believe that all the representations of gods in Hinduism have deeper meanings than the mere image or idol they "represent". One such things that came over in the last few days are the images of goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Saraswathi. 

Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity and Saraswathi is the goddess of knowledge and wisdom.  Observing the 2 images above carefully one can observe that goddess Lakshmi is standing

(balancing) on a lotus while goddess Saraswathi is happily seated on a rock in a forest.  

As they say everything is subjective to ones own interpretation, my interpretation is that our ancestors believed in non permanence of wealth while on the other hand believed knowledge is permanent. If I can take a step further, considering lotus (a flower) can barely carry any weight, it is easy to see that our ancestors also thought wealth is a fleeting imagination while knowledge can give rise to new life and is more permanent. 

Conclusion, as my dear Dad always said, "knowledge is power". 

ps: all of this was triggered from Navaratri 2020 :), yes a very auspicious time. 

 

Future Etsy shop owner

Other day it was about 10:00PM and Sandhya informed Avni that tomorrow morning there is a biking adventure planned for it is B's birthday and since it is biking it has to be fairly early in the morning. While Sandhya and me were thinking of what can we gift the birthday person and found an almost new unopened/unread book from our book shelf. Avni had a different idea of her own. 

She asked for an empty glass jar and got down some color papers and glue and within about 20-25 minutes she made this colorful pencil stand as a birthday gift.