Principia Unlogica

Some snapshots of the impressions India has left on me... Its your own country. You belong. And yet sometimes, people feel very different and you miss the place you call home. There is something funny about the government installing a reverse-osmosis filter at Mysore Palace for visitors. While its very nice of them, doesn't it amount to an admission that government supplied water is non-potable? Dunno, weird. Jaipur has banned plastic bags completely, without much ado. And they are pretty nonchalant about it. Other cities charge for plastic bags, thus reducing their usage. Things get done here without much back-patting and ado. If a film star has an affair with a lady co-star, and violently beats up his wife over it, the producers association bans the lady co-star for the next ten years. Speechless. Bangalore, Pune is full of youngsters. You can easily feel old. Jaipur is the opposite. Ads actually make sense. Even kiddo gets them. Thousand rupees is mere pocket change. Bollywood a...

Learning Python is fun. A lot of fun, reading about new things, and trying them out. And enjoying all the new revelations as they dawn upon me... yeah, usually things don't strike me, they dawn upon me gradually. But its "Yippeeeee" There was a time in Purdue when I took an operating systems course with heavy project load without ever having programmed in C before, without ever having seen a Unix system before. Starting my project I sat before the computer wondering just where to write the program in a terminal till someone came by and said - just use vi - as if I was pondering on an editor choice. What he didn't know was, I didn't know what vi was or meant, or how to open it, or anything about it till I saw him type vi at the prompt and open an editor. Wow, that was something colossally stupid. While my peers were wrangling through OS concepts in the project, I was grappling with the very basics. I remember compiling my first ever program. The compiler spewed li...

I love food... I mean really well prepared food. I love to cook, love to feed people and love to eat at good restaurants. I am hungry. All I can think of is crispy bread loaf with a pat of european sweet butter, rich luscious strawberries, butterfly pasta in wine based white sauce with parmesan cheese, a nice porto, a dark chocolate hazelnut mousse, the paneer and potatoes in a creamy sauce of malai koftas, spicy thin poha chivda with onions and dhaniya, surali wadi with lots of tadka, malai lassi, butter sauteed mushrooms, ghee soaked puran poli, soft rasmalai... Thats living!

Fasting is good. It makes you appreciate what hunger feels like. And makes you appreciate food and having it. Whenever a desi mom starts talking about her kid's food habits, weight and likes, I am gripped by a firm desire to disappear. Somehow, there is a competition in proving whose kid is the worst in his eating habits, lowest on weight charts and finicky in food likings. It makes me think of malnourished children. Of the broken and scarred children in war zones trying to sort through the war atrocities they have witnessed before even being aware of lack of food that is killing them. I was listening to a talk on NPR of a Medicins Sans Frontieres nurse who was describing her experience in Sudan - of how they help mothers who walk in with children who barely can move, how they have kids as young as four year olds stumble into their clinic - alone. I don't know what I can do beyond feel the anguish? And maybe do some monetary contributions. Maybe this is the only time I find mys...

Umm... lets see, ... I made a nice cake on Atul's birthday. I know I am saying this on my blog, but all the biased and coerced opinions aside, it really was a decent cake. And wine soaked too... now what more could you ask for? ;) Cake ... I have decided to support Sarah Palin. It doesnt matter a fig whom I support, so why bother my head about the policies and issues? Whoever comes there is going to squeeze us for taxes and kick us for immigration. I'd rather entertain myself for chick value and real gossip while I can. ... I finally got around to buying a world map. Took me ten years to get around to buying it in US (see my shopping skills?). Interesting observation: Iran shares a very long border with Afghanistan. I mean I knew that it shared a border, but did not know it was so long. Now that explains a lot of policitcs, doesn't it? ... Its Karwa Chauth today. Fasting is something I can handle quite well, especially if it promises some improvement in dear hubby (now who...