The modern human race never ceases to amaze me. I just read an article in the Times of India titled “Strut around in girlfriend fashion”. The article talks about the latest fashion around the globe being men wearing women’s attire. WTF?
Apparently, this isn’t new and has been sprouting around for years now but not with so much sincerity as this time around. Proof (as per the story) is Cristiano Ronaldo (for the uninitiated - the world’s highest paid footballer) recently spotted in hot pants, with pink fresh flowers in his hair and carrying a clutch.
In hindsight, it’s been in the making with the evolution of the metrosexual male and his male purse, manicure/pedicure and fairness creams among other things. Clearly, this new fashion dimension is being spearheaded by the proven alpha male and isn’t the doing of gay or bisexual humans. Also it isn’t the alpha male in his childhood cross dressing either, this is serious!
I have no problem with the evolution of the male species, but my curiosity gets the better of me to question how we got here. While I’m no authority on human evolution and changing needs, I do believe our vanity is playing up more, as a result of the fast and competitive life we live today and our need to stand out. If my assessment was correct, then Cristiano doing something like doesn’t make sense as he doesn’t need to stand out! Or does he? Maybe since he isn’t scoring as frequently to keep him in the news maybe this does
Whatever the answer, I wouldn’t be surprised if I see men wearing dresses next.There is absolutely nothing that is beyond us and let know one ever tell you otherwise.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Poker Mania hits town
The latest fad in town seems to be Poker. Though its been around for a few years now, its become more mainstream this diwali season. All the purposeful gamblers that have a PHD in flash (aka teen patti) are now doing Poker to up their intellect further. The fad is so strong that people are willing to gamble away while learning the game as against first learning and then gambling. The logic seems to be if I put my money on the table my brain will grasp the game faster - WTF??
That said, I have to admit the game is interesting! Even I'm somehwat addicted to it, only difference being I have chosen the online world to learn the game for free and figure out the moves. Infact I just spent the last two hours playing away merrily. During this time I played on two tables, lost mostly on the first but raked it in on the second. I wouldnt attribute the raking it in to a sudden burst of luck but the fact I landed on a table where people would just go all in on nothing :) I'm not complaining but just wondering if I were to ever gamble away in real life would I be blessed enough to find a similar table! The answer is NO. But what the heck I'm sure post Diwali my friends will be willing to play at lower stakes so that I can test my intellect as well.
That said, I have to admit the game is interesting! Even I'm somehwat addicted to it, only difference being I have chosen the online world to learn the game for free and figure out the moves. Infact I just spent the last two hours playing away merrily. During this time I played on two tables, lost mostly on the first but raked it in on the second. I wouldnt attribute the raking it in to a sudden burst of luck but the fact I landed on a table where people would just go all in on nothing :) I'm not complaining but just wondering if I were to ever gamble away in real life would I be blessed enough to find a similar table! The answer is NO. But what the heck I'm sure post Diwali my friends will be willing to play at lower stakes so that I can test my intellect as well.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
My American Expedition
I’m still a bit spaced out post my US visit. I guess flying between the coasts did me in. While the sleep cycle is fine, I’m crashing out a bit too early for my liking and the afternoon naps are back after two decades, as well. The afternoon naps are fun though I have to admit!
Getting back to my US visit, it was fantastic. Not because it’s a great country but because it’s a promise fulfilled to me by me. I had told myself that I will go to the US only when I get my sabbatical or quit my job for a break. While the former didn’t happen the latter I made happen and boy was it worth it – no stress of what I might have to come back to made the entire experience even more exhilarating.
Outside of all the fun, I made a few observations about the country and its people that both pleasantly surprised and disappointed me. Below are a few of these.
For starters, the underlying pride that regular citizens have in being ‘American’ is pretty apparent to an outsider – they love to just consume as if it’s a necessity; hoist US flags on construction cranes and on every 10th building in NYC; and stand-up for what they believe in and scream their guts out at town halls (check out CNN for one of the town halls on this entire health legislation that’s being debated currently) among others. The point isn’t whether it right or wrong or reflects of narcissism at times, but the general coherence in their pride on belonging to that country. We Indians could learn a bit more about this daily sense of pride, which comes to the fore mostly post a terrible tragedy or media harping about how the country is being unfairly targeted by its neighbours or the developed world.
Two other things that stood out for me were the general disposition of the law to protect every individual and what all ones taxes can do for them – free education and health insurance!! It seems to work the other way round in India in both cases. Neither is human life valued nor does an honest citizen’s taxes take him anywhere but down in his societal status!
The good said, what disappointed me immensely was the wastage in abundance in two specific areas – energy and food; and their services culture, in general.
I don’t understand why the skyscrapers have to be lit all night or for that matter cars need to have headlights on during the day? I won’t bother getting into what happens within the house. I also don’t understand why the general meal portions are so huge. You can tell me Americans have big appetites, in which case I would argue the need to have calories mentioned against every dish on the menu? So if someone generally has a big appetite they love their food period! Moreover the average American in NYC or LA, going by their waste lines, didn’t seem like they had large appetites.
I can only imagine what all that energy and food saved would do for some of the poorer African countries.
Moreover, the audacity of the Americans to pressurize India to commit to carbon emissions targets!! It’s a case of we screwed up the environment, but you control your emissions because we can’t control our consumption. WTF???
In the area of ‘services’, my experience was limited to the airlines (they suck big time), hotels and general shopping. While people employed in these sectors were extremely courteous and polite, they seemed to lack the skill to go the extra mile for customer delight! It existed in the restaurants/bars/clubs though, which would only make me assume that it’s linked to their tip or maybe I was in high spirits In comparison, the Indian airline and hospitality sectors are fantastic. I was always told that but to experience it first hand was a different feeling altogether.
So I realize while there are things that India needs to emulate from the US such as focus on basic necessities - education and healthcare; there are loads they can learn from us as well. Prime amongst that list is the ability to exercise ‘restraint’, which we as Indians sometimes over do but makes our way of life more appealing in today’s ecological environment. One could argue the ‘restraint’ in our case is due to economic and societal pressures, but even when we manage to overcome them we don’t let that virtue slip away!
I guess a bit of discussion on ‘values’ at some inter country bilateral discussion wouldn’t be that bad a thing. It doesn’t have to always be about trade!
Getting back to my US visit, it was fantastic. Not because it’s a great country but because it’s a promise fulfilled to me by me. I had told myself that I will go to the US only when I get my sabbatical or quit my job for a break. While the former didn’t happen the latter I made happen and boy was it worth it – no stress of what I might have to come back to made the entire experience even more exhilarating.
Outside of all the fun, I made a few observations about the country and its people that both pleasantly surprised and disappointed me. Below are a few of these.
For starters, the underlying pride that regular citizens have in being ‘American’ is pretty apparent to an outsider – they love to just consume as if it’s a necessity; hoist US flags on construction cranes and on every 10th building in NYC; and stand-up for what they believe in and scream their guts out at town halls (check out CNN for one of the town halls on this entire health legislation that’s being debated currently) among others. The point isn’t whether it right or wrong or reflects of narcissism at times, but the general coherence in their pride on belonging to that country. We Indians could learn a bit more about this daily sense of pride, which comes to the fore mostly post a terrible tragedy or media harping about how the country is being unfairly targeted by its neighbours or the developed world.
Two other things that stood out for me were the general disposition of the law to protect every individual and what all ones taxes can do for them – free education and health insurance!! It seems to work the other way round in India in both cases. Neither is human life valued nor does an honest citizen’s taxes take him anywhere but down in his societal status!
The good said, what disappointed me immensely was the wastage in abundance in two specific areas – energy and food; and their services culture, in general.
I don’t understand why the skyscrapers have to be lit all night or for that matter cars need to have headlights on during the day? I won’t bother getting into what happens within the house. I also don’t understand why the general meal portions are so huge. You can tell me Americans have big appetites, in which case I would argue the need to have calories mentioned against every dish on the menu? So if someone generally has a big appetite they love their food period! Moreover the average American in NYC or LA, going by their waste lines, didn’t seem like they had large appetites.
I can only imagine what all that energy and food saved would do for some of the poorer African countries.
Moreover, the audacity of the Americans to pressurize India to commit to carbon emissions targets!! It’s a case of we screwed up the environment, but you control your emissions because we can’t control our consumption. WTF???
In the area of ‘services’, my experience was limited to the airlines (they suck big time), hotels and general shopping. While people employed in these sectors were extremely courteous and polite, they seemed to lack the skill to go the extra mile for customer delight! It existed in the restaurants/bars/clubs though, which would only make me assume that it’s linked to their tip or maybe I was in high spirits In comparison, the Indian airline and hospitality sectors are fantastic. I was always told that but to experience it first hand was a different feeling altogether.
So I realize while there are things that India needs to emulate from the US such as focus on basic necessities - education and healthcare; there are loads they can learn from us as well. Prime amongst that list is the ability to exercise ‘restraint’, which we as Indians sometimes over do but makes our way of life more appealing in today’s ecological environment. One could argue the ‘restraint’ in our case is due to economic and societal pressures, but even when we manage to overcome them we don’t let that virtue slip away!
I guess a bit of discussion on ‘values’ at some inter country bilateral discussion wouldn’t be that bad a thing. It doesn’t have to always be about trade!
The challenges of renewing a domain name for a non techie!
It's finally good to have my blog online after six months. I'm not a techie (and I’m sure they will have a good laugh if they ever read this piece) but I didn’t fathom trying to keep your domain could be this challenging. Since I hadn't renewed my domain it expired somewhere towards the end of Feb. Fair enough! But how was I to know it was expiring? I expected the domain registration company to drop me a reminder mail but that never happened. Then began the arduous process of figuring out who my registrar was and how I could renew it again. While I did find my registrar for some strange reason I couldn’t renew it as the expiry was in grace period or some BS! In the last week it finally started showing up as domain available and I bought it through an Indian registrar this time. Too my surprise domain registration through a local registrar is more costly than going through an international registrar. Anyways, I still went ahead as I could call the local company if help was needed.
Then began the painful process of connecting my blog archive hosted at blogspot to the renewed domain (when I had purchased the custom domain through blogspot last time it was automatically configured). After a few days of reading the ever so simple (so they claim!) google instructions and speaking to a customer service agent at my local registrar's I gave up. Finally, my brother in law (a techie at heart not by profession) came to my rescue and got them synced up somewhat. Some more work is still required to get my domain name without the blogspot in it but atleast the blog is online again :-).
Then began the painful process of connecting my blog archive hosted at blogspot to the renewed domain (when I had purchased the custom domain through blogspot last time it was automatically configured). After a few days of reading the ever so simple (so they claim!) google instructions and speaking to a customer service agent at my local registrar's I gave up. Finally, my brother in law (a techie at heart not by profession) came to my rescue and got them synced up somewhat. Some more work is still required to get my domain name without the blogspot in it but atleast the blog is online again :-).
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