Posts

A Cancer upon us

America, we have a cancer.  We had an abnormal person that invaded democracy, and attacked our democratic norms from within.  This person was allowed the highest and most powerful office in the land. An office that could have been used to better peoples lives.  An office that could be used to promote American values abroad.  Instead, we saw this cancer metastasize into all branches of the government. The only treatment for this cancer was oncological surgery by voters, while the patient was ravaged with a pandemic. The good news is that the voters took a big chuck of the tumor out on November, 3rd, 2020.  The voters came out in record numbers and chose to remove the tumor. Yet, with all this, the tumor manages to live.  The tumor lives in the guise of GOP congressmen and senators who won’t stand up to the tumor.  The tumor seems to spread in the guise of white supremacists who don't accept American values.  So, other types of cancer treatment are also warranted.  There’s work still

Immigrants matter

Immigration to North America began with Spanish settlers in the sixteenth century, and French and English settlers in the seventeenth century. For a century before the American Revolution, there was a major wave of free and indentured labor from England and other parts of Europe as well as large-scale importation of slaves from Africa and the Caribbean. Today, one fifth of the country (almost 60 million)  are immigrants or first generation Americans. We, therefore, are a nation made up due to migration. What makes America unique as compared to other countries is that the founding fathers expected that as people migrated into the country, they would add to the moral and economic capital of the growing country. A substantial portion of the Americans are opposed to the continuation of large scale immigration, and want to stop this influx of migrants.  Many of these are old-stock Americans who have all but forgotten their own immigrant ancestors.  Some, distastefully, are recent migrants w

We are an abused nation

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There is a lot on my mind lately. I have veered from abject despair to a painful yearning hope all within the space of a few minutes. This is not a recent occurrence but perhaps has been ongoing for the past 5 years but this phenomenon has been more pronounced over these past 6 months.   This is because all of us are being abused. We are being mentally abused by a person who didn’t qualify to sit in the highest office of the United States. Yet he rules (not leads) in his classic authoritarian manner with no regard for human life. Here are classic signs of an abuser. - Extreme jealousy.  You think he is not jealous of the achievements of President  Obama ? - Possessiveness which leads to adverse control - Unpredictability which confuses the  abused - A bad temper with verbal abuse . We all know what happens to the few members of the GOP that dare raise their concerns about him.  They suffer his abuse.  This is what happened to Flake  and Sanford   and most tragically, McCain - Antiquate

COVID - the saga continues

2020 has been a long year, and just about a quarter of it has passed.  So much has happened this year.  We are blessed that we are still able to connect and find our new normal, as there are many who don't or can't. It was surreal.  I, like many others, didn't think much of the news of the virus in China.  A friend of ours was supposed to go to China early in February, and they did call off their trip.  That, I thought would be the extent to which we would be affected.  I don't remember a panic during the previous epidemics like SARs, MERs, and H1N1 but I do remember being aware.  I do remember washing hands with more frequency (especially during the H1N1 epidemic).  But that was it.  My son did contract the H1N1 virus, but a prescribed round of TamiFlu was all it took to recover.  Within 2 days of starting on his prescription he was back to normal, and just had to finish his dosage.  It was February.  Wuhan was on the other side of the world.  There were just a ha

The Assamese Nepal Trip 2019

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Ne(w)pals! We were supposed to go to Assam.  We were about 11 of us that had agreed to go on the trip.  The destination had been chosen a year ago when the SMHS (Stella Maris High School) trippies went to Vietnam (A trip I was, unfortunately, not able to join).  Plans were set, and then suddenly we were going to Nepal instead. Poonam and Reena had spearheaded the trip itinerary and worked hard along with Subbu to secure the travel arrangements with her agent.  Sangu stepped in and closed the circle by ensuring flight tickets were purchased etc. Pretty soon it was April and time for me to travel to India!  It was going to be a short trip for me to visit and spend a few days with my in-laws, a few days with my father and most importantly a few days with my tripping SMHS friends.  Unlike the previous  trip , I didn't have any apprehension or trepidation.  This time it was pure excitement.  Three of the trippies were girls I had traveled with to Goa.  Three of them had traveled

Six degrees of 'WhatsApp'ing

In this day and age of some instant messaging Apps can surely be found on almost all mobile devices. People have adapted to using one or more apps like WhatsApp, GroupMe, Viber, WeChat or Snapchat, etc. WhatsApp is an instant messaging leader claiming usage in 109 countries (over 55% of the world).  It is definitely the most popular instant messaging App in India.  It makes for an easy way to connect with people as it allows for text, group, and video chats.  It also allows for easy forwarding of messages to various people and groups. Which brings me to the topic of this blog... WhatsApp forwards. It was November 8th, 2016.  Namo (the prime minister of India) had just demonetized Indian currency for the 500 and 1000 notes.  This by itself was newsworthy but what surprised me were the abundance of memes that started making their way quickly into our social spheres starting from pictures that showed the 500 rupee note as toilet paper or the 1000 rupee note as a peanut snack cone

Escape To Goa

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Trying something different... This time, my friend, Sangeetha Menon's, beautiful commentary is interspersed with mine! Here's the blog Thank you for reading.