Dhoom: 2

I just saw one of the worst hindi movies ever called Dhoom2. Man was it lame. The only redeeming feature was Hrithik Roshan, which is why I saw the movie in the first place. I saw Jodha Akbar a while ago and thought Hrithik had done a good job only to be conned into seeing this movie. Abhishekh Bachan looks like a monkey, especially when he drives his bike, he looks like a big orangutan sitting on a vehicle. I wonder why in the world Aishwarya Rai married this loser of a guy. What a worthless movie man.

Cultural events

When I look back at my school years, I wonder what I enjoyed the most. And it was the cultural events hands down. If there is anything I am proud of accomplishing, it is the fact that I took part in SO many events. I took part in Adzap, music competitions, dance competitions, drawing competitions, fashion shows, Rangoli, collage, dumb charades [somebody gently pointed to me a while ago that I had this typed as "dum charades", quite fitting :)))] ..... Name it and I did it. I feel so happy that I utilized every single opportunity I had. Of course, I had my parent's support in everything I did. They were always there to encourage me and pay for my expenses :)) If I ever have kids, they will go to every cultural event whether they do well in school or not :)) Ours was a girls school because of which we had the freedom to literally do whatever we wanted. I cannot ever forget how we danced like maniacs in sarees. I remember once when we were dancing, a woman took me aside and asked me how my saree hadn't fallen off after all the crazy dancing I was doing :)) Rhapsody was so much fun. Hmmm.... I wish I could all of that again. :((

OK.. sorry.

My previous post was vitriolic. I am sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings. Especially sorry to this friend who is dear to me. At work, she is the one who listens to all my ramblings and here I am dissing her beliefs. I know she does not read this blog or even know of its existence. Yet, I am sorry if you ever read this. I respect this friend of mine because her beliefs are polar opposite to mine and yet she never imposes her ideas on me. She has strong convictions but will never try to convince me that mine are faulty. She is the only person with whom I can talk for hours together and still not get into an argument with. Thank you for putting up with me and my caustic statements. :)) Peace.

I mean.. come on!!!!

[All pictures taken from http://www.durangobill.com/Creationism.html]


I am EXTREMELY angry as I write this blog. I just watched a video of some women arguing about creationism and Darwinism on "The View" and it drove me NUTS!!!! Sherri and Elizabeth Hasselbeck are so fu****g ignorant, it is not even funny. These women do not believe in Darwin and think God created this world. I am willing to bet all my money on the fact that neither of these women truly understand Darwinism. They just believe in one book, "The Bible". And EVERYTHING else that contradicts this "sacred" writing is bullshit. Ask these women to describe what they think evolution is and they are going to stammer and stutter. They are a freaking disgrace to women and society. And the worst aspect of this is that, it is women like these that homeschool their kids. I am not against homeschooling but am mighty suspicious that most of these people have ulterior motives. Honestly, I felt like punching Elizabeth's and Sherri's face. I fail to comprehend how religion and science got so mixed up in this country. I do definitely understand the need for prayer and such. Sometimes when you feel out of control, it is comforting to know that there is a superior being that can handle the situation. But do these people actually believe that there is a guy up there sitting in the clouds making children??? That is scary s**t. I am from a so called "third world" country and in my "third world" country, if you hear people dissing science, trust me, you will be ostracized. People in India might do things that contradict science and most of them don't even understand that their actions imply that, but no one would ever, ever diss science. I am not saying one shouldn't question science, questioning itself is one of the most important aspects of science but so is research. There is a question and there is an answer, but THERE IS RESEARCH HAPPENING IN BETWEEN. You can't just pull stuff out of your ass and expect to convince people. Where is the evidence? These people will publish stuff in some unknown religious journal and will claim it is science. And then when you tell them the journal has no impact factor, they will say, "Ahh.. all these other journals are run by scientists who are together on a conspiracy and therefore don't count." My foot they don't count. One can virtually concoct any number of conspiracy theories to wriggle out of situations but it is people who don't have any facts to back their claim that will come up with such excuses. So please spare me. If I ever see one of these creationists stepping into my house again, I swear I am going to break their face.

An ode to a lost loved one.......

Today we lost a valuable member of our family. Our dear dear driver Ganapathy. Though he did drive our cars for a living, he was far more than a driver to us. He was like an uncle to my brother and me, a younger brother to my dad, a son to my grandparents. Today, he passed away at the age of 42 leaving behind a young wife, an infant child and 2 young children.

I remember Ganapathy as this warm young person who had an eternal smile and referred to me as "papa". He was around when I first learned to ride my bicycle and was around to take me to my first swimming lessons. He was ever happy to take my grandfather to the beach and my grandmother to her gazillion temples. But today, he isn't around to either teach his youngest child to ride a bike or to teach her the alphabet. He was so proud to drive me around everywhere and eventually taught me to drive. One day, on the pretense of taking me shopping, he actually took me to the beach to let me drive our car. I was but only 14- 15 then and did not have a license. Being a rather clumsy driver, I attracted a cop's attention by driving on the wrong side of the road. Ganapathy so tactfully got me out of the sticky situation by claiming that I was a lawyer's daughter and spared me a good spanking. He saved my skin more than once and today I am unable to even see his face as he is being buried in some far away town in India.

Our hearts bleed. Ganapathy, you were a part of our family. You were there to help my grandfather move during his last few years and you were there to carry our grandmother when she was dying. You so skillfully lifted my uncle when he was immobile and today we aren't around to pay our last respects. Sorry!! We miss you!!!

Everyday ignoramuses.

I was conversing with a couple of visitors we had form Netherlands the other day. One of them is originally from Africa and my curiosity led me to ask her about her country. Here's the conversation.

I: Where in Africa are you from?
Visitor: Oh, I am from Zimbabwe. It is a small country in ..
I: Oh,please. You do not have to tell me where Zimbabwe is! Of course I know. And, you guys have a cricket team don't you? I am sure that makes every Indian well aware of your country.
Visitor: [Laughs] Well, we used to have a cricket team. Sorry for trying to explain the location of my country but many people in Europe think Africa is one BIG country!
I: Are you kidding me?
Visitor: No. Just the other day, I had this person ask me if I knew his friend John from Ghana!
I: No kidding.
Visitor: No seriously, they do not understand that Ghana is a totally different country. How am I supposed to know this John?
I: Oh, well, at least this person did not live in Africa. When I was in grad school and I told my friend I was visiting New Mexico, she asked me if I needed a visa. And this was not even an immigrant. She was a white American who got her degree in engg from Urbana-Champaign and her Masters from Indiana.
Visitor: Seriously??
I: Yeah!!!

Auto bailout

The only compelling reason would be to save the jobs of thousands of people. But workers losing their jobs seems inevitable anyway if these companies don't mend their ways. Time after time, we have been warned about global warming and the depleting oil resources. And what do these companies do? They churn more and more SUVs and minivans. Did they actually think people would continue to buy them despite the soaring gas prices? Now that all those hummers are in parking lots with huge "FOR SALE" signs printed on them, these automakers want a bailout. I fail to understand the logic behind some of the solutions suggested to cut US dependence on foreign oil. "Drill baby drill", "we need to ask Saudi Arabia to produce more oil". Why do right wingers have this notion that oil is a never-ending resource? Don't they see that no matter what they do, they are finally going to run out of oil and will be forced to move to alternate sources of energy? And why are they bent upon destroying other life forms before they destroy earth? It is not rocket science you know? When you run out of something, you switch to a better, viable option.

I hate the fact that oil prices are now at an all time low. I say, jack the prices up so high maybe 10$ a gallon so that these morons that drive SUVs and mini trucks are forced to sell their monstrosities. And then take the money away from oil companies and use that to build infrastructure. Good public transportation is what we need now. We also need to invest in technology that will help transmit energy generated by windmills and such. Transmitting and storing this energy seems to be the stumbling block.Apparently, North Dakota alone could supply one third of the country's energy if there were an efficient way to transport the energy to where it's needed.

According to Michael Moore, who drives a Chrysler(BTW, why is he driving a Chrysler? Shouldn't he be driving a hybrid? A quick Google search only comes up with Chrysler Aspen hybrid 2009, so I assume it is not out yet.),
you could buy ALL the common shares of stock in General Motors for less than $3 billion while they want $25 billion. Now that surely seems like a good deal! Even I, the dumbest person when it comes to money can see the gaping hole in this arrangement. But the dems give white-house an ultimatum. In my "expert" opinion, there needs to be a bailout. What we need to do is to bailout on the automakers as opposed to bail them out.