Fidgety Foots

Man marries, impregnates a minor, court blesses.

This is a red letter day for pedophiles - license to coerce/wheedle/kidnap, marry and get off scot-free. The precedent for this ruling was the case where a 13 year old girl was handed over to the custody of her husband. Statuatory rape, anyone?

With all the activity around raising and enforcing child protection laws, the stupid judge had to go shoot our nation in the foot.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/02/22/mitra-zoho-india-tech-inter-cx_sm_0222mitra.html

Angry fight clouds sleep.
Clear bodies forgive the dark,
wake us, intertwined.

Haiku - a three line, 5-7-5 syllabled composition. Here’s a lovely Nat Geo article on the life and works of Matsuo Basho, poet, student, traveler and creator of haiku.

Former poet laureate Robert Hass paraphrases Basho this way: “Avoid adjectives of scale, you will love the world more and desire it less.”

Our travelogues have been long neglected. Here’s a quick update.

Hawaii:

We went to Kauai in February (14th-18th). Too short - if you’re ever going to Hawaii, go for at least a week, otherwise you’ll come away dissatisfied.

Kauai was known to the Polynesians as the healing island, and so it is. There’s something about the place that makes normally harried people stop, breathe and say hello.

It was a great trip - here are the highlights for me.

1. The land: Sunil dubbed Kauai “keralafornia”…a combo of Kerala and California. It had palm and deciduous trees with broad leaves as well as coastal pines (coastal pines were confused by the lack of snow and grew branches that pointed to the sky). The island was born of volcanic activity, so was created in isolation. The soil is bright red in sharp contrast to the green that carpets the island. Kauai’s volcanic crater is deep and lush with waterfalls striping its walls.
2. The Pacific: I know what you’re going to say - we have the pacific right by us in California. Not like this, temperamental, intolerant and scary. When we were there, the surf was unseasonably high, and we got to see 20 foot waves smack into each other from 3 different directions. Check out the sunset on Ke’e beach where the waves obfuscate the sun at points. We got to see the sunrise almost every morning, and that was breathtaking.
3. Connecting with random strangers: We ended up meeting and chatting with really interesting people, from a book store clerk (who gave us reading suggestions and 10% off), to a whale lover (who taught us about humpback whales and agreed about the unworthiness of humans in general), to vacationing retirees.

The pics of our trip are here - http://picasaweb.google.com/sunilsc/Kauai2008/

Tahoe trip:

Went to Tahoe last weekend for a mini ski vacation. There was fresh powder on the ground and sunshine in the air….lovely combination. We snowshoed one day, skied another.

Pics are at http://picasaweb.google.com/sunilsc/TahoeTripMarch2008

Indian chefs aim for record with 13-tonne biryani. 

After the biriyani was weighed, it went to city orphanages.

Gypsy sent me a message in a bottle yesterday.

Rules:
You are about to send a virtual message In a Bottle across the Blog Ocean. Leave a message on the sand or in the bottle. Write anything you wish. Be a pirate or a poet. Serious or silly. Anonymous or not. What message would you like to send out to the universe?

1. Compose a message to place in your virtual bottle.
2. Click the image below to open it in another window. Right-click & save the image to your local drive.

3. Use a graphics application of your choice to place the message on the picture.
4. Post the Message In a Bottle entry and your edited image on your blog along with these rules.
5. Tag a minimum of 5 bloggers - or your entire blogroll - to do the same. Notify them of the tag.

So now it’s my turn. I stare long and hard at the pic, but nothing wise, witty or funny comes (GB’s standing at my elbow dropping gems meanwhile). Anyway, I essay, and here’s my essay.

Now I tag GB, Meeta, Vindo, Sarita and Sunil. Avast!

I personally dont do it. But let me back up here a minute and explain why I feel it necessary to vent here. I take public transportation to work sometimes and it involves a train and bus ride. I typically find a seat on both. Today on the bus which was full and more crowded than usual, a dude with a young, perfectly healthy lady gets on the bus and finds that there is only standing room. The guy (I think he was trying to impress her) starts sighing about how on the east coast men are actually forced by the public to give up their seats for ladies while in the Bay area men continue to sit down. My immediate reaction was, “Boy, men (or the public) on the east coast must really think that women are too weak to stand for any period of time”.

There are numerous instances when I give up my seat for an old or invalid person or even people holding babies, whether they be men or women, but never for someone just because of their gender. I mean how insulting is it in this age, when we consider women to be equal to if not better in certain aspects than men, to think that a lady needs the help of a man to get through a train or bus ride? Chivalry is one thing, but I dont buy into this notion that a woman has the right to a seat anymore than a man does just because of her gender. We have women competing successfully against decades of barriers and glass ceilings, I dont think they need any favors from chauvinistic boors who seem to still believe in the concept of the “weaker sex”.

On the radio this morning, they aired a Clinton supporter vs Obama supporter face-off. Since the candidates agree on most issues, the debates have degenerated to name-calling and hair-pulling.

The Obamite said that he had more charisma than Clinton. The Clintonian responded “How is charisma going to help govern? How is charisma going to help foreign policy? In the debacle that we are in now, we’re a mess in foreign policy.”

It’ll do plenty. The American President is the face of the country. At this moment, people abroad imagine USA as a larder stocked from floor to ceiling with Bush-cans. It makes it particularly hard for me as an expat - while I’m in the US I’m constantly railing against the government, in India I’m defending the American people from the same criticism. Why? Because of this Bush-clone image of the American public (I don’t blame them - I would be mad if 300 million people mispronounced ‘nuclear’ and thought I hated them because they were free).

Serious damage control needed here. Charisma, anyone?

Valentine’s day annoys me. For the past month media has bombarded me with songs, ads, analysis, opinions and survival tips on looooove. Sweethearts are feeling the pressure - bring home diamonds, chocolates or flowers or forever be doubted.

Sad. A complex, powerful and mystifying force has been reduced to a Hallmark holiday, an item on a shopping list. It’s Valentine’s day, so we must love. Gah! No, I say, I will boycott this day.

Then India, land of democracy and tolerance gently persuaded me to rethink. How? With articles like this one, and pictures like this one. Now I suddenly want to participate in the muaah muaaah. Break out the condoms, purse your lips and let’s honor St. Valentine.

Gah! Ok, ok, deep breaths…
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

For someone who can’t vote I have strong opinions on the election outcome.

I want Obama to win. He and Hillary see eye to eye on issues, so there’s not much to choose between them there. But he’s charismatic, not Caucasian and will do better at re-gathering the goodwill that the US lost under Dubya Nukular Bush. He hasn’t run on old money - all his funds are from small contributions by supporters (they raised 3 million on the internet today!). Hillary has run her campaign from behind Bill.

So - go OBAMA!

On the republican side, I like McCain’s stance on the war. I heart Huckabee for campaigning with no funds at all (he gets people to come to rallies by playing his guitar !) and looking like Kevin Spacey. Repulsive Romney…well repulses.

Unfortunately ‘Republican’ has been corrupted to mean narrow minded, anti-immigration, anti-abortion, homophobic, Hummer owners. The core republican values are worthier than that - fiscally responsible, libertarian, thoughtful…I could be that! But not until the crazies leave the party.

And of course, not until I can vote…