East west reversal syndrome!!

US and Europe

-People avoiding pizzas and fast food joints
-Making health insurance affordable and coverage on preexisting conditions
-Going green on all sectors
-Dumping gas guzzlers like Hummer
-Planned urbanization
-Avoiding pesticides and hormones, promoting organic and vegan, trans fat regulations.
-fighting childhood obesity and diabetes

India

-Fast food joints growing at a rate of 45 to 50 %
-Insurance companies competing for their slice of pie and boosting the health care costs
-Major part of energy needs is met by utilizing fossil fuels.
-Hummer going to Asia and similarly other high end cars
-Chaotic infrastructure development lacking vision.
-Fertilizer and chemical giants pumping their products to Asian market place
-As per WHO, India will lead childhood obesity by 2025

There is much more we can talk about…

With growing energy needs, poor infrastructure, carbon emission rates, over population with a growth rate of more than 1.3 % and formation of economic tiers with steep variances..

Can India still maintain its 7 to 9 % growth in the future?

India becoming a super power..Will that just be a dream?

All the ‘REAL’ dreamers please stand up!!

Being an expatriate..

Alien in the homeland and foreigner in the new land, that is the life of being an expatriate.
Learned new cultures, still thinking about the old ones and always trying to pick the right ones..
Life made up by amalgamation of values created by sheer personal judgments.
Trying to keep ourselves happy; some times by feeding lies to the soul to make sure we are not feeling guilty.
Always dreamed of a simple life, working just to meet the daily needs and here we are...
Living the life of an expatriate, it’s a strange feeling for every one, if you think about it even my best friend was a stranger once.
Standing in the middle of this maddening rush, we are forced to believe strange could be the next best.

Priceless treasures...

There are some moments in every one's life which awakens the body and mind, gives goose bumps just by the mere thought about it and makes us long to experience that again and again.

Moments that free our soul and gets us drenched into that sublime pool of bliss.

Life in Far East

1.Wake up to the sound of crowing rooster, wipe of my eyes and put on a lungi, enjoy the mild chill, clean up the dew drops from the cycle seat, listen to the soothing suprabhatham from far, ride a bicycle to the nearest teashop, enjoy a nice conversation with the locals and savor a medium tea with 'kadi'

2. Reading the news paper, sitting in the veranda with occasional talking to the neighbors walking past and smell of breakfast lingering from chimney.

3. Family tea time in the evening in the kitchen, sitting on the door threshold gazing at the backyard and gossiping about relatives while mom cooks.

4. Enjoying a nice cutlet and coffee from Indian Coffee House at Sanghumukham with my love, watching the waves, fishermen and people in general.

5. Taking a walk in the museum gardens with my partner, biting on some peanuts and later watching a cultural event in nishagandhi.

Life in West

1. Cuddling my love on a Saturday morning and be half asleep dreaming about the life we have treaded so far and enjoy the togetherness.

2. Morning trip to San Francisco, watching the ocean, early birds, enjoy a cup of latte, clicking the perfect city life and walking around the city.

3. After a busy day at work, winding down on a Friday evening with few friends, enjoying a good glass of red and sharing the joy.

4. Enjoying a rainy SF noon drinking a bowl of hot soup and watching the pouring rain and a soaked up downtown.

5. After sleepless nights in Vegas, playing a round of blackjack at 4.00 in the morning

The Dark Continent gets darker with Darfur...

Just a background for the one’s who are unaware...

Sudan has been a battleground for different ethnic groups, warlords and the government militia for quite a long time. Darfur, which is in the western part of Sudan caught media attention from 2003 when the President Omar Al-Bashir and his military started targeting non Arabic ethnic groups with in the country.

400,000 people were suspected to be killed in Darfur alone because of genocide, malnutrition, epidemics and other illness. Peace keeping forces and humanitarians across the globe has been screaming for help for the last 4 years. “Surprisingly” or “Interestingly” I don’t see any action apart from non profit organizations who take all the risks to go to Kenya and Chad to help the refugees.

I can’t comment on the situation in Sudan as an insider, but it is hard to disregard what is happening to the world. As an outsider who relies on the information from the media, I still couldn’t believe why the world had to wait for 4 years to act? Didn’t we make the same mistake in Rwanda and Cambodia?

As we all know UN is not capable of taking any actions unless the permanent members support. We can still blame Russia and China for providing arms to Al-Bashir and think about what could be the reason for such an act? Is it because of the money in the arms trade or another attempt to rule and exploit an Oil rich country? US is not in a position to get into the real issues demanding attention, as it has to fight its own wars in multiple fronts within the country and outside the country including a worsening economy and a much debated war on Iraq.

This is one of the instances where UN should show its true soul and help the deprived poor nations. These people are impoverished not in terms of money, which is their least of the concerns. They lack primary healthcare, housing, water, and food. We can see Neanderthal era where people live in caves, use trees for shade, and walks miles on desert to get water from only available fresh water source. We are sure that diplomacy and International criminal court is not helping to bring Al-Bashir to the justice. Are we waiting for more proof on genocide and bring up the death count to another 100,000 more? Doctors and humanitarians cannot visit Darfur now because of Visa denials and kidnapping of aid workers. Doesn’t that show enough proof that the self proclaimed president doesn’t care about UN Security Council or the ICC. (International criminal court)

May be after all these years, we still try to live in a world of oblivion where Africa doesn’t exists. World needs all the exotics from this continent and when it comes to helping them, no country is interested. May be a nation has to be a nuclear power to catch some attention in this time or has to make huge investments in US or European markets to prove that they are important to the rich man’s economy.

I am heartbroken to see that even the sparkling diamonds are not stopping this continent on its way to a much darker one.

Do it for the glory or do it for the money

Whole world has lost the concept of altruism. I am not saying that people practiced that before, but sure they had that virtue. I kept thinking how the concept of society shrunk to smaller families and then to themselves. I keep hearing the saying “no good deed goes unpunished”. Is that why people are unwilling to do a selfless good deed? If that saying is true then who turned our society to such micro level?


There are millions of questions like this which we ignore as they don’t have any direct impact on us or our life style.


The real eye opener for everyone in this self centered society was the recent economic slump and its ripple effect across the globe. Even big nations cannot stand alone and say they are safe and can do better on their own. The world has become codependent for the best and the worse.


We can no longer close our eyes to what is happening in Darfur or Chechnya or Manila. I don’t believe in world policing by US either. Smaller segments are powerful enough to shake world powers. Multiple covert operations and concealed identities have become new trends for the extremists. We have so many of these organizations now; it is like a masquerade ball, which keeps each other guessing about the one behind the mask.


There are minorities in every sect and I would categorize them based on the motives and ideologies rather than any other characteristics. The concept of one world is not new, but the importance is imminent now.


Let us keep doing the good things by all odds. It doesn’t matter if you do it for the glory or do it for the money or just do it any way

Redefining “Strange”

An experience that made me realize strange is a relative term which can also mean usual or conventional. The event that triggered my senses and enthralled my curiosity was my visit to one of the San Francisco’s long lasting nightlife traditions. I am a person who loves shadiness and more over enjoys it as an observer. My fondness to nightlife is quite evident from my previous blogs but still want to reiterate on that point again on this one too.

It was one of those perfect nights in the San Francisco downtown with heavy music banging the alleys, mild breeze dancing to those tunes and slight chillness starting to creep on our body. Clock has ticked away past midnight. We could see the line for this institution starting to grow like a new born ant colony. No need to say, it is the most diverse crowd I have ever seen in my life which is totally unpretentious and extremely sociable.

Once we got in, it was a whole new universe. Black walls, dark curtains, dim red lights, fire places and groovy electroclash and new age music. The world seemed to be much more darker than I believed in and much more mysterious. It has a large tropical style patio with a water fall and benches to relax where people made their own private world. Red and blue lights started flashing into the darkness and people were dancing in a state of ecstasy. Tranny’s, gays, straights, Asians, South East Asians, Hispanics, White, Caribbean, Black and the mixes we cannot even make out. I could see all the species and sub species of human beings which mother god has created. People who express there fetishes, people who were trying to explore their identity, souls that are lost in evolution, people who can be outcast in the daylight.

The vibe was interesting and I found it cool. A mix that can never discriminate among them selves and hence so unique. Some people were what we call socially elite and some of them were having outfits to express their personality. People wearing chains, tattoos and having multiple piercing, long hairs, weird scars and couple of them with BDSM outfits.

We also danced the night away careless. Before the clock hit the morning, the night crawlers started to flow into this place, there favorite den for years. Most of the people knew each other. We could see some guys dancing together with a grace that we can hardly see when girls dance. One of the bouncers told me that they are the go-go dancers for last 10 years. The place had that kind of reputation and a long list of patrons. A tradition that is been going on for last 43 years. This looked to me like the starting of a neo urban culture, which is growing by leaps and bounds into the society. They may be a niche culture today, but I am sure their prominence will be seen across the globe.

I am glad I could see another part of this world before I leave this precious small life. Something that is enlightening in a way, something that was only heard about, and definitely something that can be enjoyed only when experienced.

Plain Vanilla or Wild berry. Which is your favorite?

There are many types of life style you can follow. Plain Vanilla where you are just living your life as god has given you a life. Otherwise you can lead a pretty wild life where imaginations won’t stop giving you ideas. Some people can oscillate between these two.

As Jim Morrison said, “the future is uncertain and the end is near”. The meaning of life can be different for each individual as they are the ones going to live it. But one thing is for sure, doing routine things and following a template driven life style is not exciting to anyone. When you are 60 and when you look back and see what you have done in your life, it may not be hard to recollect as you will be still doing the same things every day. Every day is just like any other day.

Is it possible to make every day totally different for the other? May not be, but it is still worth trying. You may be thinking the plain vanilla is the safest bet and didn’t give you any issues in your entire life, so why should I stop that? You may be right as long as you are ready to drive thru the same street the entire life ignoring other modes of travel. You don’t know how exciting other things can be unless you try it. Changes can be hard to adjust and we hate changes. But if the changes are for the best why don’t we accept and move along and see what benefits it can reap for you in the future.

It is amazing how innovative humans can be and how much more needs to be explored to quench the thirst of human desires. Live your life like a flower bloomed in wilderness. Struggled thru the nature, fought for the food and grown tough with inner strength. Nothing is planned, living in the instinct and see the life as it comes. We cannot plan anything as we don’t know what is planned for us. So play the role with your instincts and imaginations. Fill the life with colors and fun. Mock the garden flowers that has the same memories over the decades. Same path, same people and it is all the same which can be captured in a single frame.

Loosen your shoe strings and shake off your fears. Invent the beast in you. Bring out the wildest shades to the life. Let’s kick it wild…