Odyssey - Book 3 - Chapter iv - Grand Canyon

So here I am once again. I assumed that this would be a easy enough job to kick start, but a month has passed and along with it thousands of thoughts and the only thing that I have to show for it is a post on yet another trip. I didn't know if I should consider my trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada was worth a chapter, but even though I enjoyed the scenic drives through the coastal roads I couldn't really consider it worthy of being on my main blog, maybe the odyssey but the lack of time killed it. Me being on conference calls through most of the drive didn't help.

Grand Canyon is not so easy to pass over, even though I spent most of my time in Las Vegas sleeping than at the Canyons. The fact that I was back to my "get a ticket" life was in itself enough put it on my blog.

So the bad news first, Yes I got a ticket after a gap of two and a half years in the US bring the total to 7. I have actually done much better in Brazil, where I drive during the weekends only, raking up 6 tickets in the last 8 months (I have only been here half the time). Though I have a valid excuse, I was trying to see the sunrise at the Grand Canyon after having slept past the intended time, tired from a long drive (I can hear the snickers already).

And the Good News, The Canyon is worth the visit, better still would be a hike down the side, which I am hoping to do someday, hopefully with some company. I am tired sometimes of having to go see the world alone. At least need a cameraman to prove that I was there. As much as I like the Grand I am not a big fan of the desert, give me the green mountains of Carolinas over the Nevada Desert or better still give me the host, sweaty and burning streets of Chennai! Yes thats my homesickness showing through, I am going to back in December and if any of you chums are reading this, I would love to meet up sometime.

No trip to the Grands is complete without mentioning 'sin city'. I was supposedly at a conference though it was a good excuse to catch up on much needed sleep with free food and boarding thrown in. Frankly I don't understand what people see in Vegas, I don't know who in their right minds would want to even take a vacation there! surprising as it might seem, and in spite of the awe inspiring architectures (Don't forget to visit the Venetian), I wouldn't pay money to go there and loose some more money.

This whole trip was followed by a trip to Eugene's (My sister for those of you who don't know) home in San Jose to celebrate my Nephew Hansel's first birthday, just to remind me how how old I am getting.

Its back to the grind now.

Till laters God Speed!

Odyssey - Book 3 - Chapter iii - Amazonia

I am back ... atleast for a short while. Its been a long break for me. I now understand perfectly how procrastination works, like any other addiction it grows on you slowly and then takes a death grip on you before you realise what hit you. The only way to get out of such a slumber is a rude and almost forceful self-awakening, like I am trying right now.

These past four months have been the busiest of my short life thus far and lesson learnt is that a workaholic is not born, a workaholic is made. I have also been clocking crazy airline miles. I am writing this note sitting in a Canadian Hotel about a trip I made in Brazil!

Amazon was possibly the best vacation I have ever taken so far. There has been no place that even comes close to it. Most of the other places I have been to have been more touristy and places that most people can claim to have been to. The Amazon can truly overawe anybody just by its sheer size. The river is so huge that it almost felt like a sea out there.

This trip was also the first time that I ever caught a fish and a Piranha at that. They are as tasty as they are dangerous. One of my boat members almost lost his pinky finger.

The highlight of the trip ofcourse was attending a indeginous Indian wedding. Most of the cermony was around the ritual of the 12 year old groom letting himself being bitten by huge ants to prove his manhood. He does this after taking a pinch of snuff.

Check out the pictures.

Amazon

Smoking is injurious to health

Brazil seems to have tried to take on smoking by its horns. They don't just tell you that cigarette smoking is injurious to health but also give you the proof. I got these pictures right off of the cigarette boxes themselves. Not that it has don't any good to the hardcore smokers but the new ones are taking the hint!!

If only the other countries would do the same. Even though I think its stupid when tobacco companies get sued by people who use tobacco, I have had to change my opinion on how the advertisements affect young minds. I was talking to a kid who quit smoking a couple of years back, seems his main motivation factor was seeing the Marlboro cowboy smoking a cigarette on a horseback. Brazil has banned smoking commercials for the past few years because of this reason.

I couldn't get a picture but I saw a warning with a dead fetus!

License to Kill

No I am not talking about Mr. double O seven, I am talking about the fundamental right that everybody has to kill another person in Iran. All you have to do after you kill them is to claim that they had questionable morality. Even the supreme court would side with you. The best part : you don't even have to be right. So if you don't like the guy that your ex is going out with ? shoot him and claim that you saw them both walking together (two of the victims were killed for this reason).

If only rest of the civilised world would adopt this policy we wouldn't need the police, the people would police themself. Just imagine how much better this world could be if you were allowed to kill anybody you didn't like ??? wouldn't just the people you love make it a better place ? And this would reduce the population control issues that India and China are facing. Now I know why a theocracy is wonderful and why Pakistan got it right.

People the mixing of religion and state should be promoted across the globe, it should be the next great idea after communism. The concept is not bad, the wonderful people who are more closer to God than us can tell us how to live. They know becasue they are more closer to "God". So if they say kill, there should be no problem. If they say hate, no problem with that too ... because it is the will of God and we are all the devils.

Odyssey - Book 3 - Chapter ii - Brazil I

I wrote this stuff like a month ago ... and a lot has changed since, which I would probably update in the next post!

Firstly ... and lastly I like this place. Its a mix of India's craziness and America's resources. It has made me bring back the Odyssey to the main blog instead of being relegated to the diary (That nobody really reads) as it usually is. The traffic and driving best describes this mix of the developed and developing country senarios. There is organised chaos on the roads everyday. Most people follow the lanes like America, but they also cut each other out often, just like in India.

There is no better way to start about Brazil than its meat and fruit eating passions. Brazilians eat more meat than any other country that I have seen or heard of. The best part is that they eat more fruits than anybody else too. With all the red meat they eat I was surprised to find that Brazilians were actually thin. And since I wasn't Brazilian, I put on more than 10 pounds in the last week. I was literally pampered by them, once they found out that I was a carnivorous India (Which surprised them, as they expected me to be worshiping the cow instead of eating it). Any group of people who are willing to take me home and stuff me with food are bound to be some of the best on the earth. braziliaros scored big on that count. Almost felt like I was back in India not having to dutch every meal :). Or I would just give them top marks for providing with all the Mango that I could ever eat, add coconut water to that mix and voila Ulysses David was bowled over.

The traffic gets as crazy as India and as crowded too. But it has some redeeming qualities like the decent and smiling cab drivers. Oh and also the wonderful GPS system. I was surprised to find a mud road on the GPS. This is definitely a step up from India where your only GPS and map are the people on the street. The people also surprisingly follow the western lane system with flashes of Indian zig zaging!

The women are pretty ... just like in any other part of the world. Not wanting to shoot down the Brazilian hype I'll say no more. Or maybe I will! The statement that Brazilian woman are more beautiful than others is possibly because of her. I only provide a like to her image and not display it becasue she has choosen Tom brady over Ulysses David. So what if he is a Star athlete? That being said, Brazilian's are proud of two things; their football skills and their women. Nowhere else have I seen people asking you to agree with them that their women are the best in the world ( I have had quite a few talk highly of everyone accept their own fellow countrywomen ).

The only thing probably hinger on the Brazilian list than food and women is football (Soccer for you Yankees). I did try to take it upon myself to teach them a thing or two about football only to sprain my thigh with the first kick. This gave me enough reason to claim what a wonderful player I was if only I had stretched! The games were fun though. I was the star as I was the foreigner (I am soaking up all the attention), and everytime I touched the ball (being a goalkeeper) the crowd started chanting my name - also a sign hoe poorly they thought of my football skills!

A lot like the rest of the world, Brazil swings between the haves and and the have nots. Luckily for me I was entertained in a million dollar mansion, in a wonderful middle class house and was able to walk through a slum - probably the most dangerous thing I have done here. Though it was much much better than the city of God one ... probably better than some Indian ones. In the richer neighborhoods the architecture is spellbinding, something the American suburbs lack. While the poorer sections are more dangerous than the worst parts of St. Louis and Detroit. It's an unwritten rule that you don't stop at red lights ... in India thats more out of a lack of respect for the law while here it is out of respect for your own life. Though in truth it did not stop me from driving here ... also getting lost once (the GPS is not perfect!)

Laters for more ... also check out http://tamilnole.blogspot.com for more recent updates!

Brazil

Free will

Same story different "moral soldier". In a story repeated sporadically across America, a few pharmacists have taken it upon themselves to convert lost souls by refusing them legal medicine. The irony of the situation is that those perpetuating this ideology conveniently choose to forget that the person who came to convert(Jesus duh!) didn't himself force anybody.

The whole basis of Christian faith rests on the fact that it is offered free with no strings attached to those WHO WANT IT. Its not something that is to be forced down somebody's throat or something that can be bought. History has been kind enough to teach us that no real evangelism is possible by the might of a sword. If there is something that the crusades and the torturing of Galileo has thought has it has been this that Jesus never intended Him to be defended by swords or persecution. All it leads to is defeat like in the case of the crusades or utter foolish like in the case of Galileo. If He had intended human hands to defend Him, He would have done so before be crucified.

I strongly believe that those using their personal conviction as rouse to beat somebody else's are not saints but megalomaniacs wanting the world to conform to them.

To add insult to injury, these same egotists would complain about al-queda, VHP and other such entities who do the same as them only with bombs and guns and knives.

All I have to say to them is this

"Judge not that you be not judged" - Matthew 7:1

India the superpower ... not

Came across this hard hitting article on India's current economic state. I receive a mail forward almost every week from all the tops and dicks and Harry's on why India is a super power; they talk about the IT sector and the growth of the middle class and the rise of consumerism and a lot of other such external polishes which only is true for the minuscule portion of the population. It's true when Maybach came out with the world's richest car it was prebooked for two years in India but it does not speak well of the fact that for every such maybach buyer there were a million looking for their next meal.

So of my friends might take offense to this article and may even go so far as to call it a western attempt to diminish (sic) India's image. But the fact remains that reality bites. There is no point in blowing the trumpet that Indian Americans are the richest ethnic group in America why the rest of the population back home is beset with poverty and corruption.

Freedom

I was at the world war II memorial in London the other day and came across these words "... gave their lives for the freedom of the world ...". The irony of the statement wouldn't strike everybody, but being that I am from a former colony of the British Empire, it was an eye opener. This statement was made when numerous countries including mine was under the oppressive English hands.

Does freedom only belong to a select few individuals? Or does it only belong to the people that the media says it belongs too? In this day and age when everything gets a sense of legitimacy by using the word freedom, it is imperative on us to consider the broader picture and not confine our self to our narrow world view.

The Indians and the Nigerians and the Ugandans and the countless others British colonies deserved their freedom as much as the British or the french deserved from the Germans. Maybe the days of "Dogs and Indians not allowed" are like water under the bridge but it is still trying to repeat it in different fashions! And history be damned there are always enough snoots around to spoil the broth for us.

So people might think that I am just joining the rhetoric of bashing the British of yesteryear but then you are not in my shoes. Sometimes my blood just boils over when I hear of the hypocrisies of "freedom loving" "democratic" countries which try to take the glory for all the world's good and nothing of the blame for it's evil.

The English bashing probably is because of my first trip there and the sight of the Kohinoor diamond on the queen's crown, instead of being in the hands of an Indian. That being said no freedom is 'freedom' until it belongs to everybody. There is no clause to withhold it from a few or from the dis-advantaged.

On a personal note the pictures are available on my diary

Ano novo feliz

Wish you all a wonderful and blessed year ahead.
May god make his face shine on you.