Whatcha gonna do about it?

You crib, you moan, you even spam your facebook friends
But when the dust settles down and the blood cools
Whatcha gonna do about it?

You protest, you strike, you even stop eating for a while
But when everyone goes home and the crowd thins out
Whatcha gonna do about it?

You write, you speak, you even get down on your knees
But when the stillness is endless and there seems to be no answer
Whatcha gonna do about it?

You bicker, you argue, you even raise some money for it
But when the event is over and the seasons change
Whatcha gonna do about it?

You harass, you cry, you are even ready to destroy
But when sanity returns and love is proclaimed
Whatcha gonna do about it?

You think, you ponder, you even contemplate asunder
But when the bills come due and life goes on
Whatcha gonna do about it?

The first day of the rest of your life ...

These are the lyrics from Matt Maher's song "Hold us together", one of my current favorites. It has been a while since I posted anything on this blog, so a drug induced post on the last day of one of the biggest years of my life seemed appropriate.

2011 has been a year of great change in my life. I celebrated my first anniversary a few days ago and am officially out of the honeymoon period. Over the years I have heard various married couple tell me that marriage truly shows you have selfish you are/have been and 2011 showed me how true that adage was. But here we are at the end of 2011 without killing each other and surprisingly more in love with each other - a fact that still continues to amaze me.

This was also the year that my body emphatically told me that I am old, and even though my spirit is willing the flesh is weak. I have spent the last 6 weeks mostly stuck to the couch with a banged up knee and will possibly be spending the next 30 weeks in rehab. The silver lining has been that I have been able to spend a lot more time with the better half while being waited on hand and foot. I am hoping that this rehab period would give me enough time to be reconciled to the fact that my body is middle aged even though my mind refuses to get over the 20s.

As I sit here feeling like I can fly (These pain killers rock), I can only think of how wonderful and blessed my life has been and how Jesus has been with me every step of the way, through the ups and downs, the victories and defeats, the terminal cancer and the marriage, the debilitative shy formative years and the gregarious 'crazy redneck' 20s. I cannot imagine a life without him being a integral part of me.

When I look back on the last three decades of my life, there is so much that I need to be thankful for. The only reason I did not turn out to be a maniacal psychopathic serial killer was the love filled family environment that I grew up in and I am not just talking about my parents and siblings but the wonderful extended family that would be the envy of the world. And inspite of all the fights and tears, I know they have my back and that they have and will always be the foundation on which God built my life. I am proud of them as they have been of me all these years. My parents have been God's guiding light in all my paths and the main reason for being on the straight and narrow, while my sisters have been God's support for my life.

I know that it might sound conceited and a cliche but I probably have some of the best and craziest friends in the world. And even though some of them are weird according to the world's standards, they have been the perfect tools in the hands of my maker who is working on making me a masterpiece. Some of them have been in my life for decades and some for only a short time; some are not there anymore but God put them all in my life at the right time. Friends have been one of the biggest blessings of my life and the cause of the richness of my life.

As I look forward to this new year and the rest of my life be it a day or 50 years, I can only think of each day per the title of this post. God has finally found and put into play his most important tool in my shaping and oh what a tool it is. God has found my perfect counterpoint and I can only imagine the great things that he has in store for us and how amazing the masterpiece is going to look like when He is done with it.

I wish everyone reading this a joyful and blessed new year 2012. May God make His face shine on you and may all his promises be fulfilled in your life and if you haven't tasted His grace may this be the year you do.

The Answer

Well I am back once again after one more long hiatus and some boring excuse. So I will get right to the post instead of justifying my absence which in all probability went unnoticed.

So what is the answer that I am talking about? Well the answer to most questions when it is all boiled down to the core. Risking being labeled a fanatical, fundamentalistic, lunatic blowhard, I would like to categorically state that the answer is JESUS! Whether you are brown, white, red, black or yellow; whether you are pro-life or pro-choice; whether you are right-wing or left-wing; capitalist or communist; saint or sinner; theist or atheist; monotheist or polytheist; rich or poor; foward, backward, OBC, MBC, scheduled caste or scheduled tribe; jew or gentile; Hindu, Chrisitan, Muslim or Buddist.

The reasons for me to come to this conclusion are varied both from sources claiming to know HIM and abhor HIM. It is a fairly simple inference from the fact that nothing or noone else promises you the answer without expecting something else in return. Only Jesus claimed that He first loved us even when we didn't care and dared to proclaim Himself as the only way to God, making Himself exclusive. He claimed to be the Truth and truth is exclusive by definition. And the best part is that I didn't have to pay for my sins, beat that!

This post is the boiled down core of all the posts I wanted to write and wrote in my mind these past few months!

God bless!

Jesus did not come to make bad people good but He came to make dead people live!

What I have learned from Palm Sunday

This is not another religiously pompous and theologically thought provoking post on the significance of Palm Sunday, atleast not in the conventional sense. There are probably tons of them floating around. This is all about one lesson that I stumbled upon at a very epiphanic moment: Do not put your trust in people or other things temporal! Why you ask? Because one week they would be riding you triumphantly on an ass into the city waving palm branches and proclaiming you the king while the very next week they are baying for your blood and leading you out the city on foot with a freaking wooden cross on your back. To add insult to injury they kill you in the most excruciating way possible.

People's mind are as fickle as they come and I still wonder why HE took this crap from people who don't really care!

The shaky moorings of an ideological centerist

I had a more cooler title for the post but I can't remember it for the life of me! The title could be misleading in many ways, because the definition of a centrist varies depending on who you ask; from a spineless rat to a highly practical deal breaker. I am personally not very comfortable with the tag of a centrist seeing that there are too many pseudo centrist out there, which brings us to the question of the definition of a centrist.

The reason I find the moorings shaky is because they do not have the adamantine morality of the right or the freewheeling social boundaries of the left. This is further compounded by the fact that they hate both extremes but are equally poised to embrace either on most issues.

On the topic of definitions, I have seen - all the more frequently now-a-days - that conservatism and right-wing are used interchangeably. I beg to differ on that synonym as all right-wingers are social conservatives but not the other way around. A simple point of reference is that the right-wing in the US generally tends to be the Christian right while in India they would be the Hindu right. Conservatives on the other hand tend to be hard to define along religious views. Same applies for the left too, while the serious left have no religious underpinnings, the liberals are from all religious and non-religious persuasions.

That being said, I am ready to prod on with my rambling. So how does a left of the right of the center conservative liberal find myself at the crossroads? that question hides the answer!

There are times when I wish that things were simple and right and wrong was black and white like the conservatives want us to believe. The very idea seems Utopian and gives you the familiar longings of a simple life. Then there are times when I wish people would understand that traditions were made for men and not the other way around. Growing up in an ultra-conservative society with very rule based and sometimes hypocritical values I have come to recognize and value the solid comfort that conservative ideas provide. There is not much of a grey area when it comes to conservative ideals while across the spectrum its a lot more grey with no idea of the were the black and white start.

I have often wondered how this ultra-conservative boy could move to the non-conformistic and shifting sands of the center? It was probably the cultural shock of the contradictory characteristics of conservatism in different cultures. More importantly though, it was the realisation that the conservations "WWJD" Jesus I was raised to believe was more a non-conformist liberal who challenged the prevalent traditions and cultures. I never thought to question the fact that Jesus ate with "sinners" while I would not be allowed to talk to "morally bad" people.

Does this make me want to be a hippie? (A lot of people in South America really think that all Indians are Ganja smoking hippies). Far from it, I could never truly be a snob (Inspite of various attempts). And why would I not be able to call myself a liberal? The fact that I would have to care more about animals than humans, the perpetrators than victims and assign all responsibility of evil to the society rather than the individual.

Starting on this blog I really didn't know where I was going with it, neither has then position changed in the last couple of days that I have been trying to finish it. It started out more as a attempt at putting down my frustration in finding people with exactly similar views. I do realise now that by my definition I am not going to find somebody else with the same exact views on all topics. I have also come to realise the fact that inspite of the shaky moorings, I would not want to be self righteous, condemning right-winger nor a snobbish, superficial left-winger.

I also did realise that I needed to finish this post!

1200 Israelis dead ...

This month my church has been having a series of sermons on racial equity and reconciliation. Dwelling on the fact that Jesus' message cut across all nations, class and race, even 2000 years back. I know a lot has been achieved in the last half a century towards a goal of equity for everyone, but there is definitely a lot more distance to be covered. If there is one thing we have learnt above all else in these years of trying to attain equality for all men - be it their race, gender or caste- it is that the society plays a bigger role than laws.

So why am I rambling on about equality when the heading talks about 1200 Israelis being dead? Firstly, the heading is false, if there were that many dead Israelis you would have seen it on network TV 24 hours a day. Secondly this statement is true for the stateless Palestinians (the death toll was higher), but they do not warrant the same amount of network coverage or people time. No, I am neither an Israeli basher nor a Palestinian supporter. Also I am not fond of watching people die or hearing sad tales of loss. What made me think about it was that it seemed a double standard that one group of people dying would sound more terrible than another group of people.

This lethargy is not just confined to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You can see it manifest most frequently in the African nations. The fact that the western world thought that Saddam Hussain was more "bad" or "cruel" than some of the ethnic-cleansing, genocidal and baseborn dictators in the third world speaks volumes.

Closer to home I have been following the conflict in Sri Lanka, between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils, with whom I share my ancestry. This conflict has been going on for decades with no solution in sight. Infact the LTTE (Liberation tigers of Tamil Elam), which is the largest armed tamil group, have the distinction of being the originators of suicide bombings. The struggle started peaceful enough with the minority Tamils wanting equal rights in all aspects of life. Soon it spread to armed struggle that got out of hand. Most people including yours truly have labeled the LTTE as terrorists - they got me on board by killing one of India's most beloved leaders in a suicide attack. I am not likely to withdraw that label, since they killed him in my home state of Tamil Nadu(country). Lately though I have come to realise that if this were a Tamil majority and Sinhalese minority conflict the roles would have been reversed and the Sinhalese resistance group would have been called terrorists.

At the end what it all boils down to is the fact that we are all prejudiced against people who don't look like us, don't talk like us or even eat like us. Until we change from the inside to believe that all men are born equal and not similar, we are going to have to keep paying in blood.

I personally believe that once you have Jesus in your heart, it becomes easier to overcome such prejudices.

Eurotrip

I wonder if people realise that you get lazier as you get older. I have been meaning to write on my European adventure for a quite a while now even planned on making it a journal with interesting tit bits. The only accomplishment has been to write it over and over inside my head and never put it down on either physical or electronic paper. All those ideas for the journal with daily information have now been boiled down to this on post, if I can finish it. So here it is after 5300 Kilometers, 12 countries (Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, Italy, Monaco, France, Spain, Andorra, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) and countless cities in 11 days.

At the outset let me state that driving through 12 countries in less than 12 days is sheer madness and is not fun unless of course you are crazy yourself (an attribute that I can claim to an extent). It also boils down to what you want to see and what motivates you. I am not a big fan of old medieval architecture, though I do get awed by it every now and then. I wanted to just tick certain countries off my bucket list and this was a good chance for me to do it. I did want to see the Eiffel tower and the streets of venice, other than that I just wanted to add some countries to the "been there" list. Unless you are driving you wouldn't be in Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra or Luxembourg. For the uninformed, those are principalities in western Europe, smaller than most large cities. Of the four Monaco is worth visiting, mostly to see the most interesting F1 track. They also tend to be cheaper compared to the rest of Europe, but not the US of A.

Driving in Europe is definitely easier than driving in the East but not as easy as in the US of A. Everything from the roads to signposts, are inferior to the US and I don't even want to talk about the GPS. The one that came with my car only showed me the correct location of the hotel on two occasions. A couple of times even the cities that I was supposed to stay was available in the GPS. The fact that there are no street signs in most of europe is compounded by the fact that there are few people on the streets late at night, unlike India where the pedestrians are the only source of street information. It was almost a daily ritual for us to spend more than an hour trying to find the hostel each night. The worst was either Italy where we finally had to settle for a expensive hotel because the hostel was supposed to be on a mountain that did not exist or Luxembourg where we spent over two hours to find the castle hostel. Though it was these "searches" that made the trip interesting and adventurous; that and the people who refused to acknowledge English.

Driving through Europe was an experience in itself, because of all the different landscapes that we drove through. Be it the tunnel filled mountains of Austria or the coastal French Riviera along Nice and Monaco. Throw in some snow, rain and sunshine and you have all the different weather rolled into a single trip.

Switzerland

Odyssey - Book 4 - Eurotrip

This only the third time this year that I am writing on here. I have been a lazy bum and consequently have lost most of my eloquence with the written word! So here is another attempt at getting back on track. This year has been full of various adventures from the streets of Rio de Janeiro to the leaning tower of Pisa, but my current planned trip might top them all yet. The plan is to visit 11 countries counting small principalities in 11 days. Its going to be more driving than visiting.

This will hopefully give me ample opportunities for keeping an interesting travelogue.

Day >0 : Its been interesting visiting Germany for work. Did I mention that German's love beer? I couldn't get a hotel in town because of a "Beer trade fair" and was put up in a B&B in the middle of nowhere. It was a pretty place but still in the middle of nowhere!

Day 1 starts tomorrow with the trip to Switzerland!

Live to Impact

That was the title of the sermon at my church this past Sunday. An apt motto for those who really want to live rather than just survive. A motto I have aspired to for a long time. It is not a one step or multi step process but a way of life. The irony of the situation is that it does not matter if one wants to impact or not, ones actions always have an impact on the surrounding environment for better or for worse.

The assumption of the title is to make a positive impact. The simplest way would be to reduce your negative impact, which is easier said than done. A few days ago I was driving with some friends and was (as is usual) boasting about my Indian driving skills i.e. jumping red lights, driving on the opposite side of the road, etc etc, when I realised that it was not something to be proud about. I know that sounds corny but the truth of the matter is that if you want to 'live to impact' (for good) you have to make conscious decisions on such simple things.

A lot of people, of which yours truly is foremost, provide a lot of lip service to such a life but their actions betray most of what they say. But people like Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa did not just impact the world with their words but their actions. The fruits of their actions are testament to the impact that they have had in the lives of others.

There is no denying the fact that our life has an impact, the question remains weather it is for better or for worse?

In Memorium - DGS Dhinakaran

It has been another long hiatus ... probably the longest thus far. The reason for me being back is not a joyous one though, the loss of the only person I considered as my spiritual father and idol (Yes I said Idol).

Dr. DGS Dhinakaran, or to me (and tens of thousands of others) Dhinakaran Thatha (grandfather) was not one of those fire and brimstone preachers but a person who let the power God speak for itself. He responsible for the the life changing and saving experience that I had written about sometime back. That was the not the only impact he had on my life.

It all started with my father, searching for a job, dedicating his life to Jesus at one of Thatha's meetings way back in 1987. He was probably the only person of The Word not ridiculed by my father and that is saying something. Through the years my family got to know him in a more personal way and got to see that he lived his life in accordance with what he preached.

I am not one given to fawning over people or idolizing them. One of the rare exceptions to that was Dhinakaran Thatha. He was not a God man but man of God, who was blessed with rare powers. For the pseudo secularist this may sound as hocus pocus, probably I would have been at the forefront of such thought if not for the miracle in my own life. I have seen him call out individual people from among hundreds of thousands. I have not seen a more strong proponent or knowledgeable person of the Bible. It was this biblical knowledge that made me aspire to be like him. He was not one of those "theological" or "modern" preachers, but a back to basic Bible believing evangelist. He was the most prominent Indian preacher of the last half a century and probably one of the most prominent ever. He transcended boundaries of race, creed, caste and social status.

All of it did not come easily to this did not come easily to him. It is a long way from the person who could not pass his bachelors for two consecutive years and was on the way to committing suicide at an early age of 20. His life changing moment came when his unsuspecting uncle led him to Christ on his way to the railway track. It was not all rosy after the conversion;Contrary to popular belief Christ does not offer a problem free life he offers free life through all problems of this world. The long list of sickness and troubles ranged from kidney failure, heart attacks, accidents with most bones in his body broken to the loss of his daughter. Through all this he had his family have been the beacon of God's love to Millions. There were times when I have prayed that I wanted the powers that were manifest in his life, but I scaled back on them when I understood that all of this came at a great cost. Like he used to say, the only way that you could feel compassion for your fellow beings was to walk in their shoes, that my dear friend is not easy.

The character that I really wanted to imbibe from him was his study of the bible and his time on his knees. He could quote more scriptures than any person I knew and would buttress all that he said with the Word. He would also spend more time on his knees than any person I know. On a personal note, he was probably the only preacher that had my father's full attention inspite of how tired I was which is saying a lot again for those of you who know him. There probably are more eloquent and charismatic preachers but none of the eloquence or charisma can help a person in need only the word of God could and that's what you got from him with a whole lot of singing and wit.

He had his detractors, mostly from the Christian community who couldn't couldn't stand his fame or who wanted fame by criticizing him. It only galled them even more when he didn't respond to their criticism. One incident stands out in my memory, when his daughter died a Pastor of a fundamentalist church sent him a letter stating that she was killed by God for have flowers on her hair (According to him too ostensible for a Christian).

His ministry was to the broken hearted, a ministry of Compassion. He could relate to him like few others could, just becasue of all that had happened in his life. He knew what it was like to loose a loved one, what it felt to be in constant physical pain and agony and the emotional pain of failure, poverty and ridicule. That was the cost he paid to bring hope to millions and to touch the lives of many more.

He was probably not the most famous or well known of men but to me he was somebody that I want to be like. Somebody who ran the good race and finished it with his head held high. Somebody who touched millions of life with his words of comfort and hope. Somebody who was instrumental in me having a second life.

I will always miss him!

P.S : I know this is not like my usual posts but this is personal.

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.

two months and counting

It's been two months and counting since I made a comment online about anything! I've been tied up with a lot of changes and a lot of travel including India and Brazil, not to mention the new city of residency and a new job that is as much work as it is fun ... that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.

Having accepted the fact that I would have to live on the road for the better part of each month I am kick starting my writing skills on the road, sitting at Miami International airport in transit from Sao Paulo, Brazil to San Jose, California. Sitting here enjoying a perk of the travelling job (free Internet on the road), I can watch with detached amusement the chaos all around me, a chaos caused by mechanical failures and snowed out airports. The holiday season only gets more frustrating instead of the supposed peace of mind and job its supposed to bring to each person.

I have had so much to say and have said so little ... not that it has any bearing on the earth's rotation. So knowing my place in the cosmos, I'll refrain from boring you with my dull ramblings ... for the time being ... and attack you with all vengeance once I have renewed my brain cells.