Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday. Being away from home I don't get to celebrate Indian festivals on a grand scale- I don't have holidays on the days of the festival, everyone is busy and I don't have the right things at home to perform an elaborate puja. 

Hence I try to compensate for things I miss out during Thanksgiving. Its about being thankful for all the great things / people in my life and spending time with my loved ones by sharing an elaborate meal. Whats good about this holiday is that I don't have to worry about getting the customs right- I just invite my friends over for dinner and we have some fun. Plus there is the added bonus of looking forward to black friday deals. I would say going to a shopping mall at midnight and shopping all through the night has been my thanksgiving tradition.

Thanksgiving dinner- 2013 @ my place.

Apart from all the shopping, meeting friends and eating rich food -- the tradition I love the most is making a list of things I am thankful for, because each time I do it, I have a new found appreciation about the things/people I have in my life.

So here's my list for this year: ( This is going to be a long post so please bear with me)

1. I am thankful for the wonderful family I have- This year I became closer to my parents and I am mending the distance I had developed with my mother over the years.

2. I am thankful for the wonderful friends I have- who stuck by me through my adversities and helped me become a better person. (Manish Harnur, Shankar Ganesan, Vallabh Prakash, Shreyas Payal, Deepika Podila, Arvind Iyer, Vikram Ramanarayanan, Poornima Balakrishnan, Suhas Thotada Ravi, Prathyusha Chilagani, Sanjay Shanthakumar, Kathik Shekar)

3. I am thankful for finding a job that I love: I found this job when all others failed and I was about to  go back home. It was a happy accident. My learning curve has been exponential. 

4. I am thankful for all things related to USC: Leavey Library, fountain near Tommy Trojan, Ground Zero, Alumni Park, Olin Hall of Engineering.

5. I am thankful for the beautiful apartment I am living in.

6. I am thankful for the city I am living in. I am exploring LA and its been an awesome experience so far- the beaches, museums, restaurants, coffee bars. The list goes on and on.

7. I am thankful for all the holidays I could take this year- Yosemite national park, Acadia national park, Death Valley national park, Catalina Island and the upcoming trip to Florida :D

8. I am thankful for the invention of anti- depressants and ADHD medicines.

9. I am thankful for the existence of the following technologies- Internet, Cell phone, Air Travel,  MacBook Air, Kindle reader, Ipod, digital cameras,Netflix, Pandora.

10. I am thankful for being able to understand myself, re-discover my passions and over come adversity.

11. I am thankful for all the courses I learned/ learning on Coursera:

12. Last but not the least ( actually this is the most important one)- I am thankful for prayers: Hanuman Chalisa, Vishnu Sahasranamam, Aditya Hridayam, Bhajagovindam, Guru Bhakti Geeta and various devotional songs which has been a guiding lamp, source of solace and tranquility in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The GOP hypocrisy

After I started following Aaron Sorkin's magnum opus ' The West Wing' I became extremely interested in knowing more about the way policies are shaped in Washington. I must admit that I really had no idea about the ideologies of the Republicans and the Democrats. I was apolitical during the 2012 elections, though I leaned towards Romney in the end. 

That's because the conservative ideologies of the Republican Party appealed to me - less debt, less taxes, more growth, better family values, affinity towards religion and so on. That changed when I started watching West Wing, which in turn led me to read a lot of books/ watch documentaries about various issues plaguing the world. That's when I realized the hypocrisy of the conservative values preached by the Republicans. 

I never considered myself to be an environmentally conscious person. Moving to the US four years ago made me conscious about the way I spent my money. I was on a student's budget and I had to optimize the limited resources. So I tried to eat as many meals at home as possible, minimize food wastage, stop spending on stuff that was considered a luxury (more shoes, clothes, junk like cookies, chocolate) and use public transport. Not buying stuff that I would rarely use/ make me unhealthy had its benefits - I was healthy and fit thanks to home cooked healthy meals and I saved money. I used this money to pursue things that gave me a lot of happiness as opposed to the instant gratification I would get by buying shoes, accessories, clothes etc. 

Traveling in the US has been the greatest experience of my life. It broadened my horizons of thinking by leaps and bounds. Coming from India I was not accustomed to seeing such vast and empty lands with forests! This made me appreciate nature in its virgin form and I became interested in nature conservatism. This interest made me a convert and I adopted a minimalistic lifestyle, even though I am earning and can afford luxuries. I haven't bought clothes in over a year because my wardrobe is already bursting in its seams and I wont replenish the stock until my clothes wear out. I haven't bought other accessories like handbags, shoes, bedspreads etc because I barely use the ones I have. I don't buy packaged food, bottled juices, pasta sauces so that I cut down on the amount of plastic and glass waste. To what ever extent possible I cook and eat at home and I haven't wasted food in over two years now. I try to limit my showers to less than five minutes

I digress. Coming back to the topic, I really don't understand the ideologies of the Republicans where they preach solutions without realizing that they are the root cause of the problems.

1. They are staunch advocators of the 'American Dream' which encourages over consumption and living beyond means. They call this overconsumption and destruction of environment as growth. They trash the environmental lobby for advocating green reforms in industries by calling them anti- growth and communist. However common sense dictates that the more you consume beyond your means the more debt you will be in. This debt cycle is designed such that the money is transferred from the lower/ middle class to the upper class and without debt there will be no super rich CEO's and executives on Wall Street who fund the Republicans. Yet they claim that they are ' Fiscal conservative' meaning that they want lesser debt and balanced budget. How is that even possible when they are responsible for encouraging people to get into the debt cycle?
2. They are pro-choice, try to marginalize the effectiveness of contraceptives,cry fowl over universal health care which enables woman to get birth control for free and educational benefits given to the lower class immigrants. Yet they show utmost contempt and fear towards the growing numbers of the immigrant population knowing very well that this problem can be solved with universal health care and better education. 
3. They are anti-immigration and take measures and spend billions to curb the mexican population crossing the border. They blame the illegal immigrants of stealing the american jobs. Since the Reagan administration the population control administration in Mexico is getting lesser funds from the US to fight population explosion. Even the funds they get come with a clause- Abortion was made illegal, echoing the conservative policies (read appeasing the church) of the Republicans. They stall programs aimed at curtailing the number of children per woman in Mexico and Latin America and yet blame overpopulation as the cause of illegal immigration.

Thanks West Wing for making me realize the hypocrisy of the Republican Party.

LA Meri Jaan!

Sometimes I feel

Like I don't have a partner

Sometimes I feel

Like my only friend

Is the city I live in

The city of Angels

-- These are the first few lines taken from the song ' Under the bridge' by Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is how I feel about Los Angeles. 

My life took a dramatic turn 4.5 years ago when I left home and came to LA for my higher studies. While Bangalore is my birth city, LA is my re-birth city. LA is where I metamorphosed into the person I am today. Life was not easy in LA- especially to a girl who left behind her sheltered and privileged existence. I had to do everything on my own, I had to live with people I did not know and I had to work very hard to achieve my goals.

I struggled because of loneliness, stress, deadlines (I had a knack of selecting the toughest courses), issues with room- mates. For the first few months I had a constant urge to go back home, back to my comfort zone. But eventually I learned to fight my fears. I learned to work hard. I learned to make friends. I learned the art of networking. I learned how to be independent. I learned a lot about data analytics. I learned to be a better person. I learned a lot about myself. 

Its been an exhilarating journey. I graduated from school two years ago. I have been working with USC ever since. LA is the city which helped me define myself. LA is the city which taught me to explore. Though I live alone I never get lonely. Because LA is my muse.

P.S. I love walking around in downtown and taking pics. Here are the few pics taken during my walks. 

Walt disney concert hall

Grand Central Market

Olvera Street- Oldest part of LA

Grand Avenue ' Stars' at night

Grand central park- Civic center

Los Angeles Public Library and US Bank tower

Los Angeles Public Library from Bunker hill steps

My beloved apartment complex- Milano lofts

Check out my guest blog!

I was a guest blogger for my friends blog. Check out the article @

http://plundermymind.blogspot.com/2013/10/predictive-analysis-and-ok-cupid.html

I am on the marriage market- Thanks to my parents!

My apologies for not posting  in over a month! I have a lot left in my drafts and will hopefully edit them this week and post it. However I have my first guest blogger! Suhas aka Boi! He s my friend since high school and is endowed with the knack of ' annoying the crap out of me'. 

Our fights and arguments is considered legendary amongst our friends. We also had an argument about who gets married first. Suhas was very sure that I would attend his wedding with my husband and two kids. Turns out he's getting closer to being married than I am. So here's the account of his entry into the marriage market:

I am on the marriage market- Thanks to my parents:

My start to a very debatable topic that has plagued a gazillion people the world over and especially where I live : India. 

The land of the strange for people from foreign lands, the land with a million gods and a million more stories and the land from which some guy wrote the best sex manual ever. Everything changes and similarly things started changing over here too. Freedom of expression got a new meaning at base level and it was respected save a few things and amongst those few are the parents right over their kids.

Parents are the self elected righteous decision making adjudicators in their kid’s lives and all hell breaks loose when they come of age i.e during the time of their marriage and oh boy it was a catastrophe when my turn came in.

Being a 25 year old guy from a respectable family, I got my hands full if being a doctor wasn’t enough. I got it going pretty decent me being from clan bearing the ‘y’ chromosome. Parents allow their kids freedom in every aspects saying that they respect their opinions, their wills and wishes, but when it comes to choosing our life partners, the entire dynamics change and we are apparently the biggest retards that ever existed. Here is how my story went:

I work in hospital 40 miles away from my home and I generally come home on weekends. Its usually a sort of a get away for me after a long hard week having to deal with patients and 1 weekend was no different-or so I thought.

I come home and after giving my folks a montage about my week’s mortality rate I generally end up playing on my desktop. I was acing counterstrike playing as a counter terrorist with a sniper. I was on a roll…raking up kills one after the other. I noticed my parents walk into the living room exactly the way predators stalk their pray. I made a mental note of their presence through the corner of my eyes, but ignored them and happily went on my killing spree with accurate head shots. My dad curiously came and saw what I was playing and after a bit of 'tsk tsk,' went back to take his place on the sofa…

Next 10 mins ensued in total silence when I got the 1^st drift that something was up but did not acknowledge it. My mother broke the silence saying ‘Suhas’. Ok now I knew something was definitely up since my parents never called me by my name. I am usually called by a load of nicknames in my household since childhood. So there was a first, but I was still oblivious to it as I was completely engrossed in killing terrorists playing against a bunch of dudes from Hungary.

“Suhas, turn off the PC. We need to talk to you”

“Sure mom go ahead and talk. I’m listening” Bam bam boom.

“Its important”

“Yes I’m sure it is, talk…I’m listening” I said going in for record kills

“We’re planning on getting you married”

KABOOM…! I  got a headshot and got the shock of my life as I watched my virtual blood splatter all over the monitor.

I was literally like What The FUCK…! 

Dad  glared at me and said “Watch the profanity boy.”

I was dumbstruck. I could feel the floor disappear from beneath my feet and getting the wind knocked out of my lungs at the same time. Suddenly I had this mental note about a piece of A4 paper going through a paper shredder.

After taking in the punch, I rebounded back:

“Dad. What the hell is wrong with you people..?... Im not getting married so soon”

“Not soon my dear son. After you complete your course.”

“But that’s like in a year, Im not getting married until I am at least 30 years”

Woah..! the incredulous look that my mom gave when I said 30 years was so memorable. She looked as though I had asked her for both her kidneys.

That's when it all started. My parents launched a psychological warfare with no holds barred. They started off saying that it was a matter of responsibility for them, and they had to start looking for a girl now in case they had to zero in on a girl by the end of a year….seriously..???( I had this vivid visualization of my parents walking among a crowded street trading brides-to-be in a slave market types)

Then they started out stating the pros of getting married early on how you can have a kid early and  be done with responsibilities early in my life and exactly 55 years 8 months 2 days 10 hrs later they had finished theirs and majority of what I heard was just blah blah blah and blah blah….

O.K First of all. I don’t wanna handle a repulsive kid so early in my life. Secondly I don’t want have the responsibility of getting married and upholding it so early in my life. Third, I got a lot of agendas with a lot of unfinished business in my life and getting married wasn’t one of them. Hell, even the thought of it made me squirm and made me feel like drowning myself in a glass of water.

Further on they started asking me what type of a girl I wanted assuming that I had consented to their proposal-- Like whether I wanted a working woman or a home-maker and a whole lot of other questions based on complexion, height and educational qualifications (gee guys..looks like somebody still makes em like they used to)

After A whole lot of arguing, huffing and puffing, the argument ended up in a stalemate where no consensus was reached. But 1 thing was for sure, things have escalated to a whole new level and I have to be on my guard and have to plan on contingencies ASAP. And the fight still goes on.