Ambassador of Human Rights

When I drive to Chicago during weekends, I drive alone and during the two and a half to three hour long drive one way, I don't miss this opportunity to think about various things like my life and future, what's happening in the world around me, my family and friends and so on and so forth. On one such drives I thought about all the atrocities done towards the weaker sections of humanity and I felt very sad. No one seems to really care about anything in the world other than personal interests. Countries that proclaimed to be advocates of human rights are violating them. What's ironic is that such countries are still finding fault with other countries.

Consider the US of A for example. The Abu-Ghraib prison abuse, the Guantanamo Bay prison where four out of five hundred have been tried so far in the last three years, the court verdict that said city officials can take away personal property for higher tax generating private investors to name a few are examples of instances where the system has simply failed to keep up what it was meant to. Aren't we too arrogant to send secretaries to various countries and ask them to better change to a democratic form of government where democracy is being mocked in our own soil?

A friend of mine argued that the last presidential election was fought on moral issues. Aren't these moral issues or have these been removed from the list that are applicable for a presidential race? People who never miss an opportunity to condemn abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research don't utter a word against capital punishment or gun violence. Aren't these moral issues? Why are we so interested in Iraq and not in Sudan or in Ethiopia or why were we never interested in Rwanda at any time at all? And what did we find in Iraq? Neither WMD nor oil for doing all that. I bet many right wing supporters are unhappy about the verdict on the ten commandments in courthouse issue but having a plaque with the commandments written on it doesn't do any good. Following them is what matters.

I wish I had better writing skills.

Gold - an investment?

I don't think so. I saw pictures from the wedding of a friend of mine. The picture that struck me most was the one where he stands next to this glittering figure of gold and silk (the bride). No offense meant to my friend but I wonder if his wife will ever get to wear all that gold on another occasion in her life. I think it's time Indians came out of this concept of investing in gold. What good is it? I'm sure that real estate would be worth more than that for the same amount of money spent. All those thick necklaces, bracelets and anklets in gold can't be worn in public on any other occasion and will eventually be traded in for thinner, lighter and more "can be worn in public" ornaments later on at the cost of depreciation and resale value. I have seen this happening to all three of my sisters. Thanks to not being very rich and better senses, they did not have to trade in most of their jewelry. I think I will tell the woman that I marry (if at all) not to have so much of gold.

Once again, no offense meant to the person that I have referred to. This is just my thought.

What a weekend?

It started with the company picnic. Even though every one complained about the changes in the picnic, it turned out to be a very good event. At least, according to me. The four of us and the Englishman ate together and my leg was being pulled all the time by none other than the Englishman. It was fun. It was time for a volley ball game after that. I was not sure if I would be able to play because of the two immunization shots (tetanus and the first dose of MMR) that I had taken earlier but I was alright and the game was fun.

Played tennis after work and had food at a Greek sandwich place. The garlic chicken sandwich and French Fries were so good. Watched Sideways as I wrote earlier. Saturday was disk golf time. It was fun because it was nice to hang out in the woods and playing with another guy who was as bad as I was. One of our disks fell into the stream twice and we stopped the second time.

I had almost forgotten the art of roller blading. Thanks to my decision not to go to Chicago this weekend, I could roller blade on both Saturday and Sunday though by myself. I told the shopkeeper that I have to get married because I felt bored roller blading alone and his reply was that after I get married my wife might probably throw my roller blades out of the window. A good piece of advise from a married man.

I watched "Motor Cycle Diaries" on Saturday. I did not know what inspired Che Guevara to do all that he did but now I do. A very good movie. The story of two men who, unlike in "Sideways" did meaningful things and turned out to be very popular men in their life. It was very good to know that there are people in the world who care about the atrocities being done to human beings and go on to do something about that. I admire those selfless people.

Be a loser and get away with it?

I watched Sideways last night. What a movie? I wonder why was it nominated to the Academy Awards at all. Those who have seen the movie know what it is like and those who have not, well, what should I say? it is a movie that every man should watch and feel good about the fact that you can be a loser, cheat on your fiance and still get away with everything and only break your nose. I wish life was as easy as that.

A good movie for a change

I watched "House of Sand and Fog" last night after a disappointing performance by the soft ball team against Spotted Cow (I think I should eat there once). The team that I cheered for lost pretty bad against them.

House of Sand and Fog was a good movie. I wonder why it didn't get the review it deserves. The story of an Iranian major (Ben Kingsley) who migrates to USA and works hard to make ends meet and buys a house, that was wrongfully taken from its owner (Jennifer Connelly), on auction because she did not pay business taxes that she never owed. Then comes Mr. Nice Guy who falls in love with the heroine and deserts his family of wife and two kids to help her and screws up things.

Though the ending is quite sad, Kingsley did a great performance and Connelly was also very good.

Amusing stories from India

Today I read a news article on the Times of India that one of the "religiously fanatic" groups came up with a "Hindu centric" demand that to check the "unbridled" growth of Muslim population in India, Hindus should try hard and increase the Hindu population. According to them, any society with a bigger population has a greater influence on the world and also the equation between high population and unemployment is a myth. Kudos to people like these.

Also from India, a woman was told by a "council of community elders" that she should marry her father-in-law and have a mother-son relationship with her husband. The reason - she was raped by the father-in-law. Looks like elders are on the loose.

Fear of death?

Interesting but I don't understand what fear of death is. Someone today said that she doesn't have the fear of death. I asked her how does she mean and the reply was that she lives now and then one day she will cease to and she doesn't care about what happens afterwards. According to me that is not not having fear of death, that is just not being worried about dying.

I spoke to Mo about it and her definition was some people know that they are going to die and don't have a problem where as some people freak out when they learn that they were going to die. Again, it is not because they are afraid of the dying process but they just don't want to die. You see that? When I started on explaining on the point that she is missing, she said that she doesn't want to talk about it any more.

Wedge on the other hand said that he has never contemplated on what fear of death is. Then he thought for a while and said that he wouldn't care if he knew he was going to die.

I infer that it is the feeling of "don't want to die" than anything else that people call fear of death.

I figured it out

Hurray, I have a contributor to my blog besides myself. It is Ray. Even though I knew who it was right away, I admit that it took a few seconds for me to figure out why Ray chose to be Ray. Good job Ray. For those of you who wonder who Ray is, Ray is the same as the Beaver. From now on the Beaver will be called Ray. Hu rrayy!!

And Ray, I hope to see some comments too. I know that many of my posts are not worth debating or even commenting on but there is always the feel good factor.

Did I say that too soon?

Yes, I did. My car, it was running smooth until last evening when the problem started occurring again. I have made up my mind. I'm buying a new car. I hope that I can drive that one without any problem for at least five years so that I can have some peace of mind.

What do I do with my car?

As some of you know, I have been having problems with my car. My car shakes or vibrates violently when on idle. That is, when I approach a stop sign or a four-way intersection, it starts shaking and I normally end up shifting to neutral and wait for the signal to turn green before I drive normally again. A Mitsubishi dealer diagnosed the problem as a faulty EGR valve and so I had it ordered and replaced by another auto body shop but the problem still persisted. Tired of this happening often and after having discussions with others, I decided to buy a new car. I check out the Toyota Prius synergy drive hybrid car. It is a "cute" car which doesn't feel like one when you are inside and doesn't look like one either from outside. I liked it very much and decided to pay a down payment for one either this weekend or the Monday after that because, the car is usually not readily available with any dealer. The irony is that my car, the one that I have now, seems to want to run normally again. There is no weird shaking or vibration when I stop and the car runs smoother than ever. What do I do with it?

Another Roby Jose?

I ran into the web site of the Brandywine zoo, specifically the fond memories section (http://www.brandywinezoo.org/fondmemories.html) and discovered that there is another Roby Jose in this world. May be there are more but to know that was amusing. He proposed to Betsy at the zoo in front of the tigers to marry him. Way to go Robyoh!!

Famous and infamous

If you look at the top left hand corner of this blog, you will see a brief description about myself. A statement in that says that "I've been mostly famous among women and notorious among men". The beaver might not quite agree with this. To be honest the reality is that I've been liked by a few women and hated by a good number of men for various reasons, one of them being the fact that I was liked by some women. Blogger.com does not allow more than five hundred characters including spaces and so I couldn't write every thing that I wanted to.

Church to make Bollywood film

I read this article on Times of India about a priest from the Delhi archdiocese making a movie. The movie is supposed to project AIDS awareness and communal harmony and is made with all the masala aspects of Indian cinema. Fr. Dominic Emmanuel, whose brain child the film is, says that there are more people in the cinemas than in the churches and so it is wise to reach out where you get the masses. I hope the movie makes an impact. The cast - Rati Agnihotri and Aryan Vaid.

I forgot my goggles

Yesterday I started swimming lessons at the Riverplex. I was quite excited about it but it turned out to be a not so exciting event. The instructor, Katie, was on vacation and so Laura substituted her. Then came this other dude who did not have any students for the course that he was supposed to be taking care of and ended up giving instructions to three of us who knew some swimming. He was trying to teach us how to breath and kept saying that we did a great job when I knew for sure that I wasn't. Anyway, I will go on all Tuesdays and Thursdays because I paid money to enroll. I should remember to carry my goggles with me the next time though. And, the locker room was not that great either.