Paper or Plastic ?

From NY Times Circuits: David Pogue newsletter
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The full paper-or-plastic discussion goes something like this:

"Why, paper, because it biodegrades."

"Yes, but we kill 14 million trees a year to make the paper. That's contributing to global warming."

"Yes, but the plastic bags consume 12 million barrels of oil and choke the oceans and sea life."

"Yes, but creating paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution."

"Yeah, but plastic bags create four times the waste."

"Yes, but it takes seven times as many trucks to ship the same number of paper bags to the stores; they're much bulkier."

And so on. (The real answer to that question, of course, is "neither—bring your own reusable bags." But until U.S. stores start charging 15 cents per bag, as groceries in Europe do, Americans aren't likely to go to that trouble any time soon.)

Even India ?

A line from movie review of Bachna ae haseeno - got that right? note the locations !!

An amiable romantic comedy with fatal attractions to primary colors, glorious scenery (locations include Switzerland, Italy, Australia and even India) and 360-degree pans, “Bachna” starts too cute.

Raj Bhavsar

Got an answer to something that has bugged me for a long while - are Indian Americans (not American Indians) restricted to shine only in the math Olympiads and the spelling bees? will there be some stars ever in NHL - do we grow that big?, more importantly, do we make them that mean? :)

I somehow missed Raj Bhavsar - he barely missed selection for 2004, same here in 2008, but was called in last minute.
Pretty cool player..catch him fast before USA gets knocked out of the team events :)

Bollywood Outsourced

Indian Fusion Hour

On my way to get a hair cut, tuned to the local Atlanta "desi" channel on radio. It was "west Indian fusion" hour, and some "chutney soca" music was playing. After the song, the RJ came on line "you are listenin to the west Indian fusion hour, and I am your host joel ghanshyam".

Ghanshyam? why was the name so familiar? the name kept ringing some bell somewhere...figured it out during the hair cut - ghanshyam - the on-campus "hairdresser" at Lucknow...the small mirror, the sharp sound of the scissors, the water with a peculiar smell, all were slowly coming back...

"WOULD YOU LIKE A SHAMPOO SIR?" – almost instinctively, I said "nahin", quickly corrected it to a "no". The cut was over...that was the time ghanshyam would have asked "maalish karoon saab?"

(there was always a rumor floating around that ghanshyam was not exactly "straight" - so nobody in their "straight" mind went for a "maalish")

Mexican Masala

There is this small South Indian food stall at the Global Mall in Atlanta. From afar, looks as though you transplanted the take out counter of "vasantha bhavan" straight from Chennai, including the "uncle" sitting there, complete with a small bindi on the forehead.

I ordered two Mysore masala's "to go", and the order got shouted out to the "pack man" standing outside the kitchen - "Dos (spanish, i realized later) Mysore Masala". He shouted the same at his wife (just my wild guess from the way they were shouting at each other) inside the kitchen. Thats when i noticed, other than the counter, the whole crew was mexican, and were busy preparing uthappams and mysore masalas and vada and what nots!!

Got my order, went home, and washed down my perfect mexican mysore masala with some Sam Adams - i swear i would have tried it with dos equis if i had it in stock :)

Free What ?

How will you read this title ? This came up on my "deals" feed...

HBO Store: Free Sex and the City movie Poster on $60+ order

i went "free WHAT ? and some movie poster....if you shop for 60 bucks !! .. wait, let me read that again...."