Welcome !!

Immigration line (somewhere in south america) -
German tourist in front of me & immigration officer - both speaking broken English:
GT: 'take pictures of birds...'
Officer: 'usted solo?'
GT: ??
Officer points at GT: 'YOU solo?'
then points far away: 'forest'
then moves his hand across own throat

An Offer I Almost Could Not Refuse !

It's been around 3 years since I stopped watching any sort of 'live' tv. Live TV here is any program - not just 'breaking' news, but anything that comes streaming out of the idiot box over which you have no control including the advertisements. The rare exception is selected games, with dedicated time allocated to the same.

Of course I do watch a lot of 'TV', including streaming over Hulu, recorded programs, Netflix, DVDs, Watchespn etc., but all that one has absolute control over in terms of STOP and PAUSE to get back to the real world when required. I did try the DVR option from cable, but all those episodes piling up unwatched adds to your stress levels :)

A conscious decision taken a day when I realized there were 4 grown ups in the house including myself spending significant man-hours staring at the box when my daughter crawling around on all fours in the vicinity would have been a much better target for my time and attention for whatever little time I was home from travel..

So - still have the cable TV account, just to get real fast internet and over the past few years, the 'cable company' has called me with some amazing offers. But this latest one takes the cake.

"Mr. P, you have an internet account for 25 megs speed. For just 5 bucks more a month, we will give you 50 megs speed, full digital TV package plus HBO and Showtime !"

...and the sales guy paused to gauge my reaction...
...and I too paused just to take it all in...never heard all that for less than 40 bucks a month, offered at 5 bucks???!!!

Me: "Just give me a moment here..."
Sales: "Sure...Take your time.." (Definitely heard a "YES!" in his voice)

Was really good I asked him for that moment. Over years, having gotten used to the new scheme of things, you forget why you made the decision in the first place. It had nothing to do what the $$s on offer here. Just went back to that original moment, took a look at my family pic on the phone homescreen and went back on line

"That is really the most awesome offer you have ever given me, sorry I have to decline.."
"W H A T ??!!"
"Like I said, amazing offer, but I have been trying to stay away from TV altogether.."

And immediately "I understand sir, you have a great weekend" and hung up - nice chap!

Promotions....

Just in one ad break during weekend movie on asianet. Mammootty and Jayaram appeared to promote 'beauty products' for the ladies, and everyone from Shah Rukh to Mohanlal to Prithviraj came to promote jewelry and sarees…

Not one actress around to do this J

Politics & Religion

1. Watching this amazing series on PBS - 'The Story of India'. There was a statement about how the king went to visit the Buddha and a generic comment 'in those times, the kings used to visit the religious leaders and not the other way around...it is still followed, the politicians visit the religious leaders' !!

2. Completely unrelated. Was watching a recording of one of The Dalai Lama's speeches in New York. He was talking about politicians visiting him. 'In India, during election time, all the candidates come visit me. They run against each other, all come and ask me to pray for their victory. What can I do? Only one of them can win! Here in the USA, during last presidential election, Obama visited me, Hillary Clinton visited me, John McCain visited me, not one asked me to pray for their victory!!'

The Medal Race

I remember a few Olympics back, when the 'Indian contingent' came back empty handed, there were suggestions on how to improve the situation. 'Like the Kenyans / Ethiopians, we will find out specific ethinc groups from the vast sub continent that can specialize in different events and train them' - said someone.

Many Olympics went by and looks like it is still each to his or her own. If you are good at something, and are lucky enough to get the money to get equipment / training, then 'all the best to you' and of course - if you get something - HEY we are all here to share your glory !!

There is one segment we are missing out on - and there is no 'investment' involved - the parents of students in US universities !! Why ??

Almost every US athlete comes from the university system (unless they come straight from high school and never got to the university). And I never knew this before - it is not just US athletes, a lot of top athletes from other countries are students training / competing at US universities.

So? - am not saying we should build a good inter-university system. There is already a huge representation of India in the US universities..and if the parents could also push the kids a little away from studies (a huge cultural shift nonetheless), we could get some top athletes trained (as I said at no additional investment)!

:)

Thank you Monkey !

My daughter started saying "thank you" a while back. In fact one of the first words she started speaking. You hand her something, and she says thank you - simple as that.

Then she started saying thank you, followed by the person's name. "Thank you amma" - even better !!

Last week, she suddenly switched over to saying thank you followed by the object she got. You give her a strawberry, she will say "thank you strawberry", or hand her the toy monkey, and of course, you get "thank you monkey!"

Don't tablet!

Recently a friend remarked "took my daughter to the doctor for a cold. He prescribed an inhaler spray! Looks like we have to find another doctor!"

Don't!. This and other new ways of drug delivery will get more common. The spray has 1/100th the dose of the same medicine as a tablet, and it reaches where it needs to (in this case, your lungs) directly.

Would you rather take a 100 times higher dose tablet, have that medicine run through your digestive system, bloodstream, liver, kidneys et all and finally give your lungs its recommended dose? We are just conditioned to be comfortable gulping tablets down.
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