4 more years...

Rewind 4 years earlier...it was a historic occasion when Barack Hussein Obama swept to victory as the first african american President of the United States. Fast forward to November 6th 2012, Obama is once again the toast of the nation and the world by securing a second term.

When Obama began his first term as the President of the United States he symbolized hope and the harbinger of real change. He did accomplish some major success like his pet healthcare reform which mandates insurance for all americans, bailing out the auto industry which helped save 150000 jobs in Ohio and neutralizing the threat of Osama Bin Laden. However his first term also meant a lot of unkept promises like the closure of Guantanamo bay where terror suspects are held without trial. Personally I have been disappointed with the continuing tirade by Obama and his administration against outsourcing of jobs to countries like India and China.

Agreed that the unemployment rate is high and a weak economy isn't helping but making the villains out of countries like India and China isn't going to solve the problem. U.S must solve its fiscal deficit, avoid getting involved in unnecessary wars, refocus on education, reform immigration and encourage innovation.

Coming back to the election, Obama has mastered the art of getting the non-white voters and the women to strongly back him. Is there a lesson in this for the grand old republican party? For starters, the grand old party should take a leaf out of Obama's book and start focusing on the changing demographics. In the coming years, the United States will see a sharply rising demographic trend of ethnic minorities of african americans, hispanics, asians and of course young men and women. It's this ethnic bloc which has delivered the numbers for Obama.

The republican party which still banks on the dwindling white voter should seriously introspect and undergo a major overhaul if it really fancies itself of having another shot at capturing the white house. If it would have been someone else the 47% comment would have sunk their chances but Mitt Romney miraculously survived. Also comments from Romney's republican party contenders about rape didn't go down well with voters especially women. Romney's 47% comment sent a message to the voters that here was a person who belongs to the elite club and who didn't care about the poor and the marginalized sections of the society whereas the perception of Obama was that he was one of their own man in the white house who came up the hard way.

Honestly speaking Obama looked good because the opposition to him was weak. Obama was hardly in trouble except for the bounce which Romney gained after the first presidential debate. However Obama had the last laugh when he fought back tenaciously in the second and third debate.

Obama winning 332 of the 538 electoral votes is pretty impressive but he will also be mindful of the fact that it was a mere 1% difference in popular votes between him and Romney.

Congratulations to Obama for defying history and convention by winning the presidential election with an unemployment rate of 7.9% and beating all odds even though his republican rival had outspent him.However Obama is pretty much aware of the challenges that lie ahead due to the divided congress.

On a lighter note, I couldn't help but laugh seeing the animated cartoon of the democratic elephant and the republican donkey fighting each other on the comedy central channel. The elephant is so exhausted beating the crap out of the donkey that it's huffing and puffing for breath. In the end, both collapse to the floor :)

(Image courtesy: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0881985.html) (Image courtesy:http://hotbedinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Romney-Obama.jpg)
(References: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Americas-ethnic-makeover-routs-Mitt-Romney/articleshow/17135097.cms)

Ice and coffee

My limo experience

Ek Tha Tiger

Logic...now that's something you don't associate with a Salman Khan movie. Dabangg, Wanted, Ready, Bodyguard (the list is long...phew) ...if someone watched those movies, they will exactly know what I meant.

Ek Tha Tiger dares to be refreshingly different. Lo and behold we finally have a script or something closer to that in a Salman Khan movie. No pun intended :) Salman Khan plays the role of Tiger, a RAW (acronym for India's external Intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing) agent. While not executing his missions across the world, tiger finds his relaxation in a middle class neighborhood in Delhi doing the regular chores like waking up in the morning to the doorbell from a milk vendor, inviting his boss over for a home made dinner and not to mention with his well toned body drawing oohs and aahs from the house wives much to the discomfort of their envious husbands.

Tiger meets his match in ISI agent Zoya (Katrina Kaif). The presence of Girish Karnad (after a long time) as Shenoy (head of RAW) and Ranvir Shorey (Gopi) as Salman's colleague is what lends gravitas to the movie. Shenoy's and Gopi's characters inject a touch of realism and some credibility to the story line.

Music by Sohail Sen and Sajid-Wajid is passable except for the penultimate song "Mashallah". What however deserves praise is the action scenes executed in overseas locations based in United Kingdom, Turkey and Cuba. Katrina who looks drop dread gorgeous gets to kick some ass and convincingly at that.

My memorable moments from the movie are when Shenoy says to Gopi "Duniya mein 201 desh hain aur use sirf Pakistan ki ladki se pyar hona tha" translated into English implies "out of 201 countries in the world you didn't get anyone else to fall in love other than one from Pakistan" or the scenes where in Tiger remembers his past missions when asked about questions regarding his marriage or his love for dogs.

The only disappointment with the movie is that it skims only the surface of the serious issues involved and doesn't take a stand. Anyways I guess it's too much to expect from a Salman movie :)

To sum it up this tiger doesn't belong to the wild, it belongs to somewhere else :)

(Image courtesy: http://media1.santabanta.com/full1/BollywoodMovies/EkThaTiger/ek-tha-tiger-6a.jpg)

Baseball & Cricket

Baseball

And mom makes history

It was a dream come true for me when Pramoda(my mother) arrived in the United States. Myself and my siblings owe much of the credit to mom's like Pramoda who have persevered and sacrificed the simple pleasures of life just to see that their children do well in life.

Spending my growing up years with her, I have come to respect mom for her intellect and wisdom. She is not perfect, does have her flaws as does every mom however she is an embodiment of compassion . The greyed strands of her hair, the wrinkles on her face and the vermillion on her forehead lend her a distinct aura.

I had titled this blog "And mom makes history", the reason being that hailing from a small village and her siblings of 6 sisters and a brother, nobody from her family had ever made a trip overseas. And also historic for the fact that mom was always dependent on us for travelling from our home to city or to our village. She travelled internationally for the first time without anyone accompanying her on a 26 hour long flight with 2 stops. Mom as a first time traveller was nervous and so were we.

However anxiety gave way to joy when I saw this frail person dressed in a saree anxiously looking forward to meeting her son. I was delighted and gave Pramoda a warm hug.

Speaking with limited or little English, Pramoda successfully reached her destination. Credit also goes to the helpful staff of Singapore Airlines.

As for Pramoda, Welcome to the United States :)

My worst moment !!

In the highs and lows of life sometimes we come across moments where we berate ourselves for doing something stupid and I blame the modern affliction of instant gratification for that. Now here's what happened. I was scouring the web for a mattress on Craig's list (www.craigslist.org) and then I thought I found a really good bargain. The ad was for a mattress with a bed frame and a set of wheels for $120 with a delivery at the door step option for an extra fee.

Now as the google caption says "I am feeling lucky", I thought that was a good deal. What I didn't realize was that the script was going to go awry very soon.:( When I called this person he asked me when can I come and have a look and then I asked him about the delivery option he immediately responded by saying text me your address and I will be there. This was a 3 year old mattress. I asked him whether it had any bugs and he replied none. I replied that I would need some time and he insisted that he will come and deliver.

I had called up my brother earlier regarding this ad however couldn't make contact. So this guy comes to my place and then I had a look at the mattress, I felt something was wrong as it wasn't looking as pretty as the picture in the ad. At that moment my phone rang and it was my brother, he asked me not to go for a used mattress but somehow as this guy had already come to my place I just paid him $120. His eyes lit up and he made a quick exit. When I started having a close look at the bed frame and the mattress and struggled to put the rails below the frame, I started having my own doubts. I could see stains and hair particles all over. I realized that an used mattress was not an good idea and when I was lifting the mattress, I had this itching sensation. I was really scared that by going for a cheap bargain, I would end up infesting my home with bugs and compromising on a good night's sleep. The last thing you would want was to sleep on a mattress which can have bugs crawling all over and ending up as a delicious meal for the blood thirsty creatures in the night.

I regained my senses and all the while huffing and puffing pulled the mattress and the bedframe towards the garbage bin. As I had a last glimpse of the mattress and the frame I saw my money go up in smoke. It all happened within an hour. I felt like a real loser, a jack ass and there are no words left to describe that eerie feeling which still persists. I immediately vacuumed my carpet, took a shower and put my clothes in the laundry. My only consolation was that I was able to cut my losses and even though I lost money, atleast I can sleep in peace. The moral of the story "Penny wise pound foolish", how true :(

(Image courtesy: http://www.maniacworld.com/stupid-people.jpg)
(Image courtesy: http://image.shutterstock.com/stock-vector-donkey-56207491.jpg)

In Memory

We would affectionately call her "Sarojini Doddama" (mom's sister). Last week was the saddest moment of my life as our Doddama passed away. She wasn't keeping well for a long time. The last time I met her there wasn't much meat on her body, she was so skinny that one could almost see her bones. She was suffering from an enlarged heart and a damaged liver.

From my childhood after my mom, she was like another mother to me. I loved her sense of humour, the way she used to poke fun at me. At times I was a bit annoyed when she used to shout at me however in a few moments she would show her tender side. I later realized that beyond her scoldings my Doddama had a heart of gold. Tracing the family tree, Doddama was one of the six sisters apart from a brother. My mom was the youngest of the siblings. Doddama even with her fragile body was a very active woman. She used to do all the household chores, tend the garden, graze the cows apart from being an amazing cook.

Sarojini Doddama's personal life was a mix of tragedy and a painful journey. She lost her husband in her prime, had to single handedly raise her son and also had to battle the social stigma of being a widow. She would work selflessly and would without a murmur even take care of her sibling's children's food, clothing and their essential needs but once their job was done, people were so ungrateful that they wouldn't even thank her.

For me, my brother, sis and mom going to our ancestral village in Padubidri was associated with meeting Doddamma. As we were far away from village, there was not much of a connection with Padubidri except during vacations. Whenever we would visit Padubidri, we knew Sarojini Doddama would always welcome us with open arms. We didn't have any emotional bonding with mom's other siblings when compared to Dodddama.

When I first heard the news on the phone, I couldn't imagine a world without her. Her dream was to see my sister getting married and she was adamant that the bride would leave from her place to the marriage hall. Tears welled up in my eyes and that night, I cried a lot. I didn't even cry when my sister got married. The tragedy is that I couldn't even see her last rites, one of the downsides of being away from home. It's an enormous personal loss for us as we feel we have lost our connection to Padubidri. Going to Padubidri now will never be the same.

With a heavy heart, we hope and pray that her soul rests in peace. We will miss you Sarojini Doddama :(

Avocado

I had always thought of Avocado as a fruit and never imagined that it's more like a vegetable which is used mostly in salads. I must confess that I have become a big fan of Avocado. Last time I tasted Avocado was when I was visiting my cousin. Today due to a busy schedule I had skipped lunch. To makeup for that, I sliced a Avocado into two, scooped out the fleshy part into a bowl and sprinkled some salt. Then I took a spoon and mixed it thoroughly.

I spread the avocado paste on to a slice of bread. When I started munching the bread, it felt like heaven. I thought that cheese and bread were made for each other...I guess I am wrong. Substitute it with Avocado. The rich buttery feel of avocado flesh makes it a healthy substitute (has a lot of vitamins and is rich in mono unsaturated fats) to cheese and taste wise, it beats cheese hands down. The only sore point with the Avocado is that it turns brownish very soon, even if you refrigerate it. After researching the web, I did find a solution - Lemon Juice :) Now that did have some desired effect but not totally...however it works for me :)

(Image courtesy: http://img2.timeinc.net/health/images/slides/avocado-heart-400x400.jpg)
(References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado)