Pavansut: The Monkey God

Vaccines, Medicines, and the Fragile Triumph of Modern Health

2025-09-09T12:38:00.008-04:00

In 1800, life expectancy in the United States was less than 40 years. Infectious disease cut life short with relentless regularity. Smallpox, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and cholera struck down children and adults alike. Death at a young age was expected.

Two centuries later, Americans life expectancy is nearly 80 years and infant mortality is rare. Smallpox has been eradicated, and diseases like Heart disease and cancer, once untreatable, can now be managed for years. This amazing transformation is one of humanity’s greatest achievements and it rests heavily on one of the most cost-effective tools ever devised: pharmaceutical innovation, especially vaccines.

Yet that triumph is under a significant threat. This summer, several senior leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—including the agency’s top vaccine experts—resigned in protest, citing political interference and a push to scale back vaccine programs. The measles outbreak in Texas in January that killed two children, is a warning sign - results of not vaccinating a child can have potentially fatal consequences. Yet, states like Florida are going against scientific recommendations and deciding to ban vaccine mandates.

The resignations at the CDC came just weeks after the CDC director was dismissed. Dr. Debra Houry, a longtime CDC leader, wrote in her resignation letter, “Vaccines save lives—this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact”. These resignations are a signal of crisis of confidence in the very institutions charged with protecting Americans’ health. And they remind us that the scientific gains of the last two centuries are fragile, dependent on continued investment and public trust.

The historic record is clear

The story of modern health is mostly a story of innovation in medicines and vaccines.

Vaccines turned childhood death from an inevitability into a rarity. Smallpox, once killing 30 percent of those infected, was eradicated by 1980. Measles, polio, and diphtheria declined dramatically. Globally, routine immunizations now prevent 2–5 million deaths every year.
Antibiotics transformed once-fatal infections into manageable conditions, enabling safe surgery, cancer chemotherapy, and organ transplantation. Modern medicine would collapse without them.
Chronic disease drugs reshaped aging. Antihypertensives, statins, and anti-platelet therapies halved U.S. heart disease death rates between 1980 and 2000. Since 1991, the U.S. cancer death rate has fallen by one-third, thanks in part to drug innovations alongside prevention and screening.

Few human inventions can claim such sweeping impact.

Medicines are the best bargain in health care

Despite their power, medicines often attract disproportionate scrutiny over cost. But the numbers tell a different story:

In the U.S., prescription drugs account for less than 10 percent of total health care spending.
Hospital care, by comparison, consumes about 30 percent. Physician services add another 20.
Vaccines, in particular, deliver extraordinary returns. Every dollar spent on routine childhood immunization saves about $10 in direct health costs.

So, put simply, medicines are not the financial problem in American health care. If anything, they are often the solution—preventing far more expensive hospitalizations, surgeries, and long-term care.

Why vaccines deserve special protection

Among all health interventions, vaccines are unique in that they prevent disease rather than treat it. They deliver lifelong protection at minimal cost and protect communities through herd immunity, shielding even those who cannot be vaccinated.

When vaccination rates decline, this protective shield weakens. Outbreaks of measles and whooping cough in recent years demonstrate how quickly once-conquered diseases can resurface.

That is why the current erosion of trust is so dangerous. Rolling back vaccine programs risks not only individual lives but also the collective health of entire communities.

The future depends on innovation

Beyond vaccines, pharmaceutical innovation remains essential. Antimicrobial resistance threatens to undo the antibiotic revolution, with drug-resistant infections already killing millions of people each year worldwide.As new pathogens emerge, we will need new vaccines and antivirals. And chronic diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes still demand better therapies.

The United States has long led the world in biomedical innovation, but that leadership depends on a robust partnership between the private sector and public institutions like the CDC, NIH, and FDA. Undermining these institutions weakens not just American health security but also global progress.

Policy priorities for a fragile gains

To preserve two centuries of gains, we need clear priorities:

Reinforce science-based leadership. Public health institutions must remain anchored in evidence, not politics.
Rebuild public trust. Public trust in our institutions is eroding. Evidence-driven policy and transparent communications are essential to this erosion of trust
Sustain investment in vaccines and medicines. Both routine immunizations and innovating drugs and vaccines for emerging major threats require consistent funding
Expand equitable access. Cost barriers undermine the effectiveness of medicines. Removing them improves outcomes and reduces overall system spending
Align prices with value. Innovative therapies should be rewarded, but industry and public institutions should work together so that affordability does not become an issue

A need to defend progress

The doubling of human life expectancy over the past 200 years is among humanity’s proudest achievements. Medicines and vaccines were central to that story. They remain the most scalable and cost-effective means of improving health.

But progress is not permanent. The recent turmoil at the CDC is a warning sign: when science is sidelined, the gains of centuries can be undone in decades.

Vaccines, in particular, are perhaps the single greatest public health innovation in history. They deserve not just defense but renewed investment, continual improvement, and strong institutional guardianship.

Science, when sustained and trusted, delivers prosperity measured in lives saved and years lived. The challenge now is to ensure that history records not a retreat from progress, but a renewed commitment to it.

Democrats - the time to rebuild starts now

2024-11-06T15:57:00.004-05:00

The 2024 elections are over and the Democrats got an unimaginable drubbing. Not only did Trump ended up winning the Presidential elections, it has been a complete rout of the Democrats. Someone should have reminded them of Bill Clinton's dictum - "Its the economy, stupid". Instead, the Republicans ran on the economy platform and in spite of a rather robust American economy, the electorate handed the Democrats the Pink slip.

And what a defeat it was! Presidency, lost. Senate, lost. House, on the way to a loss. There wasn't face saving even in gubernatorial elections - Democrats handed a couple of states to the Republicans! What a disaster!

There are plenty of lessons in this election for the Democrats.

This country is NOT ready for a woman President. That should not mean one should not try. But it does mean that the candidate better have a strong message and a strong presence. Vice President Harris did not have any visible and high value assignments until late. Thus, the doubt in many peoples mind was, could she do the job? If Democrats have the vision of putting a woman in the White House, it will require a concerted effort on the part of the political establishment. It will require Democrats to start by identifying a cadre of talented, educated, charismatic women and putting them in important and visible roles. And that cannot be a Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters. It needs to be someone in their 30s and 40s.
Races cannot be won by changing horses mid cycle. The Democrat establishment didn't have a contingency plan for Biden not running, so they landed in this difficult predicament. Clearly there was a LOT of discussion and hand wringing, seen from the fact that Obama did not endorse the decision to change candidates until very late. If they had a plan, the decision could have been swift and the party machinery could have geared up quickly behind their candidate. The whole idea of contingency planning is to prepare for the unexpected. Thus Democrats would be well advised to have a contingency plan for every high stakes elections whether local, regional or national.
Democrats cannot win elections if vast swaths of the country are not with them. Democrats have traditionally relied on liberal pockets in the major metropolitan areas on both coasts. Yes, these city people understand and appreciate the Democrat social and economic policies but the idea that a 'blue wall' alone will propel them to a win is a pipe dream. Democrats need to dig deeper to try and understand the needs of the heartlanders and southerners. Why is it that the social and economic policies of Democrats, which are geared towards helping the poor and middle class, do not appeal to these voters? Perhaps they are not speaking their language and the message is getting muddled. The rural, farm communities need their help as much as the city poor and middle class electorate and Democrats need to learn to speak their language if they have any chance of winning in future.
Democrats have to learn to 'earn' the vote. It is a mistake to think of people as being monolithic. Just as not all men think alike, not all women think alike either, nor do all Blacks and Hispanics think in one way. If an issue like abortion could not unite women to vote for a woman President, nothing will. Instead, there needs to be sharper targeting of messages to large blocks of people. Eg, for women, it's the message of abortion to one block, family values to another, right to equal pay for another and perhaps a religious message for yet another.

Plenty more to learn from this debacle, but the main question now is what should we expect in the next four years? Here are my top four:

America will take on a more isolationist tone. In Trump's mind, 'America First' is a financial strategy - a way to reduce the economic burden of International leadership on the United States. (truth be told, it is more a 'they are not paying their share' gripe than 'it is very costly to the US') This means United States, the world's largest economy, will pull back from contributing its share to NATO, UN, WHO etc that the world expects and needs. Expect US to abdicate responsibilities core to American leadership in the International arena, leading to a diminished stature on the world stage ceding the stage to the likes of China and Russia. Eventually this will lead to the US becoming unable to control the chaos and potentially instability that will undoubtedly ensue as rival countries like China, Russia, Iran seek to challenge the International norms. Let's start with the Middle East - a powder keg ready to burst. Or Taiwan - which will likely be contested over by China, come 2027.
Income inequality will increase within the United States. The economic policies of this new administration is likely to have a long term negative impact on the poor, not the rich. The rich will likely get richer and poor will inevitably get poorer. Analysts are already predicted that the policies from tariffs to tax cut proposed by Trump will disproportionately impact the poor and middle class in a negative manner. 'Deporting' migrants en masse will result in significant reduction of labor force in industries like Agriculture and construction which employ large numbers of people in some of the lowest paying jobs. Overall it is likely to be a disaster for the very people who voted Trump in the office.
Expect a devastating impact on environment. Regulations from 'clean water act' to 'clean air act' will be gutted. Climate deniers will gain an upper hand and efforts to move away from fossil fuels will take a back seat. Science will take a back seat to pseudoscience. Climate change? What climate change? Health care for all? Trump has tried to repeal Obama care and is likely to try again.
Supreme Court will turn even more conservative as older justices seek retirement and are replaced by right wing ideologues. This will mean more conservative social policies and a literal reading of the constitution. Right to abortion - no chance. Gun control - no chance. Separation of Church and state - gutted.

It seems that none of the misdeeds of the previous four Trump years mattered to the electorate, nor did the insurrection of January 6. The masses were so mesmerized that all misdeeds were forgiven. The election disaster is a sad end to a very promising Biden era. I was truly hoping that we will have a Woman President this year. But that was not to be.

For now Democrats can only sit and watch. But the next election cycle is only two years away and the time to rebuild for it is NOW.

Fall Colors Tour - 2024

2024-09-29T12:31:00.002-04:00

Mridul Masi is here!!

My masi (aunt) by relation, Mridul is only six months older than me. Perhaps for this reason, and perhaps because both of us were born in Soureni, the tea garden nestled in the hills of Darjeeling, we have the kind of connection siblings have. Over the years we have come to realize that we are similar in many ways - we enjoy the hills, we love nature, we believe in chasing big dreams, etc etc. But most of all, we both enjoy travel and while I have travelled all over the world, I have never had the opportunity to travel with Mridul.

Last time I saw Mridul was when we visited her gorgeous hillside home in Coonoor. At that time she had mentioned that she was interested in seeing the fall foliage. Since neither of us have done a Fall tour of the north east, it made sense to plan a trip together. And so here we are, mid September, planning a fall foliage trip. Our plan will take us into the Canadian North East and from there we will come down back into the US.

First from Pennington we will zoom up to Montreal - a quick 8 hour ride, and spend a couple nights there. Montreal is one of my favorite cities and I expect it will be very colorful with fall foliage. I can't wait to see Mount Royal, which should be splendidly decked in fall colors. We will of course visit McGill university, but my plan is to visit Jardin Botanique, the Biodome, Musée Pointe-à-Callière & McCord. If we had more time, I would love to spend it here, but two days in Montreal should be good enough to 'sample' this beautiful city.

From Montreal, we intend to drive up Rt. 138 to go to Quebec City. Along the way we might stop in Trois-Rivieres and drive up to La Maurice National Park if time allows. We will spend a couple nights in Quebec City and explore both the Lower town and Upper town. There is so much to see around Quebec City but with two days I expect we will spend a large portion of our time in Old Quebec visiting Chateau Frontenac, the Citadel, St. Joseph Street etc, but if time allows, we will drive to Mont Morency Falls.

Then from Quebec City, we will drive up the east of St. Lawrence River to Riviere-du-Loop and go around Maine, coming down on Canadian Rt. 2 to St. John, in New Brunswick. This is a long six hour drive, so we will likely be tired at the end of the day. We will rest the night and do sign seeing the next day, and spend a second night in St. John to leave next morning for Bar Harbor. Main purpose of visiting St. John is to see my favorite niece, Riddhi. Riddhi has decided to settle down in this small town with her soon-to-be husband Colin, and I am curious to meet him and his family.

Next stop - Maine.

Every one who has been to Maine has told me that the Coastal highway in Acadia National Park is a 'must see' attraction. So we expect to spend a full day in ANP driving around taking pictures and enjoying the foliage. Two nights in the area should be good enough to drive around Bar Harbor, Bangor and Augusta to experience the Fall beauty of Maine.

From Maine we will head over to Vermont. It's a six hour drive on twisty Rt. 2, which should be very pleasant given the lovely colors of the season. We hope to see many a small towns, but I am told that there is a Paul Bunyan Statue in Rumford and Skowhegan has the world's tallest Indian, so both will be on my to-visit list.

Our Air BnB is about an hour north of Stowe, but Vermont is fall foliage paradise so it should be fun driving from the ABnB to Stowe. There is so much to see in and around Stowe but one thing on our list is to go to Woodstock and check out this picturesque little town.

After a couple nights in Stowe, we will start our journey downwards towards New Jersey, potentially stopping in Poughkeepsie or such small town along the Hudson river.

This is our itinerary for the 9/10 day trip. I will post reports from our travels once our trip begins.

Use of iPhone's Live Photo image

2024-09-29T10:55:00.003-04:00

iPhone, by default, takes live images, which are nothing but a series of images taken a nano second after the other. Stitching these together these images appear as a short video in iPhone. I have often been frustrated with the Live Image feature because it takes up so much space in the Phone drive, not realizing that the feature could be very useful some times.

Today as I was editing the photo below, which if of a lake in Maharashtra, I found the 'loop' feature of live image, which when applied to this image, made is come alive!! The movement of the water transported me back to the days when I was at the lake enjoying the beautiful sunset. What a feeling that was!

Then the question was, how do I share this image so that others could also enjoy the same experience? I saved the image in JPG format but that just flattened the image and did not save the movement. But when I exported the photo to GIF format, the movement remained.

So I exported the image in GIF format and viola....here is the result of the effort. Not bad, eh?

The Rejuvenated Hopewell Valley Golf Club in New Jersey

2024-06-18T19:32:00.000-04:00

One of the greatest joys of living in New Jersey, is the opportunity to experience its beautiful spring weather. After a very mild winter, 2024 Spring arrived in gusto and gave me the opportunity to start golfing. I joined the Mercer County golf league and now every Monday I get to enjoy the great golf outdoors.

For the first month (May) we golfed at Princeton Country Club, which is an 'OK' golf course. It is very close to the Delaware water canal and so when ever it rains, it often floods and is impossible to golf. But in the month of June, we started to golf at Hopewell Valley Golf Club, a real gem situated in the heart of Hopewell township.

Photo credit: Sunil Joshi | Hopewell Valley Golf Course

Hopewell Valley Golf Club operated as a private club for many decades, but after the original owners passed away, the course fell into disrepair. There were no buyers because of the slow down in the interest in golf post COVID 19, so the course and the country club went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 2020, Mercer county purchased the course for ~$2.5M and since then has sunk another $2-3M in refurbishing it. Today, in my opinion, it is the best golf course in Mercer county.

The property is situated on 186 acres and boasts a PGA course designed by Thomas Hinton.

Photo credit: Sunil Joshi | Hopewell Valley Golf Course

From talking to the golf pros at the course, I understand that Mercer County operates four courses and generates a healthy profit, which allows them to not only provide recreational services to the county residents, but also gives them the opportunity to expand the green open spaces in the county.

It is always heartening to see the tax dollars being applied to good uses and to preserve the lifestyle we have come to enjoy so much.

Photo credit: Sunil Joshi | Hopewell Valley Golf Course

Felicitating Vijit Bharara

2024-06-18T19:04:00.001-04:00

Photo: Bharara family at the function honoring Vijit Bharara. Vijit Bharara is 6th from right with his mother Desh to his left, and his son to his right. Older brother Preet is fourth from right, and father Jagdish Bharara is fourth from the left

On June 1, 2024, TiE NJ felicitated Vijit Bharara for his accomplishments as a successful South Asian businessman. My friend Anjan Lahiri, CEO of Navikenz AI Consulting (third from left) did a fabulous job of interviewing Vijit in the fireside chat format, where we got to learn about the illustrious Bharara family. Vijit is younger brother to Preet Bharara, who is famous in his own right as the New York federal prosecutor for bringing corrupt business men to justice. Both mom Desh Bharara and dad Jagdish Bharara were in attendance as were the in-laws of Vijit.

It was some thing to learn that both Preet and Vijit were educated in New Jersey public schools and still live in New Jersey. The love and respect between the two brothers was obvious, as were the lessons of hard work and perseverance inculcated in the two sons by the Bharara parents.

The TiE annual gala was held in Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, NJ.

The Great Eclipse of 2024

2024-04-11T01:08:00.000-04:00

I don’t know what that fuss was all about. After all it’s just an eclipse! Nothing changed. The sun is the same, and so is the moon. For a moment, the shadow of the moon fell on our part of the earth and the whole world just went ga ga. True, the next one will be in 20 years, when I will be 82 years old! If I live that long, that is. May be this will be my last one. But it’s good to know that when these huge celestial objects are busy crossing each other’s paths, mankind is busy killing each other in Ukraine and Gaza and Xijiang and other places. Way to go, mankind, way to go!! May be the Great Eclipse of 2024 was not the Solar eclipse in the skies, but the Great Eclipse of Reason happening right here on Plant Earth!

Podcasts I Am Enjoying Now (Updated)

2024-04-07T10:48:00.002-04:00

We are living in an amazing era where expert knowledge is available to us at our fingertips. In fact, there is sooo much interesting stuff out there that any one with any interest in even the most esoteric of topics can find a podcast or blog devoted to it. Over the last few months, I have been listening to several podcasts that have enriched my life significantly and here are my top three. I hope you get to listen to some of these and benefit from their wisdom:

People I Mostly Admire: This podcast by Steve Levitt, the co-author of Freakonomics, is absolutely my favorite podcast, and each week I eagerly await the next episode. In this podcast, Steve, who is a behavioral economist, interviews people famous for having achieved some level of excellence in the field of their choice. The goal of the podcast is to expose us to unique and some times controversial ideas to get us thinking. Past guests have included Daniel Kahneman (Thinking Fast & Slow), Rajiv Shah (Who led the mission to help Haiti recover from a devastating earthquake), Arnold Schwarzenegger (yes, the Arnold who beat up bad guys in movies and then became a two time governor of California), Fei-Fei Li (who taught computers to recognize images), Abraham Verghese (who is a wonder Infectious Disease specialist and a great writer of stories) etc etc. Each episode comes with a list of additional reading material if one is interest in digging deeper into the topic of the guests interest. Where else would you get to listen to such eclectic group of people
Empire: Here is a podcast for the history buffs. Run by the incomparable historian duo William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, this podcast started as a deep dive into the origins and demise of the British Empire in India but quickly morphed into an analysis of all forms of empires, from British to French to Russian to Persian etc. It would be a huge disservice to this podcast to be called ‘entertainment’ but the entertaining it is while being tremendously educational! If all history teachers were to adopt the conversational and easy going style of Anita and William, (suffused with a huge dose of irreverent humor) students will come to enjoy history once again. The podcast has become so popular that it has spawned a club of sorts where one can fawn over Anita’s wit and Williams deep knowledge a week or two in advanc of the general public. Cheapskate that I am, I haven’t joined the club but I do intend to support the podcasters by buying their books.
The Investors Podcast Network: The third podcast I listen to most often is We Study Billionaires by The Investors Podcast Network. This podcast does deep dive into the investment strategies of investors who have made it big. Some of the investors they have covered are Charile Munger, Warren Buffet, Stig Brodersen etc, but the TIP doesn't just focus on investors, sometime they interview people who have written influential books (eg. Robert Caldini of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion) or developed an investing philosophy that is different from the traditional (eg. Jonathan Boyer who releases "The forgotten 40 list of stocks for each year). TIP also puts out other genre of podcasts such as one on Bitcoin (which I ignore) or Richer Wiser Happier (which I sometimes listen to) that breaks the monotony of TIP. I have found these podcasts as a source of many ideas to improve my own thinking about investing and life in general.
Dwarkesh: Dwarkesh interviews some of the most interesting characters around. For instance, I really enjoyed the interview he did of Tony Blair, the ex-PM of UK. Dwarkesh is hard hitting without being adversorial, and helps us get into the mind of the interviewee. And the folks he interviews are absolutely movers and shakers. He's interviewed Mark Zuckerberg, John Schulman, Marc Andreessen - I mean, he is bringing some of the biggest names into our living rooms. What more can one ask! Give it a listen - I think this is a hidden gem that some how I stumbled upon, and am enjoying it thoroughly.

There are hundreds of podcasts available to anyone with interest in any topic, and believe me I would love to listen to them all. However, with these three podcasts, I have enough subject matter to listen to as I am working in my vineyard or driving on the highway.

Just the way Ekalavya in Mahabharata learned the art of archery without a guru, today anyone can learn the principles of living a good life simply at the press of a button with these free resources.

Travelling to Cognac, enroute to Bordeaux

2024-03-03T11:20:00.008-05:00

Statue in the courtyard of Palace of Counts of Poitou

Standing in the line for the Airlink Express bus in West-End of Edinburgh, I was wondering if I had done the right thing. After all, Taxi to the airport would have only cost about 25 pounds. But I wanted to travel like the way Brits do - using public transportation. So here I was, standing in the line for the airport bus, at 6am, hoping that the bus would not be late and I would not be delayed. As it would happen, the bus came on time and 40 minutes later I was dropped off right in from to the checkin area at Edinburgh Airport. Total cost - £5.50! Great to start the day with savings.

My plan was to meet Ruben and Rosa somewhere near Bordeaux, and the easiest way for me to get there was to take Ryan Air to a town called Poitiers, and then from there take the train to Saintes (pronounced Sānt). Ruben and Rosa, who were driving in from Valencia, would meet me at Saintes and we would head out from there to the town of Cognac.

Landing in Poitiers, I was picked up by my AirBnB hostess, Shaïna, a nice young lady who brought me to her property on Rue de la Tranchee. Shaïna had only recently purchased the apartment and fixed it up with the help of her father and brother, and was now renting it out. And I may have been her very first guest, for the apartment was pristine and still smelled of wall paint! Poitiers is a small town of <100,000 residents so I was surprised that there would be as many AirBnBs as there were until Shaïna informed me that the town attracted a lot of travelers on account of the many universities.

Shaïna's home is very close to the City center, and afternoon was pleasant enough to take a walk. The first monument to send me down the historic lane to 3rd or 4th century around a wall built by the Romans. Today, just inside the wall sits the massive Maubergeon Tower of the Palace of the Counts of Poitou - Dukes of Aquitaine. Over the last 1000 years, many a residents have come and gone and yet the massive edifice stands. Alas, the castle was closed as it is being refurbished as a tourist attraction.

However, the biggest attraction, the Notre-Dame la Grande church in city center was wide open and a great visit. This church is over a thousand years old and has withstood the test of time thru many wars and other onslaughts. The story of the church can be read here, including a funny but interesting story of the missing keys. The frescoes painted on the walls of the church and the painted columns gives the church a degree of beauty that makes the visit worth while.

My visit to Poitiers was very serendipitous. It happened to be the only place where a flight connection was available. But for that, I would have had no reason to visit Poitiers. But once here, I realized that this region at one time had great deal of significance to the English and the French. Historically, France and England have been allys and bitter enemies, and the region has changed hands between England and France from time to time. Poitiers, in fact, is most famous for the Battle of Poitiers in which the English monarch King Edward III defeated French King John II and took him into custody. You can read the very interesting description of this battle on Britannica website.

Stained Glass Window in the Church of Notre-Dame la Grande

Painted Frescoes in the Church of Notre-Dame la Grande

Some of the interior frescoes are in bad shape and need to be repaired. Otherwise these frescoes aren't going to last much longer

The Blossac Park

One surprise find of my visit to Poitiers was the realization that this little town is full of gems like Park of Blossac. This park used to be a private garden of the Count of Blossac, Paul Esprit Marie de La Bourdonnaye, who had it constructed in the late 18th century. The garden itself is on the top of the hill with a small terraced gardern overlooking the Clain river. I only was staying overnight and had to catch a train at 11.30 am. So, I took advantage of the great weather early next morning, and went down to the park for a stroll. It was amazing. Very peaceful, and hardly anyone there except a few joggers.

Before I knew it, the morning hours had flown by and I had to walk down to the train station to Saintes. Unfortunately, at that hour there was no direct train to Saintes, so I had to stop in a station called Niort and take a second train from there to Saintes.

Having a little bit of time between trains, I took a walk outside Niort and looked around, but Niort was even sleepier town than Poitiers and nothing was open. So, I simply walked back to the station and grabbed a sandwich from the self serve and enjoyed it while waiting for the train.

Niort

Niort seems like a town in the boonies. Yet the train station was very nice, excellent construction and the train service itself was great. The train had five carriages, and as many passengers! May be the trains are busier at other times, but at this time there were hardly any passengers. In about an hour and four stops later I was in Saintes, waiting for Rosa and Ruben, who arrived shortly thereafter and we started for the town of Cognac, our first stop on this wine and cognac tour.

Cognac is 28 Kms due west of Saintes, and a relatively straight drive on highway N141. It took us barely 30 minutes to get into Cognac and we had sufficient time to walk around the town and get the lay of the land.

One thing I am coming to realize as I travel around Europe, these large brands that are famous the world over, are based in small towns and are the life blood of local economies, providing jobs to hundreds of people in towns around them. While most of us have been exposed to very famous brands like Hennessy, Martell, Courvoisier, there are also these small and not-so-famous brands that are family owned and distilleries managed by two or three people. We planned to go to one of those Cognac factories, but unfortunately ran out of time so ended up spending the next morning simply walking around the town and visiting Meukow Distillery.

Celebrating Friendship in Style

2023-09-25T08:57:00.004-04:00

When Sujay invited me to a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland to celebrate a milestone birthday with some friends, I thought it would be a small group of four or five friends who would get together for a weekend of fun and golf. Well, this was hardly a boys weekend out - it was more a destination wedding-like-celebration with (what seemed like) 35-40 close friends of the Kango family invited to spend an highly choreographed weekend in Edinburgh.

Hemanshu and I, at Winton Castle with Kalindi and Sujay Kango,
celebrating 30 years of their engagement

In the annals of friendship celebrations, I think this one will go down as one of the big ones. Kalindi and Sujay went extraordinarily out of their way to make this celebration a grand one. For starters, just like a wedding, every thing was choreographed to a T. So much so that for one of the events there was even a dress code announced! Of course, as is my wont, I ignored the itinerary/instructions and realized my faux pas upon landing in Edinburgh!! Yes yes, I’m guilty as charged…one can take the horse to the water but... etc etc., nevertheless, within every mistake resides an opportunity and mine came in the form of a tartan bow tie that rescued me. And now I can claim to belong to the ‘Stewart clan’ (of Mary Queen of Scotts fame no less)!

As celebrations go, this reminded me of my days in Pharma. Every day was meticulously planned, starting with a set time for breakfast, a set time for departure and and sets of activities to participate in. The Kangos even included a small memento which will remind us of the celebration for years to come.

Included among various activities were a visit to Edinburgh castle, a visit to Edinburgh underground (ghost tour) a round of golf at St. Andrew’s and a trip to a distillery, all led by a guide, who had been hired for the entire trip. There was even some free time built in for some R&R for those who needed it.

The highlight of the trip was the dinner at Winton castle where we got to participate in the sport of falconry! It was exciting to learn about this sport of rich and famous, but alas a dying art. The birds were gorgeous and as a bonus, so was the handler!

Naresh handling a bird of prey with tender love and care

Of course the main highlight of the event was people - the Kango friends and family.

It was so great to see Komal and Sonal after such a long time. I came to know the sisters when they were little kids - Sonal was 10 years old when I first met her - soon she will become a full fledged veterinarian going into practice. If she chooses to live any where close to New Jersey, I will be taking my cats to her.

Komal has blossomed into such a beautiful young lady, always smiling, casting a spell on everyone with her beautiful smile. Both sisters participated in the event enthusiastically, intermingling with everyone such that I never felt we were seeing them after a long time. Kalindi and Sujay must be really proud of their daughters.

For me, the highlight was seeing Kaku (Sujay's mother) in good spirits. In spite of her advanced age she was right there, participating in all the events intermingling with the younger crowd and reining over the event.

And finally, this event brought me closer to so many of Sujay's friends - whether it is the boisterous Nikhil and Ram or the laid back Charu. I had heard these names many times in conversations, but did not have the occasion of meet many of these friends. After meeting these guys now it is clear that Sujay and Kalindi have gone through life collecting friends the way one collects jewels. Each and everyone of these friends is truly a gem and I can see why the Kangos wanted to spend time with them together.

Standing in front of the Temple of Golf

I could say something about Golf at St. Andrews, but I am quite certain that Golf Gods like Payne Stewart, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan must be rolling in their graves (with laughter, mind you) after watching my performance. In other words, about my performance the less I say, the better it is. If it wasn't Hemant's power drives, Hemanshu's deft putting, and Makrand’s caddy guided precision hits, I would still be at the course, struggling to get through the front nine!

The best thing I did at the golf course was take pictures!!

Yet, the whiskey tour following the round of golf sufficiently numbed my pain and the day ended rather peacefully with a good desi dinner.

I am grateful to the Kango family that they included me in this wonderful gathering. More than being invited to the event, it is heartening to know that Kalindi and Sujay consider me worthy of their friendship. It amazes me that our friendship has lasted over a decade and I truly hope that this friendship will remain strong for another couple decades.

Kango family, the best is yet to come. I hope you get to celebrate many such events in the years to come surrounded by your friends and family. Thanks for a great experience - I am certain I will cherish the memories for years.

Enroute but delayed

2023-09-21T20:43:00.001-04:00

This is how my vacation has started. I was enroute to Hamilton station to take a train to Newark International Airport, on my way to Edinburgh, and the phone started to buzz - message from United Airlines - my 11.50 pm flight has been delayed by two hrs!! Some kind of mechanical failure lead the airline to require a change in aircraft. They offered to change my flight but the first flight is literally in 45 mins (which obviously I can't make), and the next flight is tomorrow.

So here I am, sitting in a rather empty NJ Transit train still headed to Newark airport, hoping that the delay is indeed only 2 hrs and not longer.

The trip to Edinburgh is in the honor of my friend and mentor Sujay turning 60. Like all things he does, he decided to celebrate his 60th birthday in style, in Edinburgh, with a few friends and family. We will of course partake of some delicious scotch, but we'll also get to enjoy a round of golf at St.Andrew's, the birth place of golf (#bucketlist!!)

After spending the weekend in Edinburgh, I will then head over to Bordeaux to spend a few days with my other great friends Ruben and Rosa. This is our second trip together, exploring wine regions of the world, first one being in Spain (Priorat region).

So, all that remains now is to set foot on the European soil (yes UK is still in Europe, even though it chose to divorce itself from European Union) and let the parties begin! 😃

#turningsixty

#bucketlist

Devesh Batra, you will be missed!!

2023-09-10T18:39:00.001-04:00

In this day and age when life expectancy of a man is around 85 years, death of a person at the age of 54 is undoubtedly a shocking news. Unfortunately this shock came to me early this week when I received a text message stating that my friend Devesh Batra is no more.

I don't remember how I first met Devesh, but I remember that when I founded ASAP, NJ (Association of South Asian Professionals) in early 2000s, Devesh and his sister Suchitra, were one of the first to join the organization. Over next weeks and months we became good friends not only because we shared the one thing that was common amongst ASAP member - that we were single and bored - but also because Devesh was a genuinely nice guy who was always there to help people. When ever I had any issue - whether it was a computer networking issue - of which I had many - or issue related to an esoteric topic like immigration, Devesh was a fountain of knowledge, always ready to help.

In the early days of ASAP, we had many potlucks organized in Devesh's house or mine, attended by Devesh and Suchitra. Later, when he got married to Shachi, ASAP became a good way to integrate his bride into the network of friends. Almost every other week we would meet in someone or other home, whether it was Oumila's home, or Rohit's or Ann's or Dipti's or Vijee's - Devesh and Shachi became fixtures in our parties. Devesh had a large library of music and he would often become the un-official DJ of our parties.

Then Nidhi arrived, and the venue of our meetings changed to Durga Mandir. My life had also changed with Madhu and Jaya entering my life, and now instead of attending ASAP parties, we moved on to going to Durga Mandir regularly. Devesh and Shachi (and Nidhi of course) would often be there, volunteering their time. We would arrive to Durga Mandir 45 minutes to an hour early so that Jaya, Nidhi, Sasha and Anika could run around and play while waiting for Aarti. The kids grew up knowing each other through those early years attending Durga Mandir Sunday Aarti and langars.

Devesh and Shachi lived in the same neighborhood of Smith Crossing, so it wasn't that unusual for us to see each other on walks or when taking kids around on Halloween nights. But Devesh was also my chief trouble shooter when it came to technical issues. One time I was trying to establish a home network and I called Devesh for help. "Come on over", he said. "Let me show you the network I have installed in my home". Those were early days of home networking but Devesh had put a sophisticated network in his house, where you could watch any movie in his collection, and access any files from any where in the house. The server itself was in the basement, made out of a computer that he had build himself from parts that he had bought on the internet. Devesh was such a gifted tech nerd, and he wore that label with pride!

After leaving Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), I left for California in 2012 and the family soon followed. We lost touch with the Batras, and other than an occasional face book post, I didn't hear much about Devesh. But when we returned in 2017, the Batras were still here in Pennington, active as always in the Indian circle of friends. At the Diwali function in 2018, our daughter Jiya was going to showcase a dance she had been studying with Chetna. And who do I find managing the audio visual equipment? Devesh of course, lending his time and talent as always.

We no longer lived in the same neighborhood so seeing each other regularly became a challenge. Then I heard that Devesh had lost his job and we spoke briefly about the stress of leaving a company in which one had invested the best years of their lives. I tried to assure him that not only would he find a better job, my own experience was that my life had become much richer once I had left the safety net of BMS. Devesh was entrepreneurial so he got re-hired as a consultant and life kept going.

Soon both Joshis and Batras entered the 'college' era with both Jaya and Nidhi graduating high school within a year of each other. One day I learned that Nidhi had joined Johns Hopkins and that the Batras had left New Jersey. We both got busy in the humdrum routine of life and lost touch with each other.

Then last week came the shocking news - Devesh was no more.

"Impossible!" I thought. "Devesh is so young! It just can't be!" Alas the news was true. My thoughts immediately went to Nidhi and Shachi, but my main connection to the Batra family was Devesh and I had neither Nidhi nor Shachi's contact information. I reached out to Suchitra with a condolence message, half hoping that the information was wrong. "No one has been able to come to terms with it", was her response.

So it was true.

Then someone forwarded the information on the Service being held for Devesh.

The Service, which was held at Chandler Funeral Home in Delaware, was a modest Hindu ceremony attended by a large crowd. I did not know anyone there except for Shachi, Nidhi and Suchitra, but there were over 200 people in the room. Clearly Devesh had made many more friends in his new home town, and many of them had come to say goodbye to their young friend. It was emotional to see Nidhi performing the religious rites to send her father off to the next world. Although it must have been gut wrenching, Nidhi closely followed the priest's instructions and performed the rituals with dignity and grace, staying strong and holding back tears. Her voice may have wavered once or twice but she held her emotions in check to thank the friends and family who had arrived to say good bye to her father. Hindu rites were followed by a beautiful singing of Ardas by Sikh friends, and the event ended with a floral Shrdhanjali by the attendees.

I know Devesh that we weren't in touch these the last few years. I wish we had stayed in touch more, but my friend know that you have left a big hole in our hearts and we will miss you terribly. We have lost you too soon - 54 is no age to leave us. But mortality is a very real thing and your loss has only reinforced the almost trite message that every day is precious, that we should make the most of today for no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

Stay smiling my friend, in whatever dimension you are in. May you find love and happiness in the after-life, the way you showered it on all of us here in this life. RIP Devesh.

Villa Palladio, Jaipur

2022-12-18T17:25:00.002-05:00

Lovely article on Villa Palladio, the latest Rajasthani haveli in Jaipur converted into a luxury boutique hotel in Conde Nast. Here is the link to the hotel itself.

The Haveli was apparently built by Thakur Abhay Singh of Kanota, on a 3 acre property. This tells you how one can transform even a small 3 acre property into an eminently livable environment with beautiful gardens. Mrs. Joshi, something to think about!

What a thrilling World Cup!

2022-12-18T16:05:00.001-05:00

My contribution to World Cup celebration!!

Lionel Messi's Argentina stole the World Cup from the last World Cup Champion France in a thrilling final that will be remembered for generations. Feel sorry for Killian Mbappe who scored three goals in the game and brought France to the precipice of Victory. Unfortunately it was not to be and France lost in penalty shootout.

But for Argentinians this World Cup was a big deal because they have not won one in decades and perhaps this will be the last World Cup tournament for the ever amazing Messi.

People talk about Diego Maradona being the football god but I never got to watch him growing up because at that time football was just not a sport broadcast on Indian TV. Today even though Cricket dominates the sporting world in India anD American Football in the US, there is an ever growing interest in football (or Soccer, as it is called in the US) and I am glad that I was able to witness the current football greats like Ronaldo, Mbappe and Messi during this World Cup.

What a thrilling game it was - Paisa Vasul!!

Now I can enjoy my Bread and Soup in happiness.

Things are quite swell here

2022-05-17T19:48:00.001-04:00

COVID 19 Pandemic continues to get worse
Gas prices are touching stratosphere ($4,50/g)
Fed has increased interest rates
War in Ukraine
Mass shooting in Buffalo
Supreme Court going conservative

Yes, things are going great here.

Then Again…

2022-05-17T19:22:00.001-04:00

Diane Keaton is one of my very favorite artists and I have been wanting to read her biography. I must have purchased this book 10 years ago but only now am I able to pick it up.

It's always interesting to read how people find their calling. Let's see how Diane found hers.

Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar

2022-03-22T11:45:00.000-04:00

Came across this lovely book by Prof. Amitava Kumar of Vassar College. The book transported me back to my own college days when I had just arrived to Akron, OH, from India. I was, as the protagonist in this novel, Kailash, as awed by every thing around me, the clean roads, the spaces, the music, the freedom and above all, the the American women 😃.

These days we hear mostly about the harrowing experience of immigrants from South America, Middle East,South Asia etc who have to under take untold hardships to reach the shores of the United States. This book is a humorous take on a different immigrant experience - that of a male student who arrives into the university setting and is blown away by the opportunities in front of them, intellectual and social. A light and entertaining read, foreign students and those who come across them in the University, will immediately identify with the central character and the plot lines.

Four out of Five stars.

Time flies - Turning 60 in 2022

2022-03-12T12:26:00.005-05:00

The first thought that came to my mind is - Wow, I have turned 60.

No, I did not experience any aches and pains, nor any morbid thoughts of mortality, or depressing thoughts of gone by youth. March 2, 2022 was as normal a day as any. Birthday started early with Jaya (and her friends) wishing me Happy Birthday by text! At 12.20am!!

Being that it was a working day, I got up at the regular time and started my work day as I would on any other day. Soon I started to hear from friends. Ana Barbas called from Lisbon, Alok and Nandini sent a text message, and Papa, mummy, Sachin, Sarla and others sent messages via Whatsapp. This year, I had a new well wisher - Pankhuri, Prateek's fiancé who also joined the crowd with her well wishes.

Madhu made my favorite "Goond ka laddu" as my birthday sweet. Since pandemic hasn't yet abated and I continue to work from home, the entire day turned out to be one big celebration. During the day, the ladies planned to take me to A2B (Adiyar Anand Bhavan), for a birthday celebratory meal. It has become a ritual to celebrate my birthday with Shubhra and Dev's family. Even though Dev's birthday is on March 5 and we celebrate his birthday separately, I love it when I get to celebrate with Shubhra's little daughters Sarangi, Hemanshi and Nivanshi. First I had to pick up Arpeet who was taking the train from Jersey City to New Brunswick, and then pick up Jaya from her school at Rutgers. Then drive to A2B in Plainfield. It was a very special South Indian celebration. Here are some pictures from the dinner...

This year was a bumper year for wine related gifts! First Shubhra and Dev gave me the gift of a wine opener, and later in the week Alok and Nandini gave me the gift of a wine bottle stopper and a wine goblet!

As I get into my "wine dinking" age, these gifts are likely to be very useful. My friends understand me so well!! Now comes the challenge of deciding what to do in the next chapter of my life.

Know the truth & speak of palm trees

2022-03-11T19:36:00.001-05:00

There is an excellent article in The Atlantic on The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it's new defacto ruler, Prince Mohammad bin Salman. I am not sure what MBS was expecting when he agreed to give interview to Greme Wood, but he is unlikely to like the article. Absolute power does not like to be painted in anything less than flattering. And this article is absolutely opposite of flattering.

Given the current chaotic scene of global oil markets, one would expect that Saudi Arabia would be cooperating with the United States, it's main "protector". But President Biden seems to be having difficulties getting MBS to listen and help bring the price of gas down.

As the article says, President Biden thinks MBS should face the music for Jamal Khashoggi's murder and has not called him since assuming his role. Perhaps it would have been good if someone had told President Biden, of this old Arab proverb - "It is good to know the truth and speak it, but it is better to know the truth and speak of palm trees"

My family's COVID experience

2021-12-03T15:26:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I was in Mumbai, visiting my COVID tortured family. My father, my mother and sister-in-law - all were ill and tasted positive for COVID on RT PCR test. My brother, who was the first one to fall sick, tested negative on RT PCR, although his test was done two weeks after he felt sick. My nephew, who had contracted COVID earlier in the year, didn't fall sick this time, nor did he test positive.

We don't know how the infection crept into the family this late into the pandemic. Every one in the family has been vaccinated - two shots each, and everyone was taking precautions. So how this happened is a mystery. Since both my brother and nephew are now going to the office for work, it could have one of them getting exposed somewhere outside the house and bringing it in. Or it could be that my father got exposed when he went for a hair cut. Apparently the barber asked him to take his mask off so he could cut the hair, and father obliged.

My family also has the maid and cook coming in twice a day. Both wear masks while in the house, but they are not just visiting our home - they are going to other homes too. Could they have accidentally brought COVID exposure home? One doesn't know, although neither one has complained of illness or missed work in recent weeks.

But it doesn't really matter how the family got infected - what matters is the effect it had on my family. Most of the family members fared fairly well - they all had flu like symptoms like high fever, body ache, weakness and fatigue for a few days, but they recovered fine in a couple weeks. But my father, who is 85 years old, was impacted really badly. He had to be hospitalized and spent 5 days in the COVID ICU fighting a battle to save his life. Thankfully, Remdesvir did its job, and oxygen supply was not an issue, so he left the hospital after about 10 days and returned home to continue his treatment.

But the disruption it caused in the family was immense. For starters, as soon as the results came out, the family was quarantined. This made things very challenging, especially when it came to taking father to the hospital. It isn't easy dealing with a 85 year old COVID patient, who feels extremely insecure and needs family support.

Fortunately, the hospital acquiesced to my brother's request to stay back and care for my father, and allowed him to be quarantined with my father in the COVID ward. Since my brother had not tested positive, he had to gown up fully, just like the other health care workers for the entire period he stayed there. However, once father was moved to the COVID ICU unit, my brother could no longer accompany him. This was quite traumatic for father who really thought that he would never see his family again.

Fortunately, the COVID treatment protocols have matured significantly and the doctors were able to move him back to the regular COVID ward within five days where my brother returned to provide daily support. I am amazed that my brother was even allowed in the COVID ward - in the US, this would be almost impossible!

None of us expected that our family would be impacted by COVID so late into the pandemic Although we continue to take precautions in the US, and in India, the signs of normalization are every where. But there are differences. In the US, malls are still relatively empty, restaurants are not as busy as in the past and most of us continue to work from home. In Mumbai though, the way things have normalized, one would think that COVID is a thing of the past.

One day I was in Dadar and Bandra parts of Mumbai, two highly populated areas, but also areas where one goes for any kind of shopping. The scene there was mind boggling! Crowds upon crowds of people on the street mingling about, some wearing masks, some not, hawkers selling street food and people consuming it right there. Of course, no question of social distancing to speak of and people going about their business as if COVID never happened. I was shocked. This is the same community that had thousands upon thousands of people die just months ago because the hospital system was overwhelmed with a tsunami of COVID patients.

But today the COVID infection rates have come down considerably - perhaps only a few hundred new cases diagnosed daily. And this may have lulled people into believing that it isn't necessary to take the precautions - wearing a mask, maintaining personal hygiene, maintaining social distancing etc - that some of us continue to take to this day.

Is this what herd immunity looks like? Has India truly achieved herd immunity?

Regardless, my own family's experience shows that just because one is vaccinated, it doesn't mean one is unlikely to get infected with COVID. Rather, the infection is not likely to be life threatening in young and healthy. But the elderly and frail might still be very much in danger and need to be careful.

The other lesson our family experience teaches us - if one has a fever, it is better to get tested early for COVID. Today we have drugs like Remdesvir which can dramatically reduce the impact of the disease on the lungs. In my father's case, we let things slide for a few days thinking it was just regular viral infection (dengue, chicken-gunia and flu are endemic to India) that would resolve itself in a few days. The result was that his lungs got badly infected and fibrosis set in requiring hospitalization. This could have been avoided if he had been tested earlier and treatment had begun a week earlier.

Another reason to remain cautious, is the possibility of new variants emerging. Already there are news reports of a new COVID strain B1.1529 emerging in South Africa, which has multiple mutations in the spike protein, making it more virulent. Who knows if this variant is likely to be as dangerous as the Delta plus variant which had a devastating impact in India, but UK and some European countries are so concerned that they have decided to ban flights from some African countries.

Such strains will continue to emerge until the entire world population is vaccinated. Since this is unlikely to happen for a significant amount of time, one cannot let ones guard down.

Moral of the story is that we cannot let our guard down.

Spotted Lantern Fly Control: Identifying Tree-of-Heaven & eliminating it

2021-11-17T21:43:00.003-05:00

Spotted lantern fly is increasingly becoming a menace in the north east. Noticed first in Pennsylvania, this invasive bug from Asia has breached quarantine efforts and moved beyond Pennsylvania into New Jersey and New York, and so far control efforts have been having limited impact. One reason for this is that the host tree preferred by spotted lantern fly, the Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima), is widely prevalent in the North East. Eliminating or controlling spotted lantern fly can only be achieved by using drastic measures such as eliminating the preferred host plant Tree-of-heaven.

While this may seem a drastic measure, it is not so because the Tree-of-heaven is an invasive species in itself that populates the area quite rapidly through numerous seeds it produces and through the root suckers. As such, controlling the Tree-of-heaven population is a desirable activity to ensure that it doesn't end up taking over local flora.

The Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is easily confused with other naive trees like Black Walnut and Staghorn Sumac, the leaves of which closely resemble the Tree-of-heaven. Hence it is important to ensure that one properly identifies the Tree-of-heaven before implementing control measures. Penn State University has put together a series of videos to help property owners distinguish between the Tree-of-heaven and native trees such as Black Walnut and Staghorn Sumac, and to demonstrate the correct procedure to eliminate a cluster of Tree-of-heaven.

This webpage on Tree-of-Heaven provides a lot of detail on this invasive plant.

The video below provides a video version of some of the same detail

The video below provides details on how to properly apply herbicide to control Tree-of-Heaven

Best time to apply control measures for Tree-of-Heaven are when the sap is moving downwards to the root system. This happens in the middle of summer. So learn the measures now, spend the next six months identifying the Tree-of-Heaven clusters on your property, and pencil the herbicide application chore in your calendar for the months of June and July.

Biden Defeats Trump, the most dysfunctional President in the history of US

2020-11-08T13:21:00.002-05:00

A picture is worth thousand words... all I can say, is this was long time overdue. Now we can get back to repairing the damage done by the most dysfunctional administration in US history. Let's hope Biden will leverage his long standing relationships with the Republican Senators, to bring them back to collaborating on our priorities.

Returning America Back to Greatness

2020-10-22T17:12:00.000-04:00

"Make America Great Again"

When I first heard the slogan, I was struck by it's simplicity. It was so to-the-point.

Make my country great again.

I didn't get to witness the "greatness" of America from within - I had only watched it from afar, from a steady diet of Hollywood movies, initially the Western "Dirty Harry" movies that I enjoyed as a kid, and later movies like Rocky, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate. Of course everything looked great on silver screen, and if America had problems, Americans seemed well equipped to handle them. America was the utopia, and like many others around the world, I wanted to come to this land of opportunity. I was particularly attracted to the American spirit. Rugged individualism, uncomplaining people who believed in principles, people who took responsibility for their actions, people who bootstrapped themselves out of difficulties. I believed that America was the land of plenty, and one could make a good life here.

- In September 1987, I landed in Akron, Ohio. And the bubble burst. -

Akron was a town caught in a downward spiral. Every where there were signs of decline. The town that was midwife to the automobile revolution - Frank Seiberring incorporated the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron Ohio in 1898 - was dying a slow and painful death.

Companies that had brought prosperity to Akron were a diminished lot. Goodrich vehicle tire factory was closed. Firestone was sold to Bridgestone, a Japanese competitor. Goodyear was still going, but now was a shadow of its stronger self.

O'Neil's headquarter store in Akron, OH. Picture courtesy Wikipedia

When O'Neil's headquarter store in downtown Akron closed after 112 years, my fellow international students and I lamented the loss of a local institution. 'How could this happen?', we wondered, as the majestic building that housed O'Neil's stood a silent witness to Akron's steady decline.

I wasn't alone in witnessing this ongoing decline in the heartland of America. I was a newcomer - the Americans living here had experienced it first hand. Pittsburgh, PA, Binghamton, NY, Detroit, MI - the folks in these towns had lived through this unending nightmare and were desperate to do something about it. It was all very depressing.

I had come to participate in America's greatness. Instead, were we witnessing it's slow and painful death? The question hung in the air thick with sadness and I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to "make America great" again. So I decided to stay, and apply my effort help bring back some of the greatness.

Over the years, I have come to understand that some of the decline witnessed in the midwest is a natural process capitalism. Just like in nature everything as to die and be reborn, similarly in businesses old inefficient ideas must die and new ideas must be born out of innovation. It is the job of the leaders of the society to manage the process in such a way that pain and dislocation is minimized. And this is where our leaders seems to have failed us.

The decline in industrial manufacturing in the mid west was to a great extent, the product of competition and capitalism. But there is no doubt in my mind that it was also an outcome of blind adherence to "free market" dogma, laissez faire government attitude, corporate greed and a lack of empathy for those impacted the most from it's decline - the blue collar worker. While dogmatic devotees of Adam Smith resist any attempts to intervene in the markets, they failed to recognize that the invisible forces of capitalism were being steadily manipulated by a few other countries to their advantage. Other countries had their own dogmas, but they didn't hesitate to supplement their ideologies and embrace "some" free market ideas. Indeed they created an amalgam of socialism and capitalism to take advantage of opportunities in front of them. They set national goals and created policies to drive those national goals, thereby creating a competitive advantage that proved to be difficult to march.

Why didn't US government set national policies to compete better with these upstarts? Some of it was hubris - don't tell us what to do, we know what we are doing - and some of it was the dogma that the invisible hand of market would take care of everything.

I believe in free trade. But I also believe that a nation should set some goals for it's industry and it's people, helping it to drive innovation, maintain a competitive edge in critical industries, and promote policies that create a level playing field. We needed political leaders who would shape this kind of thinking. Yes, the 80's were better than 70s and 90s better than 80s. Obama era was good too in general, but we still had a lot of problems to solve, not in the least that we were losing our battle against China in manufacturing, trade and potentially on ideological front.

So, when Trump's slogan 'Make America Great Again' started appearing, I thought it was good that some one was going to speak for American greatness and challenge the status quo. What ever his flaws, here was a business man who understood the problem that needs to be fixed. Like Churchill, I thought, perhaps Trump is the man for the job under present circumstances.

I admit, I had my doubts about the messenger. Was he real or was it all marketing gloss? The more I read about him, the more I started to doubt his story. Will he really deliver us to the promised land? Multiple bankruptcies, sordid personal life, bombast and bluster, childish personal attacks against his competitors - there was enough for me to question if he was the right leader. But the message was very appealing, especially to the people who had experienced their fortunes decline over the previous two/three decades. A turncoat democrat, Trump commandeered the Republican party machine and quickly emerged as the front runner preying on common man's insecurities, and appealing to their base instincts.

When Trump won, most of us thought that the madness would stop and that the Republican establishment will bring some sanity to the discourse. Instead, the opposite happened. Scared of upsetting the great leader who was perfectly willing to engage in a mud fight, the establishment backed down, and here we are four years later, struggling to understand what went wrong.

It is clear now, well into fourth year of Trump's presidency, that this experiment has failed. While the current administration may have meant to Make America Great Again, they didn't have the foggiest idea of how to make good on the promise. They focused more on tearing down much of what they were against, instead of focusing on building something that would move us forward. After almost four years, our allies hate us, our enemies are stronger and American reputation is in tatters. Our economy, which was the one thing going for us, is now in shambles thanks to mismanagement of COVID-19 response. The country has been set back while China, thanks to its post COVID 19 recovery, is on an economic ascendancy that will most likely hasten it's progress into a rival to American power.

So where does it leave us?

Three weeks from now we have an opportunity to change course. And if the mood on the street is any guide, barring some unforeseen circumstances, this change will happen. The next administration will have to deal with many challenges, but the most urgent of it is to restore some faith in the American experiment. We need to show that we won't let set backs like these deter from our course.

The challenge is immense. It's a big elephant, unlikely to be eaten in one bite. So here are a few priorities for the incoming administration:

Get the pandemic under control. We cannot have the situation that happened in 1st and 2nd quarter of 2020 repeat itself. It would be an economic disaster if that were to happen. Fortunately, with the vaccine trials coming to rapid accruals, the light may be appearing at the end of the tunnel
Get the economy going again. Having 40 million jobless is a recipe for social upheaval. While providing hand outs works for a while, no one likes to sit at home. We need to help the unemployed find jobs, and if that calls for initiating infrastructure projects, then let's begin those investments.
We need to repair our social compact. We must bring the American society together. Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos, Christians, Hindus, Sikh's, Muslims, Euro-Americans, Indo-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, we are all together in this Noah's Ark of a country, and we must believe that we are stronger together. We need all hands on deck, and our politicians must set aside partisanship and come together in the interest of nation's health.
We need to repair the relationships with our allies. Whether it is the war on terrorism or economic war, America cannot do things alone. We need our long standing allies to help prevent potential destabilizing events in Europe, and we need new alliances to contain potential threats in Asia.
Climate change is an existential threat and solving it requires global leadership. We must embrace the Paris accord and start engaging the rest of the global community. Let us leverage climate change as a business opportunity and through our innovation and ingenuity, let us lead the world towards reversing the course of global warming.

Of course there are many many other things that need to be addressed. But if we address these priorities, we have a chance in bringing back the luster to the American democratic experiment. And may be we may succeed in returning America back to greatness.

If you haven't voted yet, send in your main-in ballot. If early voting has started in your state, go vote in person. The act of exercising your vote is more important as anything else you will do. So VOTE.

A (new?) method of germinating seeds indoors with high success rate

2020-06-30T23:15:00.031-04:00

The Joshi Kitchen Garden

Folks living in southern United States or in warmer countries, don't have to worry about germinating seeds indoors. But up here in the North, I have no choice but to grow seedlings indoor if I were to expect produce in a reasonable time. If I were to wait for the right temperature to grow seeds outdoors, it will be the tail end of July before I would be able to get any produce at all. So, I typically start growing seeds indoors in the month of March and often start harvesting vegetables by early June. This year was no exception - I started my seeds indoor in mid March.

Over the years I have tried various methods of seed germination, planting in seed starter trays, using warming pad, placing them in sun, placing them in plastic tubs to maintain humidity, and placing the tubs in the sun etc etc. But I was having mixed success. I would get about half the seeds to germinate and some to not germinate at all! So last year I decided to try something new.

In Indian homes, we germinate moth bean (turkish gram, Vigna aconitifolia) by soaking them in water for a day, and then loosely tying them up in a kitchen towel for a few days. The humidity in the pack is sufficient to keep the moth gram moist and germination is seen within 48-72 hours. Taking a lesson from that experience, I said why not try that method for germinating all seeds.

But moth gram is a fairly large seed, about twice the size of a grain of rice, and vegetable seeds can be tiny - often smaller than a speck of sand. And the quantity one is trying to germinate is usually very very small - perhaps no more than just a few seeds. So germinating them in a kitchen towel is impossible and I had to come up with a different system ... germinating seeds on a wet paper towel, placed in a ziploc bag. Wet paper towel acts as a medium and the ziploc bag ensures that the seeds don't just dry out.

Seedlings after being transplanted into small pots

Here is a step by step method for germinating seeds in paper towels:

Step 1. Buy the smallest ziploc bags you can find, from the store - I had some that are 3 inch x 4.5 inches, which are perfect for this kind of activity. (I purchased them from ULine catalog)

Step 2: Cut paper towels into small strips such that they will fit in the ziploc bags folded once over. In my case, I cut them about 4 inch x 5 inch such that I would fold them over length wise to give me a 4 x 2.5 inch folded paper towel

Step 3. Spray a little water to wet the unfolded paper towel. Mind you, the paper towel piece should not be soaking wet or dripping - otherwise your seeds may rot. If you want, you may add a few drops of hydrogen peroxide to the water to prevent fungal growth.

Step 4. Sprinkle the seeds on one side of the fold line, and fold the paper towel over to cover them.

Eggplant seeds ensconced in their kitchen towel bed.

Step 5. Gently place the moist paper towel with the seeds into the ziploc bag and close it, leaving some air in it so that there is a little room for the seedlings when they germinate. Don't forget to label them :-) otherwise you will soon be wondering which seeds are which.

Step 6. Place the ziploc bag(s) in a small tupperware container and place it in a warm area. I place mine next to an aging iMac whose fan emanates heat waves like the winds of Sahara! Monitor the bags every few days to see if germination has occurred.

Often I find that the largest seeds germinate the fastest. Cucumber, beans, okra, etc, will germinate within a week, but smaller seeds like tomato and pepper take a bit longer. In my experience, smallest seeds such as basil and rosemary have take the longest, but there is not hard and fast rule. Just last week, I had a couple of basil seeds germinate within a few days where as the cucumber seeds were yet to sprout.

A turnip seedling

Step 7. Once the seeds have germinated and appear strong enough, it's time to transfer them to pots. I find it easiest to break up the paper towel to separate the seedlings, taking care that the roots aren't destroyed. Gently place the seedling, with the piece of paper towel stuck to the root, into the pot, cover the roots with soil and water sufficiently to moisten all the soil around the seedling.

In transplanting the cucumber seedlings, I tore the paper with roots so that roots were not destroyed.

I use both degradable pots and plastic pots, with a mix of peat moss and perlite as growing medium.

Here are recently transplanted seedlings labeled with their hindi names.
Karela is Bitter Gourd and Bhindi is Okra.

My turnip seedlings standing tall!

Step 8. Place the seedlings into a large plastic storage bin with sufficient head room, and place it in a warm area. This step is only necessary if the temperatures outside are below 70° F. If it's warm enough outside, place the pots in a partially sunny location ensuring that they don't dry out.

This is a nice picture, but alas, none of the seeds labeled Desi Ber (back three) germinated as they were germinated directly in the pots, but I did have some success with Kantola (spiny gourd, Momordica dioica) germination (the labeled one on the right). Language of labels is Hindi.

Here are some tomato seedlings. I have had good success raising Tomato seedlings indoor.

Just look at the gorgeous seedlings of bitter gourd (Karela) a few weeks after transplantation!

Here are some Marigold seedlings. I used the same method for flower seedlings too.

Step 9. When the seedlings are strong enough (about 2-3 inches tall) and the soil is warm enough, it is time to transfer them to the kitchen garden.

If you are growing seedlings inside, it is important to harden them before you plant them in the soil. This year, my dear cousin and friend Dev gave me a plastic greenhouse as a Christmas gift, and that came in very handy to harden the seedlings.

Portable green house, a gift of Shubhra and Dev Pareek

Sorry for the mess - just wanted to show how I used the portable green house for seed hardening.

By this method, I have almost 90-95% seedling success rate, where was directly planting in the pot my success rate was no better than 50%. Although this is a good method and it works for me, it may not work for some one who has a much larger kitchen garden than mine (30' x 30'), because it is a lot of work to germinate seeds in paper towel and transfer them to the pots.

And this is what my kitchen garden looks like, six weeks after the seedlings have been transplanted into it.

The Joshi garden towards the end of June 2020

I already have a few peppers! How exciting!

Parsnip root (Mooli, in hindi)

Long green gourd (Doodhi) grows very nicely in New Jersey. Here are two vines grown from seeds germinated indoors.

Gardening is such an adventure and more enjoyable if you start from seeds and watch little plants emerge from these tiny little specs carrying all the genetic code. But most people find it frustrating to germinate seeds, and just run to the local Home Depot to buy potted plants. There is nothing wrong with that. But should you choose to germinate seeds indoors, my method might be a way to reduce some frustration.

Do let me know if you try this in your home. I would be interested in knowing your success with the method.

Good luck gardening!!

Hiking Baldpate Mountain With Friends

2020-06-28T01:16:00.003-04:00

Hiking Baldpate Mountain in New Jersey

Not more than 8 minute drive from my home, is an open space called, Baldpate Mountain. One lazy Sunday afternoon I stumbled upon this place when I took an unplanned turn onto Fiddlers Creek Road. Spying the lonely parking lot on the left, I wondered - should I, should I not. With only a hard top Jeep to keep it company, the parking lot seemed to be calling my name. Why not, I reasoned, and turned into the lot, slowly getting out of the Mercedes to stretch my legs. The bulletin board at the end of the lot announced a trail going up to the top of the hill and not having much to do, I started to walk on what seemed like a well trodden trail. 45 minutes later I was at the top peering over the Delaware river into Pennsylvania. The proximity of broad vistas offered by Baldpate Mountain, to my home, surprised me and I vowed to come here more often.

That was in late December when the blanket of winter was well spread and everything looked dismal. It has been 5 months, perhaps longer, since then and I have been living a rather monastic life, limiting my social interaction to Zoom and FaceTime calls. So when Alok suggested we should get together, I grabbed the opportunity and suggested a hike up the Baldpate (how the mountain got its name is a mystery; it used to be called Kuser Mountain when the John Kuser’s family owned it.) Yes, we would maintain social distance, and yes we would wear a mask, for that’s the guidance today, but we would get our families together even if only for a short time. The suggestion to hike Baldpate was received rather warmly, and we agreed to start hiking on Sunday afternoon.

On the appointed day, a last minute request to postpone or cancel the hike for fear of heat, was quickly dispatched with clarification that much of the hike is in wooded area. An hour before the hiking time, I sent the coordinates of the parking lot to the Sonigs, but when I arrived there, I realized that the coordinates were wrong. There are, it appears, two parking lots on Fiddler’s Creek Road, one for Ted Stiles Preserve, and another a little further up for Baldpate Mountain, and we had arrived at Ted Stiles Preserve. While hiking Ted Stiles Preserve would be fun, the hike isn’t in wooded area that I had promised. The mistake was corrected quickly and new directions provided to the Sonig family. Within minutes, they arrived at the corrected location, all decked in hiking finery appropriately adjusted for COVID-19, (i.e. their angelic faces gracing face masks) and we started up the Summit Trail.

The early section of the hike is flat but quickly it takes on a moderate intensity with a section covering large boulders. This was my favorite section of the hike in December, almost seeming like a steep ladder of stones, but I realized to my chagrin that the vegetation did a good job of hiding the rocks stealing some of the hike’s beauty. Still, the kids seem to be having fun time bounding from rock to rock.

The mask makes it doubly difficult to breath on a hot and humid afternoon, but even though I am rather out of shape, I managed to keep company with athletic Alok. I fully expected the kids to complain yet I didn’t hear much; it was my lovely better half who expressed her unhappiness for being arm twisted and dragged out of her cool castle for a “mask-on” hike on a hot stinky afternoon. The ordeal didn’t last long - it took us less than an hour to get up to the top of the hill where the Kuser’s majestic Strawberry Hill house sits overlooking a beautiful vista.

The Masketeers

We rested a while in appropriate social distance, taking in the beauty of central Jersey and imbibing cold cans of coke, before climbing further up to the top of the hill for a view of the Delaware river and Washington Crossing bridge.

A short while later we started back on Ridge trail towards the Welling-Burd farmhouse and pond. I don’t know if this pond is man made or natural, but it is very picturesque and worth a visit.

Our way back could have been shorter had we taken a bypass to Summit trail, but instead we doubled back towards Strawberry Hill and then came back onto the Summit trail. The time was very well spent for on the way back I had a great conversation with my little Jiya about writing stories and creating videos. During the walk, Jiya proceeded to create four five characters for a story she plans to write this summer.

Writing is Jiya’s passion, and without any prompting, Jiya came up with some goals for summer writing - writing two pages per day, at least 10 pages per week for 10 weeks, which should result in a book of about 100 pages.

Jiya is also motivated by her recent success on Youtube - over 13,000 views of her youtube video, and over 100 subscribers! So she wants to work on developing youtube videos for two hours each day with the goal of uploading at least two videos per week, and 20 videos by the end of summer.

By the time we returned it was 6.15pm, almost exactly 3 hours round trip. It was a great way to dispel the COVID doldrums in the company of good friends. But the icing on the cake was my conversation with little Jiya, who I am sure, will become a good writer and Youtube star one day. Wish you luck, baby!

Resources:

Mercer County Park Commission Map of Baldpate Mountain and Ted Stiles Preserve

New Jersey Trails Association page on Baldpate Mountain

NJ Hike’s most complete description of the hikes in Baldpate Mountain

Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space page on Ted Stiles Preserve