English composition (ENG 111) class was part of my course work at the Northern Virginia Community College and the course load involved writing numerous essay assignments. Most of the essay assignments had to be two pages in length keeping with the MLA format, the exception being the the final thesis which had to be seven to ten pages in length.

In the coming weeks, I plan to share a couple of the essays I wrote on the blog. I hope you enjoy this one. *find all ENG 111 essays posted

My Journey: Faith and personal realization

I woke up at 5:00 AM every morning and proceeded to the puja (prayer) room after having a bath. In the puja room, I sat cross-legged in front of statues and framed pictures of deities, burnt incense, and performed arathi, (also spelled aarti, is a light from burning wicks soaked in ghee (purified butter) or camphor, and is offered to the deities) and chanted mantras invoking blessings from the various gods. The next step was to read verses from the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture). This usually lasted until 6:00 AM, which was around sunrise.

The morning rituals were all that my parents asked that I do before tackling any other activity for the day. My parents were Brahmins (learned caste) belonging to the Hindu religion and as modern as they tried to be, they held close to their hearts the remnants, and altered simpler versions of the many traditional rituals that were still performed by orthodox Brahmins.

I lived in Bengaluru city (India), in a community densely populated by Brahmin families. Attending a catholic school was my first exposure to another faith. The morning assemblies at the school began with singing out verses from the bible. It did not matter what faith the students who attended the school were from, we all sang together.

One of my friends at school was a Muslim boy, and interacting with him and his family exposed me to the ritualistic nuances of yet another faith. I found out that his family prayed five times a day and the women in his house covered their heads with hijab, and covered their faces with a veil, especially in front of men who were not their husbands.

Pursuing further education, work and travel gave me opportunity to meet and interact with people from various other faiths. There were many differences in what each faith preached, which I call the ‘fine print,’ I also found many similarities, especially when viewed in a broader sense. The more I got exposed the less I paid attention to the fine print. The commonality of the various faiths stood out and stared at me; my own beliefs started to change and evolve.

I felt believing in a higher power was just another way of asking for humility. All the things that were beyond my control as an individual could be attributed either to chance or to a higher power. Both would work, as there lacked a clear logical and provable explanation that could be universally accepted. It occurred to me that there could be as many explanations as there were people, each with its own set of fine prints that held its believers to either a moral standard or a way of living.

I realized that I was free in my mind to believe in whatever I wanted. I could either choose from the various faiths and explanations out there, including my parent’s or come up with my own version taking from personal observations, experience, rational thought, logic, magical thinking, or specific aspects of other faith.  It was an exciting and terrifying thought—  I was free to hold anything sacred.

Connectivity, accessible and mobile technology and a couple of key strokes by adolescents either for the sake of fun or peer pressure and poof, reality hits and hits hard; life changes in an instant for the worse and with little oppurtunity for recourse. They now have to share the same status as that of a pedophile or a rapist, all because of what is now called sexting.

Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between cell phones. A unique and a growing problem that needs attention from parents, kids and law makers alike.  

Whether parents are tech savvy or not they need to wake up and become aware of this. Schools and organizations working for the betterment of children need to address this and come up with educational programs and devise tools for both children and parents to better combat this. Policy makers and law makers need to recognize this as a separate problem rather than  put it under the umbrella of  child pornography. New laws need to happen to deal with this new and growing problem. 

Here are some questions raised by Mike Galanos, CNN.

The challenges our children face are so very different than what we faced growing up. There is so much of SH*T that can happen by the time one reaches the age of 18 or 20 yrs that our children’s futures could be taken away from them even before they begin.

Even with increased awareness and vigilance by parents, I wonder if its possible to keep up with technology and truly protect our children and our children’s future. Parents need help.

Since India lacks a Sex Offender Registry, and a proper National Identification System, I wonder how it is going to deal with problems of ‘sexting‘.

Snow snow snow… hehe… only for a half hour though

I step out with my little daughter and surprise surprise, its snowing. Itty bitty wonderous snow flakes riding the air… so beautiful. The look of wonder on my daughter’s face as she stared up at the sky is a sight I will never forget. Her eyes lit up like a star with every snow flake that streamed onto her chubby little cheeks.

Heart melting moments like these especially when I am not expecting it, bring joy in ways that  I have no words to describe… I close my eyes, smile as I take a deep breath and savor it.

I received this Kenneth Cole watch as a gift from my wife. Its the only watch I have that I can wear in a formal setting or for important occasions.

My wife is well aware that I am a little rough and careless when it comes to taking care of such items. She still went ahead and bought me a Kenneth Cole watch… go figure. She did ask me to promise her that I would take good care of it and I did.

The watch I previously had was a cheap Timex Sports Watch. I had made a promise to myself that I would wear it until it lasted which turned out to be many many years. I finally had the excuse to retire it when it ran out of battery.

 It has my immense gratitude and respect for its service. From being in water when I was canoeing at Honnemaradu to getting smashed into snow a gazillion times in the Himalayas during my brief time at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM). It took a lot of beating and kept ticking. Hey, I wore it so much that there were times when I forgot to take it off while having a bath.

When I visited my in-laws this Christmas I took along my Kenneth Cole watch as I knew there would be plenty of occasions for me to use it. Remembering the promise I made to my wife I packed the watch between folds of clothes in the suitcase. All went well during Christmas and the watch finally got some wearing time.

Upon my return home as I unpacked I completely forgot about the watch and it made the laundry in the folds of my pants. Couple of days pass and my wife gets tired of looking at my laundry pile up and decided to do me a favor and take care of it for me.

As you would have it the watch splish-sploshed away in the washing machine for 15 while min. Foaming lather and the swirling water… my my  quite an adventure. My wife notices the watch as she puts the clothes in the dryer. Thankfully I was not home to hear the screams or experience the murderous rage that would have immediately followed.

When I did get home, she had cooled down a bit but was still angry at me… the huge consolation was that the watch survived the washing machine and was still ticking. Not a drop of water had made it through the air tight seal and the washing machine was not able to even scratch the fella.

Woohoo!! My Kenneth Cole Watch rocks. It is truly a kick ass watch and has earned my respect .

I miss Maggi noodles. It is one of those things that you could quickly make and munch on, especially on rainy days. Its been a couple of weeks since I went to Patel Bro’s and stocked up my kitchen with Maggi Noodles. Its cold and raining here and all I can think of is Maggi Noodles.

So many memories are tied with Maggi… from their soups to the fairly new ‘daal sambhar atta noodle’ variety.  

But I have to say, their ‘rice noodle mania’ definitely did not work for me.  I am happy with their originial flavor and fell in love with the ‘daal sambhar’ and still can’t get enough.

Let me try and list a couple of  fond associations I have with Maggi noodles… maybe reminiscing over them just might console my heart.

• cooking my own maggi noodles as a kid for an evening snack
• trading tiffin boxes in primary/high school so I could eat the maggi noodles they got from home as lunch
• cooking and eating maggi noodles late at night among friends in the hostel in during exams ( Med school)
• cooking maggi noodles over burning wood on so many treks in the Western Ghats
• eating maggi noodles at my cousin’s place… she  made it reaaally well
• eating maggi noodles early in the morning at the restaurant on top of Nandi Hills
• watching a canteen chef on the show MTV Campus reply ‘maggi noodles’ to Cyrus Brocha when asked ‘what his best dish was?’
• introducing my wife to maggi noodles and cooking it a gazillion times as a quick lunch/dinner option during our stay in India

I think I can go at this all day. Sigh!

Happy Happy Birthday my love. May you have an awesome year ahead.

images created using photofunia

Yup! She is a new kinda breed… the ginormous kind

Lucia is her given name but she is lovingly called by many other names like lulu, poopcheetah, luchi-poochi, chi-chi, etc.

My wife Jessica had this cat and another (her daughter, Sabina) for more than 6 years but had to leave them behind when she moved to India to stay with me. Sabina kinda lost it and required animal control to come and get her. She has recovered now and is doing well in foster care.

Lucia suffered abuse while very young and was rescued by the feline foundation. She got pregnant early and gave birth to Sabina. They were put up for adoption. Jessica adopted both of them. With lot of hard work, compassion and love, Jessica was able to get Lucia to trust people again.

I felt very bad that she had to leave them behind when she moved to India. She was very attached to them and they to her. She was heart broken .

One of Jessica’s friend, Deb took Lucia in and took care of her. Lucia, who was big to begin with got even bigger by eating not just her food but also some of the high calorie food meant for the other cat (kitten) that Deb had.

A two year hiatus and back in the US… we take Lucia back. Its been a month and a half now and she has accepted us completely and is comfortable in our home. Though she has never known me, she warmed up to me on day one itself.

She is not bothered by our curious daughter, Anju… ignoring her most of the time. She even lets Anju pet her.

Since I love animals especially cats, I am happy to have this fluffy pillow of a cat following me around trying to get my attention .

She is now on a strict diet, which I think is working as she has lost some weight already. Her favorite pastime is to sit by the sliding glass door and look at the birds.

A while ago I had mentioned that my daughter Anjali did a photo shoot for the Baby Product line that Himalaya Herbals were launching. We did not know how and where all they would use the pictures.

Well! Its finally out. You can see it here. There are more pics of Anju if you follow the links and it appears that they are even going to put it on the packaging for the ‘Baby Kit‘ they are launching.

I don’t know if there are any billboards, posters or pamphlets that carry her pictures. I so want to be in India right now.

Couple of weekends ago, atop a cliff overlooking the ocean wedding vows were exchanged… I was witnessing my first American wedding. My wife’s cousin married his longtime girlfriend in the fairytale fashion.

It was the first time we would be staying in a hotel with our 10 month old tagging along. Since she is on formula we had to take with us a gazillion bottles and stuff to wash and clean the bottles. We landed in Boston, drove over to my in-laws in Hamilton… we had an hour before we had to go on the road and drive to Maine. Freshening up, feeding the baby, meeting some friends who dropped by dissipated the hour like ice on a desert floor.

We check into our room at Ogunquit Resort, a quick change of clothes and before we could even take a breath we were at the rehearsal. The wedding rehearsal was at the Cliff House Resort where the wedding was actually going to happen on the next day. It was only a 5 min drive from where we were staying and the route was a winding road with trees on either side of it… we even saw some wild deer on one of our many drives up and down.

With the rehearsal over we headed over to an Italian restaurant called Angelina’s Ristorante for dinner. The sister of the bride had prepared a multimedia presentation of pictures dating from birth until now of both the bride and groom. A couple of glasses of scotch and I settled in. By the time dinner started it was way past Anju’s sleep time and since she had already finished her dinner, she was getting cranky. My wife was hounded and harassed by mosquitoes. We asked our dinner to be boxed and bid our byes for the night.

The next day was a little more relaxed. The wedding was in the afternoon and that meant we had the morning to ourselves. We walked over to the beach that was a quarter of mile away from our resort. Anjali’s grandparents joined us on the walk. I liked the quietness and the laid back nature of the place. It was Anjali’s first ‘sea’ experience and considering her love of water she enjoyed it very much.

By late afternoon I was suited up for the wedding. With all of us dressed up we headed over to Cliff House Resort. The weather was beautiful and the wedding vows were exchanged with the gushing waves of the blue sea in the background. Once that was over, some drinks and appetizers were served and then dinner followed.

Before dinner all the dances in various combination with the bride and groom and their respective parents happened. Food flowed, the bar was open and a band played in the background… everyone took turns between dancing and food / booze. Filled with chatter and music it went late into the night. I had a good time.

Two weeks ago, on a Monday afternoon I noticed the sky was overcast. I step out on the porch to check it out after all it was sunny like two minutes ago. On the far end of the horizon I could see lurking some bad ass dark clouds.

After my previous experiences with the weather here I did not want to take any chances. I decided to head out immediately and pick up my daughter from day care. It was a good thing that I did for it started to pour, not cats and dogs but monkeys and gorillas five minutes after I got back home. A crazy cocktail of high speed winds, lightning, thunder and rain.

Now my worry shifted to my wife who was waiting for the shuttle back home. And just as I was thinking this, she calls and informs me that the shuttle is late. I tell her to go into one of the shopping malls or something and wait until the weather calms down. I switch on the TV to catch any updates / warnings on the weather.

POOF! Before I could even tune into the right channel the power goes out in sync with a lightning flash… a brief silence followed by loud rumble of thunder.

I am now on high alert with my imaginary antennae out, while my daughter happily sucks on her bottle of milk. She seems to have no care in the world whatsoever. But I have seen the news before… shit happens and it can happen to anyone. Half hour passes and the weather seems to get better. I get a call from my wife, she is finally on the shuttle and manages to get home safe. Phew!

We sit around waiting for the power to come back and trying to keep our ever-active daughter engaged.

What next?? The fire alarm for the building starts to scream… with so many previous false alarms we cuss, moan and groan and manage to get ourselves outside. Our wait is answered by sirens in the distance and the fire truck finally arrives. This time around it took them a little longer than usual and it was only one truck. It was a fire truck from the Fairfax county and we find out that the fire department is having a busy afternoon.

And yes, it was a false alarm AGAIN. The apartment maintainence better fix it once and for all.

To think this to be end of our woes would be stupid. We still did not have power and it was now dinner time. I switch on the stove as per my wife’s instruction only to realize that it doesn’t work. Argh! The F#@#$#@ thing has an electric start.

I head out to the CVS nearby to buy a box of matches but the store is closed as there was no power… and they were not the only store to be closed. Back in India power cuts are so common that almost everything has a back up / alternative and life goes on. But out here the power cuts are so rare and the dependence on electricity so far reaching that life seemed to have practically stopped.

Luckily Giant was still open and I run in quickly to grab myself a box of matches and a flashlight. I did not know when the power would be restored. In the last storm some of the neighboring counties did not have power for more than 24 hrs. I wanted to be prepared.

I had done the grocery shopping that morning and I prayed that the food in the fridge didn’t go bad. The worst thing is when food in the freezer defrosts and then refreezes. Its almost inedible.

We had our dinner, my wife made some real good Quesadillas. Anju passed out for the night. The sun set around 8:30 something pm and the power was finally restored around 9:00 pm as light slowly faded.