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.

Like I had mentioned before, I plan to share some of the essays on the blog. I hope you liked my previous one, for here is one more. *find all ENG 111 essays posted

I found this essay assignment particularly difficult. It was a division/categorization essay, and both the topic and page limit turned my brain into mush. I am happy that I managed to submit something on time, but I have to say, despite my struggle I had fun writing it and I hope you find this piece entertaining.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Drivers

The seven deadly sins are the cardinal vices that Christianity has used to educate its followers by warning them of their immoral nature and eventual damnation that may occur because of them. It could be an interesting way to view drivers on the road by categorizing them using the sins as a behavioral model.

Sloth: Many drivers spend a lot of time in their vehicle and even sleep in them, but are too lazy to take care of them. Basic things like getting the oil changed or making sure there is enough air in the tires gets ignored until it is too late. When the car finally breaks down or they have a flat tire, they wonder how it could have happened. Some of their windshields are ridden with so much bird excrement; it’s a miracle that they even made it out of their driveway without hitting someone or something.

Greed: Drivers want the latest, fastest model with the highest horse power, the most luxurious interiors, and fully loaded with every possible electronic gadget. They don’t care if they can afford it or not, they still want it, and pour every penny to get it. They will go hungry or skip on the electricity bill or water or phone bill; they will stretch themselves as thin as they can financially to have the ride they desire.

Anger:  The sheer number of angry drivers on the road is astounding. If someone is driving faster than them they get angry, as they think it makes them look slow. If someone is driving slowly they get angry, for its slowing them down. They ride so close to the bumper of the car ahead of them, you may think they are going to crash. They shift lanes without indicating and get angry at those who honk at them. They get angry when others shift lanes and get in front of them, for it now spoils their view. It does not matter whether others are driving properly or not, for they are wrong no matter what.

Lust: To many male drivers their car is a symbol of their manhood. They believe that a ride that speaks in millions will definitely get the attention, respect and ample love, especially from the opposite sex. Many male drivers even see their cars as women, viewing every curve on it as a seductive and sensual object, desired to be touched; the roaring of the engine to an orgasm. Let us not forget the women drivers who derive pleasure riding big, fast cars, grabbing the gear stick with firmness and ferociousness as they try and tame the roaring, smoke spewing beast.

Gluttony: These are drivers who are constantly stuffing their faces with food. It does not matter if it is a red light or they are on the highway driving at 100mph. They have to keep their mouths working for they can’t help themselves, but eat.

Envy: Drivers are constantly checking out other cars on the road. The second they spot a car that they wished they were the ones driving, envious emotions begin to ooze out of every pore of their skins, melting their faces and trickling down to meet the pool of torrential drool pouring out of their mouths.

Pride: Some drivers are so full of it that they think they own the road, and everybody should allow them to pass whenever, wherever, and however. They are kings and queens, and it does not matter what kind of vehicle they are driving. Everyone is expected to cheer, clap, take pictures, and let them ride on, after all they are royalty.

A single driver may exhibit all these sins and only keeping such impulses in check or moderation may lessen the unhappiness that might hound these drivers and those driving around them

My daughter is stuck at home today because she is not feeling well. She is in high spirits despite her fever. When I asked what she wanted for lunch her response was Mac and Cheese and vegetables (on the side). Once she sat down, she requested almonds and dried cranberries as well. As she happily munched away on her food she ripped a fart and announced loudly “I made a fart… a big fart” and I said “you did?” and she replied “I sque-e-ezed it out… I squeezed the fart out”

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‘.

I have always loved medical animations, especially at the cellular/sub cellular level. So much of my approach to any topic is visually oriented. I struggle to remember things or understand concepts if I can’t visualize it in some form. It is hard at times studying medicine with only static schematics representing the material I was trying to understand and worse when there weren’t any.

I would try to create my own in my head but sucked at it. Whenever I saw an artist representation of a cellular or sub cellular event I was awestruck and spent hours pondering on it and using it to aid my studies.

With all the technological advances especially in media and graphics I see a wonderful future for medical information becoming more dynamic, brought to life visually and in great detail.

The detail on this animation certainly blows my mind away.

It would be amazing to have medical information use multi-touch, animation and google like search engines extensively to become dynamic and interactive. I hope to see it soon.

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 am so happy and thrilled every single time to hear Obama speak. I can’t help myself but be glued to the television and if I miss it I most definitely catch it online. Brilliant orator he may be but its his inclusive politics that has me charmed.

His inaugural address was very inspiring and moving. My personal favorite line from his speech is “the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness”

It has taken 8 years of  shoddy and crappy politics by someone like Bush for an Obama to rise. I don’t think Obama would have gotten elected into office if not for the financial drain due to war in Iraq, wall street collapse, mortgage crisis, sky high health care costs and struggling school system.

A brave man with what seems like an impossible vision of what America can be has given hope to millions and has touched the hearts of people the world over whatever race or creed they may be.

He has brought ‘responsible politics’ back into the forefront.  I hope other democracies take inspiration from this and start engaging in responsible politics themselves and root out corruption within their political parties.

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!

Its not just more on Melamine but also less.

Looks like now Melamine is found in leading US infant formula as well but in much much lesser quanitity unlike the ones in China. Apparently it happened unintentionally somwehere during processing.

Here is where the problem begins and knowledge is lacking. We know that large quantities of Melamine can cause kidney/bladder stones and even renal failure but we don’t know what can happen when exposed to Melamine in trace quantities over a long period of time. We know even less about its chemical relative Cyanuric acid. This is a BIG problem as the FDA cannot deem it safe with absolute surety as they don’t know. And a ban on infant formula containing any melamine will take out mostly all infant formula off the market which is not desirable or practical.

How do we tackle this issue??

I think companies producing the formula should start taking some serious steps and make changes in their processing techniques to ensure that no Melamine or Cyanuric acid is present in the formula.

As for the FDA, I second what Dr. Jerome Paulson had to say on The Washington Post.

Dr. Jerome Paulson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., said he didn’t think the FDA’s decision was unreasonable. He added, however, that the agency should research the impacts of long-term, low-dose exposure, “and not just assume it’s safe, and then 15 years from now find out that it’s not.”

And Moms who can breast feed but choose formula instead, should definitely rethink the option.