Matter of Fact

Abhi is six, but still a pretty small guy. We have been trying to get him to eat better in the hope that it will aid his growth rate. One recent evening he wanted me to carry him upstairs to get ready for bed. I relented and as I went up the stairs, I remarked, "It's a good thing you are so small Abhi - I think I will be able to carry you your entire life." The sarcasm was of course completely lost on him. He took me at face value and asked,
"Really? Even when I am really old?"
Me: "Yes, even when you are really old." Wondering to myself what "really old" was to a six year old. I got my answer right away:
Abhi: "Even when I am 15?"
Me (wincing at the thought of 15 being "really old"): "Yes, even when you are 15."
Abhi ups the ante: "Even when I am 100?"
I hesitated to answer given the odds of me carrying anything when he is 100. But I sort of murmur a yes.  But Abhi is not listening. The coin has dropped and he realizes that all may not be well:
"But what will you be when I am 100?" While I hesistate again, he does the math in his head and exclaims:
"You will be dead!"

June 2012 Elections

Maybe everybody has made up their minds or maybe most folks are like me and the elections tomorrow remained in their peripheral vision. Thankfully, there aren't too many choices to make. So here goes:

1. San Diego Mayor: This will in all likelihood come down to a run-off later in the year - none of the candidates is going to win an outright majority tomorrow. Will it be Carl Demaio vs Bob Filner? Or maybe Bob Filner vs Nathan Fletcher? Demaio has been making the most amount of noise, but he is a bit too cozy with the Republican establishment for my taste. Not to mention his ties to the construction lobby. Bob Filner represents the Democratic establishment - having served in the US Congress for many years, it is curious (to me) that he wants to become a City mayor now. Nathan Fletcher made a tactical move by leaving the Republican party to contest as an independent in the ostensibly non-partisan mayoral race. Then there is Bonnie Dumanis - the current DA. Nobody gives her a chance, but that is who I recommend for Mayor. She seems to have done OK as a DA and has the current Mayor, Jerry Sanders' endorsement. The city has done relatively better under Mr. Sanders and Bonnie is likely to continue his policies. Vote for Bonnie Dumanis.
2. State Proposition 28 (Term Limits): This is a curiously worded prop - it would reduce the total term in office (senate or house) to 12 years (from the current 14), but a legislator could spend all of that time in one place. It is a bit flawed, but I will take the 2 year term reduction. I wish it were retroactive and applied to the current legislators, but it doesn't. Pity. Vote YES.
3. State Proposition 29: This prop raises cigarette taxes by a dollar and gives that money to a number of different causes, mostly involving cancer research. The opposition is largely centered around "This is another tax increase," conveniently ignoring the fact that you can choose not to purchase cigarettes or other tobacco products if you want to avoid this tax and "There is no requirement to spend the money in California." Why should there be? If the best cancer research is elsewhere, that is where the money should go. Vote YES.
4. San Diego City Prop A: Prohibits the city from requiring "Project Labor Agreements (PLAs)" for city contracts. This is an euphemism for saying that city projects can be given to non-union labor. There is much to be said in favor of this prop, but the situation has changed since the signatures were gathered to put this on the ballot. The city would likely lose a bunch of state money if it tried to enforce this contract. Plus I am rather tired of the government-employee bashing that goes on du jour. Vote NO. 
5. San Diego City Prop B: Replaces pensions with 401K style retirement plan for city employees. There is some fine print that makes this less desirable than it sounds, but overall, I like this idea. Plus if 401K is good for me, why is not good enough for city employees? Not to mention that I already took their side in Prop A. Vote NO.  

And then there is the putative reason for this election at all: the Presidential Primary! And since Obama is running unopposed on the Democartic side, your only choices are on the Republican side (I am ignoring the long list of no-name parties, although given that any vote here is going to be futile, you may as well throw the Green Party dude a bone if you wish).  Despite all appearances to the contrary, Mr. Gingrich is on the ballot and I recommend you cast a vote for him. He won't win, but it will be a symbolic poke in Romney's eye.

One More From Abhi

The little guy doth talk a lot - almost non-stop at times. You resort to strong arm tactics to get some respite and very soon you are missing the chatter and find the silence deafening. And then you start seeking ways to get them talking again without losing face. Just one of the many parenting traps.

Ok, back to the story.  BTW, a little knowledge of colloquial Hindi may be required to "get" this one.

Malini was putting the boys to sleep - the usual routine being to read to Abhi (while Arjun reads his book), and then turn off the lights and lie down with them until they drift off to sleep. Of course, most often Malini is the one who falls asleep first and has to be woken up later. Anyway, the reading was done and the light was off, but Abhi would not stop chatting. It was just one question after the other. Finally, in exasperation, Malini exclaimed, "Arre mere baap, just sleep already!" Of course, Abhi immediately wanted to know what that meant - What is "mere baap?" Malini gave the literal translation ("my father") and then added, "Ok, now go to sleep." Promptly came the reply from Abhi: "Why should I listen to you? I am your father!"

Abhi-isms

Turns out, we do forget. When your child does or says something that seems memorable, the general tendency is believe that you will never forget it. Ironically enough, we were reminded of this while indulging in a newly popular pastime at home - watching old home videos of Arjun and Abhishek. I collect stories and both Arjun and Abhi have been a rich source of them.  Unfortunately, many of Arjun's stories are either lost to the mists of memory or involve potty training (or lack thereof) and the risk of future embarrassment is too high. Abhi, on the other hand, has a bit of a knack for smart comebacks and I want to record some of them before they fade. I

1: Abhi and Arjun were playing Wii football with Suraj.  Abhi and Suraj were on the same team with Suraj being the Quarter Back and Abhi being the Running Back. They were struggling on offense and Abhi kept insisting on a particular play.  Suraj finally gave in and selected that play only to have it fail miserably. He turned to Abhi and complained, "See what you made me do! I knew that play wouldn't work!!" If he was expecting a "My Bad" from Abhi, he was sadly mistaken. Abhi responded, "It's your fault. Which QB listens to the running back?"

2: We were in the midst of the morning rush and as happens sometimes, Abhi was still eating his breakfast (Cheerios) while getting ready to wear his shoes. He was wearing a blue shorts and had a pair of tan socks on.  In a bid to needle him a bit, Malini goes, "Abhi, you picked the wrong socks, they don't match your shorts." Without missing a beat, Abhi came back with, "Yes, but they match my Cheerios!"

3: This is not a comeback, but still quite amusing. The boys and I were watching Game 5 of the St Louis - Philly baseball playoffs and the STL pitcher, Chris Carpenter was pitching an absolutely amazing game. The Philly offense is full of stars, but he had completely shut them down. As we watched him strikeout one more Philly batter, Abhi exclaimed, "Carpenter is on heat!!" I did a double take: "On heat? What's that??" Abhi repeated, "He is on heat!" Then it dawned on me - you know the expression for somebody playing really well - "He is on fire?"  Well, this was Abhi's take on that.

4: Abhi is all about winning and he can get quite upset when he loses (at anything). Until he figured out how to play the NFL game on the XBox, he would give up his turn to Arjun and prefer to enjoy a vicarious victory rather than a direct loss. We were watching some NBA playoff game and he kept asking me which team I was supporting. I replied that I didn't really care, but which team was he supporting? He responded, "I don't know." Me: "Why don't you know?" With impeccable logic, he replied: "I don't know who is going to win. So, I don't know which team to support."

Steve Jobs Passes Away

When ESPN posts the obituary of somebody with no connection to pro sports on their home page, you know it must be somebody unique.  Such is clearly the case with Steve Jobs who passed away earlier today. Almost everybody has reacted with some degree of sadness upon hearing this news and I am no different. Are we collectively mourning the loss of an exceptional talent or is it that the products of his work touched each of us so personally? It is no secret that I have tried hard to pick faults with the legion of i* products that were the second coming of Apple, but it was with a full measure of recognition of the genius behind them.  There will be those who will dismiss his impact as being on mostly superficial considerations - after all, what he did was drive the creation of beautiful objects that were ultimately satisfying a craving and not a need.  However, at least for today I will submit that the real joy that the millions of users of Apple products got from their devices counts for a lot.  So many go through this temporary existence without leaving any measurable impact and then along comes a Steve Jobs - he left the world just the little bit better than he found it. 

More on the India Trip

Barely a week remains of our India trip and I can claim only one blog entry so far. An occupational hazard of being an intermittent blogger is that I am constantly filtering all encounters and observations through the "how do I blog this" filter, but rarely do those things actually make it into a blog. Waiting to write a coherent entry is a big hurdle, so I am going to stick to a few quick hits now.

The end of week 1 of our trip saw us heading to Kerala. Much rain and slush were promised, but we mostly encountered dry skies and 95% humidity. The mosquitoes could easily mistaken for little birds and the rolling power cuts in the night (to work around an explosion in a major power station) made for enjoyable sleep. To nobody's surprise, Arjun's hands, legs, and face were decorated with various insect bite reactions by the end of day 1. Abhi also joined him this time. Despite all the inconveniences, we achieved the main purpose of the trip - meeting almost every one of our relatives (after a gap of 7 years).

Kerala has not changed much - local politics are still a strong force (when we were there, my nephew's school was closed for 2 days because students were protesting the disciplining that some kid got) and there is no industry to speak of. There are pockets of wealth (mostly from NRIs), real estate in Cochin/Ernakulam is still booming (there are so many high rises there, that it almost has a real skyline) - although there are plenty of reports of shoddy construction - but overall, life has not changed much for most folks. If you want a driver to negotiate tight spaces, hire one from Kerala - the towns there have some of the narrowest streets I have ever seen. One prominent change I noticed in Alleppey was the large number of house boats moored along the back waters. Apparently tourism is a big industry now.

Returning to Bangalore after 5 days in Kerala was a relief - if only to get away from the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes. But life in Bangalore is no picnic. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say it is quite brutal. Nobody I met - irrespective of their walk of life - seemed to ever have a relaxed moment and most people were constantly juggling at least five different things. Two aspects dominate the conversation here - traffic and real estate. The Metro was supposed to open this year, but is still a ways away.  Construction for the metro and elevated expressways are all over the city.

There is a stunning amount of money in Bangalore, but the disparities are starker than ever before. On one hand, there are people who are driving Italian sports cars and shopping for $100,000 Mont Blanc wrist watches and on the other hand are the millions who are eating out of dumpsters. Real estate costs in the heart of Bangalore easily rival Manhattan or downtown Tokyo.  Getting to your premium apartment is another matter altogether.

As a very interested, but essentially outside observer, I am constantly wondering where all this is heading? Perhaps this is how the Wild West felt like - India today (& I am largely extrapolating from Bangalore) is almost a lawless frontier tumbling at breakneck pace towards the uncertain future. It is clear that the leadership will not come from the politicians - it is a wonder they have any time to govern at all. The so-called leaders in Karnataka, Kerala, and the Center are all embroiled in some controversy or the other and spend most of their time protecting their power bases. I doubt the situation is much better in other states.

Upward mobility is a big driving force and education is still seen as the way out. The number of private institutions have exploded, but there is limited enforcement of standards.  The fight to rise to the top is even more intense and a big controversy today is the lax scoring done by the CBSE folks. Just a couple years ago, the number of students scoring 95% or greater was less that 200, now they number in the thousands. Things have gotten to such a head that a big name school in Delhi set their cut-off at 100% - yes, if don't have 100% score in your finals, don't bother applying there.

Indian sports has hit the big time - several of the "stars" from the recent Commonwealth and Asian games have tested positive for PE drugs. Almost everyday, a new name comes out. I am sure it is no coincidence that many of those athletes have coaches from the former eastern bloc.

One gets daily reminders of the uneven pace of development (I hesitate to call it progress). I went to a well known book store and picked out several books.  The checkout lady prepared the bill by hand, laboriously writing the complete title and ISBN - for whatever reason, they didn't just scan the bar codes that were on the price tags. When it was finally done, I handed her my credit card (since I was out of cash), but she couldn't charge it since their machine was down due to a power cut. She suggested I pop over to the ATM across the street, but that was closed as well - probably because of the same power cut. I had to leave the store without my books.

There may be a shortage of land, but the construction of new temples, churches, and mosques continues apace. It is perhaps the most cynical of land grabs anywhere.

India is a heady place today - the energy is almost palpable. Consumerism is rampant and the youth has long shrugged off the diffidence of prior generations in spending freely and generally flaunting it. There is way too much attention paid to Bollywood stars, cricketers, and corrupt politicians, but there is also much intelligent discourse. If you stop to think about it, there are literally a million different problems that will leave you paralyzed - but then, if you do stop to think, there will be a million others who will use that opportunity to rush past you. 

First Week Vignettes

"Traffic in Bombay is real bad, but the drivers there are...how do i put this...ah yes, more civilized." This was the verdict rendered about Bangalore traffic by a recent transplant. I couldn't have put it better myself. To complain about Bangalore traffic is almost de rigueur, but it is not just the sheer volume of traffic that gets on your nerves - it is the utter disregard for fellow drivers that most drivers display and the near chaotic state that results is what really gets you.

We arrived in Bangalore on Monday on vacation and the same afternoon, I borrowed my sister's car and started driving around. Most locals I meet shake their head in disbelief when they hear this. I'll admit that a certain amount of foolish bravado is required to actually get somewhere, but what I am mostly stressed out about is losing my way - most of Bangalore roads are a big mystery to me.

The weather has been very pleasant so far - no rain, low humidity and mostly cool days. Certainly warm by San Diego standards (especially these days), but nothing compared to what most other places are going through.

Listening to the local FM station has been my diversion while driving around. The DJs talk mostly in English, but then throw in the occasional word or phrase in Kannada. And some times, some Hindi as well. They affect a very distinctive, if non-grammatical style, frequently using lines such as,"You can win couple tickets" and they must be ex-JAM champions - they can talk non-stop seemingly without the need to take a breath.

Ads for weekend MBA and other courses are all over the radio - many of them are from foreign schools, including some rather dodgy sounding ones - Ever hear of the "International School of Los Angeles?"

Arjun had a visit from the tooth fairy and three generations of Nairs went for a haircut - shop is directly across from parents' house. I also got a shave - thought it would be a minor luxury to have somebody else take care of that chore, but having the guy wield the old school single-blade razor was more nerve-wracking than relaxing. Cost: Rs 40 (~90 cents) for the haircut and shave.

Marketing

Visited the 'Mantri Mall' billed as the the biggest mall in Southeast Asia - it is a pretty impressive affair, complete with high end designer stores, a dine-in Taco Bell, and a batting cage. Risked the Pani Puri, but it was for nought - even Surati in SD is better. Almost bought a Karoke set - there were multiple choices - including additional chips for the Magicsing. But that will have to wait for another day.

Overhead at the same mall:
Customer: "Yeh Kahaan ka hai?" (Where is this from?)
Shopkeeper: "Kya matlab?" (What do you mean?)
Customer: "Is it made in India? Not made in China, right?"

Discovered a new author - Rohinton Mistry. Strictly speaking, he was not totally unknown - one of his books is part of my "waiting to be read" collection in SD - but, I bought his short story collection ("Tales from Firozsha Baag") and even though I am not typically a short story fan, I was taken by his writing right away.

Drove out almost 30 km from our house to check out a housing development. Places that one used to encounter on an overnight trip out of Bangalore are now considered part of Bangalore.

The whole family - 16 of us - gathered for a dinner at "Three Quarters Chinese," nominally to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Later wished we had gone to RR.

We were over at Malini's parents house and the boys were playing with Malini's brother's kids who are recent transplants from St Louis. The neighbor's kid was also there and Arjun was wielding a broom like a bat. Ah, cricket, I think. But no, it was a full fledged game of baseball and the local kid was fully into it. Cricket, baseball - he could care less about the name. Kids are the same all over.