Friday, November 15, 2019

Still Learning

I have lived most of my adult life in USA.  I thought I know almost every American slang and phrases.  But today I found out I still don't know many slangs and still in the learning stage.  This is what happened.
 
I had a severe lower back pain for the past one week. I thought it would go away.  But it did not.  So I made a doctor appointment and saw the doctor today.  She tested me for 15 minutes.  While testing me, she asked me several questions.   One of the question was:
 
Have you had an accident with your bladder or bowl?
 
I replied no I did not have an accident.   I did not fall down and/or hurt my bladder or bowl.
 
The doctor smiled and said:  I did not mean that.   I meant did you involuntarily pee or poop in the bed or in your pants.
 
I said no I did not.
 
Now I know what an accident with a bladder or bowl means (in USA).

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Read This Somewhere

Khidhir Hamza was a nuclear scientist in Iraq. He later escaped Iraq to another western country. In his book, Saddam’s Bombmaker, he described a meeting he had with Saddam Hussain. His lab acquired a large new computer and was installed. One day, Saddam, unannounced, came to his lab.
 
 
 He was not showing interest in the new computer. He was looking at the pictures that Hamza has tacked to the wall. They were all famous scientists, from Copernicus to Einstein. Hamza tore their pictures from magazines and tape them in the wall.
 
Saddam asked “who are those?”
 
Hamza replied: “They are the greatest scientists in history”.
 
Saddam became angry. "What an insult this is! All these great men, these great scientists! You don't have enough respect for these great men to frame their pictures? You can't honor them better than this?"
 
End of Story.
 
Hamza’s explanation: Saddam had kinship he felt with the great men of history, with history itself. Lack of reverence for an image of Copernicus might suggest a lack of reverence for Saddam.

Friday, November 1, 2019

Butt-Dial

I never heard of this word until last week.
 
(Image Courtesy: Dreamstime.com)
 
Butt-Dial means accidentally dial someone’s phone number while sitting on your phone. It happens when you are sitting down while your cell phone is in your pant’s back pocket. It is also known as pocket dial. It usually dials any of the last 3 numbers you have dialed.
 
When this dialing happens, the receiver can hear all the conversations you are having with someone else in the room. If you are not talking to someone, the receiver will be wondering why you dialed him/her and did not speak.
 
Side Note: Last week, President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Guiliani’s cell phone butt dialed an NBC News Reporter. At that time, Mr. Guiliani was speaking to someone else, someone in the same room. This reporter heard the whole conversation and published the entire conversation. I think this is unethical.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Chutzpah

Chutzpah (pronounced Hootspa) is a Jewish word meaning audacity or nerve.
 
I checked the Dictionary.com for the meaning of audacity. It gives the following:
 
Boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restriction.
 
Here is a true story. This is not any movie scene.
 
Amrullah Saleh was a Spy Chief for the Afghanistan Government. He is now running for the Vice President of his country as a running mate for the current Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. As a Spy Chief, he made lot of enemies including the Taliban. He killed lot of enemies. To a US television network he said: “And if they kill me, I have told my family and my friends not to complain about anything because I have killed many of them – with pride”.
 
In July of this year, his office was attacked and many of his bodyguards were either killed or wounded. He just escaped. He later visited the wounded bodyguards in a hospital. In the hospital, a relative of a dead bodyguard slapped Amrullah Saleh. His own security came to protect him. He asked his bodyguards to step back. Amrullah told the dead bodyguard’s relative to hit him more. And, he hit him again.
 
Amrullah Saleh asked the grieving relative whether his own death would have eased his pain. The man said “yes”. Amrullah Saleh then pulled his handgun, loaded it, and gave it to the man to shoot him. The relative took the gun, aimed at Amrullah Saleh, and after a few seconds returned the gun to Amrullah Saleh saying he could not shoot him.
 
During these few seconds, Amrullah Saleh looked at the man straight in his eyes and no fear in his face.
 
I would call this Chutzpah. Real life incident. Not a movie scene.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Strange But A True Story

Her name was Sivasli. She was 41 years old. Teacher. She fell in love with a married man. After a few years, he left her. Sivasli could not bear the loss of her lover. She was dejected. She wanted to commit suicide.
 
But she did not have the guts to commit suicide. She thought about how to end her life. Then she had a "brilliant" idea. She hired a “hit man” to kill her. Contacted the hit man. Money was negotiated. Sivasli paid him the full amount to kill her.
 
The first time the hit man saw Sivasli, he fell in love with her. Her beauty, her charm, her grace—all affected his mind. He did not want to kill her. He pleaded with her not to take her life. He told her he is in love with her and would take care of her. But Sivasli was firm in her mind to die.
 
One day, she pressured him to kill her. One time the hit man tried to strangle her. But couldn’t do it when she started turning red.
 
Then she bought a gun and gave it to him to kill her. When they met one night, she told him “if you really love me, please kill me.” He put a pillow on her face and shot her twice on the pillow. He thought she would not die. Called the emergency line and fled the scene.
 
Police and ambulance came. Unfortunately, she died while paramedics were trying to save her when they got to her house.
 
She died in Istanbul on April 21.
 
PS:  While I feel really sorry for Sivasli, this would make a good story for the Indian movies.   They would change the ending as if they happily lived ever after.

Sunday, July 7, 2019

A Poem*

Of all the people I have seen
I would call her
The beautiful
The most beautiful

Of all the words I have heard
I would call hers
Poetic
Very poetic

Any artist will sculpt her
Any poet will write about her
Even the nature will love her
My life will be spent in her memory

*Paraphrased from a Kannadasan poem.

Friday, June 28, 2019

Funny Answer

Joe Biden, former Vice President of USA and former Senator is considered as one of the brightest and intelligent politicians within the Democratic Party.  There are 24 people vying for that Party's nomination to be the Presidential candidate.  Last night, they had a debate.
 
The moderator Chuck Todd asked each and every candidate the following question:
 
What would be the first thing they would if they were elected President.
 
Biden replied: The first thing I would do is make sure that we defeat Donald Trump. Period.
Hey Uncle Joe, if you were elected President that means you have already defeated Donald Trump.

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

How Impeachment Works in U.S.?

U.S. Constitution allows Congress to impeach and remove the President. The House debates and votes whether to bring charges against the President. All it needs is a simple majority in the 435 House members. The House has 235 members from Democratic Party, 197 from the Republican Party and 3 vacancies. So the Democratic controlled House can easily pass a resolution to impeach Donald Trump.
 
Once that is done, it then goes to the Senate for an impeachment trial. The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides. The Senate has 100 members. Two thirds majority vote is needed to convict the President and remove from the office. The Senate has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 independents. It is almost impossible to get a two third majority (67 votes) to convict the Republican President Trump in a Republican controlled Senate.
 
The leader of the Democratic Party in the House, Nancy Pelosi, is not in favor of impeachment because it will not get Trump removed from office since the Republicans have majority in the Senate. Suppose the House passes impeachment resolution and the Senate rejects it, it will backfire on the democrats during the 2020 presidential election. Trump knows how to manipulate the media. Trump will put up a show as he is the poor victim and gain popularity and easily win the election. Also, the general public will get tired of the democrats.
 
What do I think? I think the democrats will talk about impeachment, but not go forward with it, until the election time next year.
 
Wait and see.

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Hairstyles


Donald Trump

Boris Johnson
 
We all know who Donald Trump is.  Boris Johnson may become (may be) the next Prime Minister of England.  Where do they go to get for their hair cut?  I understand these two guys are friends.  May be they go to the same barber shop.
 

Thursday, April 18, 2019

A Vision for the New-Age Woman

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a long time but did not find the time. So here it goes…
 
Tamil poet Bharathiyar (WHO? If you don’t know then Google him)…In 1908 he wrote a poem titled Pudhumai Penn. The translation is A Vision for the New-Age Woman. It’s a long poem but I wanted to mention a few lines.
 
Nimirndha nan nadainaerkondapaarvaiyum
Nilathilyaarkkumanjaathanerigalum
Thimirndhagnanacherukkumiruppadhaal
Semmaimaadharthirambuvadhuillaiyaam. (
 
(Her head held high, and looking everyone in the eye,
Unafraid of anyone because of innate integrity,
Possessing assuredness born of courage of conviction,
The Modern Woman never feels inferior to any)
 
I actually met this modern woman during my last visit to Chennai. Her name is Evangeline (Eva). She came from Indore.and we met in a hospital where her mother was undergoing treatment for cancer and her father was undergoing dialysis in the same hospital. Eva is an only child who is taking care of both of her parents at the same time.
 
I asked Eva are you a student or do you work?
 
She said she has her own business. I asked her what kind of business. She said she does custom fitting for motorcycles. Excuse me? I think I heard you incorrectly. Exactly what do you do? She said (paraphrased):
 
I have a shop in Indore. It is called TIME:CYCLES Garage Café. I believe in building extraordinary custom vehicles with an immense amount of attention to details.
 
I take an ordinary bike and customize it according to the wishes of the customer.
 
Like building retro bikes that look old but have all of the newest features.
 
Most people, especially students, like to go for high speed customizations.
 
I also customize exhaust pipes so the bikes sound incredible. Great sound is like music for bikers.
 
I thought, a lady in the custom fitting motorcycle business seems extremely non-traditional. This is a first for me. I’ll add her to my existing list of non-traditional female friends…that include commercial and fighter pilots, train engine drivers, and truck drivers.
 
In addition to have a startup business in Indore, she came all the way to Chennai for her mom’s cancer treatment and dad’s dialysis treatment. She had all the things that Tamil Poet Bharathiyar described in his poem. Eva’s head was held high and looked me in the eyes when she spoke to me. Definitely gave the impression that she is not inferior to anyone.
 
Oh by the way, remember that I asked her if she was a student or working?
 
Well there is a reason why I asked.
 
She is only 27.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Trump Wins Second Term

(Note: I am an independent. I just observe. I am not a Republican or Democrat.)
 
In May 2017, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was appointed to launch a probe into charges of collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian contacts. Nearly two years later, his investigation has finally ended. He formally announced the investigation is closing on March 22. The results: No collusion with Russia.
 
Very sorry to all the Democrats who never wanted to accept Hillary Clinton lost the election. Very sorry to all the organizations like Yahoo News, New York times, Washington Post, CNN, et al. They put all their eggs in one basket…Robert Mueller. They hoped, wished, and wanted Robert Mueller to come out with something against Donald Trump. Their mantra was “Wait for Mueller”. Mueller finally said no dice.
 
Even now some Democrats want further investigations. However, with Robert Mueller saying “no collusion with Russia” what does the common man (the guy who votes to elect the President) think? The gas station attendant in Atlanta and the factory worker in Detroit think Trump is innocent, whether it’s true or not. Therefore, in my opinion, Trump will easily win a second term in 2020.
 
Of course, Trump is very unpredictable. He could very well say “I’m not running for a second term”.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Kamala Harris


Almost 6 years ago, on April 11, 2013, I wrote a post “A Name to Remember”. It was about Justice Srikanth Srinivasan. In that post, I had also mentioned that (a practically unknown at that time) anytime in the next 25 years Kamala Harris may contest for the President of USA and may even win.

Kamala’s mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, is from Chennai.

Day before yesterday, Senator Kamala Harris announced that she is officially entering the race for the President of the United States in 2020. She is one of the more than a dozen candidates from the Democratic Party.

She has a similarity with President Obama. Obama was a first term Senator and ran for the President. Kamala Harris is also a first term Senator.

Obama was the first African-American to be elected as President. Will Kamala Harris be the first woman (and Indian origin) to be elected as President? Stay tuned.