FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup Final – Argentina vs France – One of the best matches I have seen. Both were equal. Finally, someone has to win. Argentina won in penalty kicks – score equal (3:3) after regular-time and extra-time. Congratulations Argentina. 

I watched most of the matches on TV. Here are my observation and thoughts: 

Cannot imagine Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia (initial rounds) 

Tunisia upsets France, defending world cup champion (initial rounds) 

Morocco upsetting Portugal (quarter finals) 

The mighty and favorite Brazil eliminated by Croatia (quarter finals) 

When smaller countries like Senegal, Croatia, Morocco can qualify for world cup, why can’t bigger countries like India, China, Pakistan qualify? 

Japanese spectators cleaning the stadium after the match. They are the classiest fans. 

A friend of mine went to Qatar to watch couple of matches. He said all the stadiums were fully airconditioned. 

One thing I loved in all the players from every team is their theatrics. Any slight contact with the opponent player, they will fall down crying as if every bone in their body was broken. If they were in such a pain, medics and ambulance should take them away from the game. But they get up and continue to play. 

These are only games. Are famous and popular star players being bigger than the game? Not with Portugal’s Coach Fernando Santos. 

Fernando Santos dropped their world-famous player and Captain Cristiano Ronaldo for the last round 16 game against Switzerland due to Ronaldo’s attitude problem. Santos made him a substitute for the quarter finals against Morocco and allowed him to play late in the second half. 

My thought goes: Will any of the Indian cricket team’s coach/manager has the guts to drop a world-famous Indian cricket player during the world cup quarter finals because of his attitude problem?*  Just leave alone the Indians. 

Will any of America’s National Football League’s coach/manager has the guts to drop their famous quarterback during playoffs towards Super Bowl because of his attitude problem? I think not. 

Salute to Fernando Santos.

* I was informed by Mr. KP that an Indian coach dropped a female cricket player for the semi final match during world cup.  I do not know if she was dropped for disciplinary problem or any other issue.  In the case of Ronaldo, I was mentioning disciplinary problem.

Cinderella Story

This is about what happened this week at the American National Football League. You don’t need to know about American Football to read this Cinderella story. I will be as non-football as possible. 

In USA, you have to go to college to be recruited as a professional football player. No high school dropouts. Every year they recruit only 262 college players for their professional career. This year the 262nd (last player) (in other words no other teams wanted him) was a player named Brock Purdy. They call that 262nd player as Mr. Irrelevant. The San Francisco 49ers took him as the last Mr. Irrelevant player. 

This week, there was a game between San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay was led by their Quarterback Tom Brady. Brady is considered as the best Quarterback of all times and supposed to be Greatest of All Time. 

Meantime, unfortunately, 49er number one Quarterback and Number two Quarterback were seriously injured. They had no other option but to put their number 3 bench Quarterback into play…this guy 262nd recruit Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy. 

And, you know what happened? Brock Purdy took a class to the Greatest quarterback Tom Brady how to play football. Purdy won 35 to 7 against Brady.

Tulsi Gabbard

In my previous blog post I said I will recommend who should be the Republican Party’s Vice-Presidential nominee for the 2024 Presidential election irrespective of whoever is the Presidential nominee. 

It is Tulsi Gabbard. 

Tulsi was in Democratic Party. She resigned last month from that party because she did not like the way the party is heading. Tulsi was elected to the U.S. House of Representative from Hawaii. She ran for Presidential nomination for the Democratic Party in 2020 but lost. She is 42 years old now. She will be 44 years in 2024. 

As I wrote before, Americans love those who served the nation in the military. Tulsi served in the army and was deployed in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. She was also stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009. Tulsi is now a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. 

With her first name Tulsi, lot of people think she is of Indian origin. She is not. Her family embraced Hinduism and her parents named her Tulsi. She took her oath of office as a member of the U.S. House of Representative on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu Scripture. 

Taking Oath of Office with Bhagavad Gita

With Mr. Narendra Modi

A good number of people follow Tulsi in the Democratic Party.  She has not joined the Republican Party yet.  As of  now, she is independent.  USA needs a forward thinker like Tulsi Gabbard,

U.S. Midterm Elections

Now that the U.S. Midterm elections are over, both parties (Republicans and Democrats) are celebrating. The House was captured by Republicans from the Democrats. Republicans have 222 seats and Democrats have 213 seats. 218 seats are needed to become a majority party. The Senate has 50 democrats and 49 Republicans in a 100 member Senate. One seat is still undecided. Georgia Senate runoff election will be held on December 6. 

Republicans are happy that they captured the House. Democrats are happy that there was no Republican Tsunami. My interpretation of this is Democrats are happy that they are drowning only under 5 feet of water instead of 20 feet of water. 

Of the total of 435 House seats only 24 sitting members were defeated. 18 defeats for Democrats and 6 Republican defeats. It is very difficult in USA to defeat a sitting member of House or Senate. They all take very good care of their constituents. Whenever a citizen asks something to be done, their office will go out of the way to do it. Whether it is to request to arrange a tour of Washington, DC or to solve a problem with any Government agency or to write a letter to the U.S. Embassy and recommend a visa for the citizen’s uncle in a foreign country, they will do it immediately. (Most of the times U.S. Embassies will not act on their letters of recommendation.) 

I was really surprised by 2 Senate elections. 

One is for the State of Pennsylvania. John Fetterman, a Democrat won the Senate election. I was surprised by his win. He is not a sitting Senator. He is a nice and capable guy. On May 13, 2022, he suffered an ischemic stroke. He is suffering from auditory processing disorder. It is a problem with the way his ears and brain work together to understand sound. I was wondering how can he work as a Senator with that problem. Anyway, congratulations to John. 

My second surprise was that for the State of Georgia. As per Georgia rules, the winner must get at least 50+% of the vote to be declared a winner. 3 parties contested the elections. Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarian Party. By getting 2% of the total votes, Libertarian Party candidate denied both Democrats and Republicans to get 50+% of the votes. The other 2 candidates got around 49% of the votes each.  Therefore, there will be a run off election on December 6 between Democrat and Republican. 

The Republican candidate is Herschel Walker. He was an American Pro Football player. He is very popular.  He shattered and holds many records. He is kind of equivalent to Sachin Tendulkar in India. Can you imagine, if he ran for Parliament, Sachin not getting 50% of the vote in Maharashtra? We will know on December 6. 

I will end this blog post writing Donald Trump has announced he is a candidate for the Republican Party nomination for U.S. President in 2024. His most likely challenger within the Republican Party is Ron DeSantis. 

Stay tuned for my next blog post. I have a recommendation for both them to select this person as their Vice-Presidential nominee.

Advice to Elon Musk

I am writing this post with a “tongue-in-cheek” frame of mind. This is meant to be more on the humorous side and not meant to be a hot topic for debate regarding the merits and demerits of Elon Musk’s decision. 

Elon Musk has ordered Twitter employees must work 80 hours a week. Therefore, employees are resigning in droves. Here is an opportunity for Indians in India. My advice to Elon is to move his entire Twitter operations to India. 

They will work for 100 hours a week for ¼ of the salary paid to American employees. If a Software Engineer is getting $100k a year in USA (Rs.83 lakhs per year), Indians will work for $25k a year (Ra.20 lakhs per year). That is Rupees one lakh sixty-seven per month.

Provide them with free breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And, free beer every Friday evening. They will become Musk’s obedient servants. 

Government of India will like it because they will be getting lot of foreign exchange. 

Just thought of another Idea. Outsource the entire thingy to Mr. Narayana Murthi. He will hire people with lesser salary and get the job done. 

I am not a technical software guy. Twitter is an app that allows people to write 280 characters and express their opinion. Does it need 8000 employees to maintain an app?

UC Davis (Part 2 of 2)

Whenever I visit any College/University cafeteria in USA I am amazed how excellent they are and so many varieties of food to choose from.

By contrast when I was doing my college in Chennai, my dorm (hostel) canteen was just mediocre. They had two wings. One for vegetarian and another for non-vegetarian. It was OK for me. My wife went to a reputed college, which was considered India’s Radcliffe College at that time, HATED the hostel food. 

At UC Davis, the cafeteria food was very tasty and had so many different varieties to choose from. It accommodated all religions and all cultures. You are able to get food from steak to pure vegetarian to vegan.

There are 4 cafeterias at the campus. Here is the picture of the cafeteria I went. 

Here is a sample section of where you pick up the food. 

Here is the eating place. 

Being a vegetarian, I chose a falafel burger and fries. (Falafel is similar to masal vada between 2 buns.)

Every food section has a notification board.  Here is one for Rice and Choley.

Here is my plate of Rice and Choley.

Of course, the dessert section. 

And there were sodas of all kinds, ice creams, milk, tea, and coffee. 

Enjoyed the cafeteria food very much.

UC Davis (Part 1 of 2)

I visited University of California at Davis last Friday. Unfortunately, it was a Veterans Day Holiday and therefore not much crowd. Almost all the buildings and classrooms were closed and locked. I wished I had gone there on a working day. 

University of California has 10 campuses all over California. The most famous are UC Berkeley and UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles). Third in line is UC Davis.

Someone told me long time ago that "at Berkeley the professors don’t teach and the teaching is done by the teaching assistants. At Davis, professors teach. Therefore, Davis is much better than Berkeley”. I do not know how far this is true. 

First item I wanted to see was their football stadium. But I could not go inside the stadium because of the holiday. Here is a photo from outside: That stadium can accommodate 33,000 people but you will never know looking from outside because the football field is surrounded by tiers of seats for the spectators. Just like an amphitheater. 

Here is a building for classrooms. This building was donated by Robert Mondavi, an American billionaire and a wine maker. I was joking with my host the Mondavi family will not have any difficulty in getting admission to this University. 

One particular thing I did not like is the dorms (hostels) are only for the first year students.  Second, third, and fourth year students have to rent apartments outside of the campus.  I think this is ridiculous.  They also should have an option to stay in the dorm if they so wish.

The dorms are located far away from the classrooms. Therefore, all the students staying in the dorms have a bicycle to go to the classes. 

I met a few students who stayed in the dorm during this long weekend. They were very friendly and easy to have conversation. 

Stay tuned for the next blog post about the UC Davis cafeteria.

Changes at 10 Downing Street

I received this meme where people are asked to remove their shoes when entering 10 Downing Street. 

That prompted me to write this blog post. Since Rishi Sunak and his family have moved to 10 Downing Street, there will be some changes. 

No more English breakfast during morning cabinet meetings. Instead, they will be served idli and dosa with chutney and sambar. 

All silverware will be thrown out because the hosts eat with their hands. 

His wife is South Indian? Bye bye Tea and Hello Filter Coffee. 

Since Rishi is a teetotaler, there will not be Black Label Scotch Whiskey during cocktail hour. 

Work order sent to the Ministry of Public Building and Works to make custom made steps for use during Navaratri Golu. 

Extra security at the gate when the hosts take more than 30 minutes to say “good-bye” to each guest at the patio after the party.

Each bathroom will have lota (washing cup). That European bidet isn’t going to work. 

The oven will be used to store extra pots and pans. 

Old yogurt containers will be reused as leftover food storage. 

Turmeric stains EVERYWHERE. 

Currently, the Prime Minister Question Hour in the House of Commons is held at noon every Wednesday. It will be changed to an auspicious time and date to be determined by the family astrologer in India.

Karma is a

Bixch.

It took revenge for the British ruling India for 200 years. 

Rishi Sunak, an Indian origin in England, has been elected Prime Minister of England, unopposed.

Congratulations Rishi. 

Rishi will be England's first non-white Prime Minister.  As a Hindu, his victory comes on Diwali Day.

Winston Churchill is squirming in his grave.

A Page from the Past

In my last blog post “Rob DeSantis”, a blog reader Gowrishankar made the following comments: 

“…..our friend NM referred you as the California Governor”. 

I replied. “Correction. He referred me as the Special Representative of the California Governor”. 

That brought me back my memory of that past incident. I am writing this to show how politicians make all sort of BS not only to the public, but also to his own party men. 

This is what happened. 

We were on our vacation in Chennai. Invited to a cocktail get-together. There, someone introduced me to this Mr. NM. He is supposed to be close to the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. We were drinking and having a good time. Then this Mr. NM’s cell phone rang. I can hear only his side of the conversation. Here it goes: 

Hello 

Yes 

I am busy now 

Yes extremely important 

Talking to the Special Representative of  the California Governor. He is here to meet with Amma to talk about a huge project between California and Tamil Nadu. 

OK. 

See you later. 

Bye

All the people at the get together (including me) did not say a word.  Just smiled.  Mr. NM did not explain why he said that.  Party went on.

Ron DeSantis

Heard this name before? Probably not. Even in USA, not many people have heard this name. 

Mark my words. Remember this blog post. He could beome the President of the United States of America in 2024. He is at present the Governor of Florida. He is a Republican. 

DeSantis is 44 years old now. If he is elected President of USA in 2024, he would be 46 years old. He would become the 4th youngest President of USA. (Theodore Roosevelt 42 years old, Kennedy 43 years old, Clinton 46 years old.) 

Americans have a liking for people who served in the military. DeSantis served in the U.S. Navy. He graduated from Yale and Harvard. 

He was recently in the news for sending 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard via a chartered flight to make a political statement about illegal immigration. Here is a summary of that incident. 

(Lot of illegal immigrants are coming into the United States crossing the border in Arizona and Texas. Republicans are complaining that Biden Administration and Democrats are not doing enough to stop this illegal immigration. Some democrats ruled states and cities declared themselves as sanctuary places for these illegal immigrants. But they don’t want illegal immigrants in their backyard. They want Arizona and Texas to handle this problem. DeSantis chartered a plane, put 50 illegal immigrants in that plane, and dropped them in Martha’s Vineyard. It is the vacation home for multi billionaires who are democrats. Obama has a mansion there. Arizona and Texas Governors chartered many buses and transported hundreds of illegal immigrants to sanctuary places like New York, Washington, DC, and Chicago.)

There are some criticisms for his handling the Covid-19 issue. As a Governor, he refused to impose statewide mask orders. Also banned mandatory vaccines. 

But DeSantis’ handling during Hurricane Ian in Florida is commended by everyone including Democrats and Biden.

If Trump (Republican) decides to run for President in 2024, then it would be a tough and interesting fight between these 2 for the Republican nomination.

One Word Tweet

A series of one-word tweets recently came online and created lot of interests. It all started with the American train service company Amtrak started with a single word “trains”. Lot of people have started to use this one-word tweet trend. Here are some examples of people/organizations that have used one-word tweet: 

NASA – universe 

President Biden – democracy 

Tendulkar – cricket 

WWE – wrestling 

Starbucks Coffee – coffee 

Google Maps – maps 

Wendy’s – burgers 

FedEx – packages 

Here are my suggestions to some big corporations. Hope they take my suggestion and use this one-word tweet.

AT&T – phones 

Xerox – photocopy 

IBM – computers 

Here is my one-word reply tweet to you know who is mentioned  above:

demented

Close Caption Faux Pas

Close caption is a text version of spoken part of television, movie or a computer presentation. It was originally developed to aid the hearing-impaired people. Also, caption can be read when audio cannot be heard. I read somewhere it is made possible through a process called encoding. (I have no idea what this means.) 

Sometimes, there is a faux pas in close caption words. Completely different from the audio portion. Most of the times it is hilarious. Here a few examples. 

Baseball game. The announcer says “Longoria at first base. The next hitter will be Carlos Pena”. The close caption showed “The next Hitler will be Carlos Pena” (In cricket it is batsman but in baseball it is hitter,)

Reporter says “President Nixon is in the White House”. The close caption showed “President Nixon is in the White Hoe”. 

“Nancy Reagan a former first lady was back at home”. The close caption showed “Nancy Reagan a former fertile lady was back at home”. 

2007 Malibu Fire. The ABC news reporter said: “Fire fighters to deal with not just the fire with people in the middle of the road evacuating”. The close caption showed “Fire fighters to deal with not just the fire with people in the middle of the road ejaculating”. 

Movie close caption. A guy tells his friend: We have to take a ferry to get there. The close caption showed “We have to take a fairy to get there”. 

These are the 2 close caption faux pas I saw in the TV last week. 

BBC was covering the death of Queen Elizabeth. They showed a picture of Camilla, wife of Prince Charles. Narrator says “Now she has become Camilla, the Queen Consort to King Charles. But Camilla will not be called Queen Regina”. But the close caption showed “Camilla will not be called Queen Vxgina”. 

There was a Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. A TV reporter was saying: In a few minutes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak. The close caption showed “In a few minutes Indian Prime Minister Indra Modi will speak”. 

If you know any other close caption faux pas, please let me know through your comments. Thanks.

Britain's Double Standard

Queen Elizabeth’s funeral is on September 19. World leaders, about 500 of them, are coming to London to attend the funeral. They are Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, Queens, and other royal families. The British government has put out a strong advice for world leaders to:

Not come in their own planes but travel by commercial airline. 

Do not use limousines and travel by bus with limited security. 

These escorted buses will take them to the Queen’s funeral. When the USA objected to this, they relented and said Biden will be the exception. He can come in his own plane (Air Force 1) and travel in his own limousine. 

This is double standard by Britain. Every world leader will feel their security is as important as Biden’s. If the British Government cannot handle 500 world leaders’ planes, security, and limos, they should tell them not to come. Their countries can be represented by the Ambassadors/High Commissioners residing in London. Anyway, the queen is dead. She is not going to know who came and who did not come. 

I was thinking how the conversation will go inside the escorted bus (without their translators). Here is my imagination. 

French President Emmanuel Macros in French. Il n'y a pas d'air dans ce bus (There is no air inside this bus) 

President of Rwanda Paul Kagame replies in Swahili. Asante. Lakini sikula siku nzima (Thank you. But I did not eat all day) 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in German. Ich habe keine Ahnung, was diese Typen sagen (I have no idea what these guys are saying) 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in English. Please speak in English, mate.

University of Michigan (Part 3 of 3)

This is the final part of my visit to the University of Michigan. I want to write about the cafeterias at the U. There are 8 cafeterias within the campus. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All cafeterias are open from morning 7 am to evening 8 pm. 

I went for lunch one day in one of the cafeterias. I was pleasantly stunned. If you have ever been on a cruise ship you can visualize what I am saying. It looks like a buffet dining place in a cruise ship – in terms of available foods. 

                                                 Cafeteria Entrance

Sample menu for lunch on the day I visited. Too much to list all.

Students eating

In addition, there are several types of ice creams, cakes, and soft drinks. Also, several different juices. And, coffee, tea, and bottled water. 

It was too much in the menu. Students pay for the meals on a semester basis. It comes out to $13 per day which includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I asked my host why too many varieties available for lunch. Is this because of opening day? He said this is the regular food menu and nothing special. He also said this is nothing compared to how many varieties available for dinner. 

I offered to pay for my lunch. I was told this week is free for all the guests because this is a move-in week where students come with family and friends. 

Here is a moving conveyor belt to place the empty dishes to clean (video clip).

Finally, it is always a pleasant experience to land at the San Francisco International Airport. Until a few seconds before landing, you can see water everywhere and feel as if you are going to land on the water.

University of Michigan (Part 2 of 3)

At the University of Michigan, there are 2 strange traditions. It is believed new students will successfully graduate if they walk through a particular water fountain and drench themselves.  In addition, rotate a huge rock with their hands. It is very easy to rotate. Here are the video clips of these two. 

There is a Museum of Art at the University. It is one of the oldest and largest university museums in the country. Here are two photos (for sample). 

The whole city is crazy about University of Michigan's football team. Here is the stadium entrance and a store in a mall.

Politically correct expression is everywhere. 

There are 20 libraries at University of Michigan. Here is one of them. 

Move in day at the U. Parents are dropping their kids in the dorm.

I want to write about the cafeteria in detail.  It will be in my next  blog post.  Stay tuned.

University of Michigan (Part 1 of 3)

Last week I visited University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan is 2393 miles from the San Francisco Bay Area. That is 3851 kilometers. It takes 5 hours and 20 minutes to fly by plane. 

University of Michigan is a very reputed and sought-after learning center in the USA. It was established in 1817. The main campus in Ann Arbor is located in a 40 acres of land. The enrollment is about 32,000 undergraduate students and 16,000 graduate students. Degrees are awarded in about 250 disciplines. Students from about 130 countries are enrolled here. 

Entrance.  Photo taken at night.

Tuition and boarding fees are not cheap. But is cheaper for the residents of Michigan State. It is one of the costly universities in USA. However, scholarships are available on a need basis (students from poor income families) and athletes who represent the university in many sports. 

Here is some more interesting information about University of Michigan: 

26 Nobel Prize Laureates. 

Some of the alumni are: U.S. President Gerald Ford, Raoul Wallenberg who saved more than 100,000 Jews from Hitler's German Nazis, singer Madonna, The entire (3) NASA Apollo 15 Crew, One of the greatest (American) football hero Tom Brady, co-founder of Google Larry Page, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and many more.

Just recently, U.S. News and World Report released their rankings for the best PUBLIC universities in the country and UM - Ann Arbor is only a measly second on the list -- behind only UC – Berkeley. 

This is the exact mid-point at this 40 acre campus.

Enough of the statistics. More interesting photos in my Part 2.

 

It is a conservative university. But there are weird people everywhere. I was walking down the University campus. One guy came in a bicycle, stopped in front of me, and asked me: Are all the girls in the campus going to wear a bikini bra tonight? I replied: I don’t know. I am gay.

A Page from the Past

My company used to give us lot of money to be spent on local community for PR purposes. At that time, I was working in a city in a Mountain Time Zone. One day, my boss told me that she is very busy in her work and have no time to analyze the requests for donation from various community organizations. She therefore asked me to analyze those requests and make a final decision. 

I, being of Indian origin, used to treat favorably requests from the Indian community. They got more money per person wise than any other community. That Indian community was able to bring a number of famous musicians and artistes with our company’s contribution. 

There was a change in the Presidency of the local Indian Community. The lady who was the President of the Indian Association retired. A new gentleman was elected. One day, he came to see me to introduce himself. During the conversation he said: 

“I have seen in all the Indian programs you and your wife only come. Your company is contributing funds to us. Why don’t you bring your boss to our programs.” 

I asked him: Do you want funds or the presence of my boss? 

He answered: I want both. I said: I will think about it. 

After he left, I thought for a while and decided to reduce our company contributions to the Indian Community. 

(I digress: My thought was he does not think I am high enough in my company and wants my boss’s presence. In his mind, his imagination of my boss is a white guy, aged mid-50s slightly balding. He would come to the Indian program and say “I love the music even though I don’t understand the language. I love India so much that I saw the movie Gandhi 3 times. I love to eat curry.  I want to visit the Taj Mahal.)

I told this to my wife. She asked me to request my boss to come to an Indian program and see the reaction on the face of that Indian Association President. 

Now about my boss. She is a black lady. She is 2 years younger than me. MBA topper from Harvard. She wears only jeans and t-shirt all the time. If you don’t know her and meet her, you would think she is a waitress in a coffee shop.  But very intelligent. A spell bound speaker.

Epilogue: Two months after that, I was transferred to Saudi Arabia. I have no idea how my successor dealt with the request for funds from the Indian Community.

Memorable Cricket Match

It was the year 1946. Indian cricket team was touring England. Indian captain was Nawab of Pataudi, Sr. 

On May 13, 1946, India played against Surrey (county). Since Pataudi was sick, Indian team played under the captaincy of Vijay Merchant. Surrey team was led by Nigel Bennett. 

India won the toss and chose to bat first. The score was 205 for 9. The last batsman Shute Banerjee walked to the crease to join India’s 10th batsman Chandu Sarwate. 

The Surrey captain thought he could dismiss one of the batsmen in a few minutes. One of the commentators said (and I paraphrase) – Look at these number 10 and number 11 players from the Indian side. They walk to the crease as if they are opening batsmen. 

Little did they know Sarwate and Banerjee were excellent all-rounders. Sarwate used to open the innings for Holkar and Banerjee for Bihar. They both opened the innings together in 1945 for East Zone against the Australian Services team. 

Indian innings ended with 454 all out. This last wicket pair put on a world record partnership of 249 runs in 190 minutes. Banerjee was out for 121 and Sarwate remained unbeaten with 124. 

Other than this memorable last wicket partnership, here are some important information from this match. 

Indian leg-spinner C. S. Nayudu took a hat-trick. 

Surrey finished their first innings 135 all out. 

Sarwate took the wickets 5 for 54. 

In the second innings Indian side needed 20 runs to win. Sarwate was promoted to open the Indian second innings. But he fell for just 1 run. India won by 9 wickets.

Emergency?

We had friends of ours visiting from India a few years ago. They both are doctors. They stayed at the Hilton in San Francisco. We were staying about 50 miles from the San Francisco City. 

I and my wife showed them around the Bay Area. Then took them to our home for dinner.

The conversations were mainly about hospitals in USA and in India. 

I opened my big mouth and said hospitals in USA are required to treat you in an emergency whether you have money or not. Whether you have insurance or not. Even big-name brand hospitals have to treat a patient in case of emergency. 

I also said it is not like that in India. I read many news items where women who are in delivery pain were not admitted because they do not have the financial resources. 

He (the male doctor) said delivery is not an emergency. These ladies know for 10 months that they are going to deliver a baby. Emergency is something that happens unexpectedly like someone is involved in an accident and have to be taken to the hospital immediately and operated upon. 

She (the female doctor) took umbrage to her husband’s remark and started arguing with him. Back and forth, it almost became a fight. 

I and my wife, being the host, tried to calm them down and told them dinner is ready. And they enjoyed the dinner.  After dinner we dropped them in their hotel in San Francisco.

 (Hope they did not continue their argument after going back to India.) 

What do you think? Is delivering a baby an emergency?

Boris Johnson Resigns

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned today. He was abandoned by his own ministers and his own party’s parliament members. He was involved in a series of scandals. 

I personally think Boris Johnson is an honorable man. When he came to know he did not have the confidence of his party, he chose to resign. Will this happen in other countries? Here are my thoughts: 

In USA, it will take an act of God for a sitting President to resign. Some will not accept defeat in the elections and encourage supporters to riot in the Capitol building to stop the official announcement. 

In some other countries, the ousted Prime Minister will cry foreign conspiracy. 

In India, a party member does not even dare to criticize the leadership. In the rare circumstances of a revolt within the party, there will be urgent court case after court case until the Supreme Court decides in somebody’s favor. That decision depends upon who is in charge of the central government. 

He never used Ukraine emergency as an excuse. 

Boris Johnson resigned without blaming anyone. How strange! 

Britain is in the process of electing a new Prime Minister. One of the favorites is former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak. He is of Indian Origin and son in law of Infosys founder N, R. Narayana Murthy. Mr. Sunak has his own problems like his wife not paying U.K. income tax and him holding a U.S. Green Card while being a member of the British Parliament. 

Let us see who becomes the next British Prime Minister. 

If by chance Mr. Sunak becomes the next British Prime Minister, it will be Karma’s biggest revenge for the British ruling India for 190 years.

Gurkha Soldiers

Per Historian Tony Gould, Gurkhas have brought an excellent combination of qualities from a military point of view. He said: "They are tough, they are brave, they are durable, they are amenable to discipline. 

Gurkhas are considered very brave soldiers. They are the fiercest fighters. Even America’s legendary Navy Seals are no match for the Gurkhas. 

Former Indian Army Chief of Staff Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw once stated that: "If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha. 

The Gurkhas serve in the Nepalese, Indian, and British armies. There is a Gurkha Contingent in the Singapore army. And, a Gurkha reserve unit in Brunei. They serve in the UN Peace Keeping Missions and war zones around the world. 

It is hard to tell how much of stories about Gurkha’s ferocity is true. Their deeds have been recorded in military dispatches and the diaries kept by the army officers. Of course, there is room for exaggeration. 

Here is a funny one I read recently. I don’t know if it is true or not. Here it goes: 

A British Colonel informed a Gurkha Captain to bring 100 of his troops so they can be trained to jump from the plane. The captain agreed to bring his 100 Gurkha soldiers. But he had a question. 

At what height we are supposed to jump from the plane Sir? 

The Colonel replied from 5000 feet. 

Sir, can you please lower the height? 

The Colonel replied how about from 3000 feet. 

Sir, can you make us jump from 1000 feet? 

The Colonel replied the parachute will not open under 2000 feet. 

Sir, when you asked us to jump, you did not mention anything about parachute.

A Page from History

During World War 2, the famous Spanish Painter Pablo Picasso was living in Paris. The Germans occupied Paris. The German Nazis wanted to interrogate all the intellectuals and artists in Paris.

One day a Nazi officer took Picasso from his home to a secret interrogation location. He showed a painting – Guernica – to Picasso. That was an oil painting on canvas by Picasso.

That painting depicted a town in Northern Spain which was bombed by Nazi Germany. That composition showed screaming women, a dead baby, a dismembered soldier, and flames. 

Nazi Officer: Mr. Picasso, did you do this? 

Picasso: No, you did this. I just painted it.

Pudhumai Penn (New-Age Woman)

Winston Churchill said: "You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.” Very few people have the opportunity to learn what it means to serve others through use of their time and efforts. Recently, I met one of those people. 

Her name is Maria. Name changed for privacy’s sake. She is of Chinese origin born in Singapore. After graduating from her college, one day she saw a documentary on TV about the life of poor children in a remote mountainous area of China. Maria grew up in a wealthy environment. She was shocked when she saw this documentary on TV. 

That day she decided to go to that area of China she saw on TV and do some voluntary work. 

She went to China. She was moved by the poor living condition of those children. They were growing up impoverished. They had lacked food, sanitation, health care, and education. Maria decided to do volunteer teaching. Like everyone else, she had to get up early every day to feed all kinds of livestock and walk a long way to school. She taught kids of 7 and 8 year old for six months. 

Maria then decided that just teaching them knowledge will not improve their living condition. She decided to open up a business and make some money and use that money to help those poor children. She quit her voluntary teaching job. Came back to Singapore. Started a business. 

Maria is now a successful business woman. She is financially helping those poor children of that remote mountainous area of China. 

I digress. In 1908, Tamil Poet Bharathiyaar wrote a poem titled Pudhumai Penn. Translation: A Vision for the New-Age Woman. Here is a translation in English a few lines:

“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.” 

In my opinion, I find Maria is an example of Bharathiyaar’s Pudhumai Penn.