Falimy

Last night I saw a Malayalam movie, Falimy, released in OTT recently (HULU). I did not make a spelling mistake. Yes, it is named Falimy (instead of Family). The movie comes with English close caption. 

This is not a review about the direction, cinematography, songs, etc. This is what my opinion of the movie. 

This movie was directed by Nithish Sahadev, a debutant director. The hero is Basil Joseph.

There is a family living in Trivandrum. Chandran, his wife Rema, their two sons Anoop and Abhi and Chandran’s dad Janardanan. They are kind of dysfunctional family. Anoop who is working as dubbing artist does not have good relationship with his dad Chandran. The second son Abhi who is a student wants to immigrate to London, UK. (I don’t know why he is wearing T-shirt with the name showing Los Angeles.) 

The grandpa Janardanan wants to go to Kaashi (Benares) and no one is helping him. He decides to go by himself without telling anyone in the house. He was caught in the railway station by Abhi and he brings the grandpa home. 

Anoop decides to take the grandpa to Kaashi. And finally, the whole family decided to go. Their travel from Trivandrum to Kaashi is the most hilarious comedy. I loved every minute of it. I will see the movie 2 more times just for their travel experience. They reach Kaashi and stay in a hotel. Next morning grandpa is missing. The other 4 get in the business of trying to find the grandpa.  Some people are advising them that old people come to Kaashi to die.

Did they find their grandpa? That is the rest of the story. It is worth watching the movie. Please don’t read Wikipedia. It tells the whole story and will spoil your interest. 

During the movie I thought I could guess the ending because I have seen lot of Tamil and Malayalam movies. But the Director of the movie (who is also the writer) gave an unexpected twist at the end. 

Many dialogues are hilarious. One of them I liked very much. Here is the situation. While searching for grandpa, the 4 family members end up in a police station. There is a lady police inspector. These 4 are not able to answer her simple questions. She says: I know the people in the Kerala State are 98% educated and intelligent. Are you four from the other 2% category?

The End.

(American) Football vs Cricket

Since I follow both sports religiously, I thought of writing about the differences in these two sports. I’m not going to explain how these two sports are played but instead just some basic differences. (Wait until the last paragraph. I found out an important rule only last Sunday night.)

Game vs Match 

The competitive event in Football is called a game. The competitive event in Cricket is called a match. 

Officials 

In Football, they are generally referred to as referees (which is technically incorrect). The people in the officiating crew actually have different titles. In Cricket, they are referred to as umpires. 

Number of Officials 

In Football, there are seven officials on the field. Referee, Umpire, Head Linesman, Line Judge, Back Judge, Field Judge, and Side Judge. The lead official is the Referee (who wears a white cap). The other six officials wear black caps. In Cricket there are two officials on the field. Both are called Umpires 

Duration of a Game/Match 

In Football, the game is split into four quarters, 15 “game minutes” of playing time for each quarter. The total game time is usually around 3 hours. 

In Cricket, the match is dependent upon the type of game that is played, i.e. Test, ODI, or T20. Test is five days with time off for lunch, tea, drinks, etc. ODI is 50 overs bowled from each team which usually lasts 7 hours. T20 is 20 overs bowled from each team which usually lasts around 3 hours. 

Captain 

In Football, a captain is only an honorary title. The captain comes in only for the coin toss before the game begins. In Cricket, a captain has many more responsibilities. He decides whether to bat or field (if he wins the coin toss), the batting order, adjusting the field placements, which player should bowl, and declaring the innings among many others. 

Weather 

In Football, the game will proceed regardless of what type weather is present. The game will continue even through heavy rain or heavy snowfall. In Cricket, the match will be stopped if there is rain. 

Penalties (just a sample)

In Football, there is a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Unsportsmanlike conduct includes, among others, excessive celebration and/or excessive taunting of the opponent. I’m not aware of any penalties in cricket for unsportsmanlike conduct. 

And finally, I learned this last Sunday night. I was watching a Football game between San Francisco 49ers vs the Philadelphia Eagles. There was an alteration on the sideline between 2 opposing team players. The Chief of Security who was standing there went over and put his hands on the San Francisco 49er player (presumably trying to difuse the situation). The 49er player then gave the Chief of Security a boxing style left hook on his face. 

The Referee ejected both the 49er player and the Chief of Security from the stadium. 49er player was ejected for making a contact with a non-player. The Chief of Security was ejected because if there is an altercation between players on the ground, it is the sole responsibility of the referee to intervene.  Per referee, the Chief of Security's responsibility is crowd control and not interfere in players disputes.

Looks like in Football, referees have the right to eject anyone from the stadium. I never knew this until last Sunday.

Justice Sandra Day O’Conner

Retired U.S Supreme Court Judge Sandra Day O’Conner passed away today at the age of 93. She was the first woman judge in the US Supreme Court. She was appointed by President Ronald Regan. Justice O’Conner was an independent defender of rule of law. 

I want to write this blog about a funny incident. 

In 1985, there was a “Salute to Congress” event. Many VIPs were invited for dinner. Justice Sandra Day O’Conner happened to sit next to the famous (American) Football Player John Riggins. O’Conner did not know who Riggins was. And, Riggins did not know who O’Conner was. Just their names only from the name tag. 

John Riggins had too much alcohol to drink. He was drunk. They both did not engage in any conversation. At one time during dinner, Riggins told the quiet O’Conner – Hey Sandy Baby, Loosen up. You are too tight”. Justice O’Conner just smiled and did not say anything. 

Next day it was all over the news and much talked about in sports and legal circle. 

It was reported that Justice O’Conner got a kick out of that meeting with John Riggins. After a few weeks, when she was giving a speech at Pepperdine University Law School, she mentioned this incident and got a big ovation. 

After John Riggins retired from football, he took up acting. When he made a debut in a play, Justice O’Conner showed up and presented him with a dozen roses. 

May she Rest in Peace.

Cricket 2023 ODI World Cup

Finally, the cricket ODI world cup 2023 is over. And, Australia beat India and won the World Cup. 

Here are my impressions: 

India was superb with unbeaten performance (9 to zero) at the Group Stage. 

They are all professional players. On a given day any team can beat any other team. For example: Australia became the world champion. But at the Group Stage South Africa beat Australia. And, the lowly Netherlands beat South Africa. What can we say!  My suggestion is there should be "best of 3" for the final instead of just one match.

I cannot imagine such a poor performance by India at the finals. Only 2 boundaries and no sixers in 20 overs? India’s total of 240 had only 13 boundaries and 3 sixers. Only 35 runs from the 11th to 20th over. Only 37 runs from the 21st over to 30th over. (That too with Kohli and Rahul at the crease) 

The Australians effectively shut the Narendra Modi stadium crowd. May be the Indian team thought the crowd is on our side and that will make the Australians nervous. 

The Australian team had 7 players who participated in the 2015 World Cup. Therefore, they have plenty of prior experience. 

I don’t even want to talk about the coin toss controversy and pitch controversy because they are rumors and not confirmed. 

And then, it is after all a game and no need to take them personally by the spectators. We should support the team we like. But we should not over do it. I have heard news about people doing archana in temples and priests doing homam for India to win. A friend of mine told me about a running commentary in Tamil and the commentator was saying (when Australia was batting) “sivaram sivaram sivaram wicket vizhanum. Namma India jaikanum” (Oh God another wicket should fall now. Our India should win). I thought the job of a commentator is to tell the listeners what is happening on the field.  I wonder if this was a legitimate ICC approved commentary.

One sad note. Per reports in the newspapers, India’s first World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev was not invited to watch the finals. Very sad.  How many Indians would have celebrated in 1983.  Where are they now and what are they saying?

Want to end this post with a lighter note. I am glad it is over. I am relieved in a sense that I don’t have to keep awake and watch the matches from 12:30 am (California time) to 9 am.

Free Speech

The 3rd Republican Party nomination debate was held in Miami last week. It was all hot air and waste of time. Trump is way ahead in polls to get the nomination. He is around 50% and the next candidate (DeSantis at 14%) and the rest of them in single digits. I think the other candidates are for running for the Vice President job. 

Just FYI. According to poll, Trump is ahead of Biden in the general election next year for President. 

One important point I noticed in the debate was Vivek Ramaswamy called his own (Republican) Party as a party of losers. He said; 

“We have become a party of losers. Since Ronna McDaniel took over as chairwoman of the RNC (Republican National Committee) in 2017, we have lost 2018, 2020, 2022. And, that there is a “cancer” in the Republican establishment.” 

His open and frank statement is welcomed by many in the Republican Party. Of course, there are people who criticize him for making that statement during debate on live TV watched by millions of people. 

I see this as free speech and this is a free country. 

Imagine any Conservative Party member in England speaks against their leader. What will happen to that person!

Imagine the fate of any BJP member who says this about Mr. J. P. Nadda or Mr. Modi. What will happen to that person!

We all know what will happen if a person in Russia speaks like this about Mr. Putin.

Ronna McDaniel (RNC Chairwoman) responded:  He is at 4%, he needs a headline.  Our headlines should be about Joe Biden.  I will also stand by my record as RNC Chair.

Timed Out

An unusual "out" happened in today’s World Cup cricket match – Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan player Angelo Mathews comes to bat. When he was tightening the strap of his helmet, it broke. He asked for a new helmet. A substitute player from Sri Lanka brought the new helmet. 

There is an obscure rule in cricket. The new batter has to be ready to face the ball within 3 minutes. During World Cup, it is 2 minutes. Apparently, Mathews’ helmet problem took a little more than 2 minutes. 

The Bangladesh bowler and his team appealed to the umpire. And, he declared Mathews is out. In the history of cricket, Mathews was the first player to be declared out in this manner. 

I think this is very cheap on the part of Bangladesh Team. Their captain has the right to over rule the umpire and ask Mathews to play. But Shakib Al Hasan was not magnanimous. 

People say “mankading” is cheating and unethical even though it is legal. But I would say Timed Out is more outrageous. 

In the American Football, there is a severe penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Maybe it is time to introduce unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in cricket also and punish Bangladesh Team.  Or is this type of penalty rule already in cricket? I don't know.

New Prefix

I just noted a new prefix is making the rounds. 

For anything used before, we called it second-hand. 

People started to improvise that to pre-owned. 

Now there is an improvement to pre-owned. It is called pre-loved. 

A used second-hand book is now pre-loved book. 

A used car is now pre-loved car. 

A used clothing which we donate to Goodwill is now pre-loved clothes. 

A used furniture is now pre-loved furniture. 

This is a good prefix. But I have a doubt. Before we use a hot oven, we pre-heat the oven. Other “pre-loved” items are after they are used. But we “pre-heat” the oven before we use. Different meanings for the same “pre”? I am confused.  But again  I did not go to Harvard. 

I was talking about this to a friend of mine. His girlfriend recently dumped him. He is looking for a new girlfriend. He wants to call himself pre-loved single guy, 

If you know any “pre” please let me know. Thanks.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy

There was a huge circus today at the US House of Representatives. They ousted the Speaker Kevin McCarthy. 

Little background. US Speaker is not like a Speaker in the British or Indian Parliament. US Speaker is the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives. Equivalent to Prime Minister. The Speaker is second in line to become President of USA after the President and Vice President. 

In a 435-member assembly, Republicans have 221, Democrats 212, Vacant 2. Need 218 to be majority party. Therefore, Republicans have thin majority. 

A small number of Republicans (8) were dissatisfied with Speaker McCarthy. Reason. You will laugh at it. Speaker McCarthy sought and got the help of Democrats to pass a bill. (My personal opinion is what is wrong with that?)  No Confidence Motion against your own party leader can happen only in USA.

The leader of this (8) renegade group, filed a motion of no confidence against Speaker McCarthy yesterday, October 2. McCarthy did not delay. He immediately brought the No Confidence Motion against him this morning, October 3, for a vote. 

The Final Vote: Remove McCarthy 216 votes. Do not remove McCarthy 210 votes. 7 did not vote due to absence from the House for various reasons. 

My question is why Democrats sided with this small group of 8 Republicans and ousted the Speaker. But again, I don’t know the inside politics.

Second Republican Debate

My opinion of the second debate by the Republican candidates. 

It was like Family Gatherings where the all the young children are sitting at a table in another room yelling at each other. 

I think Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was the clear winner. (He was the loser in the first debate.) He took an aggressive tone and started attacking Trump for not participating in the debate. He also skillfully dodged the question whether he would support nationwide abortion restrictions. 

Stupid idea from Mike Pence. Expedited death penalty for perpetrators of mass shootings. The problem is almost all mass shooters are killed by the police on the spot or commit suicide.

Nikki Haley, as in the first debate, ripped apart Vivek Ramaswamy for him joining TikTok to reach out younger voters. She said TikTok is doing espionage work for the Chinese Communist Party. She also said TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media assets that we could have. 

Tim Scott took aim at Vivek for his past business dealings with China. 

Vivek tried to be calmer than the first debate. During the first debate he said all other candidates are bought and paid for. In this debate he said all the other candidates are qualified and good people. He also invoked the famous 11th commandment by Ronald Reagan. “Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican”. 

Here is the verdict by the media pundits after the debate. 

Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy remained in their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. 

Pence moved to 4th place. 

Haley dropped from 4th to 5th place. 

DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Haley, and Scott were judged as “above average performers”.

Christie, Pence and Burgam were judged as “average performers”. 

Will wait for the next debate scheduled on November 3 in Miami.

ZBB (Zero Based Budgeting)

ZBB (Zero Based Budgeting) means, per Investopedia, is a method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. 

The process of zero-based budgeting starts from a "zero base," and every function within an organization is analyzed for its needs and costs. The budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether each budget is higher or lower than the previous one. 

I will tell you at the end as to why I am writing this subject. 

I was an EA (Executive Assistant) to my Western Region President. We had strong recommendations (from HQ) to cut our expenses, especially travel costs. In our company, anybody and everybody will book a ticket and travel to any destination without prior approval by the managers. That is why our company was known as All Talk and Travel. 

In order to cut the expenses related to travel, I suggested to my boss to issue an order that all travel itinerary should be personally approved by him (President of the Western Region). We did not give any pre-allotted budget to each department for travel. 

You know what happened. All requests for travel were approved by the President of the Western Region. Not a single request was denied. But the travel related expenses came down to 35 percent compared to previous year.  Just for the reason they have to get prior approval from the President of Western Region, most employees decided not to request for travel.

Why I am writing this! I just read the Republican Party Presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy said that if elected he would require the executive branch to adopt zero-base budgeting. “Start from zero for every department and ask what (if any) spending is required instead of just taking last year’s budget as the default,” 

Will wait and see.

Vivek's Boo-Boos

I have received calls from some of my readers that I am not pointing out the blunders committed by Vivek Ramaswamy in his Presidential primary campaign. Please don’t be disappointed. Here are a few. 

Vivek wants US to abandon Ukraine and let Russia keep whatever they have occupied so far in exchange for (Russia) exiting its military alliance with China.

He wants to support Taiwan against China only until 2028. He says by 2028, USA would have achieved “semi-conductor independence”. 

Vivek says climate change is a "hoax".  (Just read a report he insists the temperature should be below 64 degrees F (that is 17.778 C) wherever he stays - be it his home or his office or his hotel room.)

Vivek wants US voting age to be raised from 18 to 25.  According to him if someone who is below 25 years of age wants to vote, he/she should serve in the military for at least 6 months or pass a test similar to a written test given to aspiring naturalized citizens. 

This one is cute.  Vivek recommends Universities should screen the college applicants on their physical fitness, such as their one-mile run time, sit-ups, and pull-ups. (My brother who is handicapped cannot be admitted for higher studies. No college education for my nephew who has asthma.) 

Vivek wants to deport children born in the USA for illegal immigrants. (Cannot do that unless there is a constitutional amendment. Any one born in the USA is an American citizen irrespective of the child’s parents’ legal status.)

Indians and Chinese will love this.  Vivek wants to end the H1B Visa program.

Strange Interview Techniques

We have read or heard about strange questions/tests during job interviews. 

An interviewer giving a pen to a candidate and asking him/her to sell that pen to him (interviewer). 

How many basketballs can fit on a bus? 

What would you do if your boss asks you to lie? 

The CEO of a company invites the job candidate to breakfast — but arrives at the restaurant early, pulls the manager aside, and says, "I want you to mess up the order of the person who's going to be joining me. It'll be OK, and I'll give a good tip, but mess up their order."

He wanted to see how they deal adversity. Are they timid and do not say anything. Or, are they rude to the waiter or politely and respectfully point out the mistake to the waiter. 

And now, I just read about another strange interview technique. A boss uses a coffee cup test to filter candidates. He would ask the candidate to walk along with him to the office kitchen. Offer him coffee or tea or water or soft drink. Then they would walk back to the interview room. At the end of the interview, the boss would watch if the candidate takes the empty cup back to the office kitchen. If the candidate does not take the cup back to the kitchen, he will not be hired. 

In an interview that boss said: "What I was trying to find was what was the lowest level task I could find that regardless of what you do inside the organization was still super important." 

Personally, to me, if an employer plays a mind game like that, it’s an immediate red flag for me. 

My question is what if the candidate refuses any drink! How he would have judged the candidate? 

In my culture, if I am the host, I will not allow the guest to take the empty cup to the kitchen and wash it. I will do that myself. 

In my opinion, that hiring manager is a below average manager and is building a toxic work environment. Looks like he lacks the skill to do a proper interview, he tries to compensate with a power play. 

Psychological games do not get the best employees.

What do you think?

Betting Lines

In USA, you can bet on almost anything. The betting odds will go up or down depending on the situation. Once you bet for a certain odds, that is yours and the up/down change will not affect your bet. Here are some interesting bets on American Presidential election as of right now.  (Low number is favorite)

Republican Party Nomination: 

Trump -330 (if you bet $100, you win $30) 

Ramaswamy +500 (if you bet $100, you win $500) * 

DeSantis +800 (if you bet $100, you win $800) 

Haley +3300 (if you bet $100, you win $3300) 

Democratic Party Nomination:

Biden -275 (if you bet $100, you win $36) 

Newsom +600 (if you bet $100, you win $600) ** 

Mrs. Obama +900 (if you bet $100, you win $900) 

Kamala Harris +1800 (if you bet $100, you win $1800)

 • A month ago, Ramaswamy was +2000. At that time, I bet $10. Now his odds have improved to +500 

** A month ago, Newsom was $500. At that time, I bet $10. Now his odds have slightly downgraded to +600 

My opinion is neither Trump nor Biden will win their party's nomination.

Even though USA is not a cricket playing nation, there is active betting going on for ODI world cup. Here are the odds, India being favorite.

India +225 

England +300 

Australia +400 

Pakistan +700 

New Zealand +750 

South Africa +1000 

Sri Lanka +2500 

Afghanistan +4000 

Bangladesh +5000 

Netherlands +75000 

I bet a very small amount on 2 teams to win.

Adults Only

Corendon Airlines, a Turkish-Dutch carrier, has introduced adults only section in all their flights. This is to save adult passengers from crying babies and uncontrollable children. Now adult passengers can sit in an area where children are not allowed. That airlines says that this is to facilitate travelers without children and business travelers who want to work quietly. 

Good idea. But where will this end! It used to be smoking and non-smoking area. Now adults only section. Since I have nothing else to do, I came with a few suggestions for the airline industry. Here are some examples: 

How about separate drinking and non-drinking area. (Some passengers may not want to sit with people who drink alcohol.) 

How about separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian area. (Some passengers may not want to be near those who eat non-vegetarian.) 

How about separate male and female area. (Orthodox male passengers belonging to some religion may not want to sit with female passengers. Their religion forbade even inadvertent physical contact with a woman.) 

How about separate Heterosexual and LGBTQ area. (There are some people with homophobia)

How about separate area for passengers with different political affiliation. (It can be done in USA and UK where there are only 2 or 3 main political parties. No need for this in countries with military rule or dictatorship. But problem with countries with many political parties.  For example, India has 37 different political parties in India’s parliament). 

If you can come up with an idea for any other separate area in a plane, please let me know. Thanks.

First GOP Primary Debate

Yesterday night was the first GOP Presidential candidates’ debate. There were 8 candidates. 1 former Vice President, 5 present/former Governors, 1 Senator, and 1 Rich Businessman. Of course, the leading candidate Donald Trump decided not to participate. 

Before the debate, I was thinking that everyone is going to pound on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But Surprise Surprise Surprise. Everyone started to blast Vivek Ramaswamy. Looked like they did not like this unknown and inexperienced rich businessman from nowhere is tied to the second place. Here are some examples: 

Chris Christie - I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT. 

Mike Pence – You are a rookie with no government experience. 

Vivek Ramaswamy handled all of them well except Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley gave Vivek a left-hook on foreign policy. She ripped him about his stand on Russia’s war with Ukraine and China-Taiwan conflict. 

There was no good debate on economic issues. People care about rising prices and not about UFO. 

Chris Christie alone criticized Donald Trump. All other seven were either supporting Trump or keeping quiet

Every newspaper and television network, after the debate,  started to grade these 8 candidates in 3 categories. Winner. Middle of the Ground. Loser. The only person who was consistent in all the rankings is Vivek Ramaswamy. He came as a winner. 

Political commentator Carol Swain said: Vivek Ramaswamy was the clear winner of the debate. He would make a great vice-presidential choice for DonaldJTrump or RonDeSantis. None of the other candidates did themselves any good. I recommend they pack up and go home." 

Next debate will be on September 27 in California. Let us see how many people qualifies to be here.

Strange Airport Codes

WOW – Willow, Alaska

FUN – Funafuti, Tuvalu 

BUM – Butler Airport, Missouri 

BOM – Mumbai Airport 

MAA - Chennai

DAD – Da Nang, Vietnam 

COW – Coquimbo, Chile 

SAD – Safford, Arizona 

BOO – Bodø, Norway 

ODD – Oodnadatta, Australia 

FAT – Fresno, California 

and finally 

FUK – Fukuoka, Japan

If you know of any strange airport code, please let me know in the comment section.  Thanks.

Pongal and Sambar Vadai combo

(The following was sent to me by my dear friend, the world famous, Cuddalore Chandrasekhar.  I translated it in English.)

Pongal and Sambar Vadai combination must be handled very carefully. 

I would order Pongal and Sambar Vadai together. Still, some idiot (server) will bring the Pongal only and say “sambar vadai varudhu sir (sambar vadai is coming sir)”. It is as cruel as separating couples in the month of Aadi. 

Let the Pongal become cold. Like, until the village festival will not start until the big honcho comes to inaugurate it, until the sambar vadai comes I cannot eat even a small portion of Pongal. 

Cut the sambar vadai with spoon and a small portion of Pongal simultaneously should be enjoyed like tabla by Zakir Hussain and Thavil by A. K. Pazhanivel (jugal bandhi). 

Some restaurants will not give a spoon for Pongal. It is not etiquette to use the same spoon for Pongal that was used for sambar vadai. That is disrespecting the Pongal. Therefore, we should take a small portion of Pongal with hand, touch it with sambar or chutney, put it in the mouth and then use the spoon to cut a portion of sambar vadai to eat. 

If we eat the Pongal with hand, then the moistness of the sambar makes the fingers sticky. If we touch the sambar vadai spoon with the same sticky fingers, it is disrespecting the sambar vadai. 

Therefore, even if I lose my self-respect, I should clean the sambar/chutney stickiness of my fingers by licking them good and then touch the spoon meant for sambar vadai. 

In spite of these complicated rules, it will take less than 5 minutes to finish the Pongal and sambar vadai combination. 

An ideal leader in emergency is Pongal and his lovely partner is sambar vadai.

Cricket in USA

I always thought if only Americans play cricket they can beat the heck out of Indians and Australians. Now I am glad to say cricket has come to America in the form of MLC (Major League Cricket). 

To paraphrase Neil Armstrong “This is one small step for USA, one giant leap for the game of Cricket”. 

Major League Cricket in USA, similar to IPL, has 6 teams this year. These are the teams and their current standing as of July 21. 

Los Angeles Knight Riders (NO win and 4 loss) (Owned by KKR) 

MI New York (1 win and 2 loss) (owned by Mumbai Indians) 

San Francisco Unicorn (2 wins and 1 loss) 

Seattle Orcas (2 wins and NO loss) 

Texas Super Kings (2 wins and 1 loss) (Owned by CSK) 

Washington Freedom (2 wins and 1 loss) 

These matches started on July 13. The final will be played on July 30. 

These six teams have recruited, in addition to local Americans, players from all over the world. Some of the famous names are: 

Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Devon Conway, Kieron Pollard, Tim David, Rashid Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Unmukt Chand, Martin Guptill, Corey Anderson, Lungi Ngidi, Sunil Narine, and many others. 

I am confused. I read somewhere that Indians who want to play in MLC has to sever all connections with BCCI and IPL. I don’t know how far this is true. 

Tickets to all matches are sold out. 

Eagerly waiting for the final on July 30.

Video Game Love Affair

A 27-year-old married Pakistani woman used to play the popular game PUBG with a 22 year old Indian guy. After playing this game together for many hours each for many days, they both fell for each other. The woman, along with her 4 children, entered India illegally via Nepal. They both lived happily near New Delhi. Their lawyer came to know about this and alerted the police. They were arrested. 

This news was reported prominently in the American newspapers. What I found interesting was how the readers reacted through their comments. Most of the times, reader comments are more interesting than the story itself.  Want to share some of their comments.  They are:

In America, the lawyer would have been in trouble for revealing privileged information.

Common on, they have to let her stay there and let them get married. She cannot go back anyway; she will be either killed either by her husband or the government. Sweet story, wish them well.

People in Pakistan both men and women would do anything to leave their country, they would even risk drowning 

I'm amazed that a 22-year-old man would want to marry a woman who has four kids! 

Nice starter family. 

You mean they actually ENFORCE their laws against illegal entry. What a novel concept. Maybe Brandon* could contemplate doing that. 

I think this country should adopt India's immigration laws. 

India Government should give her an Indian equivalent of H1B visa. 

The lawyer proved they are not to be trusted. 

Love is strong but beware of rats. 

Hindus can call this reverse love jihad. 

How does she have so much time playing a game with 4 children, all under the age of seven? 

This is such a crazy story. He is suddenly the dad of four little kids and she’s with a guy who’s basically unemployed. 

I’ll wait for the Disney movie to explain it all. 

They should have met in America, would received a home, transportation, food, clothing, child care, health care, and anything else their hearts desire at a cost of NOTHING. Good old USA, we’ll care for anyone except our own citizens and we’ll use their money to do it. 

I kept waiting to read they had a go fund me** open. 

This story is better than mine and I am jealous. 

So that’s the secret. Let’s get Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to play PUBG: Battlegrounds. 

What does a woman want? We finally have an answer.

*Brandon is a nick name for President Biden.  How he got that name? I will let you know in my next blog post.

**GoFundMe is a personal crowdfunding site designed to help ease the financial stresses of life for families and businesses.

World Cup Cricket Experience

In the past, we bought tickets to see the World Cup Cricket matches in 3 different countries. I want to share my experience. I learned a lesson also that will be provided at the end of this post. 

We bought 3 tickets to watch a double header at the Oval in England, 8 tickets to watch a match in Chennai, India, and 3 tickets to watch a match in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 

Because of a scheduling problem, we were unable to attend the Colombo match. I wrote to the organization from where I bought the tickets and explained my problem. They immediately refunded my money. 

Oval Match in England. 

It was a T20 double header. First match was South Africa vs West Indies. Second match was Pakistan vs New Zealand. We had reserved seats with row and seat numbers. We were a little bit late. By the time we reached our reserved seats, national anthems of both South Africa and West Indies had already sang. (or is it sung? Since I did not go to Harvard, I do not know which one is correct.) 

The whole stadium was jam packed. Our seats were not occupied by anyone else. It was in a very comfortable place. It was next to where Pakistani players sat. One usher came and said that this place is for Pakistani supporters and, if we want, he could give us an alternative better seat to watch. We thanked him and said “no thanks” and remained in our seats for the entire double header. We even shook hands with Shahid Afridi 

Both matches were very enjoyable. The more beer consumed the more enjoyable the matches were. HeHeHe.

Match in Chennai. 

It was an ODI. India vs West Indies. We bought 8 tickets, each at a very high price. We got the reserved tickets with row and seat numbers. We went to the stadium one hour before the start of the match. Surprise. Surprise. The whole stadium was jam packed. Our 8 reserved seats were occupied by unknown people. We told them these are our seats and they just ignored us. We called this to the attention of the ushers and the police security. They both said: Koottam jasthiya irukku sir. Konjam adjust pannikinga sir. Enga kaaliya seat irukko anga utkarunga sir. (Today too much crowd sir. Please have some adjustment sir. Please sit where you can find an empty seat sir.) 

There was nothing we could do. Finally, we sat in the Bob Uecker seat*. There was no organized place to sell soft drinks and water. They were at random places and spectators were mobbing those sellers. 

So the lesson is never ever watch a world cup cricket match in person in India. Better to watch them in TV. 

* Bob Uecker was a professional baseball player in USA. He acted in a Miller Lite Bob Uecker commercial. In that commercial he boasted he got a special ticket to watch a baseball game and finally ended up sitting in the last seat at the top most upper deck. The ad has become so famous that if people get a “not so good” seat at sporting events, they call it a Bob Uecker seat.

Pookkaalam

I saw a Malayalam movie Pookkaalam today. This is not a review about the direction, cinematography, songs, etc. This is what my opinion of the movie. 

There is a couple in their 90s and married for 80 years. One day, the man finds a love letter written long time ago by someone to his wife. His wife is silent about this. Therefore, the man decides to file for divorce. This leaves his family (children and grandchildren) completely devastated. Great family drama. 

Did they finally get a divorce? Please watch the movie to find out. 

The movie was directed by Ganesh Raj. The story is nonconformist. It is about marital strife.

Vijayaraghavan acted as the nonagenarian husband. The make-up person did a great job that the actor looked really like he is in his 90s. 

The 90-year-old wife’s portrayal of her improper past was not convincing. 

The court scenes can be called “comedy”. 

On the whole, I liked this movie.

Vivek Ramaswamy Update

Yesterday Trump was arrested and arraigned in Miami, Florida, for mishandling classified documents. There were lot of Trump supporters at the courthouse. Also, many TV and Network reporters covering this event. Our friend, Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also a Republican Party's presidential nominee contender, took that opportunity and did a grand standing. 

Vivek came to the U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Florida and gave a speech.  He said that, if he is elected President, he will pardon Trump for his federal charges. He asked other Republican candidates also to do this pledge or tell the people why they will not pardon Trump. Here is his entire 12 minutes speech.

Vivek is very intelligent and clever. He goes wherever there is a camera and microphone and starts to campaign. He is also a powerful orator. He will say “yes” to any interview request. This gets him a lot of free publicity/advertisement. So, Vivek took this occasion of Trump arraignment and spoke in front of a huge audience. 

Vivek has earned a good name from a lot of Republican supporters. 

My personal view is Vivek may have any of the following goals: 

In an unlikely event Trump drops out of the race, he wants all Trump supporters to support him and thus become a 2024 Republican nominee. 

By being constantly in the news, Vivek is positioning himself for 2028. 

If Trump is the eventual Presidential nominee, Vivek has a better chance of becoming Trump's Vice Presidential candidate.

Vivek wants to have a very senior position in the Trump Administration – ala Secretary of State (Foreign Minister) 

In any case, people from Vadakkencherry, Palghat will be happy because that is where his parents are from. 

One last item. People in the streets in USA may not know who Narendra Modi is but they all now know who Vivek Ramaswamy is. He got the name recognition now.

PS: If you want to run for the U.S. President you have to be very rich.  In the history of USA only 2 people (Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton) were poor before becoming President.  Vivek Ramaswamy has $630 million US Dollars.  He is not poor.

Sologamy

First time I heard the word Sologamy. The meaning is a marriage by a person to themself. Other than this,  I have seen or read or heard several types of marriages. 

Heterosexual Marriage – Marriage between a man and a woman. No need for explanation.

Gay Marriage – Marriage between two men. No need for explanation. 

Lesbian Marriage – Marriage between two women. No need for explanation. 

Human-Animal Marriage. Marriage between a human and an animal. This was discussed in mythology. There have been reports of a human-animal marriages in some remote villages. Also, heard about people marrying their pets out of love. These types of marriages are illegal and nor recognized. In 2017, there was a huge rumor that Norway legalized this type of human-animal marriage. That was a fake news. 

Human-Tree marriage. Marriage between a human and a tree. This is a common practice in many countries including India. This is supposed to be infused with supernatural life. In some culture only a widower can marry a widow. In such a case a bachelor will marry a tree, then cut the tree, and thus he becomes a widower. There was a news in the papers that Aishwarya Rai married a tree to overcome astrological differences with her then fiancé Abhishek Bachchan.  (I do not know if this was a true or fake news.)

Sologamy – Marriage by a person to themself. They take a marriage vows alone in front of a mirror. It is a symbolic expression of self-love. Meaningful relationship with one’s self. This sologamy marriage is happening quite frequently nowadays. In 1996, professional basketball star Dennis Rodman married himself. 

If you know or heard of any of the Human-Animal marriage, Human-Tree marriage, or Sologamy, please write about that in the comments section. Thanks. (I know something similar but it is not fit for publishing in this blog.)

PS: My friend Ramani just messaged me in WhatsApp - In INDIA KSHAMA BINDU married herself in the first instance of sologamy.

Cebu

A friend of mine is likely to get married in the City of Cebu in Philippines. Another friend of mine got a job transfer to the City of Cebu, but in the last minute that friend was posted in Davao, Philippines. These 2 made me think about Cebu. 

Cebu province consists of a main island and more than 150 surrounding islands. The Cebu Province is located in the southern part of Philippines. The capital of Cebu Province is City of Cebu. It is the oldest city in that country and the first capital city. It is also the second largest metropolitan after Manila Metro. 

In the ancient days it was called the Cebu Rajanate, an Indianized version of Raja. According to legend, it was founded by Rajamuda Lumaya, a minor prince of Tamil Chola Dynasty. He was sent by the Chola Emperor in Tamil Nadu to establish a military base there. 

(I digress. When I was in high school, we used to study in history books how the Chola emperors sent their naval forces to Indochina, Indonesia, Malay Peninsula and other places and won. I and my friends used to make fun of this and say these were fake news. Now I realize they are not fake news.) (Now, per Ponniyin Selvan, we know Raja Raja Chola was stationed in Sri Lanka.) 

Later, Cebu province was occupied by Spanish, then the Americans, and then the Japanese and then Philippines became independent. 

Cebu was a major resistance center against the Marcos dictatorship. People of Cebu played a major role in the People Power Revolution that was responsible for the ouster of Marcos.

Cebu’s climate is tropical. It is a big tourist attraction. Popular tourist attractions are Whale Shark Watching, Water Sports Adventure, Sunset Cruise, and Cebu City Tour.

Female Pilots

I read a news item yesterday. I will tell you what it is at the end of this blog post because that is the punch line for this post. 

I have travelled all over the world with many airlines. I am not nervous when flying with female pilots. I have flown with many females as pilots. A few times with both Pilot and Co-pilot were females. 

My family has many flying crews. My own niece is a full-fledged commander (wearing 4 stripes on her sleeves and epaulets) for an airline company. 

Now a days, in many countries, even in Air Force there are female fighter pilots. USA, England, Russia, India, Pakistan, North Korea to name a few. There are other countries also that have female fighter pilots. 

I want to mention 2 (kind of) funny incidents. 

One time, I was flying from Salt Lake City to Chicago. The weather was very bad. This was pre 9/11. While boarding the plane I just looked inside the cockpit. I saw a female pilot on the left side. The plane took off. The weather was so bad even the flight attendants were asked to sit down. The plane was shaking violently for most of the flying time. 

I was on the aisle seat on a 3-seat row. The middle was occupied by a young lady and her husband in the window seat. They later told me it was their first time flying in a plane and going for their honeymoon. The lady was so nervous she held my hand tightly and told me how nervous she was. Her husband was also nervous but that was not visible. Flying time from SLC to CHI is 3 hours. An hour into the flight I could not stand that lady’s nervousness. I called the Flight Attendant and explained the situation. Asked the FA to give her a Screwdriver (Vodka and Orange Juice) with heavy on Vodka. She brought it and gave to the nervous passenger. She later calmed down. 

Finally, we landed in Chicago O’Hare. While deplaning, I told the honeymoon couple that the pilot of this aircraft was a female. The young lady said: Thank God, you did not tell us when we were in the air. I would have died.  I told her there was nothing to worry with females as pilots.

Here is the funny news I read yesterday. Someone wrote about the following actual incident.

Passenger: I see the pilot is a female. Is it safe to fly? 

Flight Attendant: Don’t worry sir. She is very experienced. 

Passenger: But she is a female. 

Flight Attendant: Sir, you don’t need a pxxxs to fly a plane. 

Passenger took his seat.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy is 37 years old Indian-American. He is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination to contest for the President of the United States in 2024. He has more famous competitors – Donald Trump and Nikki Haley. Any day now, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will also join the competition. 

Vivek was born in Cincinnati, Oho. His parents immigrated from India. He got his bachelor degree from Harvard College and Law degree from Yale. Vivek is an entrepreneur.  He and his wife Apoorva have 2 children.

Vivek Ramaswamy was a relatively unknown candidate. All of a sudden everything changed last Friday. 

Last Friday morning CNN anchor Don Lemon was interviewing Vivek Ramaswamy. Don Lemon had fiery exchange with Vivek. Per New York Times “The banished CNN star’s visible irritability during the conversation with Ramaswamy on the civil rights movement, black Americans and the Second Amendment “left several CNN leaders exasperated”. 

After his interview with Vivek, Don Lemon was fired from CNN. 

And now, all of a sudden Vivek Ramaswamy is a well-known name in USA. 

(Just an imagination. What if Nikki Haley won the Republican Presidential Primary and she chose Vivek Ramaswamy as her Vice President candidate. Nice to see both President and Vice President candidates are of Indian origin.) 

Here is the exchange between Don Lemon and Vivek Ramaswamy:

Holiday Mistake

A couple for a long time wanted to visit the city of Budapest in Hungary. They bought their tickets. On the day of journey, they went to the airport. Stood in line to check-in. While standing in line, they found that they had by mistake purchased tickets to go to Bucharest, Romania. 

They had brief consultations/arguments between the two of them. They had only 3 options. 1. Cancel the tickets and go home. 2. Cancel the tickets and buy new tickets to Budapest. 3. Go on with the journey and go to Bucharest (of which they know nothing about.) 

They decided to go to Bucharest anyway. They enjoyed their vacation. 

Mistakes during holiday planning and travel reservations can happen sometime. Also, people boarding on the wrong flight. 

Here is an actual incident. This was pre-911 where security was lax. It was late at night. A guy booked his ticket going to Oakland, California from Los Angeles, California. Actually, the flying time is only 50 minutes from LAX to OAK. The plane went on and on and on. After 4 hours, they started serving dinner. They don’t serve dinner at such a short flight. 

The passenger enquired with the flight crew as to what is happening. They said this flight was going to Auckland, New Zealand and now flying over Hawaii. 

The passenger misheard Auckland as Oakland. 

This brings me to another point. Thank God they changed the name of a city in India – Madras to Chennai. There is a city named Madras in the State of Oregon in USA. Otherwise, we would be seeing a lot of passengers landing in Madras, Oregon, with their Black Label Scotch, 555 cigarettes, Chocolates, Cologne, and Perfume.

Challenger to Biden

President Biden is thinking of contesting the 2024 Presidential election on behalf of Democratic Party. Usually, if a sitting President wants to contest again no one from his/her party will challenge him during Primary. He/She will get nominated unopposed. 

Yesterday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has announced he will be challenging Biden for the Democratic Party’s nomination. 

Who is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.? 

He has a universal name recognition. He is a Kennedy. The Kennedys are considered  America’s royalty. His uncle was President John F. Kennedy. He was a war hero, became President at a very young age, and was assassinated. He is still the most popular President among the past U.S. Presidents. (I wrote a blog post about him.). People equate him with Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ, and Mahatma Gandhi. 

RFK, Jr.’s dad is Robert F. Kennedy. He was the Attorney General during the JFK Administration. He contested for the Democratic Party nomination in 1968. He won the California’s Primary and when he was giving the victory speech, he was shot dead. 

Now RFK Jr. is trying to unseat Biden for the Democratic Party nomination. I said he has a universal name recognition. That is all. In my opinion, the apple fell far from the tree. He is no hero like JFK. He has no popularity like his dad. 

RFK Jr. was educated at Harvard University and at London School of Economics. (All Kennedys are admitted automatically at Harvard because they have donated millions of dollars to Harvard.). He is an environmental lawyer and a strong anti-vaccine advocate. He strongly believes vaccines lead to autism. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly has a neurological disorder that affects his vocal cords and gives his speech a strained quality. 

I personally think he cannot beat Biden for the Democratic Nomination. But he has a Kennedy name and still millions of people love the Kennedy family. 

Will see how it turns out.