English as the Officlal Language of USA

Almost 250 years (249 to be exact) have gone since USA declared independence. But until now there is no official language for the USA. Trump, with one Executive Order, made English as the official language of the USA. I do not like many things that Trump is doing but this one I have to give him credit. Plus, I do not see any “protest”. 

Members of Congress and Senators in the past (and present) were afraid to bring this subject. They don’t want to antagonize the voters. I have seen voting pamphlets and voting ballots are now issued in several languages depending on the population of that area. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where there are large number of Indians, voting materials are in several Indian languages including Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil. And, of course, Spanish and Arabic. 

There are street signs in English and Spanish. Also, in pharmacies and hospitals. 

After English, Spanish is the second largest language spoken in USA. The population of Spanish speaking people are growing leaps and bounds. 

Majority of the high school students take Spanish as their second language. 

Some politicians tried to make English as the official language. Notable among them was Late Republican Senator from California Mr. Hayakawa. He was a U.S. Senator from 1968 to 1973. He did not get enough support at that time. However, during the recently concluded elections (in November 2024), 30 States have voted to make English as their official language. 

I have been advocating to make English as the official language of the United States for a long time. I know the increase in the population and popularity of Spanish speaking people and I thought someday there would be an agitation to make Spanish as the official language of the USA. 

Epilogue. (Is this the right word to use? I don’t know. I never went to Harvard). I have seen and personally experienced the Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu when I was a student. Many people died. My thoughts are if Hindi OR English had been declared as the official language of India on August 15, 1947, then everything would have been OK in India.

Wasted Education

Recently there was a famous marriage in Bangalore. The bride has a B. Tech degree in Bioengineering but chose to become a professional Carnatic music singer. 

I have read about a few Tamil movie actresses have medical degrees but decided to be in the movies. 

I have also read many IIT graduates have qualified and became members of the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service. 

My thinking is why do not they have clear thinking about what career they want before joining these professional courses. These professional degrees are “wasted” when someone pursues another career path. These students acquire deep technical expertise in their respective field. But when they choose to have a career in a different field, their highly specific skills may go underutilized. 

It is difficult to get admission into these programs. If after graduating they choose a different career, it means they “took up” a space in the program that could have been offered to someone more committed to use the degree in its intended field. 

It is a waste that the valuable skills and knowledge acquired are not benefiting society.

Name Change

President Trump who is angry with Mexico due to border issues renamed Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America. 

Since Trump is making Canada angry, Canada decided to name their famous Americano coffee as Canadiano coffee. 

I support Trump and therefore want to give him some suggestions. 

Change the name of French fries to American fries. 

Since there is a problem of tariff with India, change the name of the Indian Ocean to American Ocean. 

If Germany does not listen to our ordering around, change the name of Hamburger to Pittsburger (since Pennsylvania State, a swing state, voted for Trump). 

If England does not listen to our advice, then change the name Yorkshire Pudding to New Yorkshire Pudding. 

Most famous pizza in USA, is Chicago style deep dish pizza. But Chicago mayor and Illinois Governor do not want to cooperate with the feds for crackdown on illegal immigrants. Change the Chicago style deep dish pizza to Mara-a-Lago style deep dish pizza. Mara-a-Lago is where Trump’s permanent residence. 

Most famous food item in Ukraine is Odessa-style borscht. It is a beet root-based soup. Because Zelensky and Trump had a mouth to mouth combat a few days ago, Trump should decide to rename it to Odisha-style borscht. Two birds with one stone. Anger Zelensky and at the same time make his friend Modi happy.

Can you give me some more ideas?  Please write it in the comments.  I will inform Mr. Trump.  I have his phone number.  I will certainly tell him you suggested this so you can get a MAGA hat.

Interesting Incident

There was an Indian lady (let us call her Latha) working in a famous insurance company in San Francisco. Every day she used to go to the office cafeteria for lunch. There she met an American lady (let us call her Cynthia) and they became friends. They used to meet every day for lunch. 

They became such close friends that they used to talk about even their personal private matters. It went on for about almost 2 years. 

Both of them never asked the other which department they worked and what is their job. They just met during lunch time and talked subjects other than the office stuff. 

After 2 years, one day Latha told Cynthia that she is quitting her job to take care of her family. Cynthia then invited her for lunch the next day in a restaurant (and not the office cafeteria) as a parting farewell. Latha said she would like to accept her invitation but she does not know if her supervisor would allow her to go for an extended lunch time.

Now Cynthia asked Latha which department she worked and what is her supervisor’s name. Latha informed the name of the department and the supervisor’s name. Cynthia said she would talk to her supervisor. 

After lunch, Latha came to her office. Her supervisor was all nervous and asked Latha how she knew Cynthia. This innocent Latha said they used to meet for lunch at the cafeteria every day for 2 years. The supervisor asked Latha if she knew what Cynthia’s job in the corporation. Latha said she does not know and does not care. They were just lunch time friends. 

The supervisor told Latha she can take the whole afternoon off the next day. 

Latha asked the supervisor what does Cynthia do. The supervisor said Cynthia is the Chief of Staff for the CEO of this large Insurance Company.

A Page from the Past

Long time ago. A relative of ours from India informed us that a lady is coming to San Francisco and we should take care of her. I went to the airport and met her to take her home. She was shivering with her sleeveless blouse. I asked her why she is not wearing warm clothes and gave her my sweater. She said she thought it is summer. 

I then told her San Francisco is always cold and quoted Mark Twain. "My coldest winter was a summer in San Francisco".

We entertained her for 3 days and showed her around Bay Area. 

Here is the interesting reason for writing this post. 

One evening we three (me, my wife, and this guest lady) went to a restaurant for dinner. (My kids who were teenagers refused to come with us). 

While we were eating, we saw a friend of ours, a white guy, William D. He saw us but did not come to our table to say “hello”. He went away as if he did not know us. My wife told me that she did not like his behavior. 

After 2 weeks, I met William D in another place. I asked him why he did not come and say hello to us at the restaurant. He said (I am smiling while I write this line): Hey, I saw you with 2 young beautiful women. I don’t know what was the set up. So, I did not want to bother you. Therefore, I moved away. 

This is the American way of thinking.

Prisoner Deport

The Trump Administration is deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crime in this country to their home country. Some countries refused to accept their own citizens. They are in prison now in USA. 

The El Salvador Government has offered to house in their own prisons dangerous and violent US criminals and deportees of any nationality for a fee. The Trump Administration has not decided whether to take up on their offer. There may be legal battles in courts if the US Government decides to deport their own citizens who are hardened criminals to the El Salvador prisons. Cost wise it is cheaper for US Government to put the criminals in El Salvador prisons than in US prisons. 

The prisons in El Salvador are notorious. Those prisons are inhumane. After President Nayib Bukele was elected in El Salvador he declared a State of Emergency to quell gang violence, sent the military into the streets, and arrested thousands of gang members and criminals. With his notorious prison system, gangs and criminals are no longer a threat in El Salvador. 

Here is a YouTube video documentary of El Salvador prison. 

 

Here is a tongue-in-cheek remark. 

To the outside world, India is considered rape and sexual assault capital. I wish the Indian Government negotiate with El Salvadoran government to take these guys and incarcerate in their prison. Or, at least show the El Salvador prison video widely and threaten every would-be rapist that they will be sent there. And, actually send a few rapists there and publicize that. I think this will put a stop to rape and sexual assault in India. 

Please remember this is a tongue-in-cheek remark.

A Page from the Past

We were living in Salt Lake City at that time. The President of the Indian Association called us and requested if we can accommodate a Carnatic music singer and her troupe in our home for a few days. We agreed. 

Her name is Bombay Jayashree. My wife received them at the airport and drove them home. They stayed in our home for 3 days. We took care of them very well. They were very happy. We asked Jayashree “you sing very well and your voice is so sweet” and therefore why don’t you sing in the Tamil movies. She said I am trying but no one has given me the opportunity. After 3 days, they left. 

After a few years my company transferred me to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When we were there, one year, we went to Paris for vacation. One day we went to an area called Gare du Nord. Actually, it is called a little “Tamil Nadu”. We went there to have some South Indian lunch. We could hear the song “Vaseegara” in every nook and corner. 

My wife said this voice sounds like Bombay Jayashree. We asked one of the restaurant owner who the singer is. He said this is the voice of Bombay Jayashree and this is her first song in the movie industry and it has become very famous. 

Many years go by. We were vacationing in Chennai. There was a Carnatic music concert by Bombay Jayashree.  We bought tickets and went inside the auditorium. We were in the 10th row. I told my wife she is looking at us. My wife said she is looking at the audience while singing and not us. The concert ended. Her fans were eager to see her and so mobbed her. We were sitting in our seats in the 10th row. She braved her fans and was coming towards us. And finally came near us. She said “Lalitha mami, epdi irukale” (Lalitha Auntie. How are you). Then she turned around and addressed me “Sorry uncle. I forgot your name after a long time”. I said that is ok and glad you remembered auntie’s name. 

She gave us her home address and phone number and invited us to visit her. We decided not to go.

(PS: She was nominated for an Oscar Award for her work in the movie Life of Pi.

Here is her Vaseegara song in YouTube.

Presidential Humor

VIPs in many countries are not casual and humorous in public. They always look very serious and do not smile. They don’t joke in public. But American VIPs are not like that. They are casual and joke in public. For example:

Today, Trump took over as President of USA. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. There are 35 words in this oath. 

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." 

This happened to one of the previous presidents that Chief Justice John Robert administered the oath of office. Justice Roberts started to memorize by rehearsing these words several times in his home during the prior two weeks. In the living room, in the bathroom, in the dining table, etc. etc. The poor family dog was the recipient of his administering the oath several times. 

When reporters asked Mrs. Roberts about this, she said: My husband repeated these 35 words so many times, our dog thinks he is the President of the United States. 

President Bush’s wife, Laura Bush once said: My husband, Mr. Excitement, is sound asleep at 9 pm every day. And, I am watching “Desperate Housewives” on TV. 

When a reporter asked his biggest mistake he made in life, President Bush picked baseball and not politics. (He was the owner of Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team.) He said: My biggest mistake was trading Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines.

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I wrote on November 13, 2024 the following: 

Department of Government Efficiency – This will jointly lead by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They are going to remove wastage from the government and save 2 trillion dollars. But the question is does it need 2 people to head for an agency. Also, Musk and Ramaswamy both are very intelligent with huge ego. There are people complaining that Musk is behaving as if he is the co-President of USA. I think one of the 2 will be given another post very soon. 

I said this dog don't hunt.

Just heard thru grapevine, Vivek Ramaswamy will be leaving soon. He is expected to run for the Governor of the State of Ohio.

Kamala Harris

I applaud Kamala Harris’s guts. Kudos to her. 

Today is the day U.S. Congress has to certify the 2024 election results. Kamala Harris, current Vice President, and also the President of the U.S. Senate has the responsibility to supervise the counting of 538 electoral college votes and declare the winner to the joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives. Too bad she had to announce her own defeat. 

She could have not attended today’s session by giving any excuse including she is sick and let someone else sit in for her. But she came to the Congress and bravely announced who is the winner in a commanding tone of voice. The gentleman sitting next to her is the House Speaker Mike Johnson.