I am back...

I am back after a gap of two months. It seems like two years to me. I got married, bought a new house and got a new boss at work. I have lots of stories to share, specially of the wedding.

First let me give you the backdrop of my wedding. Iris and I got married on a beautiful fall day in October. We got married in Minneapolis at a Golf Club. Iris' mom came from China and my parents came from India. My brother and his family came from Thailand. We had bridesmaids and groomsmen come from China and different parts of the US. Most of them stayed with us for 2 weeks during the wedding. With translations, we came to know each other very well. For the marriage, we had the Hindu ceremony followed by the Chinese Tea ceremony followed by an American reception party. Iris and I changed our costumes three times for this.

We trained the chef to make Indian Curries with American food. I think he did a very good job. We had a DJ at the wedding who is very well known in the Minneapolis-Milwaukee-Chicago belt. He was playing english, hindi and chinese songs all evening. During the reception party we taught Bhangra and Dandia to all our guests and had a blast. I am amazed that no one had their eyes poked. Everyone had a great time.

Lost in Translation

I met my future mother-in-law yesterday for the first time. She came from China to attend the wedding and stay with us for several months. She does not speak any English and my Chinese vocabulary is limited to "Ni Hao" and "Xie Xie" (Hi and Thank you). Iris, my fiancee, does all the translation. And like all moms she is very interested in feeding us all the time. Within a few hours of landing in the US she learnt her first English words: "Eat more". She repeats this during every meal when I am done eating. I have gained 100 pounds in the last 2 days.

I am waiting for my parents to arrive in a couple of weeks. It will be very interesting when my mom, who knows very little English, talks to my mother-in-law. We will need two translators. I will need to translate Hindi to English and then Iris will need to translate that to Chinese. Even though mother-in-laws are not known to be best friends, Iris and I are pretty sure they will get along fine...or we have to make sure there are a few things lost in translation.

What a way to go !

Zinedine Zidane was red carded during the final overtime for head-butting Italian player Marco Materrazi. This has created a permanent blot on the glorious career of the great French player. We may never know what enraged Zidane so much as to throw his reputation and possibly the World Cup away. I was fishing around for any information out there for the cause of Zidane's rage and one common rumor going around is Marco pinched Zidane's nipple and directed some racial slur towards him.

I found this from an article in Observer written in 2004: "Zidane's family are Algerian immigrants, so-called beurs (French slang for Arabs), and he describes himself as 'a non-practising Muslim.... The Berbers are not Arabs and in recent years the Berbers from the Kabylie region of Algeria, which is Zidane's family's home territory, have been in open conflict with the Algerian government. There are rumours of massacre and counter-massacre, but all that is really known in the West is that more than 100,000 people have lost their lives in the civil war that has devastated the country since 1992." The complete article can be read at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,1182707,00.html

It may turn out that this was all planned by Marco and some of his team mates to take Zidane out of the eventual PK shootout. In any case this shows Zidane was only human and may not be fit for the demigod status he enjoyed for so many years. What a way to end a glorious career !

Audio Books - Way to Go

A few months back I started a work-related project in Sumner, Iowa, which is 200 miles away from Minneapolis. It is a 3 hour drive and I dreaded this drive having to do it all alone most of the times. It was very boring and I ended up driving faster than I should have. I had thought of buying audio books but it was cost prohibitive. For example, the list price of the book "The World is Flat" is $27.50 but the audio version costs $60. But, yesterday, I took the plunge and bought my first audio book: "The World is Flat" and I am so glad I did it. It is a set of 20 CDs that will last for 25 hours. I came back from the trip today and have covered 5 CDs already. I am all set for my next 4 business trips to Iowa. The pace of the audio book is similar to my own reading pace and I think the retention rate is also higher. One tends to remember more if you read aloud or hear a narration than plain reading.

I am currently looking to buy a house. I was debating if I should buy an expensive one that is only 5 minutes drive from my work place or a less expensive one that is 30 minutes away. The experience today with the audio book has made it little easier to make this decision. Now, I have to start getting these from the local library and not spend a fortune on them. If you are on the move, specially alone, Audio Books are definitely the way to go.

Why I Run

Recently a friend asked me why do I run. I could come up with several reasons. Here are my top 5.

1. I am developing a paunch and I hate it.
2. How else can you have close encounters with wild life? (I usually run on a trail close to my house that goes around thick forests and a lake. Yesterday, I ran into a herd of deer)
3. To run several miles in the morning knowing most of the world is still in bed gives an awesome feeling.
4. Having coffee after a hard run makes it all worthwhile.
5. Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes and endless trails. Running is the best way to discover them.

Nepal: A Sorry State

Nepal is currently witnessing mass protests against King Gyanendra. Millions of people are defying curfew orders and rallying their support for the reestablishment of democracy in this Himalayan Kingdom. The whole world is watching the developments very closely because Nepal is strategically located between two growing powers: India and China. I have read several articles on this revolt here in the US and I am surprised as to how quickly people forget the history. I think, history is not what happened in the past but what winners then wanted the future generations to remember. But is five years really history...is our memory comparable to that of a goldfish?

In my opinion, in June 2001 Gyanendra staged a perfect coup d'etat and overthrew his brother King Birendra to become the next king. He mercilessly killed the king and all his family members including the prince. There was no independent investigation of the incident conducted. The "official story" that came out later was that the prince shot his own family in a fit of rage. The reason: his parents did not approve his affair with an Indian princess.

I still remember that morning when I read this news. I was in total shock and disbelief. I could not believe this could happen in the 21st century only 400 miles away from where I grew up. I wished the Indian Government would do something about it. But soon the new King dismissed the parliament and declared an emergency rule. The democratically elected prime minister was put in jail and free press was banned. All this less than five years ago.

And today Mr. Leon Weil, US ambassador to Nepal (1984-1987), wrote an article in the WSJ saying "In 2001 King Birendra and virtually the entire royal family were murdered by the drug - and - alcohol - crazed crown prince, son of the monarch. Gyanendra, the sole surviving brother of the king, inherited his reign under the most difficult and trying circumstances". He continues to say that the steps being taken by the king are "...welcome first step towards diffusing the political crisis". I am once again in total shock and disbelief. I only hope King Gyanendra will be brought to justice. In the book "Night" Elie Wiesel, Nobel peace prize winner, gives words to my emotion very clearly when he says that he has a "moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy from enjoying one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory".

MacGyver: My Childhood Hero

Last week I got a chance to relive my favorite childhood memories: watching the TV series "MacGyver". It was a hugely popular TV series from 1985 to 1992. Back then in India there was only one TV channel "Doordarshan" with popular programs such as Ramayan, Mahabharat, Hum Log and Buniyaad. My favorites were Karamchand, Byomkesh Bakshi and Johnny Soko and his flying Robot - the Japanese action show.

With limited shows to choose from, kids in the North Eastern part of India would climb to their roof tops and add boosters to their TV antennae. This would help in receiving transmission from the neighboring Bangladesh of programs such as Knight Rider, A-Team and my favorite "MacGyver". Even though the reception was poor, I would wait all week long for Wednesday nights and be glued to my black-and-white TV to watch my hero "MacGyver" (Color TV was introduced in India in 1982, but we bought it much later).

MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) was an ex-special force agent who solved toughest cases without using guns. He was an expert in making weapons using everyday materials. He used paper clips to shortcircuit a nuclear missile, camera strap to hold high voltage power lines, magnetic strip in credit cards to randomly change traffic lights to create traffic jams, cigarette smoke to detect laser beams and Hershey bars to stop acid leaks. He would solve crimes in exotic locations all around the world. In the first three episodes of season one, he solved crimes in Mongolia, New Mexico, Budapest and Burma. After watching these episodes yesterday, I realized that this series had such breathtaking stunts that it would easily overshadow the modern shows like "24" on Fox. The camera shots were great and he had beautiful girls, as associates, in every episode just like 007 did.

I talked about MacGyver in one of my toastmaster speeches, and a lady came up to me and told me that it was her favorite serial too. I am sure there are other people who loved this show. If you are interested you can get DVDs of the show from the movie rental company Netflix or you can download it from Google Video for $1.99/episode.