Something strange happened a few weeks ago – I wished for winter. Well, not winter exactly, not for cold – raw winds – winter, but for snowfall. Not three feet high- piled in the driveway- snowfall, but the kind that dusts your driveway and lawn and makes it seem like someone sprinkled cake frosting in…
Am I alone in wishing Anamika Veeramani had screamed, or jumped up in joy, or cried, or shown some emotion after winning the Spelling Bee? She seemed so matter of fact, I was left wondering whether it hadn’t sunk in, or whether she was too shy or reserved to show any emotion. But more than…
It’s not just our innate nerdiness, apparently. Or the fact that some of their parents were themselves very efficient rote learners. “Mugging” or cramming for exams was something I never got the hang of, but we all know someone who crammed their way to academic brilliance (at least in school). Perhaps they passed on their…
Henry Paulson’s insider account of the financial crisis “On the Brink” is a fascinating story. Paulson, of course, presided over the demise of Lehman Brothers and Wachovia and others as Treasury Secy. This book is supposed to be a day-to-day account of the crisis unfolded and how Paulson and others (Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner)…
So Floyd Landis admits he was cheating all along. Steroids were what he was all he was caught for, but obviously he doesn’t want people to think he is a one-trick pony, so now he boasts of also doing blood doping. Not that any of us is surprised, I’m sure we all never really believed…
These days, my blog gets a lots of comments everyday, and by lots, I mean hundreds of comments a day, mostly from users in India. Unfortunately, I end up deleting practically all of them. They are all spam comments (of course, what else can I expect?). Akismet correctly recognizes them nearly all the time, but…
I am really glad I don’t live in Oklahoma. Not because it is right on Tornado Alley, but because the lawmakers have just passed the most misogynistic set of laws I can think of. The two bills were originally vetoed by the State Governor. But then both the State House and Senate overrode the veto…
Is it a good idea for a US university to outsource the grading of students’ assignment papers to India? At least one Professor at the University of Houston has taken the lead on this. The Chronicle for Higher Education has an article on Ms. Lori Whisenant, director of business law and ethics studies at the…
I laughed at her too at first, and everything she says would be funny – if she were a five year old. She makes me nervous. She is not Sarah Palin or Miss Teen South Carolina, which, perhaps, is what makes it worse. If you watch the video, you can see she thinks in terms…
When I landed in India last month, my arrival card asked me to check one of three options – NRI (Non Resident Indian), PIO (Person of Indian Origin) or OCI (Overseas Citizen of India). It is a fascinating acknowledgment of the continuous evolution of Indian emigrants. The acronyms may be recent, but we have had…
Every time I visit India, I tell myself that this time I will : (a) relax, (b) eat lots of great home food, (c) eat lots of great street food, (d) meet other bloggers. (e) take stunning, candid pictures (of family, friends, street scenes, beaches, trains …you name it). Each time I run around like…
If you thought Arundhati Roy had given up writing fiction after “The God of Small Things”, you just need to read her “Walking with the Comrades” to know she hasn’t. It’s a fascinating article that blurs the line between journalism and propaganda. Completely obliterates the line, in fact. The article doesn’t tell me much…
The 2010 US Census form had arrived in my mail while I was in India. Now back in the US, I took out the form and was immediately struck by several things. The form is simplicity itself – there are just ten questions (repeated for each person) but the questions are interesting for what is…
I wake up to the sound of crows cawing, doves cooing and someone’s cellphone alarm ringing. Other morning sounds soon filter in. Sloshing sounds tell me someone is taking a bath with a bucket and a mug. A pressure cooker whistles somewhere. The traffic is a low hum in the background. Mingling, right now, with…
Two days into my India visit, I am still fighting jet lag, heat and the inevitable attacks on my waistline. This time around, managing jet lag and the heat seems much easier, while the attacks on my waistline have been particularly aggressive. My schedule for the last few days has looked like this: Day 1: …
The Imagined Universe 