Take a pause today darling...... - poem by Nikeeta Nirody-Bendre

 

So what if your child is sleeping late,

School is not the end of it all,

Yes, you could not make breakfast today,

There just is no reason to bawl.

So you may order in,

Feel happy to laze around a bit,

Do what you like today,

The activity that you deem fit

So what if you don't clean up today,

Relax and take it slow

Lots of time to finish chores

So many more days to go.

Take a pause today darling,

Sit down with that glass of wine,

What matters too is your health,

It's important that YOU are fine

Red Line ... 24 March 2022

 

Milestone .. 24 March 2022

 

Milestone

Long Live Diplomacy

Long Live Peace Talks

Long Live Prevention

Long Live Compassion

Long Live Pre-emption

Long Live Liberty

Long Live Freedom

The King is Dead

Long Live the King

The New Normals ... 2022

 

The second half of the 1900s saw general improvements in the quality of life - I am making many of these observations based on my personal experience of the environment.  On the geo-political front, one saw the rises of democracies and the demises of lesser forms of national administration; on the business front, one saw the digitization of information and increased automation; on the societal front, one saw the rise of secularism and acceptance. (This is not to deny that there still remained significant sections of society that were "left out"). If we defined day-to-day life as "the normal", the normal improved generally over time, notwithstanding small ups and downs along the way.

Since the turn of the century, we have been seeing a high frequency of events that have each caused a quantum fall in the world order (From another frame of reference - a person in a different geography and/or socio-cultural-economic situation - the view may be different, but the trend is uncannily the same):

1. Sep 11, 2001 was the first such event. Not only did it cause unprecedented damage to life and property, it changed world order to what we came to call "the new normal". In this new normal, travel became an order-of-magnitude more difficult, as traveler had the burden of proving themselves innocent and safe to other travelers by going through a high level of security. Such security measures also got implemented at the entrances of buildings. Certain types of people (based on their name and looks) started getting looked at with suspicion. Nations went after each other in retaliation.
2. Nov 2016 - the election of Donald Trump as the US President. While I had thought that I had seen the lowest of the lows, the year leading up to the Trump election and the four years of his rule demonstrated that the lowest of the lows can be easily breached, as I saw them breached over and over. Hate-mongering under the guise of free speech became acceptable behavior. Racism and police brutalities against minorities saw a rise like never before.
3. Mar 2020 - COVID-19. Science went for a toss as a year of COVID overlapped the Presidency of Trump. Social distancing became the new normal, and remote work for knowledge workers became the favored form of work. The myth about physical collocation for team efficiency was busted, the term "the great resignation" came into existence to represent the section of workforce that did not care to go back to their pre-pandemic work lives. Even as the economy recovered with a bang from the fall it took in March 2020, the chasm between science and personal freedoms cemented itself in a large fraction of society.
4. Jan 2021 - the U.S. Capitol Insurrection. The new low (normal) includes those who decry but cannot do a thing, and those who look the other way calling it a feature of a democracy.
5. And then ... Afghanistan (Aug 2021) ... and Ukraine (Feb 2022) .... nuff said!

With the new normals coming at us at increasing frequency, "back to normal" seems such a distant mirage!

Ping Pong on the World Stage

 

The Song I Came To Sing ... Tagore

I have quoted Tagore in the tagline of my blog, but had never looked for the complete poem, of which it is a part. I found the complete poem, here it is ..

“The song I came to sing
remains unsung to this day.
I have spent my days in stringing
and in unstringing my instrument.

The time has not come true,
the words have not been rightly set;
only there is the agony
of wishing in my heart…..

I have not seen his face,
nor have I listened to his voice;
only I have heard his gentle footsteps
from the road before my house…..

But the lamp has not been lit
and I cannot ask him into my house;
I live in the hope of meeting with him;
but this meeting is not yet.”

― Rabindranath Tagore

Estrangement - a weird form of Empowerment

 

Detachment has long been touted as the recipe for an empowered and peaceful life. I have written about this, and its variation, Detachment without Indifference. The empowerment comes from a state of no emotional interdependencies, and no expectations. This can only result in a positive outcome. (I may even cynically cite a management consulting "success strategy" - set low expectations, and overachieve.)

The only difference between detachment and estrangement, is that detachment is often voluntary (that is, one works towards it and may achieve it to a smaller or greater extent), estrangement is involuntary (that is, it just "happens," is totally out of one's sphere of influence). While the final outcome may be the same, estrangement can arouse a "victim" feeling.

The personal challenge, then, is to treat estrangement with the same dispassion as detachment. This can help to achieve an acceptance of the situation and the elimination of hope about the estrangement diminishing or going away. If it does, and if it is what one wants, one may choose at that point in time to treat it however one may wish. If it doesn't, the expectations are absent, and the possibility of a disappointment is negligible.

When it comes to managing expectations, there is much to learn from out-of-favor stocks in the equity markets.

Look at the behavior of the Citigroup (NYSE:C) stock over the last four decades. I know people who kept buying more and more in 2007-08 when the stock started falling from its October 2006 high of over $500. "How long can this fall possibly last?", "This is a steal", "The stock must go up, sooner or later" were the sentiments I heard from the buyers. The stock has remained at less than 12% of its peak value for over a dozen years now - the "sooner" never happened, the "later" is nowhere in sight. In this case, we readily accept that there is no hope that it will rise back to its peak ever.

So, an estrangement is like the Citigroup stock. The quicker we achieve a state of acceptance of what it is and what not to expect from it, the faster is the attainment of internal tranquility and clarity on the path forward.

English Idiosyncrasies ... 2021

Americans inform, Indians intimate
Indians prepone, Americans advance

Indians pass out of colleges to take up jobs

Americans pass out when they get too drunk 
Brits' Underground may go over ground

A Brit's leave is a permission or a day off

An American's leave is just an order to get lost

Indian trains come on platforms, American on tracks
Americans drive on parkways, while they park on driveways

Dating a Skeptic ... 2021

It is rare to find a poem that addresses a skeptic/atheist. I came across a delightful one in Marathi (see at the bottom of this post), and had fun translating it into English.

Dating a Skeptic

Though you're a skeptic

I drag you to the temple

And you come along

Just for my satisfaction

I do the rituals

With offerings to the altar

While you give alms

To beggars at the entrance

I strive to get ahead

For a good view of the altar

While you relish the beauty

Of the temple architecture

Annoyingly I nudge you

To bow your head in reverence

While you are busy enjoying

The tranquility of the temple

I worry about the footwear

We had to leave outside the door

You say, "A needy one may take them"

And we can walk barefoot home

I wonder who's the one

To be blessed by my god

The believer in me, or

The skeptic in you

The Marathi original (poet unknown):

तू नास्तिक असूनही तुला
दर्शनाला नेणारी मी
माझ्या इच्छेखातर
येणारा तू

हारफुलांचा भाव करत
ताट घेणारी मी,
दारातल्या भिक्षुकांना
मदत करणारा तू

रांगेत पुढे जाण्यासाठी
धडपडणारी मी,
देवळाची सुबकता
न्याहाळणारा तू

चिडून नमस्कारासाठी
तुला खुणावणारी मी,
देवळातील प्रसन्नता
अनुभवणारा तू

देवळातही चपलेची
काळजी करणारी मी,
गरजूने नेली असेल
म्हणून अनवाणी चालत निघालेला तू

खरंच....देव नक्की कुणाला पावत असेल?
माझ्यासारख्या आस्तिकाला...
की तुझ्यासारख्या नास्तिकाला....?

An Equinox Haiku ... Sep 22, 2021

 

Soaked | in | bright | sun|shine (5 syllables)

Leaves | with | their | life | pur|pose | served (7)

Glow | bright | and | with|er (5)

<context: temperate latitudes in the northern hemisphere>

Will you still need Me, Will you still feed me, Now that I'm 64 ... Sep 7, 2021

 

Thank you, Lennon/ McCartney, for thinking of my day today ;-)

The time has finally come (apnaa time aaya)!

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine

If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

You'll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you

I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more

Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

Every summer we can rent a cottage
In the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck and Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away

Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four

Atheism to Rationalism to Humanism ... a personal journey ... 2021

1960s. What am I?

Rewind over five decades to my formative years. I found myself in a joint-family home that included my parents, grand-parents, uncles and aunts. Religiously they were quite diverse, and that gave me a jump-start on an awareness that might otherwise have taken several years of discovery. My grand-mother was strictly religious (to the extent of forcing other members of the family to do certain things on certain days). My grand-father was more ritualistic than religious, and used to conduct an annual religious event that had been a family tradition, but didn't force anyone to do anything. My mother was in a state of surrender to whatever/ whoever power-that-be seeking strength from any source to help cope with distressful situations in the family. My father and uncles - I used to hear my grand-mother talk scornfully about their rebellion against religious practices and to be found nowhere near home when some rituals were conducted at home, and I listened to those stories with admiration! Who I was was not something that bothered me at that time, but what I am (on the religious spectrum) was a determination I thought I could make. Though my father and uncles (who were 30-somethings by that time and married to mostly conservative women) were never overt about their thoughts, and I found them slowly become religious for various reasons, I decided that what my father wanted to be was the most reasonable stance to adopt. Surprisingly, I got not no push-back from my father and he allowed me to engage in skeptical discussions. Maybe he was vicariously living his atheistic dream through me!

1970s. Experiences and Experiments

On the home front, my younger brother suffered a debilitating health condition and all family members were running from pillar to post - exploring all medical avenues available at that time, as well as succumbing to any number of "snake-oil" suggestions from "well-wishers" who provided anecdotal, unsubstantiated "success stories". Though the medical diagnostic efforts and treatments did not particularly turn out to be effective, they convinced me that there can be a method to the madness. Witnessing the futility of the latter, the absence of a super-power was established in my mind beyond a shadow of doubt.

In high school, I made a good friend (now deceased) who aspired to go to medical school, had his conditioning of ghost stories and the like, but was eager (I think now, looking back) to dispel his own fears. So, he and I ventured through graveyards and crematoriums and proved to ourselves through such and a few other experiments that the occult does not exist. I also heard about Dr. Abraham Kovoor (1898-1978), the self-proclaimed rationalist and could procure one of his books - Gods, Demons, and Spirits - which I read cover to cover a few times.

By the end of this decade, I was a die-hard rationalist!

1980s-2000s. Cruise Control.

On the personal front, these were the years of a bad marriage (now terminated) and I avoided any ideological conflicts on the religiosity dimension. What I did accomplish, though, is to raise two children in a religiously "anti-septic" environment. Though they went to some Hindu classes once-a-week or so, I was happy to see that they left no mark on them. Exposing them to the views of the native Americans, Buddhists, and any other faiths they wanted to learn about, I feel I have launched them in the world to be whatever they may want to be, and molt from one skin to another as they may find appropriate and on their own free will.

On the social front, religiosity was an awkward topic. There were people who thought they could "reconvert" (should I call this "revert"?) me through flawed arguments (e.g., if there is no god, how can you explain x, y, z) and retreated with some bad feelings when they realized their line of argument didn't hold water with me.

2010s-2020s. The Renaissance! 

Having remarried to a wonderfully supportive lady, the world seems to have opened up. With unconditional support to each other's journeys on this dimension, we have met numerous like-minded and accepting people and individuals where one feels safe to be oneself. Where were all these people all these years, I sometimes wonder. Social media have also facilitated such critical masses spanning age and geography boundaries.

It is not that awkward interactions in unexpected settings have completely disappeared. The personal journey to better deal with such people and situations continues.

One definition that has particularly appealed to me is the term "humanist." Greg Epstein defines this concisely as "good without god." The only part that I don't like about this definition is a prevalent thought that (my) godliness is highly correlated with virtue (and your godliness is not!) but ungodliness is most certainly devoid of virtue. So be it; I'd rather be in acceptance of the world around me than in denial!

What Happens When You Skip Kindergarten ... August 23, 2021

Hats off to Robert Fulghum for writing the New York Times Bestseller, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten over three decades ago. Recent events have increased my admiration for things I learned in my early formative years, which I re-learned with fancier terms in the life since then. This blog-post is an enumeration of a few nuggets of such fundamental learning.

• Unstable Equilibrium is not to be forecasted. A pencil standing on its point, a house of cards built in a windy environment, a spinning top. Unless there are efforts being made to counter the natural tendency to collapse, the pencil will fall, the house of cards will collapse, and the spinning top will fall on its side. (2021 mishap - Expecting the incumbent Afghan government to be fully functional until the US withdraws all its interests, after publicly predicting its collapse down the road)
• 
  A Chain Is Only As Strong As Its Weakest Link. When one looks for robustness of a system, one pays attention to strengthening the weakest link. If there is a single point of failure, one needs to find an alternate path that can take over if one path fails. (2021 mishap - (a) Surrendering one of two air bases, while knowing that there is an imminent airlift operation in adverse conditions. (b) Having only one open path to the only airport, and then looking to create other pathways when the bottlenecks are blatantly visible).
  
• Before You Lift A Heavy Bucket Of Water, Know Where You Will Be Placing It. If you don't, you are likely to get tired holding it or risk its coming down on your toes! (2021 mishap - It was known well in advance how many Americans, Allies, and Afghans who supported the US over the years needed to be evacuated. Doesn't one need to have prior agreements with receiving locations, so that the airlifted people can be temporarily or permanently landed?)
• There Is No I In TEAM. Jack and Jill helped each other carrying the pail of water down the hill. We know too well what happened when Jack fell down (and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after! They also spilled their pail of water!) This phrase is also emphasized to Little League Baseball and Soccer players. (2021 Mishap - There was a reason Allies were called Allies. They were supposed to be collaborated with, not surprised with a unilateral knee-jerk)

I can go on and on. There will be more chest-thumping, more investigations, more finger-pointing. For now, I am stressed about how I may face my Kindergarten teacher!

"The bug is a feature, by design" ...in today's politics - Aug 18, 2021

 

In software engineering, explaining away a defect ("bug") as a feature which is there by design (vs by accident) is a common joke. Today, we sadly saw it playing out with respect to the horrific conditions in Kabul arising from the US troops pull-out.

Biden was asked by George Stephanopoulos whether the current chaos was "priced into the pull-out plan," Biden unequivocally answered, "Yes." SO, THIS CHAOS BUG WAS A FEATURE, BY DESIGN!

How the situation has got to what it is will be the subject of much post-mortem - AAR (after-action review, per Gen Milley's vocabulary). It is now time for the Biden administration to adopt the line popularized by Trump - "It is what it is" - and stop continuing to play the worn out record justifying the pull-out.

In statistics, there is a concept of Conditional Probability - it represents the probability of an outcome given a certain condition. As of today - Aug 18, 2021 - the Kabul condition "is what it is." The remaining degrees of freedom are diminishing by the day, and the people in charge will exercise them in their best judgment - there will be some successes, some failures, and some unfulfilled promises/ expectations.

However, when it comes to Biden's standing in the country, around the world, and in the mind of the insignificant Democrat writing this note, it has suffered irreparable damage. The more he attempts damage control, the more he comes across disconnected from reality. 

So, here is what I advise Biden to do: 

• Say "mea culpa" and step down in grace sooner than later - this can save him the disgrace of investigations and their outcomes.
• Hand over the reins to Harris, let her apply her administrative skills to the remainder of the Presidential term
• Let Harris present herself to the world with the "I-am-not-your-father's-Oldsmobile" attitude

Maybe she will succeed. If she does, it prepares her for 2024 and can help with Democrats' chances in 2022 and 2024 for the Congress. If she doesn't, it can't be worse than what we have now.

Let us call this bug a bug - such acceptance is a prerequisite for its resolution.

The End of the Twenty-years War ... 15 Aug 2021

 

Emptying the Mind ... 2021

 

There is much discussed about mindfulness, self-awareness, meditation, emotion-control, and variants. The irony is that all these journeys are long - sometimes, life-long. It seems that people get trapped in these journeys and the distinction between the journey and the destination seems blurred. Taking away all the jargon, the journey seems to be to achieve thoughtful detachment and equanimity - where one can be unaffected by the environs, and managing excitement within a narrow band.

While not denying the benefits that accrue from such efforts, I am looking for a high "return on investment" strategy so one can reach a reasonably good state of emotional peace in a reasonably short period of time (this being the "investment" or "costs" phase), so the benefits can be reaped in the remainder of ones life (this being the "returns" or "benefits" phase). Some argue that this is impossible - I tend to disagree. Some argue that this is very difficult - this opens up the challenge to achieve it with less difficulty and in less time.

As an avid fan of Urdu poetry, I have listened to this ghazal from a Hindi movie, sung by Jagjit Singh - from which I quote its most insightful verse:

aaj phir dil ne ek tamannaa kee

aaj phir dil ko hum ne samjhaayaa

Today, yet again my heart desired

Today, yet again I pacified my heart

It is natural for the heart (really, the mind) to desire. And in getting better and better at pacifying the heart, one can learn to brush off the desires with less and less effort. Soon, one would be able to anticipate the desires and nip them in the bud.

Thus, my journey begins - but with a near-term end in sight, so I can enjoy the maximum time at the destination!

Relationship Nuggets from Shobhaa De ... 2021

Most user manuals are written, but not read. Most reading suggestions are received, but not acted upon. While I have highly recommended Spouse - The Truth about Marriage by Shobhaa De to several people based on my enlightenment upon reading it, I know many may not feel motivated enough to read, enjoy and absorb it.

Perhaps, recognizing the same dynamic, Shobhaa has interspersed her book with "nuggets" - about one every 6 pages of the 287-pages-book, and also provided a bullet-list of highlights at the end of each of the twenty-five chapters.

So, here I extracted the nuggets into a Quick-Start-Manual (a Quickie, I may say, in Shobhaa's catty style) for those of us who can benefit from the messages but don't have the time and patience to read the book. You may get the feeling that the book is directed at women more than men, written in the Indian context and, at times, may come across sexist (as liberal/liberated as she is, she is also in acceptance of the contemporary society in which women need to survive and thrive) - but the principles seem to be universal, and I found no difficulty in internationalizing and masculinizing (?) the messages for my own benefit.

Even the most attentive partner can occasionally misread signals - don't make an issue out of it. Instead, go ahead and say what you need to. (p17)

Women carry on about 'feelings' ad nauseam. Men can't. We might as well accept this and teach ourselves to talk their language. (p25)

Recognize the difference between exchanging information and sharing ideas (p28)

Don't involve a third person in your fights. No person can be entirely impartial, which means one of you will cry foul - leading to another fight. (p38)

People say friends are for keeps. I am not so sure. Especially after marriage. Friendships that intrude or demand too much from either partner are best shunned. (p46)

Friends are not part of your dowry. Don't expect your partner to accept them instantly. (p49)

Arranged marriages have as much of a chance of working out as love marriages. Don't feel embarrassed about opting for the former. (p56)

Not all love marriages pan out the way they do in Bollywood films. Keep your rose-tinted shades on if you must, but watch out for those clouds. (p61)

Living through a spell of 'foul weather' in a marriage is one thing; living with a 'foul partner' is quite another. (p66)

Children exposed to a foul marriage get permanently damaged. The scars rarely heal. (p71)

Never discuss the dirty details with outsiders. Not even with 'well meaning' relatives and 'best friends'. All you're doing is providing grist for the gossip mills. (p76)

Be truthful with your kids, but don't go overboard with gory personal details. Tell them only as much as they need to know. (p81)

Marriage is not a business arrangement. Don't convert it into one, with terms and conditions spelt out contractually. (p88)

Trusting your partner is a good policy. But it's worthwhile to stay informed about your personal assets. (p101)

If you are a smart chick, you don't have to fake dumbness in order to make your partner shine. (p110)

Never talk down to your partner. Even in the privacy of your bedroom. (p115)

Trying to be one-up on your partner displays just one thing - insecurity. (p123)

People always look surprised when a wife challenges her husband's point of view in public. (p126)

Insist on fair play and transparency at all times. Too many men take full control over their wife's bank balance, without revealing their own. (p131)

Give in when it comes to personal quirks that drive a partner crazy. Wet towel on the bed? Pick it up - it's a quicker solution than fighting over who should do it. (p138)

Passion does not recognize age; it is certainly not reserved for teenagers. Ask M. F. Husain, if you don't believe me! (p148)

If you don't feel good about yourself, you can't make your partner feel good either. Work on your self-esteem and confidence, and see the difference. (p156)

Remember, sex is often in the head. Do not mock, criticize or rate a 'performance'. Sex is not a challenge with a trophy at the end. (p161)

Marital routines are unavoidable. But it helps to break them occasionally and do something unpredictable and unexpected. (p170)

Watch out for those 'harmless' flirtations - they have a nasty way of backfiring, especially if they occur on a holiday and follow you back to your home. (p175)

Two can play the cheating game. Are you ready to accept or overlook your partner's fling? (p180)

If there are no sparks left in your marriage and you can't do without casual affairs, why are you still in the marriage? (p185)

There is no substitute for togetherness - physical and emotional. (p192)

If long separations are unavoidable, make a set of rules about 'staying connected'. Don't look at those awful phone bills with horror - communication is your lifeline under the circumstanes. (p197)

Don't make the missing partner feel guilty about extended absences - he/she will run in the opposite direction rather than be forced to deal with the accusations of neglect. (p200)

Self-sufficiency is the spin-off from such an arrangement. Separations have a way of making partners feel less dependent, less clingy, less demanding. (p205)

Compromise need not be a dirty word if it works both ways - sometimes you give in, sometimes your partner does. (p210)

Hit the delete button when it comes to ego. There's no shame in meeting your partner halfway. (p213)

Don't try and score brownie points over your mother-in-law. Give her the entire cookie jar, instead! (p220)

Leave your husband out of daily squabbles. Bickering over unimportant stuff like who gets to holiday where, is silly and counterproductive. (p223)

Mothers-in-law should kill with kindness and generosity. Don't give your heart to your bahu, but hand over everything else. You'll feel so much lighter. (p230)

Remember, it's difficult for a mother to 'surrender' her son to a 'stranger'. Deal with her initial hurt with understanding and patience - for your own sake. (p235)

Competing for your attention with a new-born is a no-win situation for the poor husband. Don't allow that to happen. Get him to participate, instead. (p242)

Make the effort to dress and look the way you usually do. Pregnancy and childbirth are not afflictions to be endured. You should be looking your best during this period. (p247)

When you start looking outside your marriage for the all-important 'dependability factor', you should see it as an early warning sign that your relationship needs working on. (p256)

If complete self-sufficiency is everything, why bother with marriage at all? The decision to marry suggests a desire to share your life with another. (p261)

Most women use their sexuality to advantage when faced with situations that demand it. (p264)

Intimacy does not grow in a cold environment. It is like a hothouse bloom. Think of intimacy as an orchid and you'll automatically nurture it. (p270)

A healthy marriage needs the assurance that a partner will come through in an emergency, no matter what. (p275)

Follow the 'TTT' rule - Time, tolerance and tenderness. You need all three in abundance to make your marriage sing. (p278)

Addressing Bias - Today's Experience ... May 12, 2021

 

I answered the door-bell this afternoon to find our friendly neighbor (let me call him X - not his real initial), who has a habit of coming over without calling. When I opened the door, I found out that he needed change for a $20 bill. These days, I hardly use cash, so I was not sure if I would be able to satisfy his request. I went in and got my wallet, and found that I did have a reasonable variety of bills of different denominations.

I gave him 4 fives - he hesitated a bit; perhaps, because he was expecting a different set of bills. Maybe he wanted dollar bills or 2 tens or some other combination. His hesitation was my temptation to quip, so here is how it went:

A(seem): So X, you don't like Honest Abe, looks like! (referring to Abraham Lincoln's face on the $5 bill)

X: Actually, I don't! It was a good thing he freed the slaves, but he stopped short of sending them back to their home country.

A: WHAT? The slaves never came over on their own. They were herded up like animals and brought over, and then bred and traded. This is their country, much that this is my country! Please don't send me back to my home country!

X: You're right. Never thought of that. But you came over legally! And, you're a good neighbor. I'd never send you back.

A: The slaves didn't have a choice. They were captured and caged and shipped over. It is the slave-owners and slave-traders who needed to be prosecuted, not the slaves. Besides, the people who brought them over were long dead and gone, as the slavery practice went on for several generations. So, who could you prosecute? Definitely, not the slaves!

X: Oh, don't get me wrong. I had so many African American colleagues from the time I worked at Corporation ABC (not the real name). By the way, I do dislike Biden's immigration policy!

A: I do agree with you on that!

I am not sure if the above chat left X with a slightly different perspective. If it did, it was my good deed for the day to leave the world in a slightly less biased/racist state.

Bhakts will be Bhakts ... 2021

(In Hindi, Bhakt stands for devotee; used colloquially these days to represent blind followers of the leader. This post is inspired by the 1980s Gloria Estefan hit, Boys will be Boys)

Bhakts will be Bhakts

Bad Bhakts, Bad Bhakts

He leads, and they follow

Where to? Little do they know

It's all in the scriptures

Knowledge, wisdom, and science

Solutions to all problems

And cures for all ailments

Their chests puffed with pride

Their ancestors' achievements

All invaders from the West

Hold blame for their current plight

They've been so eager to follow

Alas, never had a worthy leader

They all were either elites

Or transplants from another nation

They want their types to lead

Countries and corporations abroad

But an outsider leading them?

Is blasphemy beyond compare

"Secular" is their expletive

Intellectuals are all "pseudo"s

Liberals have to be "lib-tards"

Or, permutations of all of the above

Fatalism is their birthright

Destiny is their privilege

It is all, somewhere, written

By the moon, planets and stars

Alone Without You - by Satyen Hombali

 

The Story of My Story ... 2021

I have a story, and so do you

My mother had one, and yours did, too

So do seven billion on the face of this earth

And so many more who came and went

Does anyone care about my story?

"I did this." ....... "So what?"

"I did that." .......  "Big deal."

"I did that, too." ......  "Go, take a walk."

Only two numbers make the epitaph

The date of arrival and of departure

Two dates, that matter for a week

Two dates, those too soon forgotten

On second thought

I really don't have a story

I just pretended to have one

To fool myself and to amuse you

Question ... 2021

 

(Written with apologies in advance to artificial intelligence/ machine learning experts. This is a confluence of AI/ML with the philosophy of life)

Armed with all answers

I ask - what is the question?

No dearth of data and information

What do I do with it - that is the question

What matters and what doesn't

Does anyone know - is the real question

I'll shoot arrows from my quiver

Where's the bull's eye - is the question

My quest is not really for answers

It really is - for the question!

Five-fifty or Two-twenty ... 2021

 

Five-fifty or Two-twenty?

Who cares when life is good?
Who cares when life is bad?
An arbitrary measurement
From an arbitrary reference

Silly lifelong conditioning
To be driven by the clock
That things have to happen

When they are meant to be

So we strive in school

To get a double promotion

To get an extra year

For life's rat-race commotion

As I ramble along

It's well past Five-fifty

Let me end here

Before it becomes Two-twenty

Faith and the State ... 2021

 

First, let me emphatically say that I am ecstatic about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the helm of the nation. Normalcy, decency, truth, transparency, trust, respect and many other characteristics of human integrity have returned to the White House and the Administration.

What has, however, irked me is the over-emphasis on President Biden's devout Catholicism. (Don't get me wrong - I would rather see a President regularly go to church, than call someone a p@$$#.) In this Democracy that stands for secularism - the separation of church and state, a Constitution from two centuries ago whose foresight we are awestruck with, I am seeing too much of godliness in the past few weeks.

Faith ought to be a deeply personal phenomenon. One may believe or not believe; believers may believe in whatever they want to believe. If one needs to seek strength from faith to overcome trauma from personal tragedies - that is a Constitutionally granted freedom in this nation.

But, let deep faith not be a metric of personal integrity! And, as a corollary, let the faithless not have additional burden to prove their integrity.

I say all this in this "one nation, under God" and while gleefully enjoying the green-back that says "In God We Trust".

Amen!

Never Again .. 20 Jan 2021

 

Never again a bully

Never again a misogynist

Never again the sycophants

Never again an insurrection

Never again any nepotism

Never again gun violence

Never again police brutality

Never again children in cages

Never again a global disgrace

Never again alternative facts

Never again "it is what it is"

Never again living in denial

A new day, a new song

A new beginning, a new reality

The light at the end of the tunnel

Is, at last, not an oncoming train

Black and White and Shades in Between ... 2021

 

We are all reeling from the miserably failed January 6, 2021 coup d'etat attempt on the U.S. Capitol that the entire world watched in disbelief in real-time as it unfolded. As more details are coming to be known from the evidence, tipsters and arrested suspects from the insurrection, we cannot but be shocked to see the extent of white supremacy that was on garish display - a confederate flag, anti-Semitic inscriptions on t-shirts, and slogans of racial and religious bigotry. The world is laughing us - the self-appointed custodians of democracy and world order. Is there any silver lining to this dark cloud?

The answer, undoubtedly, is YES. It is in the sentiment of abundance and sharing that still exists in the hearts of many - 

• You see it when white Americans (including the President-elect Joe Biden) decry white supremacy and make a case for fairness and representation for people of all types, by gender, race, color, any other difference
• You see it when men march for the status of women
• You see it when Jews protest against the "Muslim Ban"
• You see it when everybody marches for Black Lives Matter

This happens only in America! Despite all the vileness around us, there is much to be proud of.