Happy Chinese New Year !!

The amazing Chinese New Year party with international kids..




Happy Chinese New Year from all of us ...

Long live the Republic !!

Today was the Indian Republic Day. A government holiday in India which is celebrated with much pomp, armed forces parade in front of the President, speeches by prominent politicians, air shows, etc., etc., not to mention the flag hoisting ceremonies everywhere from schools, to universities to office buildings.. It has been a while since I was actually present in India for a Republic day (1993 was my last !!).

Today being a typical middle of the week day in the US of A, I didnt get to even soak in the fact that it was Republic Day. Just like other Indian festivals or holidays, I have to celebrate Republic Day on the nearest weekend !! Not that we are used to celebrating it in a big way here, unless there are some special programs in the local India community centers or on the local Indian TV channels (and we all know how well correlated the movies are with respect to the occasion on the Tamizh channels) !!

But seriously, Republic day always brings back memories. Lots of them and mostly good ones. My brother and me used to sit in front of the television the entire day sometimes skipping food just to watch the parade which goes on for a few hours. The parade has bands from every state, army, navy, airforce, guards from different states, school kids, all kinds of missiles sitting on trucks, tanks, an air show with superfast planes (like the blue angels show we see here in the US), a motorcycle show by daredevils, etc. etc.. The whole event, shown mainly on the only TV channel those days which was the Doordarshan, did bring a sense of awe and pride at being Indian. So much that we used to have our own flag hoisting game at home with the flag being hoisted on a little bamboo pole which grandma used for putting up wet clothes on the line to dry !!

Today, I came home to watch the evening news and there was no highlights of all these events. Not only did I miss that parade, but also felt a void in terms of my identity and how far removed I have become from what was once me !! Tomorrow, I go to celebrate the Chinese new year at my daughters daycare. We even had to hunt around for a chinese traditional dress for her to wear for the party. She is already singing a few chinese songs every evening, practising for her performance !! What a world we live in !!!

Video bug is fixed..

Have fixed the video in the last videoblog !!

Ourmedia had a server problem..

:)

Long live MS Paint..

Recently my way of engaging the little one has been to draw something real quick and make her paint..

On a recent phone conversation with my brother, he said "I thought she was painting like you did when you were a kid.. with a paper, brush, paint and of course the mess !!".. He was not impressed when I told him that the little one was painting with a mouse using MS Paint.. Here are some of her (our) creations..

Not bad for a three year old huh ?

Walking out on the job..

Most of you know that I had a bleave.. (blog leave) last week.. things were getting out of hand .. one of the funniest things that made me laugh in spite of all the happenings around was "The walkout".

Was watching SUN TV (Tamizh Channel) evening news last week. They showed that the opposition party in the assembly (think Senate) walked out in protest because the house speaker did not allow them to say something, (or some other such silly reason)..

What was funny about this ? Well in the video it looks like one dude gets up and goes out.. he is just looking casual (doesnt look mad or anything) and he walks through the central aisle and after a few seconds a whole bunch of people walk out slowly one after another.. It seriously looked like the first dude who did the walkout was possibly just going to the restroom.. the rest of them probably mistook his constipated look for something else, read between the lines and decided to follow him only to realize that they were walking into the restroom with him.. then to save face, they call it a walkout ! and blamed the speaker..

That same day, I had a real rough time at work with many meetings where I really wanted to walk out. But I just could not. I get paid to do a job and however difficult the decision making process might be or however hostile the situation may be, I just take it and go with it. These are exactly the type of things any typical workplace encounters, for people in charge of making decisions and you just have to work it out. Not walk out !! I am sure that these elected politicians got paid inspite of their walkout.. Of course withholding their paycheck for the day for walking out on the job does not solve a damn thing. I am pretty sure they are not dependent on their government salaries for their livelyhood. We have people in India who can teach people like Jack Abramoff "Lobbying 101" and "Bribing 402" courses, at grad school level !!

Maybe we could fine them a few thousand dollars every time they walk out instead of working and making important policy decisions that shape our future..he he..

Like Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) says,

I crack me up !!