The thinking cap.. or thread.. is on!

Last weekend was interesting. It was the beginning of a lot of festivities. First the ladies celebrated Varalaskshmi vritham on Friday. We had a lot of friends and family visiting us in the evening. 

Had to fly out on Saturday afternoon and was initially very disappointed because the thread changing ceremony which I look forward to every year was on Sunday/Monday based on an earlier conversation with my parents. 

Was also looking forward to chatting with my nephews... all three of them who had their Upanayanam ceremony this summer. 

When I told my mom that I will miss the ceremony and spend the day on a plane and given I lose 15 hours due to time difference, the days and times don't count. My dad said in a matter of fact voice "change the thread before you leave or after you come back. I will tell you when. Something is better than nothing!". Then went on their usual gripe about travel, priorities in life, a persons reasoning, am I doing this travel for money or for some higher purpose, money is not the priroity,  etc. etc. 

As it turned out the actual day for the ceremony was Saturday and Sunday. So I got up bright and early on Saturday and changed my Poonal (refered to as thread in this blog over the years).

Wife and MIL had plenty of Idly batter from the previous day and made me Idly and also some Pongal. Was going to fast the rest of the day on the plane and do Gayathri Japam on the plane if possible. 

My parents were happy after seeing that picture. I pretty much slept through the plane ride and after reaching the hotel, took a shower, sat down facing the setting sun in the 20th floor of a hotel room and recited the gayathri mantra a 1008 times. My nose was blocked after the flight thanks to United freezing us in mid flight but it didn't stop me. Ate a few more of the packed idlis and went to sleep. 

Had severe headaches the rest of the trip and finally made it back. Went to do yoga and as usual the new white thread catches peoples eyes before I walk into the room and a person asks "what is the meaning of that?". 

So I went on the usual "It is something that a particular sect from India wears as a mark of their commitment to learning and the pursuit of knowledge." then after a few more questions and answers later (by this time I have a practical FAQ on the thread aka poonal written inside my head and the answers come with practiced ease), there was a bonus question. "Is it passed on by birth only or can anyone wear this thread and do the ceremony? You tell me that you are still into research and development and pride yourself on learning and I get it, but you are no longer doing priest stuff right? So why wear this thread?" 

When the question is asked in English with a Japanese accent from an innocent and sincere face, I felt my FAQ needed a re-write!

Told her that as far as I knew, most of the folks who wear the thread were born into the families of brahmins, but there are lot of instances of folks accepting the thread and pursusing a brahmin life. I still had not answered the second part of the question.. why still wear it if you are not doing prayers every day like a priest?

The bell rang and I walked into the hot room. We were 55 minutes into the 90 minute class and were going from standing series to floor series to get a 2 minute break lying down staring at the ceiling in dead body pose. I was way too alive for those two minutes as my brain was trying to consisely summarize what definied a person as a brahmin, more specifically what defined me in my own opinion (that level of restricting the question should have an easy answer). Forget the rest of the world Sundar.. what makes you a Brahmin in your own mind?

So I tried to summarize with my fingers the bullet points of what I valued as Brahmin, lying there staring at the ceiling, counting with my thumb against the tips of my fingers. 

a. Value knowledge over everything else

    1. Keep an open mind

    2. respect your teacher above anything else

    3. keep learning no matter what your age

    4. don't keep that learning to yourself. . . teach people whenever possible (and I was smiling thinking...

        unless restricted by IP licenses and legal contracts)

    5. Question things.

        i. If the answers don't make sense keep questioning

        ii. don't accept an answer because it is convenient

        iii. don't reject an answer because it is beyond your comprehension at that time.

b. Don't chase money, power or crave social acceptance

    1. Knowledge and and education are more important than being rich or powerful

    2. spare no effort to make sure your kids get the best education (something that was passed on from

        parents and relatives)

    3. value knowledge and money will come. Value money and ignorance and arrogance will come.

c. Be obsessive compulsive when it comes to cleanliness

    1. if there is one thing that is common to all the rules to follow growing up in a Brahmin family it is the love

        for cleaning oneself obsessively and learning to love it..

    2. be careful with what you eat and how you clean things before eating (goes to vegetarian choice, cleaning

        the floor before putting plates or eating from banana leaves, drinking from glasses where you dont touch

        the glass with your lips, sharing food with others in same plates etc.. ).

Almost looks like folks came up with elaborate rules after some epidemic that was spread by human contact or through food and the rules stayed with the survivors of the epidemic and became the POR or BKM.. (Process Of Record , Best Known Method for folks who are wondering..)

d. Follow the rules

    1. Be it the rituals to follow during prayers (it is more like a training for you to know that following rules is important, maybe some rules are made by the priest and others are made by your wife.. but follow the rules you must)

    2. or the rules in daily life. If there is a rule of law follow it or work to change it

e. Respect 

    1. everyone for what they do. I do see a lot of folks with the thread falter on this one. If you do have good guidance and great teachers, you will know that respecting everyone for what they do is the right way. 

    2. respect yourself (you realize this as part of the daily ritual after getting the thread)

    3. respect the thread and what it reminds you of and what it stands for

Visions of my grandfather kept coming to me and I had tears for no reason just thinking of him. I would constantly try to be a pain in the ass asking him 20 questions per minute and he would sit in the backyard in the evening and explain things to me one at a time with infinite patience while taking some Tulasi and green camphor, crush it and hold it under my nose to clear my blocked nose so I could ask him more questions without suffering.. 

My kids never ask me any such questions. They seem to have some intuitive understanding of who they are and are comfortable with who they are..

I was all set to have more detailed answers for the next time someone asked me questions.. 

Then came the funny side of life. Does this come in different sizes? you used to have a smaller thread.. this one is much larger! it was true. Somehow the priest who gave me this thread has given me a much longer poonal. 

was going to say "It comes in S, M, L and XL. Somehow I got the XL but given I already changed it, going to stick to it till next year and go back to M" but turth is most of the time I have seen only two sizes, a kids size and adult size.. For some reason this time I have a much longer one.

Have to go ask my dad for answers!

Every year around this time there is a lot of festivities. Today happens to be Janmashtami, Krishna's birthday. There is more stuff to eat and a prayer to be said in the name of Krishna.. 

My stomach is returning to normal again just in time and that is great news..

MIL has outdone herself this year with some treats!

Being Brahmin and wearing a poonal should not stop with just wearing it and doing Sandhyavandanam.. to me it means knowing how to make seedai, experimenting with it, passing on what I learned and most importantly washing my hands before eating the seedai! 

Colgategate

You would think that after 58 trips to Asia, you have seen it all. Then you come across something new..

The hotel has the usual stuff on the bathroom sink. 

Except now the paste and brush are in a box labelled "Dental Kit". Okay, I think. Someone new in marketing trying to copy things from a fancy hotel to a local China hotel. 

Then I open the box and in there is a paste that I don't give a second thought to. The usual is a Colgate paste and a simple toothbrush. This one with a white cap instead of the usual red but for some reason it doesn't raise a flag.

There is always a small Aluminum foil seal that you have to open before accessing the toothpaste. Still groggy and jet lagged (it is 3:30 AM and I want to brush my teeth before eating San's Ziplock packed Idlis), I pull out the Aluminum foil and then press the tube, but nothing comes out!

Turns out the entire mouth of the tube is sealed in plastic, kind of like the shaving kit in other hotels. So I try to poke the plastic out by pressing the tube into the other side of the red plastic cap which has a sharp point and in the process, the cap cuts my finger!

I was swearing about the degrading quality of Colgate and how monopolies create bad quality eventually etc. etc. in my head and look at the paste.. and realized it is a local Chinese toothpaste. It did say on the tube to use the pokey end to open. But it was not easy to open. The same thing with the brushes.. The Colgates are being replaced by local no name brands. 

Another hotel now just has "toothpaste".. that looks like Colgate (same colors, similar packaging) but it is just that we dont have anything more on the tube. God knows what is in it!

In past trips, I have brought back the brushes and used them for two weeks and throw them before going out on next trip. One thing about international travel every three weeks is that I am finally following my dentists advice on getting new toothbrushes on a regular basis!  which brings us to..

yes.. combs as well. I get a new comb every three weeks. It is something of a joke as on the recent trip, this was found in the hotel room in Italy just when I was doing a final check before checking out..

Have started looking at the paste to see what it is that I am putting into my mouth first thing in the morning and have been surprised.. 

These are all clever disguising strategies but if you cannot open the thing easily, it is not a good product, marketing and copying of the red and blue colors not withstanding.

It is time to check the bags and take my own toothpaste or take my own travel paste going forward! 

Breathtaking country - Switzerland

On day 5 of the Europe trip, we were in Switzerland. It was the beginning of three hectic and interesting days. We flew in from Venice to Zurich on day 4. 

The previous post in the series is here...

We had an interesting time at the Venice airport. One of the downsides to having status on United and Star alliance is that they allow only yourself and one guest to go into the Lounge. I told the family that it did not feel right for me to take one of them in and have the other two sit outside and I would rather have all of us sit outside together. The rest of the family unianiously called me an idiot and said if they were in my shoes, they would go with whoever was most eager to come. Wish they would have a system where they could take more of the miles or money and let two extra people in. Given my food allergies and the fact that I dont even drink Coffee or Soda, that whole lounge thing is wasted on me. The little one did come in with me for a few trips and got some dessert cakes "to go" for her mom and sister.  Then we mostly spent time in the regular gate area and wandering around the shops till we realized that the France Argentina game was on. There were huge shouts and cheers and the entire airport sounded like a football stadium. 

We watched the game almost to completion before it was time to board. It was a small "rinky dinky" flight to Zurich and the gate agent forced us to check in our bags. We were greeted in the flight with some soccer ball swiss chocolates ..

and a wonderful view of the Alps though the clouds. We watched the sun set over Zurich as we landed (see timelapse in the video.. one of the most memorable landings we have seen recently) and waited for almost 90 minutes to get our baggage! There were 11 flights listed on one baggage carousel. We almost gave up and were in tears because that was pretty much all our bags. Finally the bags came and we got an Uber to our Air B&B close to the airport. 

The kids and San ate some sandwiches purchased on the flight. I made MTR instant Upma after reaching the place. The next morning we took our luggage (yes, we were literally in a different place every night) and went to the Zurich bus station. We had an all day tour 8AM to 7PM which covered Zurich (on the bus), Lucerne in the morning to noon, a lunch break at Lucerne and onwards towards Mt. Titlis..

 Zurich / bus train station area was interesting in itself. People seemed to move at a leisurely pace and were generally happy. Have never seen that many smiling faces on a work day morning in any city. It is not just the cows in Swiss that are happy.. even the people seem to be all chirpy and cheerful! 

We went on to Lucerne to see the giant Lion carved on a mountainside. It was almost lunch. We saw an Indian restaurant in Lucerne and were yearning for some Chai and Samosa. Then the bus loaded and stopped after 5 minutes in front of a shopping area for watches, on the other side of the river (apparently they were tour partners, this watch place) and the guide said "you have 50 minutes to eat lunch and come back. the bus will leave promptly". I was pissed. If she had told us this we would have just stayed at the Lion parking place, ate a nice lunch and walked to the bus. It was a 15 minute walk to the Indian place from where they parked by crossing the bridge. In any case, we walked around (I missed a turn and lost another 5 minutes) and we ended up at Kanchi.. 

while in the middle of this walk/run we still managed pictures and videos.. 

Lucerne is breathtaking. Vibrant colors (it had just rained on our entire way to Lucerne) and fresh air! 

Here are two panos from one of the two bridges we crossed..

We had 20 minutes to eat and 10 minutes to run back. The kids were not happy with the plan. We begged the guy to bring us a minimum set of dishes and he obliged. We gulped it down in 8 minutes (the fastest this family has ever had a meal) and raced out. 

Then the mother of all mixups happened. The little one had declared her intent to go to the restroom before the run back to the bus, but given the time had decided to come out following me and Jr.  San stayed back to pay the bill and decided to wait for the non existant little one outside the restoom. We are in the street.. she is waiting and the clock ticks. Finally after some tense looks without any words being spoken we all ran towards the bus only to find that another family was trying to buy Pizza at a store last minute and were trying to finish the pizza before boarding the bus. There was no food allowed on the bus. So we watched them eat pizza for a good 5 minutes while catching our breath.

During the run, I started sweating Bikram Yoga style and was completely drenched. The wife and kids said "they will kick you out of the bus" so we asked the guide and driver to open the luggage compartment and I changed in front of the entire bus with some curious onlookers giving me the "who sweats in Switzerland?" look. 

Slideshows of pictures from Zurich and Lucerne.

and a video that hightlights the first half of day 5..

We were then off to the next stop..

It has not been easy catching up on memories to write these posts. Have already spent a week in Asia. Came back and had a great day only for my luck to change. Got sick last night with an allergy attack that has left me gasping for breath. Yet to identify the root cause.. hopefully I will recover in a day or two and get back on track.