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! 

The big weekend

Mid June brings us two events within a few days or sometimes on the same day.. Our Wedding Anniversary and Father's day.

This year we had a anniversary lunch instead of dinner as the little one had a party to go to. Their calendars are sometimes busier than ours. We skipped the trip to Ghirardeli's for ice cream this year. 

Apparently there is a plan for a suprise 25th anniversary party from the kids.. IF we last that long together (overheard that in a conversation between the kids)

I get to go do Yoga for Father's day. They let me have what I need. So far so good..

It is amazing that this girl managed to live with me for 19 years. I am not easy to live with..even I have a tough time living with myself. So definitely deserves all the credit for what we have going..

Message to my kids. Don't bet against your mother, ever! If she says we will make it to our 25th anniversary, we WILL! 

This year, there was some gardening work on Father's day. Many a tree, shrub has been planted in this house "in the name of the father" and few survived.. the pomogranate tree that gave our front yard its beauty died after we did the room extension that came too close to it. Cleared it out and planted something else in its place in hopes that this will be the new star of the front yard. Counting on Yamagami nursery plants being better than Home Depot ones! 

Happy father's day to all the dads and kids who celebrate father's day! We are now past the age where the kids bring trinkets as gifts. They don't even try to be nice to me on father's day.  Maybe this new trend will change again after a few years.

Apparently there is a facebook forward that shows a kid's message to his mom saying "Happy mothers day. Your mothers day would not be possible without me. I am in the front room waiting for a gift" or some such thing. My kids tried to point that out to me.. My response "I will celebrate fathers day to thank my dad and I am not even expecting anything from him!".

They do still love my "sambar flavor" Maggi and for that I am eternally grateful..

Unintended consequences

As a person working very hard to bring a new better memory to market.. lower power, higher density at lower cost etc. just to name a few attributes, I delude myself into thinking that this memory will make the world a better place. 

You can go directly alter bytes in this memory so there is not a lot of copying back and forth happening.. People will save power and if you take every pico joule saved and multiply it by a jillion copies, those things add up to Giga Watts in no time.  Used to think that all those twitter retweets and facebook shares are melting icebergs that this memory is going to change.

Then again, Enrico Fermi or Einstein did not think Hiroshima when they did the work on nuclear fission. Hiroshima happened anyways.

Why bring all this up?

A little more than a month ago saw this mami (aunty) on the flight from India to US. She was looking for a charger desperately.. think "Eastwood as Blondie crawling on the desert floor looking for a drop of water" desperate! Finally she found one.. 

Turns out you can download old Tamil serial episodes on an iPad and binge watch them at airports. Not sure what service they use or if Netflix now has megaserials like Chitti and all 1890 episodes of Metti oli! (not kidding.. that serial actually had 1890 episodes and my wife and MIL probably watched every episode). 

There was a time when Jr. would not eat her dinner unless she heard the title song of Metti oli. It was so pavlovian that I actually recorded that song on a VHS tape and took it to Australia with us when she was 20 months old. We had to play it there to be able to feed her! (these were pre-Youtube days.. now you can enjoy it by clicking this link... I am sure when Jr. watches this after almost 13-14 years, she will turn into the Winter Soldier)

To think that all my hard work bringing in a new memory for the people is going to enable replays of Delhi Kumar walking down the street to his house, while pausing a few times to try and remember what he forgot for a full 30 minute episode is heartbreaking to say the least. 

Delhi Kumar alone is responsible for a few glaciers disappearing, leave alone those poor polar bears desperately trying to find that next floating piece of ice to survive. 

By that token Radhika Sarathkumar has single handedly raised ocean levels by a centimeter over just a decade!

Apparently there is an age you cross, when these Tamil mega serials (Soap operas) start appealing to you, per mom, MIL, and dad. My FIL seems to have skipped this age. 

Hoping that someone euthanises me if I succumb to watching Tamil serials.. at any age!