Women, Where Art Thou?

I was talking to a friend of mine recently and he mentioned that he postponed his visit to India. The reason being he want to go when someone in his family gets married so he can have a fun time. Nothing wrong with that but the fact that all the eligible people being guys. Apparently it has become difficult to find suitable girls for these guys. It looks like he has to wait a long time.

Gone are the days when a guy has to say yes and then there would be a lot of calls from girl's families to arrange a match. Not any more. Everyone I speak of late, know more and more guys who are in the match making queue with a long wait ahead of them.

I personally know atleast 4 guys who are raring to go and get married. Alas! the girl is not to be found. The same story is repeated from my wife's side family as well. Their's is a huge family and astonishingly they do not have a single suitable girl. But guys there are a gazillion galore.

Where must have the girls gone? If you look at statistics, there are 927 ladies for every 1000 guys and that explains it (The serious consequences are a different discussion). The stat is alarmingly low in infants where it is 880 for 1000. The stats are even more glaring when compared them with other countries where women are 1045 for every 1000 men which is understandable as women are known to live longer.

So It looks that 7 in 100 guys have to remain unmarried unless it becomes acceptable socially and legally for a girl to have multiple spouses. Divine intervention is needed to change this imbalance. And sure enough God has heard my pray. My friends who had kids recently were all girls. Long live the girl child.

For a more serious perpective please view the links below
Sex ratio: the hidden horrors
An Overview India's Population
The Hindu : Men without women

Hey Kiddo

I recently visited my Dentist for a dental clean. I wish I did not make that visit. The doctor visits me and says 'Hey Kiddo Sit down here'. At first, I thought I did not hear well. She must have said something in her accent that I could not understand or did not know.

People have said to me that I look younger than I am. I have frequently been asked what school am I going to or Do I go to school. I would be flattered sometimes and disgusted sometimes depending on who asks it and how, but mostly it was the former. Who does not want to feel young? Not me for one.

All that self flattery vanished when my dentist called me again 'Turn your head this side KIDDO'. This time I could not have missed it. At first I thought she was playing. But her demeanor did not suggest so from what I can say as good a judge of demeanor I am. I have always wanted to say something funny with my doctor like Nag says to the Doctor on his hospital bed 'Will you marry me' in the movie ‘Geethanjali’. That movie and that dialogue have left a lasting impression on me when in teens. I definitely cannot say that now. She thinks I am a kid. Has she gone blind or something? Did she not notice my receding hairline? (On any other circumstance I would highly prefer anyone not noticing it).

I came out of her office in pain both mentally and physically. Physically because of the numbness from injecting the anesthesia in my cheeks that they did with 4 injections. And mentally because the world thinks that I am a kid. I began thinking nobody takes me seriously at home or at work. I believe that is why no suggestions of mine were considered in our team meetings despite their genuine greatness.

Had I looked older, I am lead to believe, everything else would fall in place. Oh my GOD! What am I to do, March Madness and NBA playoff are here and I need to concentrate on the scores. The leaking dish washer, that my wife asks me to look at, can wait and so can the smelling trash can. I digress into other domestic stuff. So I revert back to the original rant.

I wish to be in my Dad's shoes. He was on the other side of the window that I am in now for as long as I think of. He had premature hair graying. He was called uncle by people elder to him. He has finally reached a stage where he looks his age.
But his younger years were filled with such instances daily where people mistook him for 20-30 years older than he really is. He would always take it laughingly and would say what does it matter, everybody has to become old once, I only look old now and will be old soon enough. It was fine by him, but not to me. I even took up his cause against a 40 year old Marwadi airhead who called my 38 year old Dad 'Dadaji'.

After all that, when the world thinks I am young (in fact a kid), I wish I was in his shoes. So that night, I told my wife the story as to what happened. She said 'Don't worry. How does it matter what the world thinks. You cannot stop them. All that matters is what you perceive of yourself' and I began to feel better. I makes sense right. But wait a minute, did she say that because that she considers me a am kid too. NOOOOOOOOOO...

Dubious Driving Distinction

I drive a lot. For work, for pleasure and therby contributing my 2 cents to green house gases. Of course that was pun intended. I carry a lot of maps in my car, infact I am kind of obsessed with maps to being on the brink of OCD. I rather not have a GPS on my car, if I do I keep fiddling with it until a get shout from co passenger who is scared hell out of their life at my erratic driving and obsession to find different and shorter route to reach the destination, rather than on the road ahead of me.

This obsession with maps has origins in Morgantown, where I began my first driving on interstates. We (my friends and I) would go to Pittsburgh several times and I would get lost most of the times either to the airport or to the temple or to both. This one time I made my friend miss her flight who was on her way to her first job interview. And this was in 2001 when the country was in middle of a huge recession and job interviews were very though to find. There begins my story.

On my first long distance drive, from NJ back to Morgantown, I almost killed everyone. Every time I have a truck pass me, I would take up the shoulder. Damn the nasty sound that the shoulder edge makes waking up all the other sleeping passengers. On the last segment of the trip I exchanged the wheel with another guy who got himself a traffic violation ticket in Morgantown.

On my next long distance drive, Srikanth and I decided to take an alternative route to Detroit. A more scenic and country route would reduce the distance and make our drive more enjoyable. Or so Srikanth convinced me. This long drive gave me distinction of being the only person on Earth to recieve 2 speeding violations in a span of less than an hour. What was I thinking? I was thinking like in India if you show your violation for the day there will be no more violations. BOY was I wrong. The rest of the drive, Srikanth took over. Was he glad to take over the wheel!! On our way back he took us to ghetto Detroit downtown region without his headlights on and soon we were followed by cops. That is a different story.

After my move from Morgantown to Pittsburgh, it was time for my friend/colleagues to bear the brunt of my driving. We would car pool to movies or evening get togethers. I would occasionally violate red lights. To their shock, I was nonchalant and would float a famous quote of mine. "Jaha Vamsi Alla jata hai, Right of way usi ka hota hai". That quote was quite popular among us then. I proved myself right by being lucky enough to get no tickets or being in an accident. Phew!!!

The next two years after my move from Pittsburgh to Dallas, I drove occasionally, mostly rental cars they were. Moving to Philadelphia required no long commute as I was about a mile away from work and lived in downtown. I have mellowed down since then. Driving in philadelphia can mellow even the insanest of drivers. You have only two options while driving in Philadelphia, drive carefully and live or Die. It's like Sean P. Diddy slogan for 2004 elections - "Vote or Die" as if there is no third option like not vote(like me, I havae never voted to date) and still live. But truly driving carefully in Philadelphia is the only viable option.

But my obsession with maps continues. I take several printouts from, Google maps, MapQuest, Yahoo Maps, USA Atlas and a book of Pennsylvania Maps in my Acura which is loaded with GPS. I don’t know why I do it but I do it. The only reason I can think of is I want to be certain where I am going so I can reach there without missing. The trauma of a missed airport still haunts me.

Valentine Laments

It is that time of the year, I dread. It is the fast approaching Valentines day that has me in utmost confusion and guilt. Confused for what to get and guilt because of missing it last time as well.

I have never been good with gifts and my poor wife can vouch for it. Why do I lament now? I was told that a Husband should give gifts to a wife on Valentine's Day, Marriage Anniversary and the Birthday. The last 2 I can understand but Valentine's is kind of imposing on you. Highly western and Valentine was a bachelor saint.

So in 2 years of my marriage and 5 gifts, I am out of ideas. 2 times 3 is 5 isn't it. To make the matters more interesting, JARED is on TV all the time. For whatever reason every girl skating or dining is saying that their Husband/Boyfriend has been to Jared. This Jared guy is the diamond guy. I do not see any guy at a golf course or a baseball game, pull out a iPhone and say 'She went to Best Buy'.

Forget about Best Buy, there is nothing on TV that shows a girl going to even Wal-Mart for her husband on a Valentine's Day or any other day. For a game console, the Chinese guy knocks at the door and says we(WII) like to play. I do not want a short Chinese guy at my door wanting to play with me.

Even on a Fathers day, a guy is shown buying a phone to every member of this family member a phone so he gets a 5th phone for free for himself and consoles himself he is the Numero Uno. Of course no one else is ready to proclaim him such anyway.

And then there are songs like 'What a Girl Wants' and 'Diamonds are girls true friends' No such song for the guys. As they said life is never fair for the non fair sex. It is unfair.

I have to get back to my online search in search of a suitable gift. Do I sound like an Indian father trying to find a suitable bride to his daughter. Exactly.

Where does the money of buying gas go?

The following are the component & costs associated with getting gasoline to the pump.
Crude oil: This is cost of the crude obtained by drilling which is later refined.
Refining: The process of turning crude oil into a product that is ready for consumer use is called refining. This is done in refineries.
Distribution and marketing: This is the cost of bringing Gasoline from refineries to gas stations (often via intermediary distribution points), and the costs of operating the stations.
Taxes: Taxes paid to the Federal and State Taxes.

	2004	2005	2007
Crude Oil	47%	53%	58%
Refining	18%	19%	8%
Distribution & Marketing	12%	9%	11%
Taxes	23%	19%	13%

The source is from http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp.

Recylced Rasam and Spicy Burritos

Some of memorable days have been my days at WVU. Every time I think about those days, they bring an involuntary smile over my face especially certain events. Here are some of the events that I experienced first hand and some heard on hearsay.

Recycled Rasam - If you are from South India, you must know what rasam means. It is a common practice among student roommates to share the chores especially cooking. So there was this guy who would recycle the rasam. How is that possible? He would take the rasam made by his room mate the previous day, add some water, salt and rasam powder, reheat it and would say Rasam Ready.

Spicy Burritos - This is an anecdote from personal experience. This guy was from Bombay and had a Peurto Rican and a Brazilian friend. He would hang out with them quite often. So one day he comes and it was his turn to cook food. He asks if we would like to try a Mexican item named Burrito. To me it was exotic. Sounded good Why Not. So he makes spicy scrambled eggs, takes out a tortilla, spreads some Maggi TomChi sauce (which was staple on everything at our home those days) on the tortilla, rolls the tortilla stuffed with Scrambled eggs and say here you go. I think I did like it that one time. But he would make it every time it was his turn.

Fountain - This was my first day at school and I was waiting at the Chairmans office to report my arrival and talk about registering for classes. At the desk was a Student Assistant who was filling in for the secretary. This was the graduate student assistant with whom I took a class later on. After a short wait, I ask this dude where I can find drinking water with my thumb pointing to my mouth. After repeating what I needed, he says there is a fountain outside. To this I felt slighted, why does he want me to go out of the building and drink water from a fountain. I did not want to miss the Chair in search of a fountain as I could see one on my way in. After a short time, I repeat to which he says there is a fountain just outside. What I later found was that there was a water fountain just outside the office door. All this while I was imagining a dirty fountain in the park, that this graduate student was asking to find drinking water.

Cleaning with Tissues - This is from my brothers school at EMU. His roommate takes his bath, dries himself with tissues papers and clogs the flush. He somehow manages to clear the clog that day. It so happened that the clog went a little out and stayed causing the water to fill up and seep through the roof underneath. Imagine the stench for the guys staying below and from the backup. The landlord slaps him with a bill of $2.5 K. At least the clog is cleared.

Togo and For Here - This must be the perennial. Anyone used to Plate or Parcel can sympathize with this guy. This one guy goes to a BK and orders something for lunch. the lady at the counter TOGO or For Here. Having heard it for the first time, he cries neither. He blurbs out, I WANT HERE AND NOW FOR MYSELF TO EAT HERE.

Then there are these cliches like this newcomer sitting on the commode, cleaning in the shower tub etc. No details necessary there.

Happy Sankranthi

It is that time of the year which is the most auspicious for the Andhra Community. It's in essence a harvest festival when the farmers celebrate for the harvest abundance.

It is a four day festival that begins with Bhogi. On Bhogi a bonfire is the major activity of the day. As kids we were anxious to create the bon fire. We would gather woods, leaves whatever that was waste in and around the house from weeks ahead of time. I am not sure if this is still a custom among the youth in present urban India.

The second day is the most important day and is known as Sankranthi or Pongal. The delicious Pongali or Paramannam is made with rice from the harvest. Also a special only on Sankranthi vegetable dish named 'Kalagoora' is made at our home. This vegetable curry is made of pumpkin, beans, red potato and other vegetables that are available in the season. Uttarayana Punnyakalam period begins with Sankranthi and the next six months are considered highly auspicious.


The third day of the festival is Kanuma and is considered the main festival in our Alla Family. On this day my mom would make boorelu, areselu and pongadalu - all traditional uttrandhra sweet items. Also today all the family gathers. The daughters and the son-in-laws visit the family with their kids. It's a tradition to give the daughter and son-in-law monetary and jewellry gifts.

The fourth and final day is referred as Mukkanuma. This marks the end of the festivities. I am not sure of any other significance of this day. I am sure there is one but cannot recollect it now.

Wish you all a Happy Sankranthi and wish you the abundance that life has to offer.

New Year Resolution

It is not my normal practice to have New Year Resolutions and talk about them. To me they are just plain cheesy. But then, being a Libran, I am cheesy sometimes. So I decided to have a resolution. Not many just one. I am afraid I am not going to stick to them, and I said before have resolutions is just cheesy.

The resolution was to create a trilogy of blog that encompass the different facets of me. This is the first in the trilogy - something like The Matrix - the first in the matrix trilogy. This will be my personal blog where I scribble something about the happenings in my life.

As this was about New Year Resolutions, I will say a few things about how I spent my New Year. I was outside my car in the chilly weather watching the sky filled fireworks with tall buildings as the foreground. I had just dropped my parents and brother at the riverfront where the view would have been spectacular. But then since there was no good place to park, as it always is on an event like this, I had to drive back and wait in my car to go back to pick them up to my brothers place.

The fireworks were great, made a quick call to my better half who was at work on the stroke of midnight. The next was the great mummers parade. I watched it for about 4 hours and could not take the cold anymore.

The thought to have these blogs came to me on the weekend before the New Year while I was on a long drive to my home. I had all the content and layout planned, all during the drive. Now I am struggling to remember what the third blog would be for. The second one is my tech blog

kick-off

I have been thinking of a blog for quite a while now. I had this urge to write about things that I feel passionate about, about things I like, about where I come from and where I am. Of course I hope to write about things that I like and I do not like absolutely.

It must also be my wish to express out my ideas. Being a listener, I am mostly on the receiving end of a discussion and this is my way of putting forward my views without being interrupted.


Certain things that I am sure to write across would be

1. My family and probably their history. One day I want to write a book about my ancestors going back to three generations.

2. Football - the title of this blog "kick-off" comes from football meaning to officially start a game. This section will most likely be dedicated to the Mountaineers.

3. Basketball - Lakers and ofcourse Mountaineers.

4. My journey in life so far. I dont think I have achieved anything worth while but I want to write about it anyway. This is my blog right.

5. My observations of other people, cultures, practices etc.

This will be it for now. I have to see where I go from here. Atleast this is a beginning.