On a personal note..

Today, I read an article in BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6402859.stm) about job cuts in airbus. Suddenly, I started to wonder about India. It is just a matter of time, when something similar happens in India. How would the foreign companies such as Ford, Toyota, and Honda etc react when economical prosperity of India slows down? How would our country's Left and Congress react if companies start down sizing? I remember how Standard Motors was killed in Madras. That was a blood bath. Time will tell.....

My life has gone full circle. I never wondered that, one day I would sit in an alien country and contemplate whether I should return to India or not. Suddenly India seems to be the destination. Last week, one of my friends sent me a link to a blogger, he was bashing about all the people who are associated with a NRI. He wrote about how the NRI always complain, and how life was like hell in an alien country, how drinking tea next to a soiled street is the best thing etc. For me he is either a guy who never got is Green Card and things in US didn’t work out the way he expected or even worse, he might be a misguided “congressman” who is lost in Gandhian principles. Self sacrifice is a misunderstood empathy. For example, I have never been to Mumbai, but I have an aversion for the city. I understand that I shouldn’t judge something or someone, if I have never experience it or them. Likewise, people talk about self sacrifice, without even experiencing the other side. Our people for the most

9 Years of marriage, never watched my marriage video. Yesterday, that ended. I was quite surprised by the video. Probably, I was the only one who did not belong in there. At 24, I had no clue. I was showing off, I was trying not to talk to my wife (I was told that you should stamp your authority right at the beginning, I wonder where that went?), advising my friends and brothers what to do, talking on par with my uncles, I was sincerely trying to belong to the married man’s club. I looked like an idiot, but what’s surprising was that, my wife was at ease. We both are of same age, but how come she was more matured in the video? Is it me or does everyone thinks that you always want to be at the next stage of your life. I remember growing up; all I wanted to be was to be Doctor, went to CEG and became an engineer. Right from the first year, I was thinking about the first job and first pay. From the very first day at work, I was thinking about marriage and my retirement!!!! Marriage follow

A Conversation between my wife and I I:I think we should get a Digital Camera! Wife:OK I:I like the Nokon D80 Wife:How much is it? I:Around 1000 dollars! Wife:You know for sure that you are not going to spend that much money! Why are you even looking at it? I:Well I think its a good buy! Last week, I went and bought the Nikon D50 for 500 dollars. Neither the low end "point and shoot" camera nor the high end D80. Something in the middle. This is what my father went through in India, and now I am following his foot steps in an alien country. "Right in the Middle"....

Gandhi – the name has become a synonym for something good isn’t it? Sometime I wonder whether a person with a name as “Manickavinayagam Muthumanicam” stands a chance to attract such a multitude of people as Gandhi. I doubt it. There are conflicting reports on how Nehru’s family attached Gandhi to their surname. It is hard to image, Indira Khan would be as successful as Indira Gandhi. Whoever or however the name change was done, it was one by a political genius. Recently, I read a book “Wounded Civilization” by Mr. Naipaul. It has everything in it to believe that it is written by an Indian. Back in the days, when I listen to my grandfather, each sentence will have many hidden meaning. How I break it was literally up to me. For some reason, when I read this book I was thinking about him. Growing up in the 80’s, when the economical prosperity which people see now in India was not there, everyone in India was a communist. Rob the rich give it to the poor. (I have nothing against communism,