Happy New Year

Happy Diwali!

Imaginary Men - Anjali Banerjee a Review

I bought Imaginary Men for some light reading for my trip to Vegas. Oh now you are laughing at me and saying "Book to Vegas... haha." Whatever. So I bought this book for my trip to Vegas in case I did not want to go clubbing and wanted to stay in and read. I was looking for a light (read trashy) book. After some preliminary Amazon.com book searches, I came across this one. The synopsis read like a frothy romantic comedy so I figured let me give it a shot (after all I did enjoy the movie "The Wedding Date", oh stop judging!)

All I have to say for this book... UGH UGH.. who in their right minds is giving this book 5 stars.
In a nutshell, the book is about 30 something Indian American Lina Ray who makes up a fiance at her sister's Indian wedding to get an Indian Aunt off her back. She subconsciously (or not) models the fake man after this guy, Raja, she had run into at the wedding. What follows is the story, no... soap opera of her lies and the real Raja coming to her in San Francisco. Blah di blah di blah. I think everyone and their mother can guess what happens.

Now one would say, "hey what did you expect? War and Peace? The synopsis should have told you what to expect" Yeah Yeah, but what I am taking offense to is, the whole exoticization of INDIA. Its like the hot commodity that everyone is cashing in on. This story could have been set in San Francisco and have had nothing to do with India and it would not have pissed me off as it did. Its the new model for success for writing, take some soap operaesque story, set it in India, throw some saris, bindis and arranged marriage and voila you get people calling this borefest "Bridget Jones meets Monsoon Wedding"!! UGHHHH!!

Ebay

I love this cartoon! Reminds me of my friend and ebay addict Chanh :D

http://xkcd.com/325/

On a Whim

So I moved! It was worth it. I may not be here long, but this was one of those whim things that I did and boy I am glad I did.

I was in Utah a couple of weeks ago and when I landed back in San Francisco, it just felt like I had come back home. Home is an almost alien concept to me. I grew up pretty much like a nomad. Through the years of 0-18, I never lived in a place for more than 3 years. College was probably the only place I was at for 4 years. People ask me all the time "was it weird moving every 2-3 years?" I tell them, "Thats all I know, it would be weird staying at the same place for more than 3 years!"

Now that I know that I am leaving San Francisco/Bay Area, I feel sad. I feel like I found a place that was as close to home as I would get (or maybe I am just getting older and sentimental!). Every time I drive down 101, I look at the bay and think about how I wont be seeing it on a regular basis. I look out of the window and see the ocean and think the same thing. I look at friends and think about how it will be different. I am no stranger to moving, but this one seems the hardest one yet.

Ugh I am rambling...

Here is the view from my window...

The Facebook Skit

Funny Facebook Song by the U Penn a capella group (Penn Masala) - Courtesy my friend Szu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_Masala

Crazy?

I must be totally crazy... and here is why I think so.

I am going to transition to a new role at my present company and will be moving to Portland, Oregon around the end of the year. I have a good 6 months before I do that, and suddenly its dawning on me, how I will be leaving behind every friend I know in the US. All of them live in the bay area, barring one who lives in LA (but thats even farther away from Portland). In addition to that I am starting to feel that I don't know the city as well I would have liked to. I deliberately chose not to live in the city, but close to it, to get the city advantage with the parking benefits of suburbia. Now suddenly I am thinking "hmmm maybe I should move into the city for the 6 mos I have left". Is that kinda stupid or what. Moving twice in 6 months? But its making sense to me in my mind. I am going to live in the city in Portland, maybe I can start here. Need to have a chat with my roommates.....

The whole big deal over Gere-Shetty kiss is pissing me off

By now people on either side of the Pacific, Atlantic and maybe even those astronauts running the Boston Marathon in space have heard about the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and the subsequent arrest warrant against Richard Gere for kissing Shilpa Shetty. But, if you have been living under a rock or in a cave, here it is...

I did not want to talk about this as I think its a non-issue which should never have been a big deal. But now the whole thing is pissing the hell out of me and I need to vent. I love India, sometimes I love our conservativeness too, occasionally it can be charming. But seriously, have all our problems been solved that we need to waste legal time and money on this shit? I am shocked that the courts even thought that the complaint was reasonable enough to actually go ahead and issue an arrest warrant.

We make movies like Murder super hits (for the non-Indians or the Indians living under a rock or in a cave, refer to video below - P.S. I am posting some of the milder stuff from Murder) and then frown upon a kiss on the cheek. Those truck drivers who saw the kiss live, did not give a rats ass, then why some lame ass out of work lawyer (I say out of work, because only a jobless ass has time to waste like this) went ahead and filed a complaint?

And all those Richard Gere effigy burning people, if you have so much spare time and don't need real jobs (like most people in India), there are better things you can do, like keep vigil on the streets, so no woman gets teased, molested or raped. Then you will be upholding the morals you so fervently believe in.

PS Other asinine PILs lodged in India
- Against cricketer Ravi Shashtri for eating beef
- Against Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan for kissing in Dhoom 2

I am sure there are other gems, but I only heard about the above two on NDTV :p

Whats in a name...??

This morning I was calling Citibank for some issue I needed to sort out. I have always had pretty decent customer service experience whenever I have called them. More often than not, I have been routed to a call center in India. I cannot say anything negative about the experience. The only thing I always wonder about is, why do they make the reps call themselves by names like Roger, Bill, Pam, Karen? I know that a name like Sashidhar or Vipasana might be hard for an American to grasp, but do they need to give names at all? If someone really wants to know the name of the rep, they can ask, and if they are asking, then they probably care enough to maybe know the real name. I just wonder, how it must feel to Srinivas to be John for 8-10 hours every night. I wonder if it makes him feel unlike himself.