Duet of One

How does one encapsulate what it means to be an Indian in less than 30 seconds? This " Trueroots " advertisement which airs on the Indian TV channels here in NJ is so refreshing and heart warming... here is the youtube link: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=a2lPniSsFxs Enjoy!

The world is debating if it is appropriate to throw a financial life-belt to the beleaguered institutions that are drowning . In the final analysis , it is the government' s job to save the lives of drowning citizens first- be they rich or poor. There will be time later to find the culprits and pass a new SOX -2 legislation. But now, America needs to rescue itself. The economies of the world are also at grave risk.

A friend , who babysits for his granddaughter , a three year old, tells me this incident of last week. She asked if the stars in the sky were made by God. He confirmed her understanding. Did God also make everything else? Yes, he said. After pondering for a few moments, she asked, "Why did God make the mosquitoes ?" I told my friend that this is the sort of question we ask our Guru in India!

This was an eye-opener. The big malls end up with a lot of food stuff , toys, cosmetics, personal care stuff that are slightly shop soiled, primary /secondary packaging damages.. They send it to the Food bank for distribution to the poor and needy- free. NJ has a sizable number of these banks who collect them and forward them to outlets for the poor. A week ago , I went along with my colleagues to do a day's work at the Food bank. We sorted out the huge quantities of supplies , put them in cartons and placed them on pallets . We should be able to start something like this in Mumbai ... Back breaking work but very satisfying. Here is the link: http://www.njfoodbank.org/Programs/distribution.htm

I thought I had left the Cauliflower Manchurian and veg fried rice and the rest of the "Indian Chinese " food back in Mumbai . So , when the family wanted to revive their taste buds , we decided to check out the rumour that Edison, NJ was the place to go for anything Indian and so we headed to the Oak Tree road and had some Indian Chinese at the Ming. Good stuff , a tad pricey!

The Times Of India "Speaking Tree" column of today mentions his name. He is a Buddhist philosopher and photographer with quite a few books to his credit. I discovered a web portal where you can find his beautiful thoughts... http://www.ikedaquotes.org/index.html Take a look.

Years ago the General passed through the Pluckemin town in 1777, where I live. They say he rested with his army under a tree and they even have a stone commemorating that event Legend has it that there used to be Inn and the owner would create a hole in the ground and the horse carriages would get stuck there- this was his creatve way of getting customers and he plucked 'em in from the streets-hence the name...