Duet of One

As is my everyday ritual during lunch time, I logged on to the Times Of India Web Portal to read the eNewsPaper of the Mumbai edition when I spotted the breaking news. I got home early as the office closed for the Thanksgiving weekend at around 3:00 pm. Since then my home resembles a "Situation room"! The TV is tuned to BBC which provides a live link to a Indian TV channel- the subtitles are in Marathi! Three laptops are pulling live video feeds from different Indian News Channel. The phone is ringing all the time as friends call to share their anguish. I was at the Maha Ganapathi temple in Flushing NY today morning where I joined in a prayer meeting. The Mayor of NY, Michael Bloomberg attended and camera crews from TV stations were interviewing members from the audience for their comments on the Mumbai situation. priests from the temple recited mantras for peace and well being of all. One of the mantras : Peace Invocation Om taccham yoravrini mahe ghatun yajnaya...

This is the title of a local TV program. And I chanced upon it during a surfing expedition with the TV remote.. I discovered that Real and Chance (R&C) are the names of two African - American brothers. They seem to be Rap Artists and sport a variety of headgears and chains round their neck. Real is stocky and mean looking. Chance has a lean look and reminds me a lot of my erstwhile driver Mahesh in Mumbai. Some 15 girls, of different shapes and sizes are vying for the attention of the two brothers. They dress sparingly and are seen smooching and cuddling them all the time. The girls are split between the two brothers and during each episode, the brothers are shown cavorting with the babes in bath-tubs or dining at swanky restaurants .and exchanging notes with each other on which one is hot and which one is not. The girls are shown at loggerheads with each other and freely exchange expletives. So their verbal interactions are censored with the usual beep-beep. R&C are wealthy fe...

On Friday, November 14, 2008, I joined my colleagues to work at the Morristown Soup Kitchen . This Kitchen is located on South Street in Morristown , adjacent to the Church of the Redeemer . The Community Soup Kitchen is more than a place to eat for the poor and needy. An Outreach Center provides services such as a social worker’s services, Mental Health Professionals, Substance abuse counselor, nurse, job counselor and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes Betty Caldwell who supervises the “operations” has everything under control. Gifted with a booming voice, she has a “commanding” presence. She know the guests, she knows where the milk is, she know where the Styrofoam cups are stocked. Our team helped make the salad, cut pastries, cook the pasta and lay the table in preparation for the “guests” who would arrive in the afternoon.. Soup was provided by Madison Hotel and we did a quick “milk run” to fetch it. At around 12:00 noon the doors opened and the poor and the homeless “g...