Einstein’s quote of the week.

Imagination is everything. It is a preview of life’s coming attractions. – Albert Einstein.

Have you heard anything more powerful lately?

Disclaimer: Pls ignore if you’re a professional daydreamer!

Dare to be Happy

I saw this VW Bug billboard y’day: “Jaded is overrated. Dare to be Happy” and right alongside was this lovely red Bug top down, looking what else but, happy!

This line suits Seattle’s rainy days so well, where people are perpetually lost in their Ipods and coffee jugs, moodily smiling half smiles and then hiding behind their NY Times: the world’s most liberal paper right at home in the world’s most liberal city.

i also feel more young people these days want to convey the impression that everything is beneath them, that nothing’s too cool and hence poor things have no choice but to be jaded. baloney!!!

we’ve got to bring “joy” back into vogue. life’s much fun-ner when you’re having fun and enjoying the ride, instead of feeling all ho-hum about it.

The Matt Malley-Counting Crows Story

A friend from Austria sent me this short movie today about one of my favorite musicians. Matt has won a Grammy and has played Bass for this hugely popular Oscar winner Band. What I love about Matt is his humility, honesty and sweetness. He is incapable of saying anything that might hurt someone. He is one of the wisest people I know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-94JdvtTURI

Lincoln and Kennedy

A Swiss friend emailed me this today. I wonder what unseen connection these two people might’ve had… 

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird…

Lincoln ‘s secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy’s Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named ‘Ford.’
Kennedy was shot in a car called ‘ Lincoln’ made by ‘Ford.’

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here’s the kicker…

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Makeup for Ethnic Skin

This is another topic that a lot of women have shared their frustrations on with me. America is afterall the land of choice and I know a lot of them feel kinda lost navigating this field, coming all the way from India, leaving their Lakme, and God forbid “Fair and Lovelys” behind.

I know many many women are trying to find favorites between Estee Lauder, Dior and Revlon etc etc right now but feel too shy to ask makeup artists, and just get overwhelmed and give up.

So, for the PI, I’m doing a story to make their lives easier, help them look more professional and just in general, take away their hesitancy in playing with color. Afterall, it should be fun, not painful to do this!

So, I’m looking for an Indian model based in the Seattle area. I’ll need their pic to put in the paper. Pls leave your info here and I’ll contact you.  My deadline is this weekend.

I love Victoria and eating Alligators!

…Not the Queen, about who I may not know so well but Victoria, Canada. Went there last weekend for the first time and just loved it. It did me so good to just get away from it all, say adios to the computer and phone and just take off.

We gorged on fresh seafood so good, you’d be stuffed just sampling the appetizers! Our son had his first Alligator. It was funny, he doesn’t go for chicken much but he was all over the fried gator. We stayed at The Empress, loooved their food. You have got to eat dinner there at least once. Not at the Bengal lounge but the other dinner room. The food was inspired!

Oh, and didn’t do the famous tea, thought it was overrated.

Our cabbie who took us to Butchart Gardens turned out to be from North Africa, a part of the world close to my heart for several reasons. His story was sad. Back home, he had killed someone who had annexed his family’s property and had fled for Canada. But it also was refreshing to hear his ideas and find out things about the region that the media won’t talk about.

On a funny note, at the Wax museum I overheard 2 teenagers with their father, looking at the
“crowns” of the British monarchy wondering aloud if they were “for real”. C’mon people, wake up and smell the coffee! Teenage is no excuse for being plain dumb!

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs!

This is the title of a hilarious kids’ book I read my son tonight before he dozed off. The town of “Chewandswallow” has great weather which rolls around bfast, lunch and dinner. It rains food, people don’t have to cook for a day and they don’t even own refrigerators! My son thought it was the coolest thing to not have to cook and I agreed with him completely .

The funniest part was when he saw hotdogs raining from the sky, he had to stop and ask me, “Mommy, is that squid on the hotdog?”I’m used to hearing a lot of new words and thoughts from him but even I did a double take when I heard that. How imaginative! On another thought though, I think he’s on his way to being a gourmet. Sigh.

Virginia Tech

All day today at the NPR studios, I saw the same thing over and over again. Cops running guns drawn, hysterical students, and a devastated Anne Curry. I have no words to describe the horror I’m feeling at this ghastly evil act.

I have no sympathy for this gunman at all.  It is hurtful, and shocking to see young students get so disillusioned so soon with life that they not only kill themselves but other innocents too. What right did he have to kill other people? What might have bothered him so very much about this world?

I do hope that people in America start travelling more esp to the developing countries, just so they can see how easy their lives are compared to so many people around the world. I wish that they can learn to love others, replace the swagger of their wealth with undiluted love for humanity and most of all, I wish that they can start healing from this tragedy.

PI-Seattle Times. One indifferent, one Pro-India. Which do you read?

For NPR, KUOW 94.9 FM, today I covered a press conference given by Seattle Times President Frank Blethen to talk about the new JOA between his paper and the PI. The new JOA ensures that neither of papers is folding and for now, there is cheer at the PI and relief at the ST.

My story, aired today on All Things Considered, and Morning Edition tomorrow, talked about JOAs, and the dwindling circulation of newspapers all over. At the conference, Blethen kept saying how hard it was for newspapers to make $$ any more.  So, I asked him if in a move to generate revenue, his paper was planning to do more stories on the local, empowered Indian community? Was that on his radar?

His answer was that his paper’s coverage of education and diversity had suffered because of the distracting influence of litigation with the PI and while he wasn’t sure if he’d do stories on the Indian community, he planned to get back in the game sooner than later.

I wondered at that comment. I mean, the PI has been ravenous in its hunger for stories from the Indian community ever since I started writing for it! Not becoming relevant to our community for a paper like ST, is like watching a large, opportunity laden float go right past by and you do nothing to seize it! I’m sure I don’t need to re-iterate to them size of the Indian community’s weekly disposable income, among other things!

I’d like more of us to read the PI and show our appreciation for the concern and empathy the PI has shown towards us.

Blood Diamond

I saw this movie last night. It’d been on my list for some time now. National Geographic has covered this topic quite a bit and I’m sooo interested in it. But nothing prepared me for the sheer brutality portrayed in the film. It was devastating… Boys snatched from home, hooked on drugs, taught to kill, brainwashed… I mean, this is not a racially motivated situation in Africa since they’re all black, but a tribally motivated one. How sad! One tribe against another! I wonder if it is so, because people in Africa have lived through one crisis after another in the last 100 years at the very least, that they’ve gotten used to brutality, chaos, confusion… But I’d also think that people would change in order to not go through the pain again…

What just totally broke my heart was that fact that ignorance about this hellish trade is killing people on that continent. We expect a diamond ring as a part of the engagement-marriage ritual but would anyone ever wear it if they knew someone else died for it? Doesn’t your karmic history join with this killing in some way?
Since there is no 100% proof of whether your diamond is blood free or not, I think its a good idea to stop wearing diamonds in protest.