Like I had mentioned before, I plan to share some of the essays on the blog. I hope you liked my previous one, for here is one more. *find all ENG 111 essays posted

I found this essay assignment particularly difficult. It was a division/categorization essay, and both the topic and page limit turned my brain into mush. I am happy that I managed to submit something on time, but I have to say, despite my struggle I had fun writing it and I hope you find this piece entertaining.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Drivers

The seven deadly sins are the cardinal vices that Christianity has used to educate its followers by warning them of their immoral nature and eventual damnation that may occur because of them. It could be an interesting way to view drivers on the road by categorizing them using the sins as a behavioral model.

Sloth: Many drivers spend a lot of time in their vehicle and even sleep in them, but are too lazy to take care of them. Basic things like getting the oil changed or making sure there is enough air in the tires gets ignored until it is too late. When the car finally breaks down or they have a flat tire, they wonder how it could have happened. Some of their windshields are ridden with so much bird excrement; it’s a miracle that they even made it out of their driveway without hitting someone or something.

Greed: Drivers want the latest, fastest model with the highest horse power, the most luxurious interiors, and fully loaded with every possible electronic gadget. They don’t care if they can afford it or not, they still want it, and pour every penny to get it. They will go hungry or skip on the electricity bill or water or phone bill; they will stretch themselves as thin as they can financially to have the ride they desire.

Anger:  The sheer number of angry drivers on the road is astounding. If someone is driving faster than them they get angry, as they think it makes them look slow. If someone is driving slowly they get angry, for its slowing them down. They ride so close to the bumper of the car ahead of them, you may think they are going to crash. They shift lanes without indicating and get angry at those who honk at them. They get angry when others shift lanes and get in front of them, for it now spoils their view. It does not matter whether others are driving properly or not, for they are wrong no matter what.

Lust: To many male drivers their car is a symbol of their manhood. They believe that a ride that speaks in millions will definitely get the attention, respect and ample love, especially from the opposite sex. Many male drivers even see their cars as women, viewing every curve on it as a seductive and sensual object, desired to be touched; the roaring of the engine to an orgasm. Let us not forget the women drivers who derive pleasure riding big, fast cars, grabbing the gear stick with firmness and ferociousness as they try and tame the roaring, smoke spewing beast.

Gluttony: These are drivers who are constantly stuffing their faces with food. It does not matter if it is a red light or they are on the highway driving at 100mph. They have to keep their mouths working for they can’t help themselves, but eat.

Envy: Drivers are constantly checking out other cars on the road. The second they spot a car that they wished they were the ones driving, envious emotions begin to ooze out of every pore of their skins, melting their faces and trickling down to meet the pool of torrential drool pouring out of their mouths.

Pride: Some drivers are so full of it that they think they own the road, and everybody should allow them to pass whenever, wherever, and however. They are kings and queens, and it does not matter what kind of vehicle they are driving. Everyone is expected to cheer, clap, take pictures, and let them ride on, after all they are royalty.

A single driver may exhibit all these sins and only keeping such impulses in check or moderation may lessen the unhappiness that might hound these drivers and those driving around them

In the coming weeks, I plan to share a couple of the essays I wrote on the blog. I hope you enjoy this one. *find all ENG 111 essays posted

My Journey: Faith and personal realization

I woke up at 5:00 AM every morning and proceeded to the puja (prayer) room after having a bath. In the puja room, I sat cross-legged in front of statues and framed pictures of deities, burnt incense, and performed arathi, (also spelled aarti, is a light from burning wicks soaked in ghee (purified butter) or camphor, and is offered to the deities) and chanted mantras invoking blessings from the various gods. The next step was to read verses from the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture). This usually lasted until 6:00 AM, which was around sunrise.

The morning rituals were all that my parents asked that I do before tackling any other activity for the day. My parents were Brahmins (learned caste) belonging to the Hindu religion and as modern as they tried to be, they held close to their hearts the remnants, and altered simpler versions of the many traditional rituals that were still performed by orthodox Brahmins.

I lived in Bengaluru city (India), in a community densely populated by Brahmin families. Attending a catholic school was my first exposure to another faith. The morning assemblies at the school began with singing out verses from the bible. It did not matter what faith the students who attended the school were from, we all sang together.

One of my friends at school was a Muslim boy, and interacting with him and his family exposed me to the ritualistic nuances of yet another faith. I found out that his family prayed five times a day and the women in his house covered their heads with hijab, and covered their faces with a veil, especially in front of men who were not their husbands.

Pursuing further education, work and travel gave me opportunity to meet and interact with people from various other faiths. There were many differences in what each faith preached, which I call the ‘fine print,’ I also found many similarities, especially when viewed in a broader sense. The more I got exposed the less I paid attention to the fine print. The commonality of the various faiths stood out and stared at me; my own beliefs started to change and evolve.

I felt believing in a higher power was just another way of asking for humility. All the things that were beyond my control as an individual could be attributed either to chance or to a higher power. Both would work, as there lacked a clear logical and provable explanation that could be universally accepted. It occurred to me that there could be as many explanations as there were people, each with its own set of fine prints that held its believers to either a moral standard or a way of living.

I realized that I was free in my mind to believe in whatever I wanted. I could either choose from the various faiths and explanations out there, including my parent’s or come up with my own version taking from personal observations, experience, rational thought, logic, magical thinking, or specific aspects of other faith.  It was an exciting and terrifying thought—  I was free to hold anything sacred.

I step out with my little daughter and surprise surprise, its snowing. Itty bitty wonderous snow flakes riding the air… so beautiful. The look of wonder on my daughter’s face as she stared up at the sky is a sight I will never forget. Her eyes lit up like a star with every snow flake that streamed onto her chubby little cheeks.

Heart melting moments like these especially when I am not expecting it, bring joy in ways that  I have no words to describe… I close my eyes, smile as I take a deep breath and savor it.

My wife is well aware that I am a little rough and careless when it comes to taking care of such items. She still went ahead and bought me a Kenneth Cole watch… go figure. She did ask me to promise her that I would take good care of it and I did.

The watch I previously had was a cheap Timex Sports Watch. I had made a promise to myself that I would wear it until it lasted which turned out to be many many years. I finally had the excuse to retire it when it ran out of battery.

 It has my immense gratitude and respect for its service. From being in water when I was canoeing at Honnemaradu to getting smashed into snow a gazillion times in the Himalayas during my brief time at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM). It took a lot of beating and kept ticking. Hey, I wore it so much that there were times when I forgot to take it off while having a bath.

When I visited my in-laws this Christmas I took along my Kenneth Cole watch as I knew there would be plenty of occasions for me to use it. Remembering the promise I made to my wife I packed the watch between folds of clothes in the suitcase. All went well during Christmas and the watch finally got some wearing time.

Upon my return home as I unpacked I completely forgot about the watch and it made the laundry in the folds of my pants. Couple of days pass and my wife gets tired of looking at my laundry pile up and decided to do me a favor and take care of it for me.

As you would have it the watch splish-sploshed away in the washing machine for 15 while min. Foaming lather and the swirling water… my my  quite an adventure. My wife notices the watch as she puts the clothes in the dryer. Thankfully I was not home to hear the screams or experience the murderous rage that would have immediately followed.

When I did get home, she had cooled down a bit but was still angry at me… the huge consolation was that the watch survived the washing machine and was still ticking. Not a drop of water had made it through the air tight seal and the washing machine was not able to even scratch the fella.

Woohoo!! My Kenneth Cole Watch rocks. It is truly a kick ass watch and has earned my respect .

To top it off they happen to be Indian and women with what appeared to be a 9-10 year old kid who decides to run up and down the sidewalk as soon as she gets out of the car.

I had to control myself  from getting in their face and spewing all forms of curses at them. Maybe getting towed and paying $100-$500 fine would teach them to be a little more sensible and aware.

PS: They went in to the same restaurant ‘Saravana Palace‘ we were going in for lunch.

Happy Happy Birthday my love. May you have an awesome year ahead.

images created using photofunia

Lucia is her given name but she is lovingly called by many other names like lulu, poopcheetah, luchi-poochi, chi-chi, etc.

My wife Jessica had this cat and another (her daughter, Sabina) for more than 6 years but had to leave them behind when she moved to India to stay with me. Sabina kinda lost it and required animal control to come and get her. She has recovered now and is doing well in foster care.

Lucia suffered abuse while very young and was rescued by the feline foundation. She got pregnant early and gave birth to Sabina. They were put up for adoption. Jessica adopted both of them. With lot of hard work, compassion and love, Jessica was able to get Lucia to trust people again.

I felt very bad that she had to leave them behind when she moved to India. She was very attached to them and they to her. She was heart broken .

One of Jessica’s friend, Deb took Lucia in and took care of her. Lucia, who was big to begin with got even bigger by eating not just her food but also some of the high calorie food meant for the other cat (kitten) that Deb had.

A two year hiatus and back in the US… we take Lucia back. Its been a month and a half now and she has accepted us completely and is comfortable in our home. Though she has never known me, she warmed up to me on day one itself.

She is not bothered by our curious daughter, Anju… ignoring her most of the time. She even lets Anju pet her.

Since I love animals especially cats, I am happy to have this fluffy pillow of a cat following me around trying to get my attention .

She is now on a strict diet, which I think is working as she has lost some weight already. Her favorite pastime is to sit by the sliding glass door and look at the birds.

Well! Its finally out. You can see it here. There are more pics of Anju if you follow the links and it appears that they are even going to put it on the packaging for the ‘Baby Kit‘ they are launching.

I don’t know if there are any billboards, posters or pamphlets that carry her pictures. I so want to be in India right now.

My wife who was on the porch noticed a pigeon that seemed to be stuck in the space between the curb and the sidewalk of the parking lot. I go down to check it out.

At first look it did seem like it was stuck in the grass in between the sidewalk and the curb. It was flapping its wings, head bobbing up and down into the soil… I could see one of its feet repeatedly kicking away. At one instance I saw it move forward a bit and realized it was not stuck but sick. I wasn’t sure if I should be touching it or not, for I did not know what it had. I decided not to and wait for Animal Control to show up.

My wife called Animal Control and I sat there keeping an eye on the bird. After a 20 min wait they showed up. The lady comes over and takes a look at the bird and informs me that its most likely poisoned. She had seen a lot like this before and told me that these birds died a slow and painful death. Apparently it happened more frequently with pigeons as the poison resembled corn and pigeons seemed to go for it a lot more.

I am like, WTF… who poisons a bird?? Come on now… there is a Botanical Preserve behind us, there are plenty of birds around and its wonderful to have them. They may be a pain when they rip your plants or poop everywhere or build nests in places that make you pause and say to yourself ‘Oh! No, not here’. But that does not mean you poison them so they die a slow and miserable death. THAT IS TORTURE!!

The pigeon was most likely put down.