Overhead in California

Me sitting on the Caltrain to San Francisco. Behind me, 4 ladies: 2 old and 2 young.

Vaguely remembered snippets

Oldlady1: So what do you think of Obama's first few days.
Younglady1: I think he has been inspirational. He makes me want to face up to the challenges in my life.....
Oldlady2: You go girl..
Younglady1: .... yeah, I think he should close each speech with an inspirational section ... like that MTV (goes on about some MTV show) ... Or maybe each morning he should give an inspirational speech to the nation... like at 8:30 ... I know I'd watch it everyday.
Oldlady2 (to Oldlady1): What about you ...
Oldlady1 : I think he's been good for my weight loss.
All the other ladies : Reaalllyyy ??
Oldlady1 : Yeah, I just feel so inspired by him. I see him facing these great challenges of the nation with such confidence, and I think ... if he can face these big problems .. then I too can face the smaller issues in my life ... (goes on this vein for a few more minutes).
Oldlady2 : Plus he's so cute ...
(Collective sighing from all the women)
Younglady1 : And his family... they're so normal ... no airs, so happy... its like no Drama Obama.
Oldlady1 : Yeah girl ... it makes you believe that you can have it all .... that its all possible ....... (after a while) But you know what... my family has no drama as well ... we let the girls bring guys (and some other similar stuff)
Oldlady2 : Mine too ... but I got big drama with my sister.

Safin's kid sister

Dinara Safina in her press conference after nearly losing against Alize Cornet. No "drawing positives" and suchlike. Just pure verbal self flaggelation. I lurve it.

Choicest quotes:

The game is there. I just don't know what's going on through my mind....

He (Her Coach) said if I play like this, you gonna leave home......

Come to the court and completely like just shadow is playing. Like, you know, Dinara is there, but just not me. So he's like, Okay, if you continue playing like this, I mean, it's better that I go home. I cannot tell you anything from sitting there.....

I mean, he's telling me at 5‑4, Hit the ball. I telling myself, Hit the ball, and just arm doesn't go because my mind is just stupid...

... Either somebody just smacks me so hard in my head that something shakes finally and I put the cables together.

Legendary

I'm very easily amused.

Plus, when I did my swiss trip in 07, I really loved the trains (although the above might be German). I once spent half an hour at a tiny little station, Epesses, waiting for a train to stop. But meanwhile many many really fast trains raced by on the Montreaux-Lausanne line. The line curves about a few hundred metres east of the station. When those tilting trains took that curve at full speed, on a bright summer afternoon, with vineyards above and an sparkling blue lake below, it was quite a thing of beauty.

Travel

2008
Jan: A week in India (carried over from the previous year), mostly spent finishing up a paper. But I was at home!
Jun: A week in vancouver, conferencing, walking around, and watching whales.
Sept: 4 fun days on a canoe.

Thats it!

Compare it to
2007
April: A week in Istanbul, conferencing and having fun.
May: A weekend in Montreal for a friend's bachelor party.
June: 10 days in China: Beijing, Shanghai, the works. Conferencing + Eating.
August: A week in Switzerland, backpacking around.
Dec: A month in India. Home (and nearby) + Bangalore + Coorg + Cochin + Kolkata.

2009 really really really needs to make up for 2008. Something suggests that this is a bit cyclical. 2006 was a pretty quiet travel year too.

Bombay

For almost three days, the only I thing I did was to follow news.

Of course, part of it was because I had realized I was missing a paper deadline, and therefore using distraction as a means of combating frustration. But still, this terror strike struck much closer to home.

In september there had been blasts in Delhi. One of them in a market 10 minutes away from my sister's home. Where she goes regularly. But the thing with blasts is that they are over at once. You don't realize what happened. This one was prolonged.

And I knew people who were close (for some definition of close) to what happened.

The elder brother of one of my school friends, whom I've known since forever worked in one of those hotels when I last heard. I have no clue what happened to him, although I think (and hope) he should be fine. Bad news travels fast and I haven't heard anything.

A close friend was going to be attending a wedding at the Taj the very next day.

A friend was on a vacation which he had to cut short because his co-traveller lost his uncle in the attacks. His uncle was one of the top policemen killed.

And then today I found out that my undergraduate roommate for 2 years was in Leopold Cafe when the terrorists fired many rounds with an AK 47. He was there with two of his current roommates. One got hit in the head. One in the thigh. Both are no more. And somehow my roommate survived. Somehow no bullet hit him as he crouched and hoped.

I am shaken a bit. Its time for work to serve as a distraction instead.

On Social Engineering

Ever since California voted for Proposition 8 I've been reading articles in the media about the Gay Marriage issue. Both the sides of the debate seem to see the other as fairly demented and unfit to live. Plus, the tipping point seems to have been the support of the Mormon Church. Yes the guys who apparently support polygamy.

Here is a thought experiment. Polygamy/Polyandry is banned in most parts of the planet. Banning it seems to be as discriminatory for polygamists, as banning gay marriage seems to be for gay people. Was this a tactical move by the Mormons to heighten their own plight? If they can't have their cake, nobody else can? What percentage of the pro gay marriage bloc would vote to repeal the ban on polygamy? I haven't really seen this mentioned anywhere.

My personal preference? I don't really care. I personally think that Marriage is a social construct, and most of the debate about its legalization comes from the social implications of the word. If the government doesn't want to burn its hands on social norms, it should be out of the business of "marriage", and just allow any two consenting adults to form a common law union with the associated legal rights. If the person is a poly-gamist/andrist then he/she can be a part of multiple such 2 way unions.

If you claim you are liberal then why not go the whole way.

Blank Page

I found this quote in Russell Cox's Phd Thesis. My dad used to say something very similar (not in as dramatic a way though) when I was a wee lil kid.

‘‘See this page of paper? It’s blank,’’ Scull said. ‘‘That, sir, is the most frightening battlefield in the world: the blank page. I mean to fill this paper with decent sentences, sir—this page and hundreds like it. Let me tell you, Colonel, it’s harder than fighting Lee. Why, it’s harder than fighting Napoleon.’’

-- Larry McMurtry, Comanche Moon

Don't ask me why I was looking at his thesis. I have very very strange interests.

Random Sports Stuff

Two sports articles, one old and one new which I really really liked

Christian Ryan in the Cricinfo magazine, succinctly describing what makes Test Cricket beautiful, and why all the brouhaha over its imminent death (especially during the recently concluded India Australia series) is ridiculous.

Steve Tignor (who is a stellar tennis writer) writing about his love affair with Squash.

And since we're talking about sport here anyway. Kolya faces the Djoker in the finals of the year ending Tennis Masters Cup tomorrow. A tournament, that is very prestigious (only the top 8 players in the world get to play it), and also rather meaningless. Please please please please let Nikolay Davydenko win. It suits him perfectly: An incredibly brilliant player, who also happens to be an outrageously underachieving character who doesn't seem to get any respect from anyone, and who doesn't seem to mind this as well. A confusing identity winning a tournament with a rather confusing identity.

To make this muddled blogpost even more muddled, Sourav Ganguly, Indian cricket captain extraordinaire and a God of the off side retired last week after a ruthless and almost perfect mauling of the Aussies. Which was quite appropriate since the new Indian team under Dhoni seems to have finally acquired the steel that Ganguly tried so hard to give it. Many many many articles have been written about him, as a great captain, a controversial character, an outstanding one day cricketer and a somewhat underachieving test cricket player.
Few of the articles mention this incident though. It was 2004, and India had just drawn a test series with Australia in Australia. One of the hardest things for any team to do. In fact, India had nearly won the series, and almost ruined Steve Waugh's farewell. After the series Ganguly was asked how he felt. Any other cricket captain would have looked pleased with the result. Dada instead looked disappointed. Somebody asked him if he would consider this a moral victory. Dada's answer: "I don't believe in moral victories". All hail.

Daily dose of cuteness

In a dark, dreary and depressing november, it is good to see that there is still hope in the world

Awesomeness