DesiReflections

30.05.2015. Friday evening in US is for a sit up dinner with friends, long drive or a road trip, but if in Bellevue area, which is basically Microsoft domain with fairly large Indian Origin people's presence,   a Hindi film is running house full that too in its second week, their is a need to probe what is so engrossing in it. Being a film critic, I am privileged to see preview of the movies for a long time, preview theatre is a place where critics watch the movies not to enjoy but to to threadbare it. But today, the situation was different, I was watching Tanu Weds Manu Returns (TWMR) in a multiplex , where people have come to watch the movie by skipping a dinner,drive or a trip and after paying premium price. I was trying to capture the scenes which compelled this paid audience to laugh a loud. Frankly, in this film that the audience enjoyed most of the moments !   There is absolutely no surprise in the fact that  Tanu Weds Manu Returns (TWMR), sequel of Tan...

विदेश प्रवास -रोड ट्रिप -स्पोकेन यात्रा  भारत में अमरीका को पूँजीवादी व्यवस्था कह कर काफी कोसा  गया है और हमारे साधू ,संत और महात्मा उन्हें भोग विलासिता में डूबी हुई संस्कृति कह कर फब्तियां कसते  रहे हैं. सच यह है कि  आज तक तकनीक , प्रोद्योगिकी और यहाँ तक कि परियोजनाओं के लिए उन्ही की ओर  तकते रहे हैं , और यह साधू संत सबसे ज्यादा पैसा वहीँ पर खोले हुए आश्रमों  से या फिर वहां के अनुनायियों से कमाते आ रहे हैं।  यही नहीं, आज भी किसी अंतरराष्ट्रीय मंच पर भारतीय राजनीतिज्ञ अमरीकी इंडोर्समेंट की प्रतीक्षा करते रहते हैं।  अमरीका के किसी भी शहर में जा कर देख लीजिये , वहां के सामान्य नागरिकों में योग और भारतीय चिकित्सा पद्यति के बारे में जो जानकारी है वह शायद किसी भारतीय को भी अचंभित कर दे। यही नहीं वे सप्ताह में पांच दिन पूरी निष्ठां से अपने कार्य या व्यवसाय में लगे रहते हैं. फिर अपनी हैसियत के अनुसार दो दिन प्रकृति की गोद  में अपने पूरे परिवार, जिसमें पालतू जानवर भी शामिल हैं, के साथ मानसिक और शारीरिक विश्रांति के लिए निकल पड़...

We have Gyan about modern technology now a days on What's Up Groups, Facebooks pages  but not all of it true - it's hard to know if we're treating our electronics properly. We debunk some misconceptions related to modern day to day technology.  1. Mac Computers can't get Viruses  Apple used to brag its computers aren't as vulnerable as Windows PCs to viruses, but the company quickly changed its marketing page after a Trojan affected thousands of Mac computers in 2012.  2. Private/incognito browsing keeps you anonymous  It's good for keeping other people who use your computer from seeing what you've been doing. But it won't keep your identity hidden from the sites you visit or your ISP.  3. Leaving your phone plugged in destroys the battery  Modern smartphones run on lithium-ion batteries, which are smart enough to stop charging when they've reached capacity.  4. Don't charge your phone unless it's almost dead  The reason your phone's batt...

With invasion of global food channels as well lot of innovative food shows on main line channels, now  a days, people are going for more global recipes now a days. Twenty-Twenty Five years back, Chinese, Thai,Mexican and Italian food were not heard even in state capitals,  their Highly Indianized version is now available in smaller cities.But quest for enjoying global food has widened. In this series, we shall talk about some food items which are gaining access to food malls as well as eating joints. Sriracha is a spicy sauce, became very popular in western countries during last ten years. David Tran, is the innovator of this uniquely flavored sauce. he was born and raised in Vietnam, but is of Chinese descent, migrated to America as a refugee in the late seventies. He found much of his liking except a satisfying hot sauce. He settled down in Los Angeles, he tried to make some thing of his own, something chile and garlic based Sriracha which is popular in Vietnam and nam...

Material prosperity is not a guarantee to happiness. That is why in all Hindu scriptures, lot of emphasis is laid down on balance between material and spiritual prosperity.  Can Dutch people provide answer to be a happy society ?  Recently British magazine come out with a write up which  says that  Netherlands consistently ranks as one of the best places in the world to live. Dutch kids are among the happiest in the world, according to UNICEF. Some attribute their high quality of life and general good nature to a rather laid-back approach to work: more than half of the Dutch working population works part time, a far greater share than in any other rich-world country. On average only a fifth of the working-age population in EU member states holds a part-time job (8.7% of men and 32.2% of women); in the Netherlands 26.8% of men and 76.6% of women work less than 36 hours a week (see chart).  Chart courtesy : The  Economist Let us try...

Why is Mark Zuckerberg so concerned about his 'charity' initiative that he had to re-jig it in the face of opposition, star in another breathless video about it, and start a misleading campaign about it among users in India?  Facebook is in a bit of a jam, and opposition to this one pet project in India is probably pointing to the seams of  a larger story worldwide . But it all starts with a simple pair of numbers. A rocky road on Wall Street. Facebook has about the same number of users as Google: about 1.4 billion. That's one out of five people on earth. And the social network made US$12.4 billion off them last year - that's about US$ 8.65 per person on their service. While Google made $66 billion off about the same number of people - almost $46 per head - a revenue efficiency more than 5 times that of Facebook. And that gap isn't narrowing nearly fast enough. Revenue growth to support Facebook's stratospheric stock price at 60 times earnings is a b...

We are going to see changed attitude of society towards woman. Since we are done with the  issues of suffrage, social equality, sexual and reproductive rights, beauty pageants had so far been only smart market driven exercise to sell products. The society so far had been  comfortable with Neo-Marxist-psycho-analytically amalgamated version of eco-feminist Woman who is proud of being tagged as Bitch ,a strong, angry, uncompromising woman  who is not interested in pleasing a man or a Slut who is fun-loving, rebel, proud of assets. There is a time to change.  Now when we enter into new age of enlightenment,  the  paradigm shift is needed.. So far women organizations were demanding rights  or whatever from male dominated institutions. Suppose the women are Head of all  the institutions and everywhere they are on the other side of the table questioning  hegemony of patriarchal  rules.  All...

Roses have got special place in our life since time immemorial. On one hand beauty of this flower has compelled poets to compse couplets and poems. Rose flowers were also offered to deities in temples, to decorate Doors, Mandaps at the time of  auspicious event, also to embellish nupital bed. It's petals were used  in bath tub for beauty and fragrance, making Itars , making Ayurveda medicines , Gulkand used in paan beeda . Europeans, when they came to India, brought their own Rose varieties, which were not having strong fragrance but definitely added more sizes, colors and shapes to local rose family. But for sure, these varieties can not match our Desi Gulab in fragrance and medicinal property. Each color of rose has its own significance in the western society, some time to express your love, respect and other feelings. With growing western influence, we have also adopted the same way of offering roses of different colors on different occasions. Let us see how different ...

As the month of  May or June draws closer , a new kind of tourist season starts in America, Canada, Europe especially in the cities where persons of Indian Origin with decent disposable income are concentrated. This is absolutely a new category of tourists in these countries, I call them Non Resident Desi Tourists. You can find them now a days in plenty in all the major cities as well as places of tourists attractions in these countries. Who falls under this new category of tourists? Predominantly parents of Green Card Holders/HIB workers and PIOs working in all kind of techie,software  as well as top end jobs. Most of the  time, there travel and other expenses are borne by their children, some of them come of their own but their number is comparatively very less. It is utmost desire of well-off knowledge workers of Indian origin that their parents should come, visit them and stay for maximum period permissible by the local law of land and enjoy some fruits of their la...