Did u learn to have patience!

We in a group of 6 went to Shasta lake in Northern California.


After a night stay in a small luxurious cabin by lake shore, we went to some waterfalls in the morning and then went to Shasta Caverns, which were located on top of a mountain arnd 800 Fts above the lake level.

All six of us with around 4 cameras went to the mountain after spending $20 for enterance tickets and a short boat ride. The bus took us to the top of mountain where the caverns are located, from this place you get a splendid view of the lake and mountains.


Caverns were boring and the guide in his attempt to make kids laugh, was descibing those formations as face of santaclaus, tiger etc. Just to justify the $20 spended there, we were clicking camera everywhere, whereever we had space to stand and someone to click for us, sometimes we had to ask guide to help us by taking our group picture, keeping everyone else on hold, as we finish the tour proceeds:(


After a tiring and boring trip inside caverns, the way outside was a narrow staircase which can take only one person at a time and there were arnd 200 stairs to go. It was irresistable to escape from that location without taking few snaps, and that was the last spot where we could take snaps and compensate for those $20 and two hours that got wasted.

While walking down the stairs with around 15 people behind us. Without realising their pain we posed for several photographs different angles and then different cameras not leaving anything to chance moreover ensuring by checking that picture came fine (Digital camera era, pictures have lost thier suspense and surprising capabilities ... :)


I know even u have lost patience by now, as what hell is this topic about? Have patience.

While clicking these pics we realised that a kid was trying to rush through these stairs to escape the torment of waiting for us to getover the clicking syndrome and his mom was preaching her "Learn to have patience" again and again. they did wait for us to finish. we realise this and then we gave way to all of them to cross first and we still continued with our expedition for / by / of camera.

I was amazed how many of us were taught to have patience! dont we often try to break rules while driving, break queues to get to the ticket counters fast, we try to hurry up at the traffic junctions. havnt you seen people crowding at the stop line on junction. We bribe police, clerks everyone anyone just to hurry up and we end up screwing the system. Now things dont proceed unless you mobilise them with those green bills. No wonder we have patronize bribery.

But we dont need our mothers to teach us this lesson. We are forced into patience, and some day it becomes part of our DNA. remember waiting for ur board exam results, remember waiting for ur new telephone which used to come after years of pending application, recall waiting in railway reservation queue. Travelling in train was supposedly a picnic in itself and not just a mean of commutation. which goes on like 32 hrs for 1000 Kms (if it runs on schedule).

What could be biggest example of patience other than waiting for Lord Venktesh darshnam in tirupati for almost 24 hrs, no hurrying up, just parying and njoying the queue. or Waiting for 50+ years after independance for reservation to get over, or every country man getting access to education, food, health amenities.

We did learn patience but hard way and now we can wait for these things forever, indeed we have reached state of slumberness.

Addis Ababa

After lot of unsuccessful attempts finally today I could make it to this Ethiopian restaurent. Someone in office suggested me about this and he added that u get veggie food as well. that made this offer very exciting.

A small restaurent with almost no customers other then one Ethiopian couple having dinner. Place looked very clean and decent with lots of ornaments decorated on walls and different wall hangings about / from Ethiopia. No wonder you can get them in palika bazar also ;).

There were no waiters, just one lady who explained about different dishes, took order, served and she was the chef. I saw her husband, I guess seems he must also be helping her or otherway round .. whatever but she was so Cuteeeee ... so charming, energetic, helpful .. Ahh I love Ethiopian women! (I didnt tell u about my other loves right!)

I know I am suppose to tell about Ethiopian food or restaurent and not just women.
but i cant help ... she was...

We asked her to help us with order, only thing I have heard about that place was their bread / roti which is more like Dosa ;)
She sugested me to try Vegetarian combination which will have lil portion of all veg dishes.


It was surprising they had lot of indian like curies .. which looked same as our daal, sabji etc (indeed they also used same pulses) only difference was what they called spicy was not even close to what we feed to 3/4 years kid ;)

We were not expecting it to taste like PBM (Paneer butter masala) but it was not bad ..and it was worth trying, the Injera is like Steamed Dosa what they serve in Chutneys Hyd. one of my friend left the restuarent without eating as he was unhappy about ethiopian food doesnt have Rice. If they cud cultivate rice in Ethiopia, that beautiful lady wont have such good figure :~

She told me that Injera is made of Teff, which is there cereal and it is so small that 150 grains of teff will be equal to one grain of wheat.
they make some paste like we make for Dosa, and keep it fermenting for 3 days. resulting in this fluffy dosa or uttapa type bread which is quite sour. Which can now be eaten with some 5/6 different kinds of curries they have.

I often admire that most civilizations which are really old their staple diet is pretty much balanced and well combined, they will have proper mix of Carb, protein, fat, fiber, minerals liquid etc. You can see food in north india, south india, Greek food, Middle east, Maxican, European ... exception US .. national diet is Burgers with coke and result is well evident. I many times feel so sad for these people who are suffering from severe obesity and motion disability. but its too late for them to get it corrected.

Anyways, unfortunately I ordered wine also, I got tempted when she asked if i would like to try Ethiopian wine which many people like as it has honey and its mild, I thought atleast this wine might taste good. What tempted me was not her asking me .. but when i heard about honey.. i guessed honey and wine might taste good.

Moral of the story: Never try different kinds of wine, if you dont like one ..you will like none. they all are same, they all taste yakkk, period.

I saw on some channels, to taste wine and experience its aroma, you should smell wine for some time, and then take a small sip from front of your tounge and try to spread it all over ur tounges surface... Buuu huuu huuu I ruined all of my taste buds, luckily it didnt smelled like beer. I tried 3/4 sips and that was enough, I would have prefered drinking Muli ke patte ka juice over this 100 times. seriosly that taste so good if you add some tomatoes, lemon, salt, a lil sugar and boil it for a while.

Nevertheless the vegetables they have used in curries with minimum of chili powder, very less salt, lil oil and lil of turmeric was impressive. but if Ethiopian try our Gol-gappe, samosa ragda, mirchi bajji, swear they might think of modifying their culinary skills. but they cant afford to use so much spicies in their food as they dont have that much water to extinguish fire the next day :), and had they have that much water they would better grow rice for my friend.

Do try if u get chance to visit a Ethiopian Restaurent.
more about this one at Addis Ababa

Black Indian Company

British east India company came to India as traders and then gradually India became part of British empire for two centuries. They did all sort of trade, they taught us to grow Opium, use Rifles, speak read and write English, better way of governance. They taught, otherwise rich Indians to work as clerk for small money. We learned it all, we learned it hard.

In 200 years the lessons our ancestors learned were passed to next generations and so on. When India entered 21st centaury, we already had an army of 40 million young clerks, well armed with English, trained in latest technology, governed by cheapest yet best managers. This army won't even mind if cartridges are greased with animal fat or whatever as long as printer works fine with them, thus no problem of mutiny. They don't mind wearing shirts from Prada, Guess, Gucci or Tommy Hilfiger. They take pride in owning a Rado watch, driving a Merc., flashing their imported cameras. Now all they want is to continue serving to the Queen, no matter if service is to be done on their land or from back in India.

Arrr!, but what is her Highness afraid of? Coup by Indian merchants, opps! Indian clerks, wearing tie, speaking their language, and trying to help them in their daily choir, making their lives smooth!

Alas! Her highness issued a law that Indians from Black Indian companies can be sued if the try to replace (or displace?) their people at work. But my Highness! aren't they just trying to be loyal to you and your people, even after half a century of freedom. They are willing to serve you at lower wages then anyone else, and they will let your kids play football, watch cricket, take break from university for a year or forever and relax, just relax.

Its assured, they wont bother you by sending raw materials to your country and make your people take pain of processing them, market them. They will do that for you, and fill your stores with whatever label you want Prada, Guess, Gucci.

My Highness, 40 million of your slaves are looking up to you, to help your people to make your life simpler and easier. Let them work for you, and let your people rest, but if you still you want to sue these Indians, did I tell you about the lawyer firm working in Mumbai. They have immense experience in suing Indian companies, and they are doing it at dirt cheap prices!

gulp!

We were vacating our apartment, and as usual all alcoholics wanted to drown their nostalgia in some or other fermented water. I too decided to have my share of liquid.
This time they decided to try Ouzo, thats local Cyprus alcohol (40%) quite strong for me, so far my experience was of Brandy, Vodka in orange juice both very strong and tasted horrible.
Ouzo was nice, it tasted little sweet but was really very strong, first peg and i was like losing control on myself, and then we started with a discussion, topic was why Alcohol.
those in favor they argued, it gives you a sense of freedom, you dont care for others you feel free and you let your opinion come out, this make you a better conversationalist. to which i replied after having my second drink, bottoms up! what the heck! you are trying to express or open up when you not in your senses, and in front of people who are also not in senses, whatever you learn goes off the drain with piss. they were praising me that for the first time I was arguing better and without major mistakes like 'did - had' and 'mines ' claim to fame for my english.
I was unable to stand, then they taught me how to check if you are out or not, take your hand back select some fingers and now ask to yourself how many are they, and cross check with yourself, wow! I always got it right. which means you can afford another one.
They forced me into another one, as unless i dont drown myself i wont be able to appriciate the positives of it and here goes my another one. I guess it was urzo from inside asking for more company, which made me to accept what they were saying. I was not resisting.
Two friends who were sober, what they were enjoying was all drunked people are arguing wheather to drink or why to drink, while another novice alcoholic was defending these sober people. Last drink again bottoms up, and then i realised its not getting any better, Ouzo was over and they had plan to start Vodka. I was done, neither was i offered anything more.
I had dinner, heated pooris and ate with pickle. once again I checked with no of fingers and I was right; In retrospection, I learned drinking doesnt disables your thinking, it stops your reasoning for thinking. so finally you become a more thoughtful person, and sobers think you are unreasonable.

Why did Ram asked Sita for 'AgniPariksha'? Is Ram male chauvinist!

Ram, the supreme God avatar who is considered flawless, and beyond praises which can be expressed in words.
Why did such a Ideal person asked his wife Sita to perform a test for her purity, when she was kidnapped by Ravana (The Evil).

Sita did not went to Ravana out of choice, she was forcibly taken. So Ravana was to be punished, and he aptly was. but for what reasons did Ram asked her to perform this 'AgniPariksha' test?
Even though Sita passed the test, she was later exiled from His kingdom 'Ramrajya', because people of His kingdom did not beleived in Sita's purity. Ram instead of fighting with ill-opinioned people he exiled Sita for none of her faults.

Please comment on this!
this topic is just to have a healthy discussion. and not to hurt any relgious sentiment.

Its Israel !

Quite interesting incidence today,
I mostly carry a shoulder bag (gym bag) with me, which has camera, passport, tourist guide and other stuff, secially when am on tour.
As usual I brought this bag with me to office in Haifa, Israel; lessly known but peaceful northern Israel.
I went to my cabin to find it was locked. I kept my bag in front of my cabin, and went to receptionist to bring master key,
Even the receptionist wasn’t there so I went to my colleague and who took me to main security. While going to main security, I saw some security mans walking inside office …. I did not bothered, I brought the key and opened the room and took bag inside. What I missed to observe was there was all this security and other employees standing in corridor next to my room and suspecting this bag of carrying some deadly thing.
I did not thought of consequences, When I left a orphaned bag in corridor. I just thought if I would be carrying bag on shoulders, my managers would suspect I came late, and still wandering.
My colleagues told me to never repeat this … Its Israel !

Humans are very much human

yes, and it sound obvious. :)
we do lot of rat racing, we fight like dogs , we look for scapegoat but still are very much human. whatever religion, breed, class, race or country we do segregate our self. If things don’t work as we wish, we blame for the easiest escape, blame one that has high probability to do so.

I remember the day in Hyderabad (India) when one of my roommate had arnd 1000Rs ($20) missing from his wallet, and we blamed our house maid, in and out. Didnt even gave it a thought, that they too have self-respect or conscious. Bcoz she was the most probable one to do so.

Don’t we all work on probabilities or averages too much, with no humanism involved.
if a bike and pedestrian met an accident, whom to blame .. of course one on bike, he must be rashing on bike at high speed. Do we ever bother to listen whether the pedestrian was doing his crossing properly?
if a merc and small car collide, we blame merc straight, claiming loudly that this rich fellows never cares for small cars. If its communal riot we favor our community. If its a theft we blame poor, because they are the most probable to do so.

By the way, I got my lesson pretty soon, which prompted me to write something like this. When I moved out of India to work for a firm in Cyprus, One day my security manager called me and gave me shock of my life, that I have a serious charge against me, imagine what ? some gals have seen me playing with their purses during an office party and later they found some 10 ~ 15CYP (~$40) missing from their wallets, moreover they claimed they had evidences as well to support it, and that’s how they could identify me with my name. I was helpless, and had to wait for police investigation. Few days later, they took back their charge, after inspecting the pics they realized the guy was wearing some green color shirt while I was in white. It must have been very easy for them also to blame indians for this, we are from a poorer country, and that make it very obvious and logical.
But are we different, they blamed me and I uttered, it must have been some Bangladeshi.
"As humans are very much human" and no way close to "being Humane".